“Don’t jump!” he shouted again, urging the horse forward with his heels and straining forward in the saddle, as if he might be able to reach out and grab her. “Vanessa! Do not jump!”
At the sound of her name, his wife stopped and looked over her shoulder. She was near the edge of the cliff, just a few feet from where she would be in danger of falling to her death. He could see that now as the horse got closer.
Most frightening of all, there was a wild look on her face that he had never seen before. As if she had completely lost her mind.She looked wild as well, like an animal. Her light brown hair had come loose from her coiffure, and it fell in unkempt tresses around her shoulders. Her dress was torn and muddied. And her eyes were wide and fearful, and she did not seem to recognize him.
“Get away!” she shouted, her voice a shrill cry he had never heard before. “Don’t hurt me!”
“Woah now,” he cried to the horse, pulling on the reins. He was close enough now that approaching on horseback might spook his bride even more.
Swinging down from the horse, Winston took a step closer to Vanessa, his hands raised as in surrender. She turned all the way around to face him, defiant.
“Please,” he murmured, loud enough for it to reach her, “I beg you—step away from the cliff.”
Vanessa’s eyes were darting this way and that, as if looking for escape, and as he walked toward her, she took a step back. Winston’s stomach plummeted. If she took even a few more steps back, she would be in danger of falling.
“Don’t move!” she cried, tossing her head from side to side. “Don’t get any closer!”
He stopped walking at once and held his hands up even higher.
“Vanessa,” he said with forced calm, “it’s me. It’s Winston. The Duke of Thornfield. Your husband.”
Vanessa stood very still. It was dark, and he was wearing a hat, and he could see her peering at him, as if trying to make sure it was really him even in the gloom.
“W-Wins-ston?” she stammered.
“Yes, it is me,” he said. “Please, step away from the cliff. You are in danger. The edge of the cliff has loose rocks—they could give way, and you could fall.”
She glanced over her shoulder fearfully then took a tentative step in his direction. As she did, he felt a stab of relief in his chest.
“That’s right,” he said softly. “Come to me. You are safe now.”
“Is it truly you?” she asked, taking another step forward.
“Of course, it is,” he said. “Who else would it be?”
“I thought—” she paused, and fear flashed across her face. “I do not trust you! Get away from me!”
Winston swallowed. Even though he suspected she was half mad with fear and cold, he also knew that he deserved that. He had not earned her trust. Instead of taking care of her as a husbandshould, he had left her alone. He had made her lonely and miserable.
“Please,” he began again. “I know I left you alone, and for that, I am very sorry, but I am not going to hurt you. I just want you away from those cliffs. They are very dangerous. My…” he hesitated. It had been a very long time since he had told anyone this story, but if he was going to earn her trust, he had to start somewhere.
“My sister fell from those cliffs,” he forced himself to say, looking up into her wide, shocked eyes. “No, she did not fall. She jumped.”
“What?” Vanessa breathed. As if by instinct, she took another step toward him. “You had a sister? And she…”
“Yes,” Winston said. “She took her own life. On these very cliffs.”
“But why?”
Winston looked away. “It is a long story, but she was married to a cruel man, a man who inflicted terrible injuries on her, terrible indignities. She had been forced into the marriage by my father who was, just like my sister’s husband, a very cruel man. Even after we learned of the things Lord Egerton did to my sister, my father would not intervene. He said that my sister was Egerton’s property now and that he could do what he liked.”
Vanessa was staring right at him, her lips slightly parted and her eyes wide. Winston’s throat was becoming restricted, and tears were beginning to cloud his eyes, but he forced himself to continue.
“When she became with child, she knew there was no escape. Both she and her child, especially if it was a girl, would spend their days being tormented. She could not allow that to happen. She had to protect the child from the misery that her husband would inflict upon it.
“So on a visit to me, she came out here one day and jumped.”
Vanessa put a hand over her mouth. Her eyes, he could see, were also moist with tears.
