AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"She was a commoner and he was soon to be an Earl. But Archer didn't care -- he defied his father and they married in secret. Shortly after they wed, she was with child. By all accounts, it was one of the very rare instances of true love and all that were lucky enough to be in their company could feel the love themselves."
"There wasn't a happier man in all of England when Nicholas was born, but shortly after his son's birth, Archer became gravely ill. It's said that Morgan spent her days tending to him and her nights praying that he would live. She often walked the river's edge hoping to find a connection to him there in their special place."
"One day she never returned from her walk. A few men who worked at the estate went out in search of her and found her body in almost the exact location where Archer had proposed. It was said she was strangled but no one knows for sure what happened to her."
"I don't understand. If she was murdered then why did Archer's father make up the lie about the nurse?"
Gabriel leaned up in his chair. "What lie?"
"Connie Daniels, the Earl's nurse," Quinn explained, "pretended to be Archer's wife. They had convinced him that she was his wife but in his heart, he knew she wasn't."
"In a journal that was found many years later, written in Morgan's mother's hand, she tells a rather odd tale. Shortly after Morgan's death the Earl declared her death was the result of complications from childbirth. Her death certification was altered and they never saw their grandson again. They had no way to fight the Earl, were forced to go along with his ruse because he was the law in those parts."
Quinn sat back in her chair as a breath-stealing pain sliced through her. "Morgan was murdered." Just thinking about Archer learning that his wife had died so violently had her heart breaking. She thought about the rest of the story and turned to Colleen.
"Archer's father was cruel and driven by purely selfish motives so if he was going to the trouble of covering up Morgan's death then he more than likely had a hand in it. What I don't understand is why, after Morgan was dead, did he try to make Archer believe another was his wife?"
It was Gabriel who answered that. "If Archer knew that his wife had been killed he would have stopped at nothing to uncover how and by whom. And the answer would lead Archer to learn that it was at the hand, or command, of his own father. I'd bet money that the Earl was just covering his own ass."
"It's good that he never knew because it would have destroyed him: from his blinding rage and need for revenge, to the guilt at somehow being responsible," Quinn said sadly.
"You seem to understand Archer well," Colleen offered in curiosity.
"I understand loving someone as much as I imagine he loved Morgan and the devastation he must have felt at losing her. The hole in your heart that you know will never heal and the reality that a small part of you was lost with them," Quinn went on, "But if he had known she hadn't died of natural causes, but had been murdered…that it wasn't her fate to die but that she had been killed at the hand of some vile person, I can't imagine he'd ever have gotten over that. To never see her again, to never hold her hand or touch her hair, to never look into her eyes and see all of your world's happiness looking back at you. To lose that is hard enough but to have it taken from you is just cruel."
Quinn pushed back from the table and noticed Gabriel lowering his head with a stricken look in his eyes. It made her catch her breath. Had he experienced a loss like that? The thought that he had left her a bit unsteady as she slowly made her way to the window to look out at the cows in the distance.
She gave away the agony that she was feeling for both Archer and Gabriel when she spoke next, "Do you know where she was laid to rest?"
"No, lass, there seems to be some confusion as to where she was buried," Colleen replied.
"So there's no place for anyone to go to mourn or remember her?" Quinn whispered.
"We remember her by telling the story of her life and by keeping her, and all those who came after her, in our hearts and our prayers," Colleen stated strongly.
"What do you think it all means? Morgan and Archer..." Quinn looked over at Gabriel who was watching her with a look so tender despite the heartache that still burned in his eyes, "...Gabriel and me?"
Colleen stood and took Quinn's hands into her old, withered ones. "I think, Quinn, that in life there are souls who are destined. Throughout the ages they find each other again and again. I believe that you and Archer are two such souls and no matter how many times you're pulled apart you will always find each other. But I think that the wrong needs to be righted and the promise needs to be kept for all to be as it should."
"Whose promise?" Quinn asked.
Colleen gently squeezed Quinn's hands for emphasis and replied, "I think you already know that."
"So, it was real," she said with awe in her voice.
"Yes."
"And he's gone." Quinn sadly stated.
Colleen looked over at Gabriel then turned back to Quinn. "Or is he?"
Quinn looked at Gabriel and, for just a moment, shedidsee Archer looking back.
"Follow along the path you've started, Quinn. The answer to the mystery that ties your soul to Morgan's and Gabriel's to Archer is just within your reach," Colleen offered cryptically and in that moment, she reminded Quinn of Maude.
"You don't happen to have a sister named Maude, do you?" Quinn asked half-teasing but the grin that curved Colleen's mouth looked like affirmation. Suddenly, Gulliver changed the subject.
"We're having a small dance later. Won't you both come?"
