by Lilly Hale
Finally, he caught sight of the carriage. He’d almost missed it as it rolled down the rutted side road that led out of the city. What was Turner’s plan? Was he raping her right now with the intention of dumping her afterward in some rural ditch? The thought tore a tortured groan from Trey’s chest. Oh, God, Elise! Closing the distance between himself and the hack, Trey yelled to the driver, “You! Stop the carriage, now!”
At his shout, a head poked out of the carriage window. Turner. His face contorted in rage at the sight of Trey, and he barked at the driver, “Keep goin’, damn you!” When the man holding the reins hesitated in confusion, Turner yelled, “I’m payin’ you to follow my orders! Now move this damn crate!”
“Turner, you bastard! Let her go!”
Trey’s demand was met with a sneer from his enemy. “You can have her when I’m through, Kingston,” he shouted, then pulled his head back inside the coach, which was now speeding dangerously, the driver snapping the whip above the backs of the frightened team.
Trey felt his mount tire beneath him, watched with a terrible sense of helplessness as the distance between him and the hack lengthened. He continued to shout until his voice grew hoarse, but to no avail. Another intersection loomed ahead. Instead of going straight, the driver attempted to make a right turn. Trey watched, a cry of horror caught in his throat, as the coach skidded on two wheels, then tipped. The driver was thrown from his perch to land several yards away in the weeds and the team continued to drag the coach along on its side for a few more yards until the hitch finally broke, setting them free. The overturned coach scraped to a stop.
In the space of a few heartbeats, smoke began spiraling from the carriage window; the interior lamp had spilled and ignited the upholstery.
“Elise!” Pulling his lathering mount to a stop, Trey jumped down, his only thought to get to Elise. But when his feet hit the ground, his leg buckled beneath him, and he fell. Swearing, he struggled back up and hobbled to the overturned coach. He pulled himself up on the side of the carriage, desperately trying to wrench the door open, terrified of what he might discover inside. Finally, Trey lifted the heavy door and let it fall open. Acrid smoke filled his lungs and stung his eyes as he leaned over the opening.
The cloud thinned enough for him to make out two tangled forms. One of them was moving.
“Elise!”
Jeff Turner coughed and pulled himself into a sitting position. Elise, clad only in her nightgown, lay motionless in a crumpled heap.
“Ah, God, my shoulder, my arm!” Turner groaned. His left forearm was crooked and his shoulder hung unnaturally low. “I think they’re broken.” Trying to stand, he reached out to Trey. “I can’t climb out on my own. Help me, Kingston!”
Trey gritted his teeth. “Her first. You’ve got one good arm, lift her up to me. Hurry!”
Turner didn’t argue. He managed to get Elise’s limp form lifted to Trey’s waiting arms. Trey pulled her over the side of the coach, his knee buckling once more when he tried to lower himself to the ground with her in his arms. They fell, Trey taking the brunt of the impact, using his body to cushion her fall. He struggled into a sitting position and managed to pull Elise farther away from the smoldering coach. Turning quickly on his side, he cradled her head on his arm and assessed her condition. Her face was pale beneath smudges of soot, and blood from a scratch near her jaw, her lips parted, eyes closed. Trey’s breath came in rapid pants as he caressed her cheek with a shaking hand.
“Elise, sweetheart, please wake up... please...” Lowering his face close to hers, he felt the soft brush of her breath against his lips. She was alive. Thank God.
“Hey! Kingston! Help me out of here! The fire’s spreadin’!”
Trey’s tortured gaze shot toward the carriage where Turner strained to heave himself up out of the opened door. With one last look at Elise, he reluctantly left her lying in the dry grass while he went to assist the man struggling to escape the burning vehicle.
“Here, take my hand!” Trey braced himself and reached out to the other man. When Turner grasped his offered hand without hesitation, Trey pulled, supplying the extra leverage needed for Jeff to extricate himself. Both men landed with a hard thud on the ground, Turner crying out at the pain that shot through his broken arm. Grimacing and rubbing his aching knee, Trey spared little sympathy for the man who groaned in agony beside him. His only concern was for Elise.
Righting himself, he hobbled over to where she still lay then dropped down beside her. “Elise. Wake up, angel. Please wake up. I-I need you so much...” Trey brushed a tangled lock of dark hair away from her face with a trembling hand. God, she was so still. Lowering his hand to her neck, he felt for a pulse and found one, weak, but steady. A shaking breath escaped him, and he placed a tender kiss on her forehead. She was pale as fine porcelain, and just as fragile. If he lost her now...
A keen realization of the depth of his love for her, and of the loss should she not recover, wrung a harsh sob from his chest. Pain throbbed in his leg, Turner’s groans were raw and unceasing, yet Trey was oblivious to all but the exquisite anguish that engulfed him as he continued to try to wake Elise with anxious words and caresses.
“Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Mr. Kingston, sir, are you folks all right?”
At Thomas’ shout, Trey looked up to see the driver approaching the scene with the Kingstons’ carriage, an unfamiliar, sway-backed grey pulling the rig. Trey gave silent thanks for the timely help then motioned to the man. “Quick, Thomas, over here! I need your help!”
Thomas jumped down from his perch and trotted over. His face paled as he took in Elise’s condition. “Miss McBride, is she- ”
“She’s unconscious, but alive. I’ll need your help to get her back home. She needs to be seen by a doctor as soon as possible.” Thomas immediately crouched low to help Trey lift Elise’s limp form from the ground. Between the two of them, they managed to get her into the carriage without jostling her too much. “It’s a damn good thing you thought to come after us, Thomas,” Trey commented as they settled her onto the cushioned leather seat. “I don’t know how I would have been able to get her back without the carriage. Where did the horse come from?”
“The landlady’s neighbor lent me the nag,” Thomas answered. “Not much ta look at, but it’ll do in a pinch.” His weathered face softened as he looked at Elise. “I wouldna fret unduly, Mr. Kingston. Miss McBride seems a sturdy young lass ta me. My bet be that she weathers this just fine.”
Trey helped Thomas move Jeff, who by that time had passed out from the pain of his injury, into the coach. They checked on the driver lying sprawled in the weeds and found his neck was broken. There was nothing they could do for him but send someone back for his body. Then Trey settled himself in the coach next to Elise, cradling her head on his lap.
“Wake up, Elise,” he prodded repeatedly as they headed for home. “Come back to me, darlin’.”
Come back to me.
Trey’s brow furrowed and a deep sense of dread made his stomach clench. Would Elise ever return, or would the injury trigger the event they’d all feared? Would this prove to be the catalyst to a reversal of the changes that had transformed a despised antagonist from his past into the woman he loved more than life?
Would Elizabeth come back?
****
Beyond the boundaries of time and space, Elise floated in a misty, shimmering dream state. Images and memories shifted and melded like wisps of colored smoke, forever changing, coiling in upon themselves to become something else. She knew that she didn’t belong there, that this was some transitional place. Not death, yet neither was it life. As much as she wanted to leave, she couldn’t move, backward or forward.
And so she lingered, dancing with the shifting mists, letting the feelings they invoked wash over her spirit like a shower of moonbeams.
Tanya, brows lifted in her “girl, you’re so crazy” look, then breaking into soft laughter; Margaret and Arthur shaking their heads in frustration and dismay; Bruce
mouthing a tepid “I love you, too” before turning away... Elise experienced the emotions in turn: longing, hurt and finally calm resignation.
The swirling mists shifted again and a trio of figures took shape. As their forms solidified, Elise recognized them as Edward, Chester and Hannah McBride. They smiled, but there was sadness in their eyes as she reached out to them. She yearned to connect with them, the family she’d once had and then lost so tragically.
“I know the truth now,” she told them. “Edward, Papa...Mama...”
Hannah McBride moved close, sorrow blurring her expression. “You cannot stay, little one. You don’t belong here...you must go back. Live the life that you have been given.”
Elise hesitated in confusion, then shook her head and asked, “I-I don’t belong?”
The figures of the McBride family were dissolving into the mists again. Panic set in and Elise reached out to them. “Wait! Wait, I don’t understand! Where am I going?”
Even as she struggled to follow the retreating wraiths, Elise could feel the backward pull capture her in its unbreakable grasp.
Chapter Twenty-two
“Mr. Kingston!” Susan, the upstairs maid, rapped at Trey’s bedroom door, then poked her head inside. “She’s comin’ to, sir!”
Trey hurriedly toweled the cold water from his face and turned his sore eyes to the young woman. “She’s awake?”
“Just about. She’s stirrin’ around and mumblin’ somethin’. I can’t tell what.”
“Thank you, Susan. I’ll be right there.” With shaking fingers, Trey buttoned his shirt, then picked up his cane and strode toward the door. It had been a long twelve hours since he’d brought Elise back home. Hours that stretched into an eternity of torment. Not knowing if she’d awaken, or who would awaken. He’d only just minutes before left her bedside to change into some clean clothing and wash the dirt from his face. Now the time had come.
With each step he took, he came that much closer to either his salvation, or his destruction.
When Trey stepped into the bedroom, his eyes were immediately riveted to where she lay in the big bed, her head grinding back and forth into the feather pillow, unintelligible mutterings flowing from her lips. As he stepped closer, she called out, “Edward, Papa...Mama...”
From his seat by the bed, Rad looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes. “She’s been calling for them, Trey. For Elizabeth’s family.”
Trey stopped and closed his eyes against the surge of despair that nearly brought him to his knees. No... God, please no!
The doctor, a heavy-set gentleman with a handlebar moustache, approached and laid a hand on his arm. “I think she’s out of the woods now. Go to her. It will do her good to see familiar faces when she wakes.”
Trey nodded. “Thank you, Dr. Steigler.” The older man left the room, and Susan followed, closing the door softly behind them.
Willing his leaden limbs to move, Trey moved up to the bedside. He watched her wrench her head to the side once more and cry out “No...”, then her eyes shot open, her chest heaved.
In an instant, Rad was hovering over her. He grabbed her hand. “Elise, baby, wake up.”
Trey swallowed the lump in his throat and rasped, “Elise?”
Her confused gaze swept the room, locked first onto Rad, then him. Trey’s heart stopped beating.
“Rad? T-Trey?” she whispered. Tears shimmered in her eyes and she released a harsh hiccupping sob. “Yes! Oh God, I thought-- I thought I wasn’t coming back here.”
With a low groan of relief, Rad dropped to his elbows and covered her gently, burying his face in her neck. Her arms wound around him as he muttered hoarse thanks to God for bringing her back. With a sniff, he pulled back and moved aside for Trey, who dropped to the side of the bed and scooped her into his arms.
“Oh, angel, I thought I’d lost you.” Trey squeezed her tightly, an instinctive response. When she gasped, he remembered her condition and eased his hold.
“And I thought I’d lost you both,” she whispered then her eyes widened. “Jeff! He was so furious. He hit Jemma! Trey, is she-”
“She’s fine, Elise,” Trey soothed. “The doctor has seen her and she’s resting comfortably in her room. I had Turner dropped at the nearest police station. He won’t get away with what he did to you and Jemma, I promise.”
Rad took Elise’s hand from Trey and brought it to his mouth for a soft kiss. “Darlin’, we’ve been so sick with worry over you. We were so afraid that you wouldn’t wake up and if you did… if it would be Elizabeth who came back.”
Elise shook her head gave him a reassuring smile. “She’s never coming back, Rad. I know that now. This life is mine. I was Elizabeth McBride, until I nearly died from that fever as a child. Somehow, in coming that close to death, my soul must have switched places with Veronica Davis, who'd nearly drown in her swimming pool. I was thrust into a time where I didn't belong. We both were. I think the switch after my car accident was fate stepping in to correct the mistake.” Her eyes filled with tears as she spoke. “Hannah McBride’s spirit came to me in the moments after the car crash, though at the time, I didn’t recognize her. She came to me again today while I was unconscious. I remember she told me to take back what was mine. To live the life I’ve been given.”
“This life,” Rad said and kissed her hand again. “With us.”
“Yes,” Elise’s smile was full of peace and her gaze soft with love. “With you both.” Then she turned her expectant gaze to Trey. "Oh, Trey, think of what this means for us. Elizabeth is never coming back! She didn't belong here in the first place. This is my life. It was taken from me for a while, but now I have it back. God, or fate, whoever or whatever rules the universe, gave me my life back." She reached for his face and caressed it tenderly. "Gave us our lives back, Trey."
Tears spilled from her eyes as Trey lowered his head to her belly and gently held her. She hugged him tightly with one arm and drew Rad down to her with her other. "I'm where I belong, my loves, and I'll never leave you again."
****
Elise sat up and smiled as the bedroom door opened. Trey and Rad stepped in. “Hi, guys. Did you come to tuck me in?” Even after everything she’d been through in the past few days, she felt buoyant, relaxed, a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She could see her future clearly now, and though their choice to be together would undoubtedly prove challenging, she was determined that it would be a happy one. Her heart felt full, and it beat a little faster as it always did at the sight of the two of them.
“We thought you’d be asleep already. Just thought we’d check on you before we went to bed,” Trey answered as he and Rad crossed to the bed.
“Sleep? That’s all I’ve been doing the last couple of days,” Elise exclaimed. “I’m wide awake with nothing to do.”
Rad smiled and sat on the edge of the bed. “Want some company?”
Elise murmured a sultry, “Mm, you bet. What did you have in mind?”
She slid a hand on his thigh, but he caught it with a chuckle. “Not that, sweetheart. You need to recuperate first.”
“They say sex is very therapeutic, you know,” Elise argued. “And I would think that the two of you would want to do everything in your power to help me heal as quickly as possible.”
Trey laughed out loud. “You, my dear, are completely full of it.”
“I’m not now, but I want to be,” Elise replied with a sassy wink. “Come on, guys.” She shifted to the center of the bed and patted the mattress on either side of her. “Please. My ribs are a bit tender, but other than that, I’m fine. And I had a bath this evening, so I’m all fresh and rarin’ to go.”
She saw the two exchange a look, then Trey sighed. “We’ll lie with you, Elise, but you’re going to have to wait a little longer for the rest.”
Elise groaned and slumped back against her pillow. “You two are killing me. I’m going to expire from lack of nookie.”
Rad laughed and started to unbutton his shirt. “Nookie
?”
“Sex, Radcliffe. Fucking,” Elise grumbled. “Boinking, bumping nasties, hiding the salami, knockin’ boots. Whatever you want to call it. It looks like I won’t be getting any tonight.” Both men were laughing at her rant. “It’s not funny.”
Rad stopped undressing and started to crawl onto the bed, still laughing. “Yes, it is. Are you always this funny when you’re horny?”
Elise swatted at him. “No. I’m cranky when I’m horny and there’s no relief in sight.”
He gave her a look like a sad puppy. “Oh, sweetness, don’t be cranky.”
Elise bit her lip slyly, and idea coming to mind. “Well, it might cheer me up if you guys would give me something a little steamy to tide me over until I can have the real thing. Like maybe a strip tease?”
Trey lifted a brow. “Strip tease?”
“You’re going to undress anyway, so why don’t you just stand over there where I can see you, then remove your clothes slowly, real sexy-like. That way I can watch your beautiful bodies being uncovered inch by inch.”
Rad pushed himself off the bed, grinning. “We can do that. Come on, Trey. Let’s give the lady her strip tease.” Trey looked skeptical, but went along.
Elise settled back against her pillows and watched as Rad and Trey took their positions at the end of the bed and began to remove their clothing. That they would indulge her rather silly request made her giddy with love for them. Rad made a show of folding back first one side of his shirt, then the other, revealing his fine pectorals one at a time. Winking coquettishly, he circled one of his nipples with his finger before finally letting the garment slide down his arms to the floor.
Elise giggled. “Rad, you’re a natural. Keep going.” Then she turned her attention to Trey, who was removing his own shirt, slowly, but without the flair his brother had displayed. “Come on, Trey. Sexier. I know you have it in you.”