Brandon staggered to the lawn and fell to his knees. He released Marie’s legs and lowered her to the cool grass.
She looked up at him, her face streaked with soot and tears. Her eyes red and swollen. Bruises bloomed on her delicate cheek. “Josef?”
“Dead.”
She swallowed, flinching as if the action was painful. Her throat must be as swollen from the smoke as his. No, more swollen since she had breathed it longer.
“Police are on their way. Probably fire, too. Paramedics.”
“I’m okay.”
“No, you’re not. Me, either. But we will be.”
“You were right. Josef was trying to destroy everything you love. Charlotte, my father, me, Drake House.” Her voice sounded choked. She swallowed hard and went on. “His fiancée was one of the people Dr. Janecek smuggled into the country. She died from an infection after the surgery.”
It was a sad story. A tragic story. But it didn’t explain a thing. “What does all that have to do with me?”
“He said she was smuggled into the country aboard a Drake ship.”
“Drake Enterprises? A cargo ship or the yacht?”
She moved one shoulder as if trying to shrug. Flinching from pain, she aborted the move. “He said the name Drake was on the bow.”
“Damn. I’ll have to talk to Cliff about that. And Detective McClellan.”
“Josef tried to hurt Cliff, too. The vandalism.”
He nodded. The surest way to hurt Cliff was to destroy his toys. And the surest way to hurt Brandon was…
He felt sick. His throat ached, not just from the smoke. “I brought him right to you. He wouldn’t have even known you were at the chapel graveyard except I asked him to drive me there.”
Marie reached a hand to him. She traced her fingers over his face, his cheek, his scar. “It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have known.”
“Maybe not about Josef, but I should have known enough to keep you by my side. To never let you go.” He hadn’t let himself think of it. Not since he’d seen her purse on the cemetery lawn. But he knew that was his mistake. That had been his mistake all along. “I’ve wanted you so long, Marie, that once I had you in my arms again, all I could think about was losing you. I couldn’t let myself believe we could be together. It just felt too…”
“Fragile.”
He nodded. And he’d felt fragile. Raw. Exposed. Vulnerable. “I didn’t see until I lost you. I didn’t understand until…”
“It’s okay.”
He shook his head. He had to explain this. He had to make her see. “When I lost you, all I could think about was how I threw my chance away. Again. Our chance to be together.”
Police cars flew into the clearing and screeched to stops in the yard. Another siren screamed up the drive. Lights flashed red against the bare trees. A fire truck barreled toward the house. Another screamed out at the highway.
He looked back to Marie. He had to finish. He had to make her see that he understood. He needed to know if she could forgive him. If she could trust him again. If she could love him. “I get it now. I understand. I can’t protect myself from losing you. If you’re here or in Michigan or halfway around the world, it’s going to feel the same. It’s going to destroy me.”
Tears streamed down her face and sparkled in the fire’s radiant glow. “You’re not going to lose me, Brandon. I’m here. I love you. And I’m not going anywhere.”
They were the most beautiful words he’d ever heard, and he soaked them up and held them in his heart. “I want to spend the rest of my ordinary moments loving you, Marie.”
“Oh, Brandon. I—”
He hovered a finger over her lips. “Let me talk. I need to say this.” It might not be poetic. He was sure it wouldn’t be. But he had to say it. And he needed her to hear.
She nodded.
“I want all that stuff you were talking about. All that ordinary stuff, every day for the rest of our lives.” He swallowed into a burning throat. “However long that will be.”
A smile curved her lips. “It will be long, Brandon. We’ll have children and they’ll have their own children. We’ll grow old together.”
More beautiful words. And looking into her eyes, he believed them. He knew from now on, he always would.
MARIE WATCHED LEXIE’S WORKERS bustle into the ballroom, hauling armfuls of the most luxurious poinsettias she’d ever seen, the first step in getting the room ready for the Drake Foundation’s Christmas Ball. She was so glad they were going through with the ball. It seemed right. A fitting tribute to her father and to Charlotte. And a sign of the life and vibrancy she and Brandon intended to bring back to Drake House.
The cleaning crews had been amazing. She could barely smell the smoke from the east wing fire. And Lexie’s plan of filling the room with pots of flowers to add more freshness to the air should take care of the problem nicely.
Even Isabella and Shelley had pitched in long hours without complaint. And although Marie was still a little guarded around the two of them, she felt they’d reached some kind of truce. Shelley had even warmed to her after their talk in the kitchen that night. Isabella had focused her romantic ambitions fully on Brandon’s uncle Cliff. And even though Ned Perry was still out there buying up land for condos, the fact that he wasn’t killing people to get it made Marie feel a lot more charitable toward him as well.
It was the season for giving, after all.
And now it was the season for deciding what she thought of Lexie’s new ideas for decorating the ballroom before her friend came down from the balcony and demanded her verdict. But try as she might, she was having a heck of a time looking around the ballroom and making the sketches Lexie had shown her come to life in her mind’s eye.
Marie tilted her head to the side, despite the residual soreness in her neck, and studied the mantle of the ballroom’s grand fireplace. She just didn’t have the talent for design that her friend had. Or the good taste of her father, for that matter. Although Lexie had explained her plans for garlands around the glass doors, a evergreen swag and candles on the fireplace mantel and a lighting effect that would look like snow falling from the sky, Marie couldn’t see it. And she didn’t want to let her friend down.
Brandon walked up beside her and slipped an arm around her shoulder. “What is it?”
“Lexie wants to know what I think of her plans.”
“So what do you think?”
“I don’t know. She knows this stuff better than I do. I wish she wouldn’t ask me. I trust whatever she decides will look great.”
“Then tell her that.”
“I tried. She said she always ran things by my father. She wants my opinion.”
“Tell her it will look beautiful.”
“Unless I can really imagine it, she’ll know I’m just saying the words.”
“I think it’s beautiful. In fact, I think it’s absolutely perfect.” But he wasn’t looking at the mantel or the mirror above. He was staring straight at her.
She backhanded him in the ribs.
“Ow.”
“Yeah, that hurt. Sure.”
“Okay. It didn’t hurt. But I like tickling better. Or kissing.”
She let out a sigh. She couldn’t help but smile. After all they’d been through, they’d finally found a way to be together. To share their love. To live their lives. Every ordinary minute they had left. “I’m happy.”
“Are you?” Brandon gave her a grin. “I’m glad. I’m happy, too.”
“I only wish…”
“What?”
“That my father was here. That he could see Lexie’s plans. That he could let us know what he thinks.”
Brandon’s grin softened. He rubbed her arm gently with his fingertips. “You want his approval.”
“Yes.”
“You’re not just talking about the Christmas decorations, are you?”
A tingling sensation stole over her. “No. I guess I’m not.”
He leaned down and ki
ssed her, light and gentle, a confirmation of their love and a promise of more love to come. “I have something for you.” He took her left hand in his and slipped something onto her finger.
Marie held her breath. She lifted her hand and studied the ring.
It was a marquis solitaire diamond on a platinum band, sleek, classic, beautiful. And bigger than any diamond she’d ever seen. Not his mother’s ring, but a new one. A fresh one. A ring just for her. “I love it.”
He leaned on his cane. He grimaced as he lowered himself to a knee. “To make it official, you know.”
Her throat felt thick. “I would love to marry you.”
He shook his head. “You have to wait until I ask.”
“Then ask, already.” She couldn’t help being impatient. She’d waited ten years for this. But the ten years had been worth it to see his smile now. To feel his un-reserved happiness. To bask in happiness of her own.
“I love you, Marie Leonard. And I would be honored and humbled if you would agree to be my wife.”
Marie smiled and nodded, unsure her voice would work.
He crooked his eyebrows. “Is that a yes? Because my leg is killing me.”
She gripped his arm and pulled him to his feet. “It’s a yes. Always and forever a yes.”
He gave her a peck on the lips and glanced around the ballroom, watching the workers carry in another round of colorful plants. “I think Edwin would be happy. I think he would heartily approve.” He kissed her, longer this time, deeper, and when he finished, he held her close against his side.
Marie’s eyes misted. They had wonderful days ahead, wonderful years. And with luck, children to fill the new nursery that would rise from the old nursery’s ashes. Rebuilt with detail and care to match the rest of Drake House.
She blinked back the tears and looked into the mirror above the mantel. Suddenly Lexie’s decorating plans came alive in her imagination. Greenery draped on the mantel. Candles of different heights rose gracefully, their flames reflected in the glass. Light drifted through the ballroom like floating flakes of snow. Perfect.
And deep in the mirror’s antique silvered glass, as real as her happiness, she could see her father’s smile.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-2439-5
CHRISTMAS AWAKENING
Copyright © 2008 by Ann Voss Peterson
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*Wedding Mission
*Wedding Mission
*Wedding Mission
Christmas Awakening Page 17
