Jeremy kept moving closer to his mother, and she kept retreating, angling toward a gap between the battlements, pulling Bella along with her despite the girl’s frenzied struggle. But Jeremy’s steps were quickening so that Beatrix could not maintain the distance between them.
“Tell me, mother, why won’t you let Bella go?”
“Because I love you,” she replied.
Another gust of wind, stronger than the last, came off the sea, and Bella’s hair flew up into Beatrix’s face. When she lifted the knife away from Bella’s throat to brush the hair from her eyes, Jeremy acted, lunging the short distance to grab Bella by the hand and pull her from Beatrix’s grip. He drew Bella to him, arms coming up to circle her fragile shoulders, as they both fell backward through the doorway.
Nicholas watched in horror as Beatrix, thrown off balance by the sudden assault, stumbled and slipped on the spray-slicked stone of the walkway. Her arms flailed about her head as her feet flew up. A sickening feeling, a blend of bitter memory and prescience, washed through Nicholas. He threw himself forward, grasping for any part of Beatrix’s body or clothing.
He caught her skirt and held on for all he was worth. But even as he tightened his grip on Beatrix, Nicholas’s footing faltered and slipped, his own momentum driving him toward the abyss. He struggled to pull away from the edge, but the stone beneath his feet was as slick as glass, and he knew with sudden certainty that he could not stop.
Until his jacket caught on something, halting his fall. Not something, Nicholas realized. Someone. There was a small hand tangled in the fabric of his jacket. Instinctively he knew it was Mira, and she did not let go.
As he steadied himself, Nicholas pulled Beatrix hard, sending her spilling across the walkway in a tangle of skirts. She lay still, but safe, on the wet stone walkway. With a force of will, he relaxed his fingers, letting Beatrix go.
He turned around slowly and pulled Mira into the shelter of his embrace. Without a word, he drew her near and buried his head in the curve of her neck, inhaling the clean scent of her hair, feeling the hammering of her heart against his side, losing himself in her warm vitality, clinging to her as to his own life.
Mira’s arms tightened around him, pulling him close to her softness. She was alive. And she did not let go.
…
Mira sat at her dressing table, gazing thoughtfully at her reflection in the mirror. She knew she would never be a fashionable beauty, but she realized that didn’t matter.
What mattered was that she was alive, the man she loved was safe, and Beatrix would never hurt anyone again.
A rap on the door drew her attention.
“Yes?” Mira called.
The door cracked open, and Nicholas poked his head in. She gave him a welcoming smile, and he slipped into the room and crossed over to her. He pulled her into his arms and drew her tight against him, tangling his hands in her hair. She leaned into his caress, smiling as his fingers moved, softly stroking the delicate hair at her temple. After the terror of the evening, that simple touch filled her with inexplicable joy.
“Mira-mine,” Nicholas whispered, his low voice barely audible above the snapping of the fire. “Thank you.”
Her smile widened a fraction. “My pleasure, my lord. But what did I do?”
“You saved me,” he said simply.
Pressing her forehead to Nicholas’s chest, Mira shook her head. “Nonsense. You would not have fallen.”
Nicholas shrugged. “I did not only mean tonight.”
He released her and pulled back, though not too far. With one gentle finger, he reached down and traced the line of the chain around Mira’s neck to the golden disk that rested on the swell of her breast.
“This is Olivia’s locket?”
“Yes.”
“And you found it at Dowerdu?”
“Yes.”
Nicholas paused to consider that.
“Is that why you ran off this morning?”
Mira nodded.
“But you did not leave tonight, even though George gave you the means.”
She nodded again.
“Why?”
She shrugged, hoping that the dim light would hide the blush that stained her cheeks.
“Did some twist of logic convince you that I was innocent, despite the locket?”