“So you’ll tell Diana when she wakes up. She’s going to wake up, friend. Plus, it’s clear to anyone that she loves you, too.”
Graham gave Matt a small smile. “You’re truly the best of friends, you know.”
“I know. And I’ll be the best uncle to all the babies you two shall have.” Matt patted his friend on the shoulder and rose to a standing position.
“Excuse me, I believe you are forgetting someone.” Graham hadn’t realized that Elias and Lydia were back. Elias occupied the chair across from him. He looked around and assumed Hudson and Hannah were sitting with Diana now.
Matt laughed. “You’ll be the serious uncle who teaches them how to do all the proper things. I’ll be the fun uncle.”
Graham’s heart ached as he thought about their children, whose birth might never come to pass. He longed to hold a little version of Diana with her long, blonde curls and blue eyes. She had to come back to him. He would grovel at her feet every day until she forgave him.
Hudson and Hannah returned to the drawing room, and Hannah rushed to Lydia’s arms, crying on her shoulder.
Elias and Hudson remained in the chairs across from Graham, both staring at the fire. Graham stared back at the floor in front of him, losing himself again in his thoughts. Willing for them to have a chance at a future together.
Graham thought about Diana laying upstairs without him, and all he wanted to do was sit by her. “It is getting late. I’m going to sit with Diana for the night.”
Elias pinched the bridge of his nose. “Please alert me to any change, no matter what time.”
Graham nodded in agreement. He turned and left for Diana’s chamber. He relieved Mary for the evening, closing the door behind her. For the first time since he found her in the park, he was alone with his wife.
Graham sat in the chair next to her bed and stared at her. His heart hurt with longing to have her awake and talking to him. Even if all she wanted to do was yell at him, he’d be happy to let her as long as she was well. He leaned forward and took her hand in his. “My sweetDiana. Come back to me, please. I love you so much. I don’t want to be here without you, sweetheart.”
The hours ticked by as Graham continued to hold vigil by Diana’s bed. He sat in the same chair, holding onto her hand, feeling the most helpless and useless he’d ever been. He promised anyone listening to his pleas that he would trade his life for hers if it came down to it.
Graham could see the light growing brighter in the room, making the sky a soft orange outside the window. It reminded him of his days of taking Midnight for sunrise rides back at his home. Once Diana was well, they would watch sunrises together from their country home. He vowed he would never keep a single thing from her again. She was the one who possessed his entire heart.
Graham thought he felt her fingers move under his hand. He shot forward in his chair. He looked between her face and her fingers. Had he imagined it? Graham watched, holding his breath and silently begging for movement. For any sign that she would wake.
Her fingers moved again. “Graham?” Her voice came out in a whisper. “Graham?”
