“And their daughter,” Pippa found herself saying. “Katherine. Her name is Katherine.”
Bridget shot an annoyed look at her daughter. “What does it matter, Pippa?”
Phillip reached out a trembling hand and laid it on his daughter’s. “Don’t be cruel to Pip once I’m gone, Bridget.”
She folded her arms. “I’m never cruel to her, onlyrealistic. It’s not my fault your daughter has her head in the clouds all the time.”
“Ourdaughter,” Phillip corrected. “Pip, darling, could you stoke up the fire? I’m a little chilly.”
Wordlessly, Pippa got up and moved over to the fire. The heat gushed out from it, washing over her skin as she approached. Even so, she dutifully squatted before it and piled on more of their precious firewood. Behind her, she heard the rustle of skirts as her mother approached the bed. She glanced briefly over her shoulder and saw that Bridget had sat down on the stool which Pippa had just vacated. She was leaning forward, resting her cheek on Phillip’s hand, which lay on the top of the eiderdown.
“You can’t do this to me, Phillip,” Bridget said, her voice barely louder than a whisper. “You can’t leave me. You promised. It was going to be you and I together, right until the end. I threw away everything for you – friends, family, fortune – and I never regretted it, not for an instant. But once you’re gone, what will I have?”
“I’m sorry, love,” Phillip responded, sounding anguished. “Truly, I am. But I mean what I say about reaching out to your brother. Things are going to be difficult for you and Pip once I’m gone, and I don’t believe you understand just how difficult.”
“I’m no fool,” Bridget answered, voice crisp. “I know my life will change.”
“But so will hers, Bridget. You have to protect her. You have to care for Pippa.”
Over by the fire, Pippa hunched over, staring into the flames. The heat made her face flush and itch, but she couldn’t bring herself to move away. She knew that she wasn’t meant to be hearing this.
A fit of coughing suddenly wracked Phillip’s frail body, fluid rattling in his lungs. Bridget gave a cry, backing away from the bed, hands pressed over her mouth.
“Phillip, no!No! I can’t, not without you! I justcan’t!”
Abandoning the fire, Pippa threw herself across the room, onto her knees by her father’s bed, and grabbed at his hands. His face was waxy, pale as bone. Pale as death. There was a brightness in his eyes which hadn’t been there before, like the sheen on a fevered brow. His breathing was laboured, rattling horribly.
“I love you, Papa,” Pippa whispered, realising for the first time that she was crying, tears streaking hotly down her cheeks.
“I know, my darling girl,” Phillip wheezed. “Promise me something.”
“Anything.”
“You won’t stop playing your violin, will you? Even after I’m dead, and you have to leave this house and go somewhere smaller. Even when the hard times come, as I know they will. You have such a talent, and I’ve always had such pleasure in listening to your music.”
“I won’t, Papa, I swear it. I’ll play for you now, right now.”
“No, no, darling, it’s too late,” he lifted a trembling hand, patting her cheek. “I know your mother thinks that her brother – your uncle – won’t help you once I’m gone, but I wish you would try. More than that, Pip, I want you to be happy. I want you to find love. It’s not easy to find, I can testify to that, but it is worth it. I swear to you, it’s worth it.”
Pippa was sobbing now, and she could hear her mother’s stifled sobs behind her.
“I promise, Papa,” she managed. “I swear it.”
“That’s my girl. And, Bridget?” Phillip’s cloudy gaze drifted over Pippa’s head, fixing on his wife.
“I’ll never forgive you for leaving me,” Bridget wept.
“Perhaps not,” he conceded, “but I want you to know, Bridget, that you are the best thing that ever happened to me. A blessing that I never looked for. You are the love of my life, and I do not regret a single instant that we spent together. Even the bad times were good times, because they were spent with you. And I want you to help our girl find that kind of love.”
Bridget didn’t answer. She was crying too hard.
At the end of this speech, Phillip gave a long, ragged sigh, and his hand slipped back down to the eiderdown, and lay there limply. In between one heartbeat and the next, the light faded out of his eyes.
And just like that, Lord Phillip Randall died, leaving behind a grieving widow and a penniless daughter.
Pippa knew, even as she wailed and grieved for her parent, that her life would never be the same again.
Chapter One
