“I killed you once.” He was barely able to keep his anger in check. “I can kill you again! Look into my future as a vampire and tell me what you see.”
After a few moments of silence, Morana hissed. Jessica’s body suddenly jerked as she sat up, coughing.
“Your beloved is free,” Morana’s ethereal voice said in a mocking tone. “But do not think for one moment that I will sit idly by and do nothing. I will search for a way to sever the shelmir bond, and when I find it, Jareth, your precious shelmir will die.”
Chapter Twelve
Jessica lay back on the bed, barely able to catch her breath. Her head whirled as spots swam before her eyes. She’d never experienced such pain, as if thousands of tiny knives were cutting through her skin at the exact same moment. Even now, her muscles twitched from the magic that had pulsed through them.
Unable to stop herself, she began to sob. Hardly a sound escaped her, but hot tears coursed down her cheeks regardless.
Gentle hands lifted her off the pillow and Jessica found herself in someone’s embrace.
“Jareth?” she whispered, recognizing the familiar tingle in her skin.
“Are you all right?” His deep voice rumbled through her, making her cry and clutch him even harder.
“No!” she wailed.
Turning her head, Jessica buried her face into his neck and shuddered. Her breath came in rapid gasps as she tried to calm down, but it was nearly impossible. His embrace tightened.
“It…hurt…so much,” she stammered. “Is it…is it gone?”
“Shh, do not talk, shelmir. You are free of the spell.”
“How?” She pulled back just enough to look into his eyes.
“Morana was here. I don’t know how or even where, but she now understands that I will kill her before I let her touch you again with her magic.”
“You said that?” Jessica was too surprised by his words to worry about much else.
“Indeed I did.” Jareth stroked her cheek and gave her a gentle smile. “I watched you tumble down the stairs, my sweet, and I thought I had lost you.”
Jessica dropped her gaze to stare at his tunic. The words he’d said to her the night before seemed to repeat themselves in her head. He’d called her by her sister’s name in her throes of passion. Once again, tears stung her eyes.
Jareth’s arms were strong around her and she sighed, embracing him. Perhaps if she pretended it didn’t happen, her heart would be soothed. What they’d shared had flung her world out of control and they hadn’t even joined completely! Jessica couldn’t help but wonder what making love to Jareth Moreland would truly be like.
“You are injured.” His voice broke through her tortured thoughts. “I will fetch the physician and insist that you stay right where you are.”
“Where am I?” she asked, sniffling, finally looking at the room around her.
“My chambers.”
Jessica gasped. “I cannot possibly stay here with you, Jareth!”
“And why not?”
“We are not married!”
“We are not yet married, my sweet,” he corrected her.
“It does not matter. My uncle will demand—”
“Yes, I know,” Jareth said with an irritated sigh. “He will demand we are wed before we share a room. You are my shelmir, I should be allowed to be with you.”
Jessica had to smile at that. “You are so determined to play nursemaid?”
“Among other things,” he said, his eyes darkening. Jessica’s heart quickened at that look. When his fingers touched her cheek, she almost jumped at the contact. His gaze dropped to her lips and she licked them nervously. Did he just groan?
“Please don’t.” Jessica placed her hand on his chest. His gaze snapped back to her eyes.
“You are still upset about last night.” It was a statement, not a question.
“It is too soon, Jareth. You still think of my sister.”
“I swear I do not,” he said. “I do not know where her name came from last night, that is the truth, Jessie. And I am sorry to have offended you so. She was nowhere in my mind, you must believe me. I didn’t have any delusions about who I was with. I know it was you I was kissing, you that I was about to make love to. Perhaps it was another trick of Morana’s.”
Jessica swallowed hard. He was right. Perhaps it was one of Morana’s spells that made Jareth utter Cassandra’s name. Even so, she didn’t want to get her hopes too high only to have them dashed.
“I believe you, Jareth.” She stared down at her hands. “But it is still too soon. Neither of us is ready to consummate our shelmir bond.”
Silence hung over them after her words, making color bloom on her cheeks.
“When you are ready, will you tell me?” he asked in a husky voice. Jessica could only nod furiously. Jareth chuckled.
“I…I still should not b-be in your room.” Her voice trembled.
“You had no qualms of being in my chambers the other day when you pulled me back to this era with your magic.”
“That was different.”
“Oh? How so?”
“My uncle was not sleeping down the hall!” she hissed, infuriated that he had the nerve to chuckle at her once again.
“Your concern is a very easy fix, my sweet. I can fetch the priest and we—”
“No.”
“Excuse me?”
“No, Jareth.”
“And why not?” he demanded to know, sounding both hurt and angry.
“Because I must leave Crichton Manor.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” he scoffed.
“It is true! Morana knows I am your shelmir. Regardless of what she told you, I will not be safe unless I am gone.”
“I will not let you leave.”
“You must!”
“No!” he exclaimed. “You have given yourself to me and you have promised to marry me. I will not let you take back that which you have given.”
Jessica blushed, recalling the final words she’d said to him before she blacked out. She’d told him she loved him. Did he understand her mumbled words? Her heart pounded in her throat.
“A marriage is nothing to take lightly, Jareth.” She placed a hand on his knee. The charge from the contact was too much to bear. She pulled her hand away. “I will not allow you to marry me if you are doing it only because you feel you must.”
“Do you love me?”
Jessica’s eyes widened at the unexpected question. Long moments of silence stretched out before them.
“Do you love me?” he repeated. “It’s an easy question, Jessie. Yes or no?”
Biting her bottom lip, Jessica looked into his eyes and took a shuddering breath. If she lied to him now, he could see right through her, she was sure of it.
Swallowing hard, she said, “Y—yes.”
“Then why do you fight it so much?” he asked gently, pulling her closer.
“Because…because…”
“Tell me, shelmir.”
“Because you do not love me.” She closed her eyes and leaned back into the pillows once again. “You love my sister.”
“But you are all I think about!” he exclaimed.
“Only because of the bond,” she answered. “If you were not my shelmir, Jareth, I would have been cast out of Crichton Manor days ago.” She watched as he bowed his head, his dark hair falling into his face. Jessica desperately wanted to push the wayward lock aside, but dared not touch him for fear of losing control and giving in to his charms.
“It is the magic that draws you to me,” she whispered. “It is not from the feelings of your own heart that you woo me. If you are ever to be my husband, I want it to be because you love me, not because of a magical spell.”
“I do not know what I believe anymore,” Jareth whispered.
“I have always loved you, Jareth, but you never saw me. All you saw was her.”
“Please do not speak of Cassandra any longer.” Closing his eyes, he sighed deeply.
�
�I cannot stay in your room,” Jessica said once again. Nodding his head once, he stood and threw back the covers. Before she knew his intent, she was again in his arms. “What are you doing?”
“I will carry you back to your chambers.”
“But…but someone might be awake. Someone might see! I cannot be seen in my nightgown with you carrying me!”
“Do not fret, my sweet,” Jareth said with a grin. “Were you not listening when I said this old manor has many secret passages?”
Pulling on a book from a nearby bookcase, a narrow door slid aside from the wall. Jessica’s jaw dropped. The door had looked like merely a part of the wall not more than a moment ago.
Jareth stepped inside and the door closed behind them.
“Where does this lead?” she asked, feeling trepidation at the gloom that closed around her.
“Your room,” he said simply.
“My room?”
“Indeed.” Even in the dark, Jessica could hear the smile in his voice.
“You gave me that room on purpose, didn’t you?”
“Indeed,” he said again.
“Jareth Moreland, you are a scoundrel!”
“Why thank you, my sweet,” he purred, finally coming to the end of the passage. “Now would you be a dear and press that small device on the far wall? The one to your left.”
Jessica fumbled around until she found what he was talking about. She pushed it, and the portal in front of them opened with hardly a sound. On the other side were her chambers.
Jareth strode into the room and laid her on the bed, pulling the soft quilts over her.
“Now, my sweet,” he said, the note of authority in his voice. “You will not get out of this bed for any reason. If you need anything I will send a maid to tend you.”
“But—”
“Do not cross me, Jessie,” he said, his eyes glittering with mischief. “I will not hesitate to bend you over my knee. I am not telling you this as merely your shelmir, but as the duke of Crichton. And I expect to be obeyed. Is that understood?”
Jessica had to bite her lips to keep from chuckling herself. “It is, Your Grace,” she finally said after a few long moments.
“Good. You took a nasty fall down the staircase and you need your rest. I will see to it that your every need is taken care of.”
Jareth swooped in and kissed her lips, holding the back of her head so she couldn’t escape him. Jessica mewled into his mouth with astonishment, but then melted against him as he leaned her back into the pillows. With Jareth once again hovering over her, she remembered all too well his mouth on her breasts and his hand between her legs. Once more, she began to ache, her body reacting to his in the most primitive of ways.
Just as his tongue plunged deeply into her mouth, it was gone and Jareth sat up. “I must stop.”
“Why?” Jessica groaned, trying hard not to sound disappointed.
“You have fallen down the staircase for one,” he said, standing from the mattress. “And secondly, you said yourself neither of us is ready for this, although I feel the need to argue with your logic.”
Jessica took a breath to speak, but Jareth held up his hand. “Do not say anything, my sweet,” he said, grinning as he bent down to kiss her forehead. “You are hungry. Let me fetch you breakfast. And then you rest.”
He turned and opened the secret door on the wall. Before she knew it, he was gone.
Jessica groaned to herself. The fabric of her shift was suddenly coarse against her heated skin. Damn the man for arousing her so thoroughly.
Chapter Thirteen
Good to his word, Jareth sent up a tray of food with one of his servants. The girl flitted around the room, straightening this and that, trying her hardest not to seem flustered. She pulled back the drapes on the windows, letting in the morning sun before fluffing Jessica’s pillows so she could sit up to eat.
“His Grace told us about your nasty fall this morning, my lady,” she said, without making eye contact. “I hope you are feeling well.”
“I’m sore, but I shall be fine,” Jessica said. Looking at the maid, she noticed her flushed cheeks. She was a pretty girl with light brown hair and a small nose. Her mouth was full and she constantly chewed on her bottom lip. Was she nervous?
“Are you all right?” she asked her.
The maid looked startled, but finally gazed into her eyes. “What, me, my lady? I am merely worried for you is all.”
“I am sure I have no wounds that time cannot mend,” Jessica said, studying the way the maid clasped her hands in front of her so tightly her knuckles were white.
“May I speak freely, my lady?” the maid suddenly asked, swallowing hard.
“Of course.”
“If you don’t mind me saying so, my lady, His Grace will make a fine husband. He is a very affectionate man.”
Jessica cocked a brow at the young girl, but understood the news of their engagement would have raced through the servants by now.
“Thank you, miss…”
“Trudy, my lady. My name is Gertrude, but everyone calls me Trudy.”
Trudy looked as if she were choking. Her face became redder by the second. “Forgive me, Lady Jessica, I was speaking a bit too freely.”
“It is quite all right, and I thank you for your kind words.”
Shifting from foot to foot, Trudy appeared as if she wished to be anywhere but there. Her gaze never quite met Jessica’s, and she endlessly toyed with the frayed hem of her apron. “If that will be all?”
Jessica stared at her for a moment before her heart stopped. The maid’s words had finally penetrated her brain and Jessica’s thoughts raced of their own volition. Had this young woman just told her something she really didn’t want to hear? She’d said Jareth was a very affectionate man, not necessarily a trait a maid would use to describe her employer. Trudy’s continued fidgeting seemed to confirm Jessica’s fears.
Her appetite was gone. “Here, take this, Trudy. I am not hungry.”
Jessica handed the maid the tray of food.
“But His Grace said that—”
“I know what he said,” Jessica answered, interrupting her. “But I’m so tired and I just wish to rest.”
Trudy curtseyed as best she could while holding the tray, and left quietly. Jessica rolled over to stare out the window. The maid had all but admitted she’d had relations with Jareth. She knew she shouldn’t take it to heart. The Jareth she had with her now was not the same Jareth who had tried to woo her sister only days before. The thought of him dallying with one of the maids when he hadn’t even cast her a second glance made tears well up in her eyes.
Perhaps he’d dallied with her once again. It was altogether possible. Jessica had no idea where Jareth had gone off to the night before. Had he found solace in Trudy’s embrace?
Clutching onto the blankets, Jessica knew she was being absurd, but that didn’t stop the niggling doubt from eating away at her or the tears that threatened to fall.
She had to leave. That was the only thing left to do. Jareth had told her time and again he wanted nothing to do with her. He’d even called her by her sister’s name. The times he had gotten close to her were times he couldn’t help himself due to their shelmir bond. What she’d said to him earlier had been the truth. He didn’t love her. He would never love her.
The fact that he’d found his pleasure with Trudy when she’d been more than willing pierced her heart. She knew then, without a doubt, that Jareth Moreland had never once noticed her.
Jessica knew she was upset over something that, for him, happened hundreds of years in the past. For her, however, it hadn’t been all that long ago. Mere days.
And with Morana intent on killing her, she had no other choice but to leave—without Jareth’s knowledge. She had no idea where she would go, but it had to be somewhere far, far away. Not only did she need to get away from the influence of the witch, but she also had to run away from her own regrets.
* * *
Jessica
ran across the grounds to the stables not too far away. Her backside ached and her head was spinning, but that didn’t stop her from holding her skirts high as she raced across the grass. She didn’t want to be caught.
She’d gotten dressed in her room, and without bothering with her wrap, she’d made sure there was no one in the hall before she darted out. Thankfully, the front door of the manor was at the bottom of the stairs she had fallen down not too long before. Jessica had torn open the door and rushed down the steps of the terrace.
Now there she was, out of breath and almost to the stables. She didn’t want anyone to see her from the manor, as she doubted she’d get very far if they did.
Once inside, she ordered the stable boy to saddle one of Laith’s mares. The boy stared at her for a moment, seemingly dumbfounded. “Now, boy!” she ordered, acting as if taking a ride was the most important thing of her life. In a way, it was exactly that.
After a few long minutes, the boy finally led a beautiful, dappled-grey mare out of one of the stalls for her.
“Here you are, my lady,” he said, keeping his eyes averted.
“Thank you, lad,” Jessica said before mounting the sidesaddle. As soon as she was seated on the horse, she kicked its flanks, galloping out of the doorway. She had no money, but Jessica hoped she’d be able to make it to Thornbury Manor before anyone knew she had gone. There, she could find some currency in one of the chests in her uncle’s chambers. With that in hand, she could go anywhere.
Jessica needed to hurry. She had no doubt that Jareth would try to find her. If she were too close to Crichton, he’d be able to track her down. She just hoped the farther away she was from him, the harder it would be for him to find her. She’d have to stay on the move. It was better than waiting to die at the hands of Morana, and better than living a life with a man whose feelings for her would be nothing more than a dream.
Chapter Fourteen
Jareth sat at the desk in his study, poring over papers and documents, trying to make sense of his newly appointed title of Duke of Crichton. Complaints from here and there within the duchy, requests for his presence at the House of Lords in London and invitations to many social functions were sprawled across his desk in a most untidy fashion.
Hearts Unbound Page 6