Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 116547 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116547 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
It very well may have cost me my chance for Verity’s hand, though.
What a horrid day.
Verity
Datura screamed in fury as she was dragged from our estate by the footmen. Evander stood with Aphrodite and Emeline at the entrance, comforting them. He kissed both of their heads before sending them back inside. He tried to send me, but I could not take my eyes away from her.
“You killed your brother! All of you. It is all your fault—”
“When will you take responsibility for your own actions?” I asked her in anger and pity. “Everything that has happened is by your own hand.”
“That look.” She nearly shook in rage. “How I have hated your face…From the first time I saw you, I knew that you would grow up and have the same look she did. She died, yet it was as though she had returned once more with you.”
“Remove her this instant!” Evander ordered, shaking as I was.
“Let go!” Datura screamed as they pulled her away. “All of you are the murderers! You are the cruel ones! You!”
“We must get you inside.” Theodore left me no room to argue as he picked me up despite his own injury.
All the footmen and even my brother stepped aside to let him, so I knew everyone was rightfully shaken.
“Verity, your injuries.” Aphrodite came to me, still holding Emeline.
“I am fine—”
“She is not, Your Grace,” Theodore interrupted. “She needs to go to her rooms. I will need fresh bandages, clean water, towels, and a bandage for the wound on her arm. Also, she will need food, she has been out for hours—”
“Everything shall be brought to her room. Eleanor, please show Dr. Darrington the way. I shall put Emeline to bed and call the maids.”
I glanced up at him, but he would not put me down, so I rested my head against his shoulder. When I was down in the well, I kept calling out for him until my throat grew sore and my body numb. I knew if I kept calling, he would come, and finally, when I heard him call back, it was as if all of me relaxed, and a sense of peace came over me.
I closed my eyes for what I thought was only a minute. However, when he called my name, and I opened them, I realized I was already on my bed.
“Verity?”
“Hmm?” I looked up to see that he was staring down at me. I tried to sit up, but he pushed me back down gently.
“Stop,” he ordered, holding my head so I could sip spoonfuls of soup. Each time I tried to speak or move, he stopped me until I had finished at least half of it.
“How bad are my injuries?” I asked, licking my lips.
“No matter how bad they are, I shall heal them.”
“And what of yours?”
“I shall heal them after I am done with you. Close your eyes. I can tell you are tired,” he whispered.
I nodded and then remembered my brother. I grabbed him and shook my head. “Evander will throw you out again.”
“He will not,” said Aphrodite, who was on the other side of the bed. “I promise Theodore will be here when you wake. Rest.”
I was unsure if I could believe her, but Theodore nodded when I looked at him. Exhaling, I closed my eyes again.
What a long day. Evander would surely never let me leave the house again.
Aphrodite
He sat silently in our room with his head in his hands. Slowly, I walked over and knelt before him, placing my hands on his knees.
“Once more, it is clear to me why your father refused me your hand,” he whispered tiredly, and when I brought his hands down and looked into his eyes, they were red, not from anger but sorrow. “What order of madness is this? First Fitzwilliam, and now Datura? How did she even manage to enter?”
“Verity says there is a secret passageway from the kitchen. It is how she escapes.”
He threw his hands up and shook his head.
“I wished to fill our lives with joy,” he muttered defeatedly. “I wished all of our days together to be filled with laughter, long walks among the flowers, and the most dazzling of amusements. I wished Everely to be a haven for my family as I’d always dreamed it could be. Instead, we have faced all kinds of deviancy. Had this been your family—”
“This is my family,” I finally spoke, taking his hand. “I am an Eagleman. You are my family, this is my home, and no matter what has transpired, I have not lost faith that we shall make this place a wonder of bliss.”
He lifted my hands and kissed the backs of them. “Forgive me for starting our marriage like this.”
“There is nothing to forgive.” I smiled, kissing his hands in turn, but I knew I could not hold back any longer. “Evander, something must be done for Verity.”