Heart of Darkness (32 page)

“No.” He shrugged off her touch and she had
to withhold a gasp, as a physical pain washed through her at his
rejection. Now wasn't the time for emotional displays, but her
touch had been more concerned than anything else. “What has he
said?” Wolfe demanded and shifted from his uncomfortable position
on the cart. He was partially kneeling and partially slumped. She
wanted to help him but feared that he would again dismiss her
touch.

“He wants to marry me,” she uttered calmly
and was both pleased and concerned at the flash of fury on Wolfe's
face.

“Have you agreed?” he spat.

“No! Of course, I haven't. But I may have no
choice. He says that he will let you go if I marry him. Your safety
is compromised, Wolfe. I can't not marry him and have him torture
you!”

“If you marry that bastard it will be over my
dead body!”

“That is exactly what I do not want to
happen! Be rational. Be logical! Think! If you are freed, then you
can save me.” Her eyes dropped to his lip, which had started to
weep and a droplet of blood had begun its slow roll down the curve
of his chin.

“He will not free me!” Wolfe scoffed.

“I think he may. I-I...” She licked her
suddenly dry lips and murmured, “...I told him that I love you and
that if he harms you, I will hate him.”

He did not react as she had hoped, with a
declaration of love but another scoffing sound. “And he believed
that?”

“Why not? Tis the truth!” she retorted,
stung. “He believes in the legend, just as you do, Wolfe. At least,
I think he does. I told him that if he wants it to come true, if he
wants the light again and sets store by the legend then it will not
happen if I hate him from the very depths of my soul! I think he
believed that.”

“You cannot trust him, Isabeau! His
malevolence is well known in these parts!”

“I told him that I would freely go with him
if he did not harm you again and you say that his men have not
touched you since we left your grounds?” At his reluctant nod, she
shrugged. “That is all I can trust. He has kept his word.”

“His word?” Wolfe spat. “The man can't be
relied upon at cards, never mind in such a matter as this. If you
do this, you place your life in his hands, Isabeau. I cannot stress
enough that to do so is a foolhardy thing!”

“And what other choice do I have?” she
hissed, making her voice a screech. “Either way, he will not let me
go. But the only difference will be your life or your death. At
least if I comply for the moment, he will let you live and free
you. Whether you return to help me or not, your safety is of
paramount importance to me.”

“Do not talk like that!” he replied between
gritted teeth.

“Like what? As though I speak the truth? I'm
not scared about what happens to me, Wolfe. I truly am not. These
past years have hardly been a picnic for me. But holding your
safety within my will is not something that settles well with me. I
want you safe and if I have to wed him to ensure that, then I have
to wed him,” she murmured, her tone of voice both resigned and
fatalistic.

“I don't want your sacrifice, damn it!”

Hurt, she instantly recoiled and took a step
away from him.

“Don't take it like that, Isabeau. I don't
want your sacrifice for you should not have to sacrifice a damned
thing for me. I've put you in this position. Tis I, who was stupid
enough to lead you into this!”

“This is no time for blame, Wolfe. Tis a time
for action. You have to see that the only way to forge ahead is for
me to accede to his wishes.”

Her eyes washed over him and she instantly
noticed the tensing of his jaw and knew that he was not happy about
her statement. “The man's a cad, Isabeau. You can't trust him to
hold his word. I don't want you to be my Alcestis!”

“And I don't want you to be Admetus! I'm not
intending to die for you, Wolfe, as she did. Only give you the
opportunity to save us both! He's been very fair so far,” she
contested. “And he has offered to wed me, Wolfe. Tis more than you
offered me.”

A dull flush spread along his cheeks and
clicking her tongue impatiently, she said, “La! I say that not to
embarrass you, but to make you understand!”

“He always was bullheaded, Isabeau. It seems
that time has not changed you one whit, Wolfe!” Jaegar's words were
an unwelcome intrusion and she realized that she and Wolfe must
have been talking for their allotted five minutes.

Stung, she hissed, “Tis rude to eavesdrop,
Jaegar!”

“So it is, but then I hold all the cards,
Isabeau. I can make the rules. It would be wise of you to remember
that!”

Wolfe shot her a pointed look and she
realized, unknowingly, that he'd set two medium sized orbs of light
hovering between them. It would seem that she'd grown so accustomed
to their presence that she did not even see them when they suddenly
appeared.

“I'm not bullheaded, Jaegar! I only speak
sense. Isabeau would be a fool to trust you. Look how you turned on
me after we escaped the Milesians!”

“United we stand, divided we fall, as Aesop
once said, Wolfe. Twas convenient to be on the same side as
you.”

“Ruthless, more like.”

“Ruthless?” Jaegar spat. “For nigh on ten
years I coddled and helped you! Protected you from those bastards!
You, who had everything that should have been mine! I would call
that selfless...”

“Selfless?” Wolfe sneered.
“Opportunistic!”

“Spit insults at me for as long as you wish,
Wolfe, for I have agreed with the lady that I shall do you no harm
if she accedes to my will. And will you, milady? Marry me, that
is?”

With the attention suddenly thrust upon her,
Isabeau stalled and nonsensically stuttered, “I-I...”

“Of course, she does not want to wed you, you
fool! Would any woman who has the proverbial pistol held to her
head wish to be forced into marrying a man she does not even know,
and that which she does know of him, is all bad?”

“The lady has already declared that she can
think for herself and needs not be led around by her nanny's apron
strings! So let her speak, Wolfe! Let her speak...”

“I-I will marry you, Jaegar, but on two
conditions.” Her voice rose as she attempted to cover Wolfe's angry
cry. “One that you let me heal Wolfe and that you then allow him to
leave, without doing him any bodily harm.”

“I need him no longer if you will be my wife,
Isabeau. I agree to those conditions.”

“Are you mad? You cannot marry him, Isabeau!
To be his wife is akin to being the spouse of the devil.”

“Surely not,” Jaegar retorted mildly.

“Wolfe!” Isabeau shouted as he glared hotly
at Jaegar and began to awkwardly move as though he wished he could
attack Jaegar, yet he uttered pained grunts as though the slight
movements he was making caused him great pain.

“Wolfe!” she repeated until she gained his
attention. As she was actually not attaining his recognition, she
cupped his face between her hands and instantly, shot power through
him. Her ring was still in the coach, but this was far too
important to waste time. She knew not how long Jaegar would give
her and Isabeau had to hope that this would work. Only an hour or
so before it hadn't and now, more than ever, she needed Wolfe at
full strength.

She concentrated on that kernel of knowledge
within her. The very root of herself, of what made her Isabeau and
she focused upon it and watched it flourish and blossom until it
was no longer a root but a tree filled with the heaviest and
juiciest fruits and the richest and most gleaming of leaves and
flowery blossoms. Looking deeply into her heart, the part that
connected Wolfe to her, she encouraged the healthy tree to grow and
develop in Wolfe and almost as though it was relieved for more
space, her mind actually felt the sudden expansion of the tree into
Wolfe.

Her ears heard him gasp and pant for breath,
but her mind was focused elsewhere and she could only concentrate
on that and on no other place, lest her talent failed her and left
him unhealed and partially injured. His good health was paramount
to her and whether he returned to her or not, she wanted him
safe.

It had not escaped her that he had not
declared his love for her and whilst that hurt, she recognized that
from his background, trust was important and he had had neither the
time nor the inclination to either trust or grow to love her. Where
Jaegar had promised her his name, Wolfe had not done so and she
could only wonder why.

She did not hold it against him, for
Isabeau could have made him wed her before bedding him--it may not
have worked, but she could have at least tried. It all led to a
confounded situation, where she was in love with a man who had been
scarred for life, both by those who had murdered his parents and
had tortured him.
And
by
parents whose shared emotions had been so damaging, so negative,
that it was no wonder he could not share her sentiments.

An obsessed and rich father who could buy his
way into matrimony and an apathetic mother, whose bitterness
towards her son's father dimmed the light in which Wolfe should
have been raised.

Isabeau accepted this and even though it
killed something inside her, she could do naught but recognize that
Wolfe may never love her nor was it certain that he would have the
opportunity to do so. At this moment in time, she wasn't sure which
was worse.

Exhaling deeply, she withdrew the healing
power and murmured, “You should be all right now.”

He nodded roughly and accepted that he was
now pain free. His visage had completely changed from moments ago.
Gone were the swollen eyes, the broken nose and the split lip. The
bruised and cut jaw had also disappeared and been replaced with
smooth flesh that she loved to kiss.

She could only believe that any injuries to
his inner body had also been healed and at that moment in time,
even though being a Sidhe had caused her to be in this situation in
the first place, Isabeau thanked God for her nature and for her
talent. If it could heal the man she loved more than her own life
then she was more than simply grateful! She was on her knees with
thanks!

“Let him go now, Jaegar. I have agreed. Free
him.” Until the last word, she kept her eyes on Wolfe and attempted
to memorize every inch of his face so that she could recall it at
will in the uncertain future that lay ahead. She spun around and
faced Jaegar and watched him nod and click his fingers. Suddenly,
the soldiers that had dispersed to a looser position, returned and
they unchained him.

“Isabeau,” he said and waited until her
eyes were focused on him and not on Jaegar. “
Reversus sum
.”

She watched as his gaze flickered to Jaegar
and he nodded slightly, almost as though he were telling her that
Jaegar had not understood. Isabeau nodded serenely as though he had
not just set her heart alight by telling her he would return and
then pursed her lips as though she were kissing him. He walked
backwards for a few moments and kept his attention focused on her,
before he spun around and then ran along the driveway they had just
traveled on and into the darkness.

Her eyes followed his journey and she watched
the bobbing of the lights he summoned at will until she could no
longer see them. When she felt a hand tug at her arm, she jerked
her elbow and freed herself. Before Jaegar could comment, she
reached down, shook out her skirts and then walked regally to the
open and back lit door to the house.

****

“I met your father once, you know.”

That had Isabeau halting in her tracks.
Enough to have her almost falling up the stairs!

“How? When?”

Jaegar reached for her hand and tucked it
into the crook of his elbow. He led her through the front door to
his property and as soon as she stepped within its walls, she
disliked it.

Surprising as it was, size-wise, it was on
par with Wolfe's castle. With his circumstances, and the
environment in which he had been raised, a part of her had expected
him to live within diminished circumstances. But as soon as she saw
the interior of his home, she realized how stupid a belief that had
been.

Wolfe and Jaegar's father had been a Duke.
For a woman to be married to a Duke, her own father would have had
to be a high in rank for the match to be suitable. Or
alternatively, she and her family were lower in rank, but richer in
pocket!

Her eyes took in the grandeur of the hall and
instantly, knew that the property was a manor house. Not a castle
as was Wolfe's home. It was on a large scale and richly and
expensively decorated.

Directly opposite the entrance, was a grand
staircase that led to two off-shooting sets of steps with a royal
peacock blue runner. To the left of the main flight, was the
opening to a corridor and the same was to the right. But before it
was a large, circular, walnut table upon which rested an enormous
bouquet of seasonal flowers in an artful array.