by C. J. Archer
He nodded, somewhat uncertainly. "Before I do, there's one thing I need to ask you before you go under. I need you to be fully aware to answer."
"Go on."
"Will you marry me?"
I threw my arms around his neck. "Yes!"
He kissed me again and I lost all sense of time and place and control. I was dimly aware that I didn't care. I embraced the kiss with every piece of me and let it consume me completely.
It might have lasted a few seconds or a few minutes. I didn't know, but his voice brought me out of the hypnosis again, not with a jolt like he usually did, but gently, slowly, so that I felt like I was waking from a beautiful dream. If it could always be like that then I was happy to be intimate with him.
He drew away and eyed me warily. "Are you all right?"
I nodded. "Oh yes. I couldn't be more right."
"Glad to hear it." He shifted and winced.
"Your injuries! Good lord, Samuel, I forgot. Get up. You need to rest somewhere more comfortable." I stood and helped him to stand too. We linked hands and walked slowly toward the stairs.
"We should find Sylvia," he said when we were halfway down. "She was worried. Besides, I want to tell her that you've finally agreed to marry me." He grinned. It was the broadest, most dazzling grin I'd seen him give since the moment he'd taken on my memories.
I grinned back and it felt wonderful, freeing. I clutched his hand tighter. "I'll go and fetch her. Cara too. Oh, and Tommy. I want to speak to him alone. I owe him an apology."
"You do?"
"I told him he and Sylvia weren't suited and that he ought to leave her be. I was wrong. If someone like me can marry you, then there's no reason he can't set his sights on her."
"True. Yet there is a difference. They're not overly suited to one another, for one thing."
"Are you sure about that? Sylvia has changed since her scare with Malborough."
"Perhaps. It's also a little easier for me to marry whomever I want, but not so easy for a gentlewoman and a servant."
He was right, in a way. A woman took on the status of her husband. By marrying me, Samuel was raising me higher. If Sylvia linked herself with Tommy, she would be lowering herself beyond redemption.
"Talk of marriage between them is jumping ahead," I said. "I only want Tommy to know that I made a mistake and feel badly for it. I don't want there to be anything between them that is a result of something I said."
"Then you have my blessing. You'll probably find him with Langley."
I left him to go in search of Tommy and did indeed find him in Langley's laboratory, delivering tea and cake on a tray. They both greeted me, but Tommy narrowed his gaze.
"Are you all right?" he asked. "Sylvia—Miss Langley—said you and Gladstone weren't on speaking terms."
"I'm very well. Samuel and I are getting married."
His jaw dropped. "Bloody hell! Is he mad?"
I thumped his shoulder and he laughed. "He knows what he's taking on," I said.
His smile vanished and his gaze misted. He hugged me. "He's getting a wonderful wife and two friends in me and Jack who will box him if he doesn't treat you like a duchess."
Langley cleared his throat and Tommy backed away, his features settling into the stiff formality of a dutiful servant's. "Congratulations, Charity," Langley said. "It's a good match for you."
"Thank you. Excuse me, Mr. Langley, may I speak with Tommy alone for a moment?"
He nodded and bent his head over his paperwork, his tea and cake untouched. I pulled Tommy to the side, out of earshot.
"I want to apologize for insisting that you leave Sylvia alone," I whispered. "I was wrong. You should do as your heart tells you."
He gave me a flat smile. "I tried to close my heart, but I couldn't. Not after what happened with Malborough." He glanced over his shoulder at Langley. "I don't know what will happen between us, but I don't want you to worry. Just enjoy this time with Gladstone. I thought he was afraid of hypnotizing you when you, er, kiss?"
"He told you that? He is worried, but I've assured him it doesn't worry me. I trust him and that's the main thing."
He returned to the tray and poured tea into the cup for Langley. I was about to leave, but thought of something I wanted to say to the scientist.
"Samuel told me about your mind-reading device and explained why he helped with the research. I wanted to apologize for thinking your reasons for creating it were less than honorable."
Langley looked up and I noticed the extra lines around his mouth, the misery etched in his eyes. He missed Bollard terribly. "It seems it worked out for him, anyway. I'm glad. Charity," he said as I began to walk away. "He told me about the involuntary hypnosis, too. It troubled him greatly to do that to you, and I've been thinking about it ever since."
"You have?" His interest surprised me. I'd thought him wholly obsessed with his experiments and the loss of Bollard. Perhaps he wasn't so self-absorbed after all.
"It's my belief that this is the first time it has happened to Gladstone," he said.
"How can you know that?"
Langley accepted the teacup from Tommy. "I saw some of his memories when he was helping me experiment with the device. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but there were other women."
I smiled. "I know. Many, I'm sure."
"I cannot be one hundred percent certain, but it's my belief that none of them were hypnotized before or during their, er, intimacy. Not a single one. None mentioned a buzzing noise or a foggy mind. Some pulled away and refused to kiss him. One even slapped him. He never went further with those." He regarded me over the rim of his cup. "Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"I…I think so." The girls wouldn't have refused him if they were under his spell.
"The involuntary hypnosis has only come to light since you came on the scene. Since he fell in love with you, it could be said. And only when he is with you."
I blinked at him, speechless. My heart had gone still in my chest, but then it suddenly kicked my ribs. "Thank you, Mr. Langley. Thank you." I had to tell Samuel. I was halfway out the door when I remembered something else. "As soon as Samuel is better, we'll go to London and find Bollard. We'll bring him back. I promise."
I didn't wait to hear his reaction. I ran off to tell Samuel the good news. He had never hypnotized anyone, let alone that girl. Her accusation was entirely fabricated. All he had to do was dig into his memories and remember their reactions.
EPILOGUE
The telegram was delivered the following afternoon. It wasn't from Bollard, but the Beauforts. The master's spirit had crossed over to the afterlife. He was gone. I was safe and could go home to London.
My heart soared then came crashing down. The sweet moments I'd spent with Samuel were about to come to an end, and now we had some decisions to make. Part of me wished I could remain at Frakingham House with Sylvia and Tommy, and even Mr. Langley. Despite the terrible events that had occurred there, I'd felt like I belonged to this unusual family. Besides, it had been a place where the outside world didn't tread on mine and Samuel's dream. I worried that our peace was about to be shattered.
"It'll be all right," he said, knowing without asking what troubled me. "But if you don't want to go back, I understand."
"I do," I said and meant it. We sat together in the small tower room. He reclined on the chaise, his head in my lap, while I read the telegram to him and stroked his hair. "I want to see the children again."
"Of course. I'm sure they'll be thrilled to have their teacher back."
His words bolstered me. "You don't expect me to stop teaching?"
He sat up and circled his arm around my waist. "Of course not," he said gently. "If teaching makes you happy then I want you to continue. What kind of fool of a man wants his wife to be unhappy?"
"But it's terribly unconventional." Women were expected to give up their employment once they married. It was the husband's duty to care for her, in every sense of the word.
He kissed me li
ghtly. "You are an unconventional woman. I wouldn't want you to be anything else."
"Are you sure? There'll be censure and gossip."
"You know I don't care about that. Besides, we'll be too busy with the school to listen to what the society matrons have to say about us."
"Why, what are you going to do?"
"I can't sit idly by and let you do all the work. I thought I could take over the school's patronage from the Beauforts. They'll find something else to fund easily enough. That way we could invest in its future together. I might even teach the students some neuroscience."
I laughed. "They're children!"
"Never too young to learn." He stroked his fingertip down my cheek. "What do you say? We'll get married at my brother's house to keep he and Mother happy, then live in London. The school will be our family."
Until such time as we had our own. I did want children with him, just not yet. I needed to be with the little orphans first, and make sure they were settled. Then, perhaps one day, we could return to his home and live quietly on his estate when it became his. I just hoped, for Bert's sake, that it wasn't too soon.
My relief at having that settled must have shown on my face. Samuel smiled wistfully. "It makes me happy to see you happy. When do you want to leave?"
"When your injuries have healed. You're not going to exert yourself any more and risk infection."
He sighed theatrically and settled back down with his head on my lap. "You'd better be careful. I might grow used to this pampering and never want to get better." He grinned up at me and I stroked his hair again.
***
The following day a letter arrived with more detail than the telegram. I read it to Samuel, Sylvia and Tommy while we three sat in the small sitting room that looked out upon the terraced garden. Cara was in bed. She'd come down with a mysterious illness that made her tired and weak. The doctor had said she needed rest and so she'd not moved from her room. I'd offered to write to her niece, Mrs. Beaufort, but she'd asked me not to worry her.
"Oh good," I said, skimming the first paragraph of the letter. "Mrs. Beaufort says Bollard is at the school, and she feels certain that he will return if we reassured him that he's welcome."
"I'll go to London," Sylvia said. "I'll take Uncle with me. And Tommy, of course."
"Of course," I said, sharing a wink with Samuel. "Mrs. Beaufort goes on to say that the master's spirit told her he had been encouraged to stop haunting this realm. When she pressed him on who had encouraged him, he refused to tell her. It must be the third medium, she writes. The one who helped him possess that poor banker. No one else could have seen him or spoken to him."
"So she is still alive," Sylvia said. "That's worrying."
"Yes and no," Samuel said. "The medium got the master to leave. That's definitely a good deed." He rested his hand on my knee.
"Perhaps she learned her lesson," Sylvia agreed. "So Mrs. Beaufort has no inkling who the third medium is?"
I scanned the pages. "Oh my."
Samuel leaned over my shoulder and read. He blew out a breath when he got to the news. "Mrs. Beaufort doesn't know who the third medium is, but she says that the spirit told her his name."
"Percy Harrington," I finished. My tormentor now had a name. It would make cursing his memory easier, and I would no longer have to think of him as "master." He was not my master anymore.
Samuel's hand on my shoulder gave a reassuring squeeze. I smiled up at him to put him at ease.
"I've heard of him," Sylvia said. "Who is he?"
"Mrs. Myer's maiden name was Hatfield," Samuel said. "Hatfield and Harrington is a large bank, and Myer is the major shareholder, thanks to his wife's inheritance."
"Bloody hell," Tommy murmured. "What relation is Percy to those Harringtons?"
Samuel pointed to a line on the letter. "It says that he was heir to his father's fortune. In the event of his death without children, the wealth passed to the heir of Harrington's business partner."
"Edith Myer," I muttered.
"My god," Sylvia said. "It seems that Myer's name is linked to everything."
I folded up the letter. "At least it's all over, now. Harrington's ghost is gone, Myer is banned from coming here, and Bollard will be home again soon."
"And we'll be making our home in London," Samuel said, pulling me into his side and smiling against my mouth. I felt the buzzing before I heard it this time. It would seem I was growing used to the warning signs.
The hypnosis was averted from taking full effect, however, by Sylvia. She clapped her hands. "I can't wait for the wedding!"
"Me too," I said, quietly so that only Samuel could hear. "Me too."
THE END
Now Available:
Ghost Girl
The first book in the 3rd Freak House Trilogy.
Cara Moreau will die unless she can find the counter-curse to break a spell cast over her. But how can she do that when the book containing the curse has been missing for centuries, and she's bedridden at Freak House? Enter the warrior, a mysterious otherworldly figure with the power to help her, destroy her, and capture her heart.
To be notified when C.J. releases new books, subscribe to her newsletter through her website. Go to http://cjarcher.com/contact-cj/newsletter/
A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR
I hope you enjoyed reading EDGE OF DARKNESS as much as I enjoyed writing it. As an independent author, getting the word out about my book is vital to its success, so if you liked this book please consider telling your friends and writing a review at the store where you purchased it. If you would like to be contacted when I release a new book, go to http://cjarcher.com/contact-cj/newsletter/ and subscribe to my newsletter.
BOOKS BY C.J. ARCHER
The Medium (Emily Chambers Spirit Medium #1)
Possession (Emily Chambers Spirit Medium #2)
Evermore (Emily Chambers Spirit Medium #3)
The Wrong Girl (1st Freak House #1)
Playing With Fire (1st Freak House #2)
Heart Burn (1st Freak House #3)
The Memory Keeper (2nd Freak House #1)
Seared With Scars (2nd Freak House #2)
Edge Of Darkness (2nd Freak House #3)
Ghost Girl (3rd Freak House #1)
The Charmer (Assassins Guild #1)
The Rebel (Assassins Guild #2)
The Saint (Assassins Guild #3)
The Sinner (Assassins Guild #4)
Her Secret Desire (Lord Hawkesbury's Players #1)
Scandal's Mistress (Lord Hawkesbury's Players #2)
To Tempt The Devil (Lord Hawkesbury's Players #3)
Honor Bound (The Witchblade Chronicles Book #1)
Kiss Of Ash (The Witchblade Chronicles #2)
Courting His Countess
Surrender
Redemption
The Mercenary's Price
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
C.J. Archer has loved history and books for as long as she can remember. She worked as a librarian and technical writer until she was able to channel her twin loves by writing historical fiction. She has won and placed in numerous romance writing contests, including taking home RWAustralia’s Emerald Award in 2008 for the manuscript that would become her novel Honor Bound. Under the name Carolyn Scott, she has published contemporary romantic mysteries, including Finders Keepers Losers Die, and The Diamond Affair. After spending her childhood surrounded by the dramatic beauty of outback Queensland, she lives today in suburban Melbourne, Australia, with her husband and their two children.
She loves to hear from readers. You can contact her in one of these ways:
Website: http://cjarcher.com
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @cj_archer
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CJArcherAuthorPage
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To be notified when C.J. has a new release, sign up to her newsletter at http://cjarcher.com/contact-cj/newsletter/
In the meantime, h
ave you read THE SINNER? Here's the description. Read on for an excerpt.
Lies, desperation and an offer she can't refuse sends impoverished widow Lady Catherine (Cat) headlong into marriage with the man who killed her husband.
Guilt and desire battle within Hughe, Lord Oxley's, soul. When the enigmatic leader of the Assassin's Guild learns that the widow of one of his targets is at the mercy of a cruel man, he does the only thing left in his power to do. He marries her. Then the worst thing happens. He falls in love with her.
With more than one person trying to kill him and a family to rescue, Hughe needs the help of all his Assassins Guild friends to stay alive and keep his wife from learning the truth. Because he knows, and dreads, what will happen when she discovers what he did.
Excerpt of THE SINNER
CHAPTER 1
Sussex, spring 1599
Catherine, Lady Slade, wasn't surprised by her husband's death, despite his youthful age. After all, Stephen was fond of over-indulging, both at the table and in bed, although not always their marital bed. What did surprise her was the manner in which he died. She expected a cuckolded husband to eventually take offence or mayhap a pheasant bone to choke him. Yet he'd been struck through the eye by an errant arrow during a hunt. It didn't make sense.
Not only were his retainers superb marksmen, but she'd been told Stephen had fallen back to fix a saddle strap that had worked loose. Someone would have had to turn around to shoot him from the front, implying a deliberate act of murder, but she knew his men loved him too much to have done that. Indeed, they'd not even seen it happen. Despite her protestations that something was amiss, the death had not been investigated.
Another thing that surprised Catherine—Cat—were the tears she shed for him at his funeral procession. They were genuine. Stephen, the second baron of Slade, hadn't been a bad husband, as husbands went. He made sure the drafty old stone house was fitted with warm tapestries and hangings, he gave her jewels on her birthday and pretty gowns to wear whenever he thought she needed one. Unfortunately, those trinkets and gowns came at a hefty cost—one her husband couldn't afford.
