Sheriff Watkins nodded. “It appears your sister suffocated Bessie Roberts, and vandalized your house.”
She fought to catch her breath. Behind her eyes, images of Scarlett smashing a pillow into Bessie’s sweet face spun like a horror movie reel. “But why would Scarlett hurt Bessie—?” Chill bumps chased up her spine. Because she needed a place to live. Darcy’s stomach rolled with the realization.
“We’re pretty anxious to find her.”
She tightened her jaw until her teeth ached. “Not as anxious as I am,” she bit out. If Cabin died, she’d smash Scarlett’s face with something much harder than a pillow.
“Ms. Vaughan?”
Darcy jumped from her skin at the sound of her own name.
“Dr. Creighton is asking for you.”
“He’s awake?” She leapt from her chair, swollen knee forgotten. “Good luck, Sheriff. Let me know if you find her.” Without waiting for a reply, she brushed past the nurse who held the door, then hurried down the hallway.
“Doctor Fourman will be in shortly,” the nurse called after her.
Darcy wanted to run to his bedside but instead walked, afraid of disturbing him. His chest rose and fell under the thin hospital blanket, flooding her with relief. Tubes and wires poked from his body, affixed to his pale skin with surgical tape. She massaged the side of her neck as she watched numbers blink across the machines, wondering what they meant.
“It drives me wild when you do that,” Cabin said, his voice weak.
She gasped and swung her gaze to his eyes, now somehow a paler shade of blue.
“How are you, beautiful?” he asked softly.
“I’m not the one tethered by tubes to a hospital bed,” she answered, closing her hand around his.
God, I need a sign...
“I didn’t know,” Cabin whispered, as if reading her mind. He tightened his grip on her hand. “I thought I was holding you. I didn’t know it was Scarlett until it was too late.”
She prayed his words were true.
“Do you believe me?” He steadied his gaze on hers.
Her eyes misted. “I want to.”
“Trust me. Please.” His gaze softened along with his words. “I love you, Darcy. I want you to be my wife.”
Darcy’s face tingled as if Gigi had kissed her cheek. “Oh, Cabin, I love you too.”
“Enough to marry me?”
She leaned over and kissed his cool lips. “Yes.”
His skin instantly warmed to her touch, the color restoring. Her gaze met his, the intensity returning to his aqua blue eyes. She could feel them taking her in, loving her.
“My baby’s awake! Oh, my baby boy!” Rebecca Creighton stormed into the hospital room, rushing toward Cabin, her arms outstretched. “I’ve been here the whole time. I just ran home for a minute, to change.”
Darcy stepped to the side as Cabin’s mother doted over him, her fingers skittering across every wire and tube as she bombarded him with questions.
“How ’bout a cup of coffee?” Lorne Creighton called to Darcy from the doorway. “Don’t think we’ll get a word in edgeways right now.”
Darcy grinned and nodded, following him into the hallway. “Sure you don’t mind being seen with a grown woman in her pajamas?”
He offered her his arm and she linked his elbow.
“Did Dr. Fourman give you a prognosis?” she asked. “He wouldn’t share Cabin’s information with me, because we’re not married.” Yet. Darcy silently added, her heart skipping a beat at the thought.
Lorne nodded. “Coronary artery fistula. In English, that means one of his coronary arteries wasn’t properly formed. Probably been that way all his life. As soon as he gains his strength back, they’ll fix him up. The repair shouldn’t take more than a few hours.”
“He’d never had any problems before?”
“No, but that’s common with this condition—usually isn’t diagnosed until later in life. They discovered the faulty valve this morning on the echocardiogram.”
Doubt needled a dark corner of Darcy’s mind—the corner she’d stuffed Scarlett’s shadow into. She shook her head to clear it. Scrimshaw dolls, gypsy protection spells, none of that mattered now. Cabin was safe, and he loved her. And the curse—if there had been a curse—was broken.
“How do you prefer your coffee?” Lorne asked as they walked into the small hospital cafeteria.
“Sisterless.”
Lorne raised a gray eyebrow as he handed her a paper cup.
“Sugarless,” she corrected. “Cream only.”
She smiled and whitened her morning coffee, thankful for the new day.
Epilogue
Cabin exited the small, recently air conditioned shed as the evening sun stretched across the lake. In the shade of surrounding trees, friends and neighbors exchanged greetings and sipped lemonade.
Amelia Tangelero nibbled a sugar cookie and chatted with James the schoolteacher while Lucy sniffed around their feet for crumbs. Nearby, several high school girls—some sporting pregnant bellies, others sporting babies—talked and laughed.
Cabin approached a large oak wrapped with purple ribbon, where his parents stood talking to Darcy’s mother.
“I just know I’ll cry,” Adrian Vaughan gushed, already wiping her dry eyes with a tissue.
Lorne patted her dainty arm, prompting a huff from Cabin’s mother.
Cabin shook his head and smiled as he made his way toward the minister waiting at the pier.
“Here they come!” One of the teenaged girls shouted.
Family and friends dropped into folding chairs, holding refreshments, awaiting the wedding procession.
Cabin took a deep breath and squared his tuxedoed shoulders. He turned and faced the congregation, his heart drumming a solo on his ribcage, making it hard to breathe.
Richard stepped through the foliage, flanked by Liz. Arm in arm they strolled, chuckling as they startled a gathering of ducks and sent them flapping noisily across their path. When they reached the pier, Richard stepped to Cabin’s left side, Liz to his right.
Darcy emerged from the tree line, stealing Cabin’s breath in a form fitting, backless gown. The diamond necklace he’d given her had been recovered from the country club’s pool, and now glistened at her throat. At her small waist—which Cabin was certain he could span with his hands, and couldn’t wait to try—she carried a bouquet of purple flowers.
Rising to their feet, the guests stood still—as did the earth—while his bride approached, melting his heart into his Italian leather shoes.
****
Cabin and Darcy mingled by candlelight following the ceremony. A campfire roared, surrounded by people holding marshmallows on sticks. Guests cracked open ice chests filled with soda, beer and chilled champagne.
Darcy’s mother sashayed to the folding table where the newlyweds sat. “Darcy, may I speak to you in private?”
Darcy rose and followed her into the shadow of the trees.
“Your sister called today from...the facility.”
Darcy bit back a smile at her mother’s pet name for prison.
“She said she wished she could have been here for your special day, but obviously that wasn’t an option.” Her mother paused, wiping an invisible tear from her dry eye. “She wanted me to tell you, even though she isn’t here in flesh, she is here in spirit.”
Darcy shuddered. Somehow, that was worse. “Thanks, Mom,” she replied, hugging her mother’s frail shoulders.
The women returned to the reception, and Darcy strolled to the gift table.
“Open them!” Liz urged, hanging a lantern in a neighboring tree.
Cabin joined Darcy as guests gathered around to watch them unwrap their wedding presents. Excited voices called for them to hold each gift up for all to see, especially the lingerie. Every item was met with a round of applause.
Laughter over a naughty honeymoon garment was still ringing through the campsite as Darcy collected the wrapping paper in a large trash sack. She
turned back to the table to discover a small brown-papered box tied with twine. She touched Cabin’s arm. “Did you see who put this here?” she whispered.
“No, I thought we’d opened them all.” He frowned at the package. “There’s no name?”
She searched around the small box for a card. “No, nothing. What do you think it is?”
Cabin looped his finger through the twine. “Only one way to find out.”
The twine twirled to his feet as he pulled it from the package, then peeled away the brown paper. Darcy leaned around him, pulling back the flaps of the mysterious little box. He held a candle over the dark opening as she snaked her hand cautiously in. Her eyes grew wide as she looked at Cabin, feeling the color drain from her face.
“What is it?” he asked, tugging the parcel from her hand.
“No, please, let me.” She hesitated before pulling Gigi’s missing rose-patterned teapot from the package.
Cabin fished into the box. “There’s a note,” he said, sliding a yellowed parchment sheet out. Darcy caught a glimpse of the sepia longhand—Gigi’s handwriting—as Cabin read aloud.
“That which bonds the skin, binds the bones. True love has broken one bond and formed another. Protect it always.”
Darcy took the note, her eyes blurring. She couldn’t explain how this precious gift found its way into her trembling hands, any more than she could explain the handwritten fortune she’d received, or the tingle of Gigi’s kiss on her cheek in Cabin’s hospital room. She wouldn’t question it. Instead, she would simply treasure the knowledge that somehow, Gigi was still with her. As she silently thanked the stars shining above the still water, a tear glided from her cheek to her neck. She brushed it away, her fingers lingering on the diamond necklace.
“It drives me wild when you do that,” Cabin said, scooping her into his arms.
A word about the author...
Anna Kittrell grew up in a small Oklahoma town, and spent many a summer day on the lakeshores she often writes about. Today, she works as a middle school secretary in her beloved home town, where she resides with her husband, Tim, and their two children, Evan and Brandilyn. She still loves visiting those muddy red lakeshores of her childhood when she’s not too busy writing about them instead.
You can also find her at:
www.annakittrell.com
Facebook: Anna Kittrell.
Email: [email protected]
Thank you for purchasing this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
For other wonderful stories of romance,
please visit our on-line bookstore at
www.thewildrosepress.com.
For questions or more information
contact us at
[email protected].
The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
www.thewildrosepress.com
To visit with authors of
The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
join our yahoo loop at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thewildrosepress/
Skinbound Page 11