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Chapter Six
Nora rolled back her head as she sat slumped in the overstuffed chair in the corner of the bedroom, her red and puffy eyes not leaving Mason as he lay in bed.So impossibly still…
It was better that he was asleep, she tried to tell herself. Better that he was sleeping through the pain that his bandaged head and ribs and his splinted leg would surely cause him. The doctors had no idea if his leg was broken or his ankle merely twisted when she’d sent for them and they’d carried his limp body into Whitwell House, or how badly damaged his bruised ribs and head. They simply said it was better that he was already unconscious when they laid him onto the bed and bandaged the most obvious of his wounds.
But she couldn’t lie to herself by believing that.
He’d been unconscious for the last two days since the carriage struck him, when he’d just barely escaped being crushed beneath its wheels and horses’ hooves. The longer he remained unconscious, she knew, the less chance he had for ever waking up.
“Wake up, Mason,” she whispered. “Wake up and come back to me.”
But just as with all her other pleadings, he didn’t hear her, didn’t open his eyes, or stir a muscle. She’d been keeping a vigil in his room since the doctors had finished their initial treatments and let her inside to see him. But she couldn’t have slept a wink anyway, her heart filled with too much anguish and concern. As the untouched tray on the dresser attested, she also hadn’t been able to eat a bite of food.
Brutus sat up from where he was lying at her feet. The dog hadn’t left Mason’s side either, not even to be with Emmeline up in the nursery where Nora had insisted to Nanny that she be kept. Only until she knew whether Mason would live or—
“No,” she choked out. “I won’t think that.”
The shaggy hound rested his head on her lap with a quiet whimper.
“I know, Brutus.” She absently stroked his head. “We’re all worried.”
The door opened silently, and Emmeline slipped into the room. She stopped just inside the doorway. Her young eyes widened as they landed on Mason, and her bottom lip trembled on the verge of a cry.
She shouldn’t be there. Nora knew she should scold her for disobeying, send her back up to the nursery—but she couldn’t bear to do it. Emmeline didn’t need her, not with Nanny upstairs to take care of her. Butsheneeded Emmeline, so she opened her arms for her little girl to come to her.
Instead, Emmeline slowly approached the bed.
Nora sat up as she watched her daughter sit on the side of the mattress next to Mason. She rested her small hand against his cheek, then leaned down to whisper into his ear the way she’d been doing with Brutus these past few weeks. Once again sharing precious secrets she didn’t dare utter to anyone else.
Nora choked back a sob and pressedher fist to her heart. What would they do without Mason? How would Emmeline survive it? How wouldshe?
His lips moved.
She caught her breath, not daring to believe that she hadn’t hallucinated, that the movement wasn’t simply a muscle response to Emmeline’s hand at his cheek.
But his lips moved again. And then his hand jerked at his side where it rested on the counterpane that half-covered his bare and bandaged torso, his fingers fisting and releasing. Slowly, his eyes not opening, his arm lifted and reached out blindly for Emmeline, to rest his hand on her head.
Nora darted to her feet, her heart lodging in her throat.
His lips moved again. “I can’t…I can’t…hear you,” he rasped out. His voice was barely louder than a breath and hoarse with disuse, but Nora’s heart heard every word. “Tell me…again.” His hand moved in a tired and small caress to stroke Emmeline’s hair. “Louder.”
Nora held her breath as she watched Emmeline sit up, saw her bite her bottom lip with wariness. But the little girl’s concerned eyes never left Mason’s face.
“Wake up…please wake up,” Emmeline repeated, loudly and clearly. “I need you to be my papa.”
A tear rolled down Nora’s cheek.
Still not yet opening his eyes, he smiled weakly. He reached up to slip his arm around Emmeline and pull her down to him, heedless of the pain in his ribs and Brutus’s excited barking.
With a soft cry, Nora rushed to the bed. Love for him poured through her, undeniable and strong. Oh, what a damnable fool she’d been! How could she ever have thought that she couldn’t have a future with him, a proper life of love and caring and kindnesses? All the things she’d never had before she met him. All the things that were nearly gone in the blink of an eye when he’d rushed to save her daughter’s life.
Placing her trembling hand on his bare chest, she felt the strong and steady beat of his heart beneath her fingertips. She swiped at her eyes with her other hand and leaned over to touch her lips to his.
His eyes fluttered open and slowly focused on her. In those chocolate brown depths she saw how much he loved her and Emmeline. Any doubt that remained inside her melted away.
“Nora,” he whispered.
She smiled for him despite her tears and choked out, “You promised to show me your home in the country, remember? I’m holding you to that promise.” She cupped his face between her hands. She needed to touch him to prove that he was alive and would be well, that they would have a future together after all. Their own peculiar little family, full of love and happiness. “When will we go?”
He closed his eyes again, the fatigue overcoming him. Yet he found the strength to slip his free arm around Nora and bring her down to him, nestling her against his chest with Emmeline. Both of them were held safe within his embrace.
“Soon,” he murmured into her hair, “and forever.”
