She shrunk back, and the trellis gave an ominous creak.
"Please, Elizabeth, come inside so we can talk this over."
"There's nothing to talk over! I've made a mistake. You're a fiend!"
He shook his head. "No fiend, my dear, but the man who loves you. You're under some misapprehension, I'm sure. I know you must be frightened of me after everything your sister went through, but I'm certainly not a monster toward women. I love you. This can all be cleared up if you just tell me what has got you so upset-"
While he had been speaking to her in a reassuring tone, he had been moving closer and closer to her.
She could see his ploy now, and panicked. "Stay away from me!" she hissed. "Don't touch me!"
She leaned further out, and the trellis cracked again.
Will stepped back and stood in the center of the room with his hands raised, terrified at the danger she was placing herself in. "I'm not going to touch you, I promise. But surely you can see what you're doing is far too risky. I love you, want you to be safe and protected.
"Please, Elizabeth come back inside and we can talk about whatever it is that's happened between us. Whatever you think you now know about me that has made you try to flee our home, our marriage bed."
"Talk? As if that is going to make things better," she wept. "It's too late."
"No, darling. It's never too late if two people love each other. I can understand you being frightened. If it's that, it's a problem easily solved. I promise you that I won't ask you to do ever do anything against your will."
She stared at him mistrustfully. "You say that now, but—"
"The physical side of marriage is supposed to be a comfort to us both. We've been so heated with each other. You know how special we make each other feel. It'll be all right, I give you my word. Only please, come back inside before you fall."
By now Elizabeth had her full weight on the trellis, her left foot already descending. All she had to do was climb down the rest of the way to freedom. She could flee to the stables and gallop like the wind.
Yet something in his face and the tone of his voice gave her pause. "It isn't the wedding night. Not completely. I don't know how to trust you outside the bed. How can I trust you in it?"
Will stared. "I'm sorry, my love. You need to tell me what on earth has spooked you. I can't calm your fears if you don't confide in me, tell me what it is that has you so distressed."
"It's too horrible." She shook her head, and the tears began to fall.
"Please, Elizabeth, whatever it is, come and talk to me in safety. Please, I promise not to touch you. But please come in from there now."
"I can't," she said, shaking her head. "I can't risk you touching me. I lose all reason whenever you do. If I come back you'll own me body and soul. I don't want to end up like my sister—"
The trellis cracked further, and her last words were lost in a shriek.
"Hang on! I'm coming!"
"No, don't touch me!"
"If you fall you'll be killed! Take my hand, please!"
"You're going to kill me anyway!" she accused.
"No, never!" Will shouted in anguish, stunned at the words she had just flung at him so viciously.
Seeing her slipping further away from the wall and downwards, he decided that whatever she feared, trying to deal with her rationally when she was twenty feet in the air was pointless.
He made a desperate grab for Elizabeth's hand as it scrabbled for some sort of purchase on the vine-covered plaster, and hung on for dear life.
"No!" Her eyes widened.
She couldn't decide in that split second which she feared more, the fall, or her bridegroom.
Then her instincts took over, and she reached up her other hand to cling to him in terror. "Will, please, help me, my love!"
"Come on, darling. I've got you. I've got you."
He tugged with all his might, but he could feel her slipping. "Oh God, no, Elizabeth! Elizabeth!"
He lunged out the window after her, still clutching tightly to her other hand. Then he felt himself plummeting head-first as her weight dragged him right out the window after her.
He flipped himself upright, snatching at the trellis as they went plunging past. The vines tore into his hands, the wood splintered and dug into his wrist and arm, and still they were falling, falling.
He clung on to his wife tightly, but she panicked and yanked her hand free in a feeble attempt to try to break her fall.
He could feel her slipping away, and prayed as he had never prayed before for the Lord to spare her, even if it meant taking him.
"Will! Will!" she screamed, flailing wildly in the air, all four limbs now free.
Then both their worlds went black.
Chapter Twenty-one
The crash outside the front door was enough to bring Edgars the butler running outside.
The two bodies prone on the paving slabs were a terrifying sight for someone as loyal as he. His normally aloof demeanor fled in the face of such horror.
Edgars ran straight to the back of the house, where the reception was still under way.
He darted up to the only person who could help at this point. Dr. Gallagher, Will's old army colleague down for the day from Cork, literally dropped his plate and charged, with Vanessa Stone, who had been dining with him, in tow. They ran through the house at a breakneck pace, and out the front door.
Vanessa was a strong and capable woman, but even she was horrified by the sight which greeted her.
Will had by now managed to sit up. He was bruised and battered, and trying to crawl towards his wife's prone form, dragging one leg behind him. "Elizabeth! No, no!"
The blood was already pooling under her head, and the doctor knelt by her first. "There's a pulse. She's breathing. Come, we must get her upstairs at once."
Will pressed his bloodied face to his wife's chest to reassure himself that the doctor had spoken the truth.
He clutched her waist and wept. "Elizabeth, darling, please, open your eyes, speak to me," he begged.
If Vanessa had had any doubts about Will's seemingly sudden love for Elizabeth, they were gone in an instant. He was so distraught he could barely stop shaking, and refused any help from the doctor until he had seen to his wife.
Edgars had got several of the servants together by now, and they lifted Elizabeth tenderly, and then helped their distraught new master up the stairs.
As they rushed her to her room, for the first time since he was a small boy, Will wept inconsolably.
For the next fifteen minutes, all was in an uproar as the crisis was dealt with. Stripping off her blood-soaked clothes, Elizabeth was put in her bed, and her lovely long raven tresses shorn down to an inch-long stubble as the doctor tried to ascertain how bad her head wounds were.
Will was put in the large bed beside her. He had broken his leg and dislocated his bad left shoulder in the fall, but refused to leave his wife's side for even an instant.
"What other doctors are in the area?" Dr. Gallagher asked quickly.
"Dr. Davis and Dr. Edmunds," Edgars replied.
"Send for them both. This is far too serious for me to want to cope with on my own. If we have to operate to alleviate pressure in the cranium, I'm going to need all the skilled hands I can get. And we still need to tend to Will."
Edgars passed along the message to the servants hovering outside.
Vanessa took matters into her own hands. Will was lying on the bed staring at Elizabeth as though at any moment she was going to vanish from sight. His cheeks were wet with a constant flow of unconscious tears which he did not even try to wipe away. She could only imagine her own darling Clifford's state of mind in such a situation.
The doctor voiced the one question which had been on everyone's mind. "How on earth did this happen?"
Will sighed raggedly. "She was trying to climb down the trellis and it gave way."
Vanessa and the doctor both stared.
"Trying to climb down? Why, for heave
n's sake?" the doctor demanded.
"Because she was afraid of being married to me, afraid of the wedding night."
Vanessa shook her head. "That isn't possible. Why, you were so devoted to one another, such a warm couple. I know it was all very sudden, your engagement and marriage, but she seemed so happy and content."
Will's mouth was a grim line of pain. "That's the only sense I made out of what she was saying. I tried to reason with her, reassure her. Then I grabbed her. She tried to climb back up to talk to me more rationally. The trellis collapsed and we both fell. I tried to hang on," he said, indicating his bloodied fingers, "but she let go."
He gulped back a sob, and looked at his friend. "God, Doc, please, it wasn't supposed to be like this. Her wedding day was supposed to be the happiest day of her life. Please, you must help her. I can't live without her in my life. Please."
The doctor patted him softly on the shoulder. "I'll do whatever I can. But you know this is very grave indeed, son. She may never recover, even if we save her life."
While the doctor had been doing his best with both of his patients, word had soon spread to the rest of the guests as to what had happened. They expressed their shock and sympathy and most began to leave the family alone in their grief.
Vevina and Stewart did their best to calm everyone, and got those inclined to interfere or pry to depart, with warm thanks for their expressed desire to help.
Thomas, who had been in his wing of the house with Charlotte, overcome with the romance of the occasion, were soon roused from their tryst.
"What do you mean, my sister fell out of the window?" Thomas barked as he tied the sash of his dressing gown hastily and began to run towards his sister's room.
Stewart repeated what little he knew. "Vevina is sorting things with the guests right now. Then she'll talk to Will. Maybe she'll be able to make more sense out of this. Doc Gallagher is with them both now. Elizabeth is pretty bad."
"She looked so happy! What on earth could have changed so suddenly that she was trying to climb out?" Thomas said tearfully. "Did they quarrel?"
Stewart shook his head. "I'm telling you, I have no idea. But I don't think it was Will. He adores her, believe me. Someone must have said something to upset her. Never mind that now. We need to do whatever we can to help."
"You're right, Stewart, of course. This is just too incredible. To think my lovely sister was laughing and smiling just a few minutes ago, and now this."
"It'll be all right. I know the doctor pretends to be some old Army sawbones, but I've seen him and Vevina perform miracles."
Thomas prayed as he never had before when he saw the battered body of his only remaining sister. "Oh, God, no, no," he whispered.
Charlotte had hastily dressed and run after her husband, and she now fell in behind him and pulled him into the comfort of her embrace.
The doctor had got the bleeding under control, but there was a great deal of swelling, and Elizabeth already had two black eyes.
She lay so still that Will did not dare let go of her wrist. He couldn't bear the thought of her precious life slipping away, and clung on as he had when she had been slipping from the trellis.
"How bad is it?" he asked the doctor flatly.
"Very serious. I've taken the liberty of sending to the other local doctors. I fear I will have to operate. I won't lie. I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you, son."
"No! No!" Will said wildly.
Vevina came in and pressed her brother back onto the pillows. The doctor moved to give him some laudnanum.
"No, nothing," he refused. "I'm not going to take anything. I can't fall asleep. I need to be with her. She wants me to stay, to tell her it will all be fine.
"Can you hear me, darling?" he said to his unconscious wife. "I'm not going to let you go, do you hear me? I've got you by the hand. You let go of me. But I won't let go of you."
Everyone's eyes were fixed on the ghastly face of the haggard-looking young man. Vevina and Stewart recalled what he had looked like when they had all first met almost three years before, when Will had been beaten and nearly crucified.
Vevina stroked his cheek. "It's all right. She knows you're there. She knows you love her. We won't make you sleep if you don't want to. But please let us at least check your injuries."
He gave one curt nod, and she began to strip off his coat and waistcoat as carefully as she could while he clung to his wife's limp hand.
Stewart offered to help his wife, while Thomas and Charlotte lapsed into a corner, sitting on a low bench, at the ready in case their help should be needed.
Vanessa looked at them all, and decided to take matters into her own hands. "We all mean well and want to help, but we need to be practical about this. We can't all exhaust ourselves by sitting on tenterhooks. Go get dressed, you two, and then come back. Move some of your things into the room next door so you can be close at hand. I shall do the same in the opposite one.
"Ah, Clifford, there you are. Can you get some of our clothes moved into the room on the left? We're going to take it in turns to nurse Will and Elizabeth."
Vevina said nothing, but Stewart poked his head around the door to speak to a servant, and ordered a trundle bed to be made up for his wife and himself over in the bay window.
Then he went over to his wife and brother-in-law, and stroked both their heads. "It will be all right, I promise. We just have to be patient, and let nature take its course. She's young and strong. I know it looks bad now, but we just have to have faith."
Stewart took out his handkerchief and began to dry the tears still flowing unheeded from Will's eyes. "It's all right, son. It's not your fault."
"But why?" he gasped.
"I don't know, lad. All I know is she loves you. It will be all right. Just hang on." He continued to pat his face dry, while Vevina ministered to his ragged arm.
The doctor had by this time organised some material for a leg splint. As soon as Dr. Davis arrived, he informed him of what had happened in a quick undertone, and then approached Will's side of the bed.
"So how are we, Will?" Doc asked with a grave smile.
"Never mind me. What about my wife?" he asked tearfully.
His kind creased face was grave. "She's doing as well as can be expected. But we need to get you fixed up. You need to let me look at your leg, son."
Vevina helped get his trousers off, until he sat naked save for his cotton drawers. As they had begun to undress him, Charlotte got up and with a final kiss for her husband, she and Vanessa left.
"I'm sorry, Will," Vevina said quietly. "This is going to hurt."
"Do what you like with me. I don't care. It can't possibly hurt compared to what my poor wife has been through."
They set and splinted the leg without a murmur from him. The shoulder was not going to be easy, however. It was not only dislocated, but the doctor could see the piece of shrapnel just under the skin.
"This might be my best chance to ever get it out. His arm might one day be back to normal. It's been improving every day. It must have worked its way out."
Will said, "Elizabeth cured me. She helped my shoulder. She helped me get my life back. I can't lose her. I lost Rosaria. I killed my own wife. Please don't tell me I've done it again."
Vevina shook her brother. "You know you had no choice! Is that what this was all about? You told her? And she was frightened?"
He shook his head. "I should have told her. I didn't dare. I didn't want to remember, don't you see? Elizabeth is everything good and pure and gentle in this world. I didn't want to tell her the things I had to do in the war. I didn't want her to be in danger. Now she is anyway."
"Oh, Will," his sister whispered, shaking her head, "you should have told her the truth! She loves you, but she needs to know why you're so haunted by the past. You can't move on to a happy future if you don't let go of Rosaria."
Will laughed almost maniacally. "Don't you see, I did! That's why I'm being punished. I never loved Rosaria, not really. I lo
ve Elizabeth more than my own life. I'm paying the price for having married someone I felt nothing but pity for. Someone I was relieved to lose.
"She never loved me. It was all gratitude and protection, and what she needed from me. Guns and ammunition, a male protector. Not hugs and kisses, and being cherished--"
Vevina sighed. "Will, I'm sure that's not…"
"You don't know. You can't possibly know. You and Stewart married for love. I married for lust, and got a frigid woman who couldn't bear for me to touch her. Am I so disgusting that every woman flees from my bed?"
The Rakehell Regency Romance Collection Volume 2 Page 51
