by Dara Girard
How could a man look so happy on his wedding day? Michelle stared at their wedding picture, which sat on the mantelpiece of their new, fully furnished home. In the photo, James beamed as if he’d discovered the cure for cancer, won a trip around the world and a tiny island combined. And he looked…so young. Nothing like the brooding man she’d seen at the castle only months ago. At times, she forgot he was only twenty-five but staring at him now he looked like a young man with a bright future and she looked…
She was a beautiful bride, not in the normal sense, but somehow…maybe it was a trick of the lens, the way the sunlight caught her face, but she glowed. She remembered her brief hesitation only hours before having the photograph taken when she stood alone with her father in the hallway.
Michelle looked at her father amazed it was her wedding day. “Am I doing the right thing?”
“That’s not a question I can answer for you.”
“Do you think it’s happening too fast?” she asked, wanting him to know she was still the sensible one. The one he could depend on. “I know I should have told you about him sooner and I know it’s strange that his family isn’t here and—”
“Do you want to marry him?”
Michelle took a deep breath and said without hesitation. “Yes.”
Her father’s face spread into a wide smile. “Then let your heart lead you down the aisle.”
And she had and didn’t regret a single moment.
Michelle heard James’s footsteps behind her then felt his hand on her shoulder. “What are you doing?”
“Looking at us.”
He lifted her up in his arms.
She gasped in surprise. “What are you doing?”
James spun her around. “I want you to look at me instead.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and laughed.
He stopped spinning, his eyes clinging to hers. “Do you like the house?”
“Yes,” she said. She rested her head on his shoulder, liking the soft feel of his cotton shirt against her cheek and the scent of spiced tea. “I’ve told you that before.”
“Happy?”
Michelle lifted her head, surprised by the question and saw a glint of uncertainty in his gaze. “No, I’m ecstatic.” She kissed him with a heart full of love and he kissed her back with the same passion, neither of them knowing that their joy would last less than a year before the troubles began.
Chapter 28
They woke up to something pounding on the front door.
James rolled onto his back and mumbled. “What is that? A storm?”
Michelle grabbed her robe, more awake than he was. “Someone’s at the door. It sounds urgent.” The pounding stopped, replaced by the insistent ringing of the doorbell. She rushed barefoot to the door and swung it open.
Joanna pushed past her. “Where is my son?”
Michelle stumbled back too startled to speak. Silently watching as another man followed behind her. The same one she’d seen at the castle.
Joanna spun around to her, her long black cape swirling about her. “Where is he?’”
Michelle pointed. “He’s upstairs. I can—”
Joanna took a menacing step towards her, her eyes cold. “Did you think we’d never find out? Did you think you could keep him all to yourself forever?”
“No, he said—”
“Hello, Mum.”
Joanna turned to James as he came down the stairs. She held out her hands, frightened. “Careful. Careful you might fall. Why did you have to get a place with stairs?” She turned to Michelle. “Did he tell you about his accident when he was eight?”
“Six,” James corrected.
“You know how dangerous they can be.” She rushed over to him when he reached the bottom of the stairs. She touched his face. “You look pale.”
He took a step back. “I feel fine.”
Joanna reached for him again, cupping his face in her hands. She turned to Graham. “Doesn’t he look pale?”
James pushed her hands away. “What do you want?”
“What do I want? You don’t communicate for months—“
“I did communicate.”
Joanna gestured to Michelle. “You didn’t tell me about this. You disappear without an explanation to me, you marry in secret and you want to know what I want?”
James took her arm. “Sit down and let me explain.”
Joanna pulled away from him. “There’s nothing to explain. You’re going to come home and get this farce annulled.”
“Mum, sit down.”
“We were going to tell everyone eventually,” Michelle said, “but James—”
Joanna pinned her with a look. “Don’t you dare blame him for this. Don’t pretend you didn’t persuade him. Coax him. I don’t know how, but you did because I know what you are. You saw the money and—”
James stood in front of Michelle, blocking his mother’s view. “Go back upstairs. I’ll—”
“We should face this together.” She took his hand. “I’m not afraid and she has a right to be angry.”
I won’t let her take that anger out on you.
I’m strong.
“What are you two whispering about?” Joanna demanded. “Is she pregnant?”
James spun around to her. “No, but—”
“Good, then we came just in time.” Joanna wrapped her hand around James’s arm, her nails seeming extra red against his brown skin. She looked at Michelle. “How much do you want?”
Enough to make you leave us alone. “I don’t want anything,” Michelle said, fighting to keep her voice polite. “I understand why you’re upset but—”
“No, you don’t understand.”
“Honey, please go back to bed,” James said, but this time his tone sounded tired. And when she looked at him she was alarmed to see he did look a little pale. “I’ll sort this out.”
She took his hand, she didn’t know what was going on, but she felt the need to. “You’re strong,” she said in a low voice.
“Yes, go up to bed,” Joanna said. “James and I need to talk alone.”
Michelle kept hold of James’s hand although she was suddenly starting to feel a little tired too. Her gaze went back to Joanna’s hand. Could she be influencing him? If James had a talent, his mother might have one too. One similar to hers. Michelle dropped to the floor as if in a faint. James pulled away from his mother and rushed to her side. He lifted her to a sitting position. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“I don’t know.” She briefly looked at Joanna, and saw rage simmering in her gaze. And Michelle realized the older woman had a dangerous talent that she wasn’t sure of yet. She would have to tread carefully.
Go back to bed, James silently told her.
No.
“It’s probably low blood sugar,” Michelle said aloud. She let him help her to her feet then took his hand and walked past the silent Graham who stood near the couch. “Let’s sort this out like he said.”
“What is there to sort out?” Joanna sat in front of them and looked at James. “We have to end this before it’s too late.”
“It’s already too late,” he said. “She’s my wife.”
“It’s not too late to end things. Otherwise you’ll only end up hurt.”
“We love each other,” Michelle said.
Joanna sniffed. “James doesn’t love you. He’s using you to hurt me. To get away from me. From the truth of his life.”
James shook his head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Yes, it does. Running won’t change that any woman—”
“Michelle, doesn’t need to hear this. She—”
“I know about his talent,” Michelle said.
Graham spoke up. “Do you know about the cur—”
James turned sharply to him. “No.” He looked at his mother. “And she doesn’t need to.”
Joanna looked at him stunned. “Have you gone completely mad?”
“I know what I’m doing.”
“No, you don’t.” She pointed to Michelle. “And neither does she. You should have at least told her the truth!”
“She knows all that she needs to.”
“About what?” Michelle said.
“You don’t need to hear this,” James said.
“The curse,” Graham said.
Michelle frowned. “I don’t think what he’s able to do is a curse.”
He frowned. “What?”
“She’s not afraid,” James said.
“Because she doesn’t know everything.”
“That’s enough.”
“She deserves to know the truth,” his mother said. “You should have told her everything.” She turned to Michelle. “Perhaps I was wrong about you. Maybe you are the victim of my son’s silly rebellion.” She shook her head in pity. “None of what he’s told you is real. It’s all in his mind.”
“Mum.”
“It’s all an act. He’s pretending because this is how he wants his life to be. Not how it really is.”
He turned to Michelle. Go upstairs!
No.
Please.
No, I have to hear this.
“You’re not the one to break it. No one can. Especially not a woman. And I’m not being sexist that’s what the prophesy said.”
James shot to his feet. “I said that’s enough!”
Joanna leaned back and stared up at him. “Fine, then you tell her.”
“Yes, tell me,” Michelle urged him. “Tell me about the curse.”
James looked up at the ceiling and sighed then sat back down. His eyes met hers. “You mean the one that says my wife will kill me?”
Chapter 29
Michelle stared at him, stunned. “Kill you?”
The corner of his mouth kicked up in a rueful grin. “Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?”
Icy fear twisted her heart. No, it didn’t sound ridiculous. It sounded awful. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“Would you have married me?”
“I don’t know.” Michelle shook her head at a loss. “I don’t know anything right now.”
“Now that you do know,” Joanna said, “You understand what you must do.”
James took Michelle’s hand and stood. “Excuse us,” he said to his mother then led Michelle to their large formal living room. He gently pushed her down on the grey couch then stood in front of her. “I’ve heard about this curse since I turned nine. I was told that I was never to marry. That that was my fate. My wife would kill me.
“As a child I didn’t think much of it to be honest. I didn’t care about getting married. And at that time there had been whispers that I wouldn’t live long enough to worry about it anyway. When I got older I was still in and out of doctors’ offices, so much of the spare time I had, I used to work, to help the family business. I was fine. I wasn’t convinced there was a woman out there for me until…” He held her gaze. “I don’t know what came over me but the instant I noticed you at the castle, I knew I had a different future. I knew you were the one.”
Michelle’s brows shot up. “To kill you?”
James shook his head. “You’re not going to kill me.”
Michelle still couldn’t believe what he’d told her and didn’t like his cavalier attitude about it. A prophesy like that wasn’t to be taken lightly. “Did the Seer say how you would die? How old you would be?”
“No, only that I’d be cut down in my prime but there were never any specifics.”
“Has the Seer been right before?” His hesitation gave her the answer she needed. “How often?”
James sat down beside her. “Michelle—”
“Tell me.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “So far…ninety-five percent.” He grinned. “So there’s a five percent chance—”
Michelle frowned. “That’s not funny.”
“You don’t believe in fate, remember? You told me that.”
A chill entered her heart. “But you thought we’d meet again by fate and we did.”
He held her hands in his. “I think our fate and the prophesy are two different things. I wouldn’t have married you if I thought—”
Michelle pulled her hands away. “You should have told me. You should have given me a chance to…” She shook her head in dismay. “We didn’t have to get married.”
“And what about after I die? How will property and assets be handle and what about our children?”
“There are ways. We could have thought of something, come up with a plan.”
“I wanted to marry you no matter the risk.”
Michelle leaned forward, holding her head in her hands. “This is why nobody knew about us. Why you wanted to keep it all a secret.”
“It wasn’t a secret from everyone.”
Michelle lifted her head. ”What?”
“My grandmother knew. You passed the test for a reason. The Seer also said I had a chance at happiness with a special woman who wears an emerald ring. She believes, as I do, that the curse is broken. The moment we made love we were bound—you felt it too.”
“Yes, but—”
James cupped her face in his hands, his deep voice resonant with meaning, his brown eyes shining with hope. “You will not kill me, Michelle. With you, I have a life.”
Chapter 30
Joanna was pleased at the sight of James returning to the family room alone, but asked about Michelle anyway because she knew it was expected. “Where is she?”
“Having a lie down.”
“She has to face that this marriage is now over.”
James shrugged. “You know the Seer wasn’t specific. Perhaps it’s an ex-wife that kills me.”
Joanna sent him a look. “Don’t joke about it.”
“What’s done is done.”
“Don’t be stupid. You know this can’t last.”
“Mum, I’m happy. I’ve never felt better in my life and I haven’t had any blackout incidents or…when I’m with her…” He shook his head in frustration. He looked up at Graham for a moment as if the other man could give him the words, then thought better of it and turned to his mother again. “I want this. I need this. I have to be with her.”
Joanna tightened her lips. “Even when you know what will happen and—”
“We don’t know anything. The future is still—”
“Your future has been predicted. You can only see the past not the future. You don’t know anything about this woman. You’re so young. You think you’re in love but you’re merely grateful. I blame myself. I should have exposed you to more people.” She rubbed her hands together as a thought came to her. “This is what we’ll do. Over the next year you’ll meet other women—”
James shook his head. “No. I’m not leaving my wife and she’s not leaving me.”
“Have you had any episodes yet?”
“No. I just told you—”
“Not even small ones,” Joanna insisted.
“Does she know about them?” Graham said, toying with his pinkie ring.
James sighed. “Nothing has happened.”
“Yet.”
“She’s stronger than any Seer’s words. A curse can be broken.”
“Or it can come true.”
James stood. “This is my home now. Either you accept it as it is or you don’t.”
Joanna sighed. “Are you truly happy?”
“Yes.”
“Then you leave me no choice.” She held open her arms in surrender. “I don’t want to lose you.”
James hugged her relieved. “Thanks,” he said.
Soon after, Joanna showered them with gifts, hoping to show her change of heart. She gave them new bed linens, dining sets, clothes.
“Can’t you tell her this is too much?” Michelle said when a silk dress arrived for her as a gift for their one year anniversary.
James looked at the dress Michelle had draped over the couch. “It’s her way of saying sorry.” He stood behind her and wrapped his
arms around her waist. “I can’t wait to see you in it.”
Michelle felt a little guilty for not feeling as eager. “She needs to stop doing this.”
James gave her an affectionate squeeze then kissed her on the cheek. “Don’t worry, it won’t last much longer.”
But more gifts came. And the more that came, the more James started to change. It was subtle at first, like the soft touch of autumn chilling the air and brushing color on the tips of leaves. That’s when Michelle began to notice him not sleeping as soundly, then he started sleeping more. Soon he started tiring easily; stumbling over his words at times.
Then slowly over the following year a change came over his face. That expression she’d once seen at his London flat returning—a cruel, hungry look. It never stayed. It came quickly but then it was gone. She wasn’t frightened of him, but of it. Whatever it was. It had taken over their house, she could feel it.
But when she invited family and friends over no one acted differently. Michelle thought perhaps the Winfields would notice something when James’s cousin, Cory arrived with his parents and sisters. Cory was as incorrigible as ever, making them all laugh. Michelle saw that James got on well with his cousins and uncle, giving extra attention to his aunt Angela who seemed to stay away from sweets unless James offered them to her. Although Michelle sometimes caught Angela sending nervous looks at James when she saw him talking to her husband, when Michelle asked her if anything was wrong, Angela told her she was just impressed by how much the Winfields turned to James for advice then changed the subject.
No one sensed it. No one saw a change in James and many times when he’d send her a smile over his laptop when he worked in the family room, or wink at her on the drive back from their beach house, or hold her in his arms at night on a surprise trip to Portugal, she wondered if she imagined it.
Had Joanna’s visit made her paranoid? Filling her mind with reasons she’d have to hurt him? Have to protect herself?
She felt betrayed. He should have told her about the curse.
The curse. Why would anyone have to kill him? But as more days passed she knew. She knew there was something greater within him connected to his talent. Something he wasn’t aware of. He’d always asked her if she was afraid of him. Did he know that she should be? Was he hiding something else?