by Lynsay Sands
He grinned at the memory and Elspeth grinned back. She could almost picture what he was describing. In fact, she could see a ginger-haired Yeoman Warder scowling at them for laughing while he was trying to talk to the group.
“Afterward, we went to dinner, and then we went to the theater to see if we could get tickets to We Will Rock You for that night. I didn’t think we would, but apparently it had been showing for years at the time, six or eight I think the guy said. There were seats available.” Peering at her solemnly, he said, “You told me it was the first play you’d been to and I believed it, because you sat there wide-eyed with wonder throughout . . . and I just sat and watched you. I couldn’t take my eyes off you.”
“I don’t . . .” She shook her head helplessly.
“Do you remember what you did on your birthday four years ago?” Sam asked quietly when Elspeth continued to just shake her head.
Elspeth paused and tried to think back. “We always go away for my birthday. Last year we went to Spain. The year before that it was Greece. The year before that was Germany, and the year before that . . .” She thought briefly, and then remembered and was oddly disappointed to say, “Italy. I was in Italy for my birthday four years ago.”
“That’s not true. It can’t be,” Wyatt said with a frown.
“It isn’t,” Victoria announced, drawing their attention to her presence in the open kitchen door.
Elspeth raised her eyebrows as the twins entered. “Yes, Victoria, it is. I remember we stayed with Raffael, and he took us to a little trattoria for my birthday dinner.”
“We did stay with Raffael that year, and he did take us to a trattoria for your birthday dinner, but it was the day after your birthday,” she assured her solemnly.
When Elspeth frowned, Julianna told her, “It’s true. You went missing on your birthday and didn’t show up until the day after. Mom freaked. She went into full-on panic mode. Even Dad couldn’t calm her down. She must have called the head of the UK Enforcers a hundred times, demanding he take every one of his hunters off any jobs they were on and send them out to search for you.”
“Yeah. I think she nearly drove Scotty over the edge. At least, it looked that way when he came to the house,” Victoria said with a grimace.
“Scotty came out to the house?” Elspeth asked with amazement. Scotty, whose true name was Cullen MacDonald, had been helping out Mortimer the last several weeks. She’d spoken to him several times since moving to Canada and he hadn’t mentioned anything like this. Which was probably a good thing since she wouldn’t have known what he was talking about, she supposed.
“Oh, yeah, although at the time I wasn’t sure if he was there to try to calm her or kill her,” Victoria said dryly.
“I was sure it was kill,” Julianna put in with amusement. “Mom was constantly on the phone to him, shrieking her head off, freaking all over him, calling him an idiot and useless and whatnot. After twenty-four hours of that, I’d want to kill her.”
Elspeth turned to Wyatt with wide eyes. “Twenty-four hours?”
Wyatt nodded. “After the play we went back to my hotel room.”
“Really?” Alex drawled the word out and leaned forward, her gaze on Wyatt becoming concentrated briefly before her eyes widened. “Not quite after, though. You left early,” she said with a grin.
“Yes,” he acknowledged, looking somewhat embarrassed.
“Why?” Elspeth asked with surprise. “Why would we leave early?”
“Actually, we were asked to leave,” Wyatt admitted almost apologetically.
“We were?” Elspeth gasped with shock. She’d never been kicked out of anywhere. Ever. “Why?”
Wyatt blew out a sigh. “I kissed you.”
Alex snorted at the claim.
Wyatt scowled at her, and then admitted, “It was supposed to be a quick, gentle kiss, but . . .” He shook his head. “It was like an explosion happened. My lips brushed lightly over yours and the next thing I knew, we were tearing at each other’s clothes and . . .” He shrugged helplessly.
“Yeah, that life mate sex is a killer. I mean, none of us intended to ruin the holidays we told you guys about. You just intend to give your loved one a quick kiss in passing and kapow!” Sam said on a sigh.
Alex nodded. “A kiss, a touch—heck, even a look—and it can happen. Kapow and you’re gonzo.”
Elspeth glanced from Alex to Sam. Noting the secret smiles they both wore made her wish she’d experienced what they were talking about. It sounded . . . interesting. And then she recalled that she supposedly had experienced it and simply didn’t remember it and heaved a sigh. Another memory and moment stolen by her mother, she thought bitterly, and turned to Wyatt to ask, “So we left early that night, but I didn’t show up at home until the next day?”
“We stayed in bed until midafternoon the next day,” Wyatt explained quietly. “And we only got up then because we were hungry. We went to a café. I went to the bathroom and when I came back you were talking to some guy. You said he was a family friend and he and a lot of other people had been looking for you since the night before. You said your mother was freaking out. You should have called her, and you had to go home and calm her down. You’d meet me in that café the next day, at the same time.”
Wyatt frowned as he recalled it. “The guy was pulling you away as you talked. Afterward, I didn’t understand why I didn’t intervene. Now I suppose the fellow was controlling me and making me accept what was happening. But I didn’t even get a chance to ask your phone number. I tried to follow you, but I had to pay for our meal, and by the time I got out you were both gone.”
“I’m guessing she didn’t show up the next day?” Alex asked quietly.
“I waited for hours for her, but no, she never showed,” Wyatt admitted and then turned back to Elspeth. “So then I tried to look you up. I started looking for an Elspeth Pimms in the phone book, and on the internet, but there was nothing. No phone number listing, no Facebook, not even a Google search of your name turned up anything. It was like you didn’t exist.”
Elspeth turned to her sisters. “What happened? Why didn’t I go back the next day?”
Victoria exchanged a glance with Julianna and then both turned back to her and shook their heads helplessly before Victoria said, “Mother got a call from Scotty saying one of his men found you and he was bringing you home. Then she sent us out with Father. She said she wanted to talk to you.”
“Dad took us out to lunch and shopping,” Julianna put in. “And then Mother called Dad. When he got off the phone, he said you and Mother were meeting us at the airport. We were flying to Italy to stay with Raffael for a belated birthday celebration for you, and it was probably better not to bring up your disappearing act as it would just upset Mother. So that’s what happened. We flew to Italy, visited Raffael, and celebrated your birthday.”
“Your disappearing was never brought up again,” Victoria finished.
“Not even to Elspeth?” Sam asked with surprise. “I mean, I understand your not bringing it up around your mother, but why did you never say anything to Elspeth about it? Weren’t you curious about where she’d been or what she’d done?”
“Yes,” Victoria admitted. “But Mother kept Elspeth pretty close after that, at least for the next couple of months.”
“She watched her like a hawk,” Julianna put in. “I mean, she rarely left her side. She wouldn’t even let her go to work.”
“What?” Elspeth asked with shock. She didn’t remember any of this either. “I didn’t go to work? For how long?”
“At least two months. Right?” Julianna asked Victoria.
“Yeah,” the twin agreed. “The first day back from Italy she insisted on driving you in to work, but came back a little later with you still in tow and said you had been given a short sabbatical. She’d arranged it with the head of your department.”
“Then she kept you by her side that whole two months,” Julianna continued. “By the time she eased up . . .” She sh
rugged. “Life had moved on.”
“And so had we,” Victoria said with a frown and then glanced at her twin and pointed out, “That’s about when Mother insisted we move back to York. Isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” Julianna nodded slowly, and then said, “By the end of the two months we’d moved back to the family estate there and Mother had arranged a new position for you at the University of York.”
“She arranged my position there?” Elspeth asked with shock. She had some vague recollection of doing that herself. The very vagueness of the memory told her it wasn’t true.
“I’m sorry, Elspeth,” Julianna said quietly. “Really. If we’d known you’d met your life mate, and what Mother was doing, we would have said something. Truly. I know I can be a PITA, but I would have told you about that.”
“I know,” Elspeth said on a sigh, and reached out to catch Julianna’s hand and squeeze it affectionately.
“Me too,” Victoria assured her and then added with anger, “I can’t believe she would take that from you. I mean, it’s one thing to make us miserable with her overprotective and controlling ways, but to get between you and your life mate? That’s just not on.”
“Wait, wait, wait. How could she make you forget like that?” Alex asked with a frown. “Wouldn’t that take a three-on-one mind wipe? I mean, Jean Claude had to arrange a three-on-one to erase Julius from Marguerite’s mind.”
“Jean Claude wanted to erase something like twenty years from Marguerite’s mind, though,” Elspeth pointed out solemnly. “He wanted to erase her meeting and loving her true life mate, having his child, and . . . basically he had to erase a whole life from Marguerite—every memory from every one of the days in those twenty years so that nothing would spark a return of them. He couldn’t do that without performing a three-on-one,” she explained. “But for me, Mother merely had to remove one twenty-four-hour-long first date.”
“And then move you out of London to make sure nothing sparked those memories and brought them back to you,” Sam said quietly. “I gather that’s why she moved you to York?”
“And made sure we celebrated my birthday in foreign countries,” Elspeth added grimly. “It ensured we didn’t accidentally go anywhere Wyatt and I had gone, and that nothing around me would be likely to remind me of whatever Wyatt and I did on my birthday and bring those memories back.”
“Wow,” Alex breathed. “That’s . . .”
“Evil?” Sam suggested when her sister seemed at a loss as to what to say.
“I’d like to say no,” Alex said apologetically to Elspeth. “But frankly, I can’t think of another description that would fit. I mean, she got between you and your life mate. What if she had done that to Cale and me?” she asked with horror. “What kind of person does that? What kind of mother does that?”
“An evil one,” Sam muttered with disgust.
“Yes,” Elspeth agreed with regret. She’d always given her mother excuses for her behavior, but now—Turning, she raised the carafe she still held. “Victoria, will you make the coffee for me? I need to have a word with Mother.”
“Of course,” Victoria took the carafe and carried it to the sink at once.
“I’ll help,” Julianna added, moving to collect the coffee out of the cupboard.
“Thank you,” Elspeth said solemnly and moved to the bags they’d set on the counter when they’d entered. Opening the first bag, she began sifting through the contents until she found the pocketknife she’d bought.
“What are you going to do?” Alex asked, her eyes narrowing on the knife as Elspeth flicked it open.
“Just going to have a little talk with my mother,” Elspeth assured her, slipping the open knife into her jacket pocket. “I’ll be right back.”
“Ellie, talk, don’t kill,” Alex called out worriedly as Elspeth left the kitchen.
Elspeth moved at a quick clip, not slowing until she reached the closed door of the guest room. Pausing then, she slipped the knife out of her pocket, peered at it silently and considered her options. Pain had helped her resist her mother taking control of her that first night. Hopefully pain would help her resist her control again now, because G.G. was right—she needed to confront her mother. She’d gone way too far intervening between her and Wyatt. Way too far.
Mouth compressing, Elspeth tightened her grip on the knife, took a deep breath, and then quickly plunged it into her upper leg and promptly cursed a blue streak.
Cripes, that hurt! Like big-time hurt! Like a what-the-hell-had-she-been-thinking-doing-that-to-herself kind of pain.
“What the hell have you done?”
Elspeth glanced around sharply, her eyes widening when she found Wyatt at her side.
“What were you thinking?” he asked, bending to peer at the knife sticking out of her leg. “Good God, woman, I’m here to protect you from some mad stalker trying to kill you. I didn’t realize I’d have to protect you from yourself too.” Straightening, he scowled at her. “Are you a self-abuser? One of those people who cut themselves and—”
“No,” she interrupted quickly, glancing anxiously toward the guest bedroom door. Grabbing his arm, she started to drag him away up the hall, but gasped in a sharp breath as pain shot through her leg with the first step. Cursing under her breath, she stopped and clung to his arm briefly as she waited for the pain to subside.
“Are you all right?” he asked with a frown.
“No,” she said at once. Elspeth took a deep breath, held it briefly and then let it out as she reached down to yank the knife back out of her leg . . . and damned if it didn’t hurt more than putting it in had. Another string of curses followed, and then she paused and took deep breaths again.
“Better?” Wyatt asked sympathetically when she finally reopened her eyes.
Elspeth nodded and said a little shakily, “Yes, thank you.”
“Good,” he said solemnly, and then snapped, “Now, would you care to tell me why the hell you stabbed yourself?”
Elspeth opened her mouth, and then snapped it closed with surprise when he suddenly knelt beside her and clasped her thigh in his hands so he could examine her wound.
“Jesus. You really got yourself good,” he muttered, tugging his T-shirt out of his jeans.
“Don’t—Oh, shoot,” Elspeth sighed when she was too late to stop him from tearing off a strip along the bottom of the T-shirt. It was a waste of a good shirt since her bleeding would probably stop before he finished wrapping the makeshift bandage around her leg, Elspeth thought as she watched him arrange it over the wound. She groaned in pain and grabbed for his shoulder to keep her balance when he tied it off tightly with a sharp tug.
Finished with his field dressing, Wyatt straightened and growled, “Well?”
“Well, what?” she asked uncertainly.
“Why did you stab yourself?” he asked with disbelief.
“Oh, right,” she muttered. Sighing, she limped several feet away, and then glanced nervously back toward the door and explained, “My mother usually has no trouble controlling me.”
“Yeah, I got that from the conversation in the kitchen,” he said tightly. “But you didn’t seem to have a problem getting away from her the night we went to The Night Club.”
“Yes. I was able to keep from being controlled then, but I was in pain at the time. My injuries were still healing and I needed blood, and my stomach was on fire, my body cramping and aching . . . I think that’s why she wasn’t able to control me.”
“So you stabbed yourself so you could confront her without her taking control of you again,” he reasoned quietly, a lot of his anger slipping away.
Elspeth nodded.
Wyatt shook his head. “There’s got to be a better way, El. You can’t stab yourself every time you talk to your mother.”
“I know,” she said on a sigh. “And I will try to come up with another way, but later.”
“Another way?” he asked with a frown.
“To be in pain without stabbing myself,” she expla
ined. “This way uses up blood unnecessarily, and I know I shouldn’t be wasting blood like this. But I—”
“I don’t give a damn about the blood,” Wyatt said with amazement. “I’ll give you blood if you need it, but Elspeth, I don’t want you to be in pain. There has to be a better way to deal with your mother than that.”
Elspeth glanced down and ran a finger over the cloth around her wound. “Or maybe I shouldn’t deal with her at all after this.” When he didn’t comment, she raised her head and said, “I’ve tried to be understanding. I know she went through a lot when my brothers died, and it’s made her paranoid and overprotective. I tried to remember that when she hovered, or treated me like a child, or when I suspected she controlled me. But she stepped over the line when she removed meeting you from my mind.”
“When your brothers died?” he asked quietly.
Elspeth nodded, but then waved the question away. “I’ll tell you about that later. Right now I need to confront my mother.”
“All right.” He took a step back, but that was all.
Elspeth narrowed her eyes. “You’re not going back to the kitchen, are you?”
“Hard to guard you from the kitchen,” he pointed out dryly.
“Right,” she muttered. “Well, do me a favor and at least wait in the hall. I didn’t stab myself just so she could control you and use you against me.”
Wyatt stiffened at once. “How could she use me against you?”
“In any number of ways,” Elspeth assured him, and moved past him to the door. She raised her hand to knock, but then noticed the door was cracked open and simply pushed it wider instead. Knocking was requesting entrance. It wasn’t a strong approach and Elspeth needed to come on as strong as she could for this confrontation. Besides, this was her home, and her mother was packing, not changing into a peignoir or something.
Actually, she wasn’t even packing, Elspeth realized as the door swung open on an empty room.