Fate Forgotten (46 page)

“I can imagine.” Ra’s lips twitched in what Thor was sure would have been a smile, if he had not repressed it. “Being who she is, I imagine that was part of God’s plan.”

He shook his head, rejecting the excuse. He’d had no right to touch her. “I am not one of her people to be so manipulated. I’m a god in my own right.” He sighed and rubbed his face. “I should have stopped her. Stopped myself.”

Ra touched his shoulder, his grip firm despite his outward frailty. “If what you’ve told me is true, about her, about her purpose in the world and the love she lends to it, I can’t believe your actions were wrong. If she asked it of you, then she needed it. Little wonder, locked away in a place such as that. Those institutions are ghastly.”

“Yes.” Thor couldn’t disagree. There had been more than one night when he had been sorely tempted to tear the place apart, brick by brick, as he lay awake with Eve in his arms, listening to the agony of the others trapped inside. If only he’d been able to reveal himself, it would have been a simple matter to remove her then, but as it was, he had no choice but to work through her doctors. Even returning to her at night had been a risk. “She was lucky her treatment didn’t go beyond the attempt to calm her mind, misguided though it was. If they had tried to sterilize her, I don’t think I could have let them live.”

“Man knows no limits to the torture it inflicts upon itself,” Ra murmured.

Luc was watching from the window. The Frenchman gestured to someone out of sight, and the kitchen door opened, his wife, Nicolette waited just inside, wiping her hands on a towel. Luc stood over her shoulder, grim faced.

But Nicolette smiled and held out her hands to Thor, tugging him down to kiss both his cheeks. “It is good to see you, though we were not expecting you again for some time.”

He smiled and ducked his head as she pulled him through the door. “
Madame
DeLeon,
monsieur
, I trust you have had no trouble since the war ended.”

“None whatsoever,” Luc shook his hand and waved him to a seat. “And it was a pleasant surprise to return home and find the lands as I left them. From the news we heard in the army, I feared the worst.”

Thor’s lips twitched, but he did not smile. He could hardly blame the man for not trusting a promise made to his ancestors by a man who claimed to be a god, even if he’d seen the proof of it with his own eyes. “I do not forget,
Monsieur
DeLeon, what we all owe your family.”

“And so gods remind men of the meaning of honor.” Luc smiled. “My family will not forget what you have done for us, Thor of the North. But it has been my understanding that your more frequent appearances do not often bring good news.” He glanced at Ra, frowning slightly. “And I’m afraid I do not know your companion.”

Ra smiled and bowed gracefully. “Horus Amon. Of Egypt. I’m afraid my people overdid it with the falcon heads on my images. Nor do I actually have any power over the sun.” His lined face was full of kindness and warmth. “When last I visited your lands, I believe I helped with the plumbing.”

Luc nodded acceptance and greeting. Thor appreciated that particular aspect of his character. All the DeLeon men he had known had shared it. They made up their minds quickly, and from that point remained committed to their choice. Eve had the same determination, or else she would have walked herself out of the mental ward some time ago.

“You must forgive my husband,” Nicolette said. “He forgets his manners, even if he does not forget his debts. We have not even offered our hospitality and already he pries.” She set a small plate of cakes on the table and urged them both to sit. They could hardly refuse. “Coffee or tea?”

Thor smiled. He had spent many an evening with Nicolette during the course of the war, whenever the fighting had moved too close, offering what protection he could. He did not need to concern himself with the movements of the armies so much as the air raids. Much as he preferred not to interfere at all, sometimes the dogfights had drifted too near the DeLeon lands for his peace of mind. It was an easy enough thing to cause the pilots to veer north, and an even easier thing to strike down the wreckage of burning planes before they crashed into DeLeon timber.

“Nothing, thank you.”

She fluttered to heat water regardless, and Luc seated himself across the table. “You can understand my concern of course. If there is trouble coming, I would prefer to be prepared for it than caught unaware.”

Thor grimaced. There was no easy way to raise the subject, but Luc had always appreciated directness, and Thor rather thought his time in the war had increased his preference for plain speaking.

“I come on behalf of your Lady,” he began.

Luc frowned. “But you told us yourself she was safe in America, unbothered by the war.”

“Unbothered by the war,” Thor agreed. “But not safe, it seems. I’d like to remove her from the care of her husband, and the ward in which she has been placed, but I do not dare to move her until I can be assured she will be cared for.”

“Cared for?” Nicolette said, her hand falling to her husband’s shoulder. “But surely they would not harm her!”

“Were they just men, I think it would have been unlikely,” Thor mumbled, not liking the taste of the words in his mouth. There was only one place where Jormungand’s venom might have been found. Hel was not an easy place to return from, but not impossible with the right help. It had to be Loki. And if it was, they were lucky she wasn’t dead.

“I don’t understand,” Nicolette said, her face pale.

“She is not herself,” Thor said quietly, meeting Luc’s eyes. “Her husband placed her in the care of—in a mental institute, by the excuse of insanity. From what I can tell, the doctors there have taken it upon themselves to see that it is made truth. I did not realize what had happened until it was too late.”

“Of course,” Luc said. “Of course she is welcome here. Whatever care she requires, we will gladly give it. But I do not understand why you have not brought her to us already. You must have known we would not deny her, or you.”

“It is not safe for me to travel in her company so near to my father’s lands.” He spread his hands on the table, feeling more bound than ever by Odin, though he had sworn to himself he would never serve his father again. “I thought it better that you meet with Horus, first, before he arrived with her so suddenly. Nor do I dare remove her until I know what has been done to her, or it is possible we will have no way of undoing it. I fear a god’s influence behind what she suffers.”

“Of course,” Luc said again. “And if you steal her away, will her enemy follow?”

Thor shook his head. “No immortal intending harm can cross the boundaries of these lands. She would be safe, though I do not know what it will do to her to be here. She seems to be lost in her own mind and the memories of her past lives. Returning her to a place where she has lived may well invite further confusion.”

“This house in particular, no doubt.” Luc rose, and paced to the window. “Then we will build her a new space, a cottage in the woods. Safely within DeLeon lands, but free of memory. I’ll have it done at once.”

“And I would join her there, for as long as she requires someone to care for her,” Ra said. “I have no small skill when it comes to healing, and from what Thor has said, she will need a great deal of help. More than even your family can provide.”

“I can supply you with gold, if you can exchange it for currency,” Thor said. “Enough to pay for her cottage and any other needs she might have while in your care.”

Luc shook his head. “No. I can see it done with what we have. The army did not pay well, but we have more timber here than any other land in France, now. An embarrassment of riches in the aftermath of that bloodbath. It’s only right that the wealth we have should go to her.”

Thor nodded, exchanging a glance with Nicolette. Her mouth pressed into a thin line, but a shrug of her shoulder told him she still had the gold he’d brought her during the war to help offset the cost of food and bribe those soldiers who did stumble across the manor into silence. They wouldn’t need any more money than that.

“I’ll send word as soon as I’m able,” he told Luc, rising. “I promise you, I will do everything in my power to help her.”

“No one would ever doubt it,” Nicolette said, squeezing his hand. “Hurry back with our Lady.”

Luc bowed. A gesture not of obedience, but born of courtesy. Thor had long since learned to appreciate the difference. Luc would help them, as was his duty, but he recognized no authority other than that of his Lady, and perhaps the archangels. His family worshipped no gods. For them, like for Eve, God was dead.

With all that had happened since, Thor was beginning to believe the same.

Chapter Forty-four: Present

After Horus had gone and Eve was well recovered, Garrit left, not telling her where. He came back two days later, grimly satisfied, and she caught from his mind that he had been to Britain.

“To see Adam,” he admitted when she asked. It was late at night, and his return had woken her from a sound and dreamless sleep.

She frowned and studied him more carefully, looking for marks of her brother’s meddling. But there were none. “What for?”

He sat on the edge of the bed and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “I told him if he ever did something like this to you again I was going to send Owen after him in earnest, married to Mia or not.”

“Oh.” She didn’t ask if he had seen Lars. Garrit was still touchy about him. Jealous and upset that he had touched her. She couldn’t blame him. “What did Adam say?”

“It was the oddest thing. When he realized you had miscarried, his face went gray and he just dropped into a seat. All the anger and arrogance drained from him. He didn’t even argue.”

“I see.” She had no trouble imagining it. Even if he had not cared for her that much, it would have been a difficult thing to be made responsible for. The death of a baby. “You trust him?”

He pressed his lips into a thin line. “I trust that the whole situation put the fear of God into him.” He rubbed at his face. “The more important question, Abby, is if
you
trust him?”

She sighed and stared at the ceiling. “I don’t think he meant to hurt me. Not like this.”

“I don’t know how you can be so sure.”

“I just am.” The last thing Garrit’s ego needed was the admission that Adam believed he was in love with her. It hadn’t gone over well with Lars, and it would be worse with her brother. “But I don’t trust him. Not completely.”

Garrit nodded. “Then I guess that’s that.”

“I guess so.”

He laid his hand over her stomach and looked into her eyes. “Will you want to try again?”

She took his hand and pulled him down. Bringing his face to hers and kissing him. “I missed you.”

Some of the tension left him, and he caressed her cheek, framing her face with his hands, his weight on his elbows as he hovered over her. “God help me, Abby. I don’t know what happened. I knew marrying you would be challenging. That other men would want you, even covet you. I thought I could handle it.”

“You are handling it.” She kissed him again. “And I’m yours, Garrit. Just because they want me doesn’t mean I want them back. I gave myself to you.”

“I know.” He brushed her hair from her face. “But you gave yourself to other men too. Loved them. Married them. I feel as though I’m competing against an army of ghosts. All those other husbands whispering in my ear. Making me wonder if it’s me you’re thinking of when you close your eyes, or someone else. Ryam, maybe. Or Thorgrim?”

“Those men are my past, Garrit. There’s no use going back to them. Not when I have someone who loves me so well.” It wasn’t technically a lie. And he needed to hear it. “Maybe if I were miserable. If you beat me, or left me alone for months at a time. If I hadn’t married you for love.”

His face darkened. She could see the pain in his eyes. “Why did you stay with them?”

She smoothed the creases from his forehead. “Because I was bound to them. Because marriage wasn’t always about love and even being married to someone who didn’t care about me was often an improvement over what my life would have been unmarried.” She shook her head. He had to understand. She had to make him understand. “I didn’t even marry Ryam for love. You must realize that. He was a stranger when he proposed to me, when he asked my father for my hand. I didn’t even know he was a DeLeon until after it had already been arranged. I don’t know how he knew I was Eve.”

“But he loved you.”

“Not at first.” She smiled. “And I didn’t really care for him that much either. He was arrogant, always assuming he knew what was best for me. I was grateful that he had saved me, but it was half a year before we began to know one another. Before we even liked one another, never mind loved.”

He rested his forehead against hers. “Sometimes, I’m a damned fool.”

She laughed. “I don’t know. I think you do pretty well, all things considered. Not many men could get over the fact that they’re sleeping with their great-great-great-great-great—”

He covered her mouth with his hand. “Don’t even think it, Abby. It took me a week to forget it the first time.”