Thea blew an air kiss at him, and he looked away. Instead of being offended, Thea laughed.
“Who is that, Mother?” Jonathan asked.
“Someone I used to know,” she answered. “But Lady Palmer is over there.” She indicated Mirabel’s direction, and he shouted for her attention, rising as he did so, that she might see him better.
However, at that moment, the horses pulling their curricle started to bolt. They bumped into the vehicle ahead of them and panicked in the way horses did sometimes.
Jonathan toppled forward and would have tumbled out of the curricle except for Thea’s reaching out and grabbing his coat in time. “Neal,” she said to warn him something was wrong, but her husband had his hands full with the horses. With a start, she realized that half the reins had dropped to the ground.
Neal leaned over the front of the curricle, reaching for the reins before something worsehappened. Thea noticed that he only used his right hand, which was still holding the right reins. He kept his left hand tucked into his side.
He snatched up the loose reins and quickly brought the animals back under control.
Christopher grabbed Thea’s arm, his eyes wide. She still had her arms full of Jonathan, and she didn’t think she’d ever let him go.
If he’d fallen to the ground, he could have been hurt in the fall or found himself kicked by the horses.
“Don’t be afraid,” Thea said soothingly. “Everything is all right. Lyon has the horses under control.” She couldn’t help but add, “In the future, Christopher, you must be careful to always hold the reins tightly.” She assumed her youngest had been driving, since he’d been on Neal’s lap.
“I didn’t have the reins,” Christopher said. “Lyon had them.”
“You dropped them,” Thea asserted, keeping her voice low.
“No, Mother. Lyon dropped them.”
Thea frowned, then shrugged it off. The horses were under control, and that was all that mattered.
But she did notice that her husband was still favoring his left arm. He did most of his driving therest of the night with his right hand, using his left only for a bit of balance. The driving had to have been a difficult task, considering the skill needed to maneuver their vehicle in such a crowd.
Come to think of it, the night before, she had noticed Neal massaging his left hand, circling the thumb. On an occasion or two, she’d caught him doing the same with his whole left arm.
Later that evening, after she’d put the children to bed, Thea sought out her husband. He had not yet come upstairs for bed. Indeed, for the last several weeks, he’d been working in his office late into the night.
Thea found him there.
He wasn’t working. He sat behind his desk, cradling his left arm against his body.
Seeing her at the door, he looked up and said, “It is starting.”
“What is?” she asked, wanting to pretend that she didn’t know.
“The curse, Thea.”
“Why do you say that?” she demanded.
“My arm is numb. I thought I’d injured a muscle, but it is not healing. In fact, it is growing worse.” He frowned. “I dropped the reins this evening. My hand froze, and I couldn’t move my fingers. The horses startled and we could havecaused an accident. I hate to think what could have happened to Jonny.”
Thea came around the desk to him. She knelt on the floor, taking his left hand into hers. “Such beautiful hands,” she whispered. “Strong hands.”
“Not much longer,” he said. “This is how it starts.”
“And then what happens?” she asked, and she found herself strangely unafraid. Holding his hand, a calmness settled over her. He was so alive, so vital. Nothing could harm him. She wouldn’t let it.
“The paralysis spreads. Father had a month. Some have up to a year, with the numbness growing and claiming every limb. Eventually, my heart will cease to work.”
The death he described was horrifying to her.
“Thea, hold me.”
