The Gray Chamber

by Grace Hitchcock

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Time is a vindictive bandit to steal the beauty of our former selves. We are left with sagging, rippled flesh and burning gums with empty sockets.

  ~ Raphael

  He easily blocked her feral clawing. “Edyth, it’s me,” he whispered, hoping to calm her.

  “Bane,” she whimpered, throwing her arms about his neck, her body limp and gown soaked through.

  With his arm securely about her waist, he fairly carried her as he snatched up the sword and sheathed it in the body of the cane, perfectly concealing the steel that he had not known existed until now. “Edyth, I need you to rally. We don’t have much time.” He assisted her down the rotunda’s stairs that were miraculously vacant with all at supper. At the main doors, he nodded to the secretary at the front desk, who remained silent and behind her magazine in return for her pocketful of Bane’s rent money.

  Lightning flashed as they darted down the front steps and into the torrential downpour. His hand gripping hers, they raced down the road, the rain pelting them. If Edyth hadn’t been in such peak physical condition before her ordeal, he hated to think how weak the island would have made her, rendering their escape impossible. He had seen the haggard women there and wondered if they were indeed mad or had been driven to madness by the staff. An owl screeched nearby followed by an animal shrieking that made Edyth clutch even more tightly to him. Branches occasionally slapped Bane in the face, and he attempted to keep them from hitting Edyth, but glancing down at her, he saw there were already long, angry scratches marring her lovely face. To her credit, she kept running, her eyes wide and her breath coming in short, rattling pants.

  A bell sounded on the island as he leapt over a muddy hole in the road, but she slipped, sprawling face-first into leaves and branches. Bane dropped to his knees, wrapping his arms about her and waiting for her to move, lest he injure her further. “Are you hurt?”

  She pushed herself up on her elbows, a soft groan escaping her lips. She sucked her muddied left palm and spat into the leaves before lowering her hand and pressing her lips into a line. She closed her eyes and gave her head a fierce shake, but he could see the wince between her brows when she rubbed her left wrist. “Thorns.”

  “Take a moment, Edyth. Catch your breath.” He stroked her back, grimacing at her sunken ribs under his hand. She had been starved.

  “We don’t have a moment,” she said, pulling herself to her feet.

  “Edyth,” he breathed, his eyes stinging at the realization that she didn’t have any shoes protecting her soles. “Your feet … they–they’re covered in blood.”

  “My shoes must have fallen off when I was fighting off the orderlies before Roger—”

  “Before Roger what, Edyth? Did he hurt you?”

  She nodded, her eyes glazing over. “I can’t. Not now.”

  He pulled her into his arms and rested his chin atop her matted hair, his throat swelling with suppressed rage.

  She pressed her hands to his chest, pushing herself from his arms. “We have to keep going. I can fall apart once we are safely away from this place.” She held out her hands to him, ignoring the specks of blood blooming on them.

  He would wait to hear her tale and then settle the score for Roger’s betrayal. He helped her up, and they continued their run beside the East River. It shouldn’t have taken them so long, but it was growing more and more difficult to see, and he knew they only had minutes now until the last ferry departed. He could have kicked himself for not hiring a boat for their return.

  The dock came into sight, and along with it a wagon rolling straight toward them bearing three policemen inside. Ducking low, Bane drew her to the side of a vacant-looking building and took in her wild appearance. With her thin, torn gown soaked through and her hair that had long since lost its pins and hung in wet, matted strands, she looked entirely wild. He removed his coat and, despite it being soaked as well, wrapped her in it. With a gentle hand, he pushed her hair back from her face, leaving a single curl to hide the stitches. He tucked her long locks under the collar of the coat to hide the worst of the tangles. He pressed a kiss onto her forehead, and with her hand securely in his, he approached the ticket master and purchased their fare.

  The ticket master eyed the leaves clinging to their hair and mud marring their clothing and sent Bane a guffawed laugh and a leer toward Edyth. “The bell is ringing. They are looking for someone,” he said, his eyes returning to Edyth and back to Bane, his brows spiking.

  “Are they?” Bane slid another bill to the man.

  The ticket master shrugged. “Guess I heard wrong.” He motioned them to the plank leading down to the ferry. The moment they stepped aboard, the captain rang the bell a single time, signaling for the journey to begin, and the ferry slowly pulled away from the dock, leaving Blackwell’s Island behind.

  Under the roof of the ferry, Bane breathed a sigh of relief and kept his grip firmly about Edyth’s hand as her uncharacteristic silence sent a shard of fear into his heart. He prayed that his sweet, bright Edyth would return to him when she recovered from the ordeal. Knowing she would not wish to be trapped, he kept them on the edge of the roofline, not caring if the wind spent sprays of rain into their faces, and watched as the lighthouse scanned the island back and forth and back and forth. The bell still sounded, but they were far from the grasp of the asylum, and the presence of the hidden steel reassured him that if they were accosted again, they could fight their way to freedom. He glanced behind them and found a man keeping an eye on them from under the brim of his hat, so Bane tugged Edyth’s hand and darted with her through the rain around to the other side of the ferry and out of sight of the man and the island.

  Feeling tremors overtaking her, Bane turned her to him, lifting her chin to catch her face in the moonlight, his heart breaking anew at the bruises and cuts on her face. “You are safe with me. They will never touch you again,” he whispered. He once again swallowed his questions. For now, just being together would be enough.

  “Thank you. Thank you for looking for me.”

  “I will always look for you, Edyth. You and I … we belong together.”

  “Bane, I—” Thunder cracked the sky, silencing her reply. Edyth shook her head and lifted a shaking hand to her hair, laughing. “I must look a fright.”

  “Who cares about that?” He brought his lips down and slowly, carefully, kissed each of the bruises and cuts. His lips grazed her jaw, and seeing the angry fingerprints at her neck, he bent and kissed each mark, her body swaying into his.

  His kisses brought a warmth to her bones she’d never known before. She pressed her forehead to his chest, wishing she could stay in the safety of his embrace forever. She lifted her gaze to him. She needed to tell him, but his lips made her thoughts blurred. “Bane, I—I.” I love you. “I knew you would find me.”

  “I would have searched for you until my dying breath.” He lifted her hand, and she grimaced at the dirt caked under her nails, but he didn’t seem to care as he pressed a kiss to each fingertip before stroking her cheek. “I know I’m not the kind of man your father would have wanted for you. I’m not rich—”

  Edyth’s soul ached. If only she could ignore the truth…. She wrapped her arms around his neck and slowly lifted her lips to his, pausing a breath away, and answered, “You are exactly the kind of man Papa would have wanted for me.” And as long as I have you, I need nothing else. She read the hunger in his eyes that mirrored her own, but she couldn’t give in to her weakness and kiss him again, not when her secret weighed down on her like a stone. She rested her cheek on his chest once more and sighed. “What do we do now?”

  “Well, until we can clear your name in the eyes of the law, you are to stay tucked away in my family’s country estate. If anyone comes looking, no one there will give you away.”

  “But if they do find me and bring the police, they have the law on their side. I will be taken away again, and this time, there will be no escape from my uncle. I need to leave the
country. It is the only way to be safe. Well, as safe as I can be on the run.”

  He grasped her shoulders, moving her to look into his eyes. “There is another way. He will not be able to touch you once you are married and your welfare transfers to your husband.”

  Her mouth went slack. He would do that for me? She shook the stars from her head. Tell him, you coward. You are not the woman you thought you were before the island. “Bane … it’s too much,” she whispered, unwilling to shatter their world so soon. She had yet to speak the words aloud. She knew that once she did, everything would change.

  “Too much for a man to protect the woman he loves?” He lifted her hand and pressed it against his heart. “I would do anything for you, Edyth Foster. When you were taken away, I realized that the pain of losing you was far greater than that of losing a mere friend. It was the pain of a heart being wrenched away from the one it was meant to love. Because I do love you. And if you allow it, because I know you are a self-proclaimed strong, independent woman, I want to protect you with everything that I am. I love you.”

  “Being a strong woman doesn’t mean I have to live my life alone. There is strength in loving someone.” Her eyes rested on his lips and back to his dear face. Tell him, her mind screamed over her heart’s protests. She tugged her hand away and stepped back, desperate to put a little distance between herself and his alluring scent of leather and sandalwood, then, remembering that she wore his coat about her shoulders, she knew it was futile. “But you don’t know what you are saying. I learned something on the island that I cannot forget. My maternal grandmother—” Her voice caught on the thorny words.

  “Died on the island in the asylum,” he finished for her, taking her hand and drawing her back.

  She lifted her gaze to him, tilting her head. “You know? B–but why did you kiss me, if you knew that madness runs in the women of my family?” And we can never be more than friends?

  “Edyth, your uncle did not tell you why she was committed.” He stroked a lock of hair behind her ear. “My hired detective, Jude Thorpe, made short work of finding the answer.” His calloused hands cupped her face. “Your grandmother was committed after being accused of adultery brought on by madness, both of which were vile falsehoods created by your grandfather.”

  “How is that possible?” she sputtered, trying to comprehend it all as her knees weakened with hope.

  He wrapped his hands under her elbows to support her. “Your grandfather, Lord Blakely, wished to wed another in order to have the son he so desperately wanted, but the only way that Blakely could get his request for a divorce approved was if Lady Blakely was committed to the asylum on the grounds of adultery brought about by madness. The tale he had spun was all fabrications. Thorpe made quick work in uncovering that Lord Blakely was the real adulterer, but who would believe a woman over her knighted husband nearly fifty years ago? But, as you know, your grandfather did not have any more children, so that fortune went to your mother and now you.”

  “Then, that means my uncle lied. And I believed him like a fool.” She shook her head and gave a soft laugh, never so thankful for a falsehood. She turned to him with a renewed dream in her heart, one with Bane at her side, along with a baby on each hip and her four cats at their feet and a basket of kittens.

  “You are and will continue to be as sane as I.” He smiled down at her, that rare dimple in his left cheek appearing.

  She squealed and lifted her arms to the sky and twirled in the rain, hooting with glee.

  He grasped her hand in his and pulled her back under the roof. “So, does that change your mind about marrying me?”

  She stepped toward him, a hairbreadth away, her face tilted back to take in his strong jawline in the ferry’s lantern light. “If you are certain this is what you want and you aren’t saying this to rescue me from a life on the run? Because I can flee to France. I’m certain I could become a respected fencing instructor over there where the sport has been strong for—”

  Bane laughed. His deep-throated mirth made her heart dance. “I’m certain you could, but the only problem with that plan is that I would miss you too much. And if you look at it that way, this time it is you who will have to do the rescuing, because there is a peculiar ache in my chest when you are away and I’m afraid you are the only one with the cure. I wish to wed you more than anything I’ve ever wanted in my entire life.”

  She traced her finger along his jaw, loving the hint of scruff that had grown since he had come to the island. “I’ve loved you for so long. I fear that I will wake on the morrow to my nightmare existence on the island and discover this has all been but a dream. Are you truly mine, my dearest Bane?” Slowly, she placed her arms around his neck and rose on her toes and pressed a soft kiss to his lips, melding her mouth with his as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into an even deeper kiss that banished the storm and summoned the stars to appear.

  He pulled back, his eyes bright in the moonlight. “This is a dream, but only of the best nature, because it is true. I love you, Edyth Foster, and plan on reminding you every day for the rest of eternity that you are safe and I am yours and you are mine, my sweet bride.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  How different everything is when you are with the right people!

  ~ Kate Greenaway

  Edyth fairly ran to take the plank to the dock, but Bane kept a steadying hand wrapped about her elbow as the man who had been eyeing them cut in front of them and trotted off into the night. Bane did not make any eye contact with the crew and, once they had mounted the plank, moved purposefully away from the docks at a clipped pace. Putting two blocks between them and the island’s ferry and cutting over one block, Bane could hardly believe that Jude was still there, waiting beside a small coach.

  “What happened?” Jude asked, swiping off his hat and politely nodding to Edyth. “I was about to head to the island if you were not on that last ferry.”

  “Everything that could go wrong did. But now is not the time to explain.” Bane tilted his head down to Edyth tucked in the crook of his arm. He settled her onto the worn, tufted coach seat and joined her, returning his arm about her tiny frame while Jude hopped up into the driver’s seat.

  A soft mist began, chilling them as they drove into the evening. She shrugged out of his wet coat and draped the coach’s plaid over them both, snuggling closer to him, the action making Bane’s heart lurch. Had he really just kissed her and she promised to wed him? He could sing for happiness but settled for pressing a kiss atop her wet hair, not minding the lingering scent of her time in the asylum. Edyth was here and safe in his arms and had promised to be his. Edyth loved him! He could holler with delight.

  The ride to the estate passed in contented, sweet silence as they stayed wrapped in one another’s arms, finding comfort at long last. As the carriage pulled into the drive of his family’s mansion, he spied an all too familiar carriage that made Edyth sit bolt upright.

  She gripped him by the arm as a figure appeared in the doorway, his gaze fixed on their buggy. “The man from the ferry must have been from the asylum, sent to contact my uncle. Bane, he can’t reach me. No matter our hopes, if he catches me, all is lost.”

  “Turn us around at once!” he shouted to Jude.

  Jude pulled the reins, directing the buggy into a sharp turn and drawing a protest from the horse as shouts behind them escalated.

  “Go. Go!” Bane shouted to Jude, who slapped the reins again, pushing the horse as hard as he might.

  Bane held on to Edyth with one arm while gripping the side of the coach with the other, anchoring them as Jude sent them careening down the moonlit road, only slowing as they came to the populated streets, weaving around other hired cabs.

  “Bane, I think we should head to your club,” Jude called over his shoulder. “It is the nearest, safest place at the moment.”

  “Agreed.” He had weapons enough there and could fight off anyone who dared come knocking.

  Edyth shivere
d under his arm, her teeth chattering and causing her words to slur. “But Uncle will certainly go there looking for me.”

  He gripped her hands in his and rubbed her icy skin between his palms to draw warmth into them. “We need to get you out of the elements. Besides, I’m hoping Foster will think it is such an obvious place for us to hide, he will search elsewhere first. The moment we make it inside, I’ll send Jude for the pastor, and then your uncle won’t be able to threaten you ever again.”

  “Pastor?” Jude twisted back to look at him for a second before turning on the club’s street. “You two aren’t planning on eloping to beat out the law, are you?”

  “That’s exactly what we’re doing.”

  Jude let out a whistle through his teeth. “Didn’t see that one coming, but if you want to get married, the most efficient way is for me to turn down this road and head to the parsonage.”

  “Yes, but Edyth will catch her death if we do not get her dry soon,” Bane replied, his gaze falling on her blue-gray lips.

  Jude shook his head. “I should’ve considered the lady’s health. My apologies.”

  Shivering once more, she buried her head in his shoulder. “I never imagined much about my wedding, but I thought I’d at least be clean.”

  He chuckled. “What? You mean you never dreamed of being married in a dress not even fit for the rag pile, much less in a fencing club?”

  She turned sparkling eyes up to him. “Actually, the idea of marrying you in the fencing club where I fell in love with you sounds fitting and beautiful.”