WILLIAM
When I wake, every muscle in my body aches. However, the fact that I actually wake at all is a miracle that I'll not take for granted. Another miracle is lying beside me like an angel.
At my feet, Simon purrs and stares at me. I have to move soon, but I'm too happy to have Esme back in my bed and will endure a few more minutes of discomfort while the sun edges over the trees and shines on her cheek.
Simon stretches long and makes a squeak before watching me with those half-lidded golden eyes.
Pulling a leg out from under him, I feel Esme stretch beside me much like the cat. Her mouth opens on a long sigh, and she blinks her eyes open.
"Good morning."
Her smile is warm and inviting. "How do you feel?"
"Lucky to be alive and thankful to you for keeping me in this world." It's not what she was asking, but I want to make sure she knows how much I appreciate her saving me.
Propping herself against the headboard, she studies me. "You look much better."
"I'm fine." I swing my legs to the floor and receive a grumble from Simon, who jumps down from the bed, onto the windowsill, and with a leap, lands in the tree a few feet away.
Esme's hands touch my shoulders, and her body presses to my back. "If I had known how losing you would feel before, I would never have ended our... I don't even know what to call what we had."
"Romance?" I suggest loving the feel of her, the scent of her. I never want to be apart from her.
"Is that what it was?" She presses a kiss to my back.
I take her hand from my shoulder and turn as I kiss her palm. "It's what this is, Esme. I know you think I will abandon you as soon as we return to town." I hold up a hand to stop whatever she's about to say. "I have no idea how what we have works in the world where we live. If I'm honest, I don't care. What I do know is that I have never felt for anyone what I feel for you, Esme O'Dwyer. I'm learning magic, and that's impossible. How hard can it be for us to stay together?"
Worry crosses her expression before her lips lift in a smile. "I don't have any more answers than you. I know that in the moment you were gone to Goddess, I was in a place far worse than Hell. Perhaps facing the wrath of society and coven is worth the risk for what we have together."
Worry returns to her eyes even as joy rushes into me like a giant wave. "What are you thinking?"
Her moss-green eyes and the most kissable lips in the world make it hard to concentrate. "I was thinking that my mother and father may have said the same thing so many years ago."
My heart expands so that it fills my chest. Just the knowledge that she's thinking about a couple who made a life together is wonderful. "Were they wrong?"
Lifting her shoulders in a shrug, she says, "She suffered daily after he died. She never recovered from the loss."
"My mother suffers in the same way. Would you deny yourself love to avoid a broken heart?"
Her eyes shift to the floor. "I don't know. I thought I would never have to make that choice."
Taking her in my arms, I drag her into my lap and kiss her cheek. "I have not said it because you would not hear it, but I love you, Esme. I have from the moment I first saw you, and even when you made me glow like the moon. I shall never wish for a day when I did not know you. Do you think your mother would have preferred a life without your father, to save her from her despair when she lost him?"
She shakes her head. "I think she would have endured a thousand years of sorrow for the ten full of love and joy that she had with him."
"And you?" Waiting for her reply, I hold my breath.
Taking my head in her hands, she presses her forehead to mine. "I fear for my heart, but it does not change the fact that I love you, William."
Air rushes back into my lungs, and I press my lips to hers.
She opens for me and presses her tongue against mine, and gripping the back of her head, I deepen the kiss. Unable to get enough of her, I lay her back on the mattress and cover her body with mine. I have so many things I want to say, to tell her, but this kiss seems more important at the moment.
Someone knocks on the door.
We freeze.
Esme giggles.
"Who is it?" I am uncomfortably hard, but it is full morning, and Esme probably should have left my room hours before. The house is awake now.
"It is Dove," Henry says as sternly as any schoolmaster.
Wiggling out from under me, Esme stands and pulls her dress from the day before over her head. She's tying the bodice when I give up any hope of ravaging her this morning.
I pull on my robe, tiptoe to the door, and check to make sure she is decent before I slide the bolt. "Good morning, Henry."
Henry scans me from head to toe. "You seem little worse for wear, sir."
There is little point in telling him to call me by my first name, but I still jab. "I am Will when I'm near death, but back to sir in the morning."
"So it would seem." Henry carries a stack of clothes in one hand and a pitcher of wash water in the other. "Good morning, Miss."
Esme pulls on her boots and ties them. "Henry. William, I'm going to get cleaned up and find Prudence. I think we must make arrangements to return to town as soon as possible."
"Because of the near drowning? But I am fine, and you said Trina was also unharmed." I take the clothes from Henry and put them on the end of the bed while he fills the washbasin in the corner.
Shaking her head, she rushes back to me. "You are both fine. It's not that. Something was in that pool with you, and it was not of the light. Some force that I have never felt before held you to the bottom and nearly kept me from getting to you. It means that you are important, as we thought, and whoever gains from your death knows we're here."
My stomach grips. "What if it is the coven who wants me dead?"
Esme cocks her head. "What I felt didn't seem like one of the coven witches, but we shall watch all."
Marching around her, I close the door. I trust Henry completely, and he should know what is said between us now. "I must be very clear with you, Esme. I will do what is right and what protects this country and my king."
"I know." Eyes serious, she pulls her lips up in a soft smile. "I know you, William. No amount of power will sway you against what you believe to be right and just. The Witches of Windsor have protected the English crown for five hundred years. Even as they were hunted and killed, they protected the crown. If that has changed, and I don't believe it has, I stand by you."
Flooded with relief, I kiss her cheek. "I'll meet you downstairs after I've dressed."
With a blush and a look toward Henry, perhaps because of the kiss, Esme nods and rushes from the room.
Brushing out my clothes while I wash up, Henry says, "She saved your life with her own breath, plans to take on whatever evil may come at your side, but upon my seeing a chaste kiss, she blushes like a girl of fifteen. You have a rare woman there, Will. I hope you appreciate that."
"Then you do not worry over the difference in our status or upbringing?" I pat my face dry. Shaving can wait until after we speak to Prudence.
"Is my approval important?" His hand stills.
"To the world, perhaps not, but it is to me." I pull on my shirt and trousers.
Holding my coat so I can slip my arms in, Henry is silent. He tugs it into place and adjusts the shoulder. "If a woman like that looked at me the way Miss O'Dwyer looks at you, I'd save the entire world to be with her, and let social customs be damned. Of course, I am not in your sphere socially. Your mother might disapprove, but I have met few women I like more than Miss O’Dwyer."
"Thank you, Henry. I think my mother will love her despite her lack of elevation. If my father had any of what I have, it's hard for me to believe my mother was ignorant of the fact." At some point, I will inquire about that. Something else worries me. "I feel something big and not at all pleasant is about to happen. Should I be killed, you will tell my mother I suffered an illness. If she was ignorant of the family's talents, she'll only think you mad if you tell her the truth."
Henry's frown is awash with disapproval. "I will do what needs doing on your behalf. Your job is to do what's right and stay alive to confront your mother yourself."
Satisfied, I tie my cravat and go downstairs. In the front room, all three ladies are breaking their fasts with toast and coddled eggs.
"Good morning, ladies. Trina, are you recovered?" I go to the sideboard and fill my plate with sausage and coddled eggs. My stomach grumbles at the scent.
"I am well, Sir William. Thank you for coming in after me." The contriteness of her voice is out of place for the exuberant, selfish girl.
I sit and take a piece of toast from the plate while Anne brings my coffee. "Thank you, Anne. I hardly think drowning with you requires any thanks, Trina."
Trina's face turns red. She focuses on her plate, pushing the eggs around rather than eating them.
I drink a long sip of coffee and bite my toast. I'm ravenous, and eat as if it's been weeks since I've seen food. When my plate is empty, I look up to find the women watching. "I beg your pardons, ladies. It seems I was famished after yesterday's events."
"Indeed," Prudence says. "May I ask you a question, Sir William?"
I nod.
Anne arrives with fresh coffee.
"When you were pulled under the water, did you try to save yourself?" She stares into my eyes as if she's reading something more there.
I think back to yesterday. It all seems so clouded now. "I was going to the pool. Trina was supposed to meet me at the pond, but she wasn't there. I thought perhaps we had gotten our meeting place confused. We were scheduled to work on water magic on a larger scale. I followed the stream, and when I arrived at the pool, Trina was grinning and dancing on top of the water toward me. I laughed. Then she dropped. I called out about that being what she gets for showing off, but then she didn't resurface. I tried the spell for lifting objects, but when nothing happened, I jumped in."
Esme leans forward with her hands folded on the edge of the table. "So, you tried magic first?"
"The memory is foggy, as if it were all a dream." I close my eyes again, trying to remember. "The water was warmer than it's been since the weather cooled. I swam to where Trina fell and dove under. When I saw her, I reached for her, and as hard as I pulled, she wouldn't come off the bottom of the pool. It was as if she were stuck in the mud. Then my foot touched the bottom, and something grabbed it." It's hard to breathe. The memory is like an assault all over again.
"I kicked and pulled, but I couldn't free Trina, and my foot was stuck. I called for Esme with my mind. My lungs filled with water when I could no longer resist the urge to inhale, and everything went black."
"Was there anything else before you awoke on the bank?" Prudence's voice is kind and soft.
"As I told Esme, there was a voice telling me that it was not yet my time, and I should return. My chest screamed with pain, and I expelled the water."
Prudence and Esme both look concerned.
"What don't I know?" I ask.
Esme says, " Goddess does not often speak to anyone. I also heard her yesterday. When I prayed for her not to take you, she told me that it was not she who had tried. In my life, I have prayed to Goddess thousands of times, and it was the first time she answered."
"And you think that means something of note is about to happen." My chest tightens.
"We should return to Windsor by week's end." Prudence stands and places her hands on the table. "Whatever is going to happen, and whoever is behind it, does not want you there."
"I'm not ready to do battle with a witch, good or evil." I don't disagree with Prudence's assessment, but doing no good and getting killed doesn't sound that great to me.
She raises her hands helplessly. "It cannot be helped. Now is when this is happening. You will have to rely on the ability to see and make the outcome you want."
My stomach twists and I wish I hadn't eaten so much. I rise, and with a bow, leave the room.
Tired from caring for me, Esme said goodnight two hours ago and went to bed early. My mind is too full to think about sleep. The entire house is abed as I enter my room. I wish Esme had gone to sleep in my room, but the bed is empty.
As much as I want to hold her and make love with her, I respect that if she wanted me, I would have found her in my room. Her rest is more important.
Sliding between the sheets, I yawn and close my eyes. Sleep is about to take me when I'm slammed with fear and anger. My heart races, and I sit up.
Even though I feel as if I'm on the battlefield staving off an attack, there's no danger present in my room, and I'm not dreaming.
I get up and push my mind outward, as Esme taught me, looking for the approach of an enemy.
Esme's mind bursts through, screaming, but I can't make out the words.
Before the full image can form in my mind, I'm running from my room. Her door is locked, so I kick in the heavy wood, and it crashes to the floor.
Esme and Trina are in a kind of bubble around Esme's bed. Trina is holding a silver-handled knife in both hands, the tip pointing toward Esme's chest.
Fighting back, Esme holds Trina's wrist.
They both appear to be screaming, but nothing permeates the bubble.
I pound on the bubble, to no avail. "Esme!"
Remembering what Prudence said about seeing the outcome, I think of the bubble only around Trina. "Let her protection from outside become her prison. With no escape to see, as I will, so mote it be."
The bubble flashes red then blue. Trina glows with a red aura inside her prison. Her weapon falls to the mattress.
I push the cage away from the bed and pull Esme into my arms. "Are you hurt?"
Henry, Anne, Samuel, and Prudence stand at the door.
From outside, Simon jumps through the window and hisses at Trina.
Prudence, in a voluminous nightgown, sits on the opposite side of the bed and pulls Esme from my arms. "What happened?" She runs her hands over Esme's body looking for wounds.
Catching her breath, Esme says, "She had an athame and was about to strike when I woke. My magic was dampened by whatever she had around us. I'm sure it was meant to hide what was happening from the house." She turns to me. "How did you know?"
"I felt as if I was back on the battlefield. My heart raced with terror. When I realized it wasn't in my room, I looked for you, and you were there but apart." I don't care about the audience. I pull her back into my embrace.
Prudence's hair is in a long plait, swinging over her shoulder, and she picks up the athame. She stands and studies Trina in the cage. "How did you do this, William?"
"I used her masking spell that surrounded them and turned it into a cage. I saw it and made it happen just as you suggested."
"Remarkable. We leave in the morning," she tells the three at the door. "I'm sorry for the short notice, but we must bring this." She points to Trina, whose face is twisted with hatred. "We must bring this to the coven."
Esme eases back from my arms. "She said that he would forgive her if she brought him my blood. She was mad with her purpose, as if she were possessed."
"She didn't say who he was?" I ask, already knowing the answer.
Shaking her head, Esme breathes raggedly. "Just that she wouldn't fail again. He was angry, and the drowning was a warning. She would bring my blood, and all would be forgiven."
Henry says, "Let's get everything packed. Samuel, get the carriage and horses ready. I think we'll need to take the cart we use for market, if that's okay, madam."
Prudence nods. "Get the tarp out, too. Trina can ride like potatoes to Windsor. William, do you think you can hold this cage you made?"
"I believe I can." In fact, it took little effort to manage the bubble around Trina.
Henry, Samuel, and Anne rush out, their bounding footsteps ringing on the stairs.
At the door, Prudence turns back. "You can put her in the foyer for now, William. We wouldn't want to forget her here and leave her to starve to death in that thing."
Trina's ferocious glare turns to panic before she screams and clutches at the cage.
Once Prudence leaves, I push Trina into the hallway and lift the door into place with a thought. Clutching Esme's shoulders, I find it hard to catch my breath. "Are you sure you're unharmed?"
She cups my cheek. "I'm shaken. I'll not lie. But I'm not injured."
Pressing my lips to hers gives me the solace I need. "I'm going to put Trina in the foyer and pack my things. I'm sure Henry is busy getting everything else in order. Shall I help you pack?"
Her smile is like a spring day here at the end of September. "I can manage. Thank you for hearing me, William. Thank you for knowing I needed you."
I take her hand and press it to my heart. "You live in here, Esme. When your heart pounds, mine follows."