Page 157 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
Mrs Minton, hair barely up, filthy and wild and wailing as she embraced the young lord, holding his face in her hands. “My darling boy!” she sobbed. “Look at you!”
“Ah, perhaps we better not, Mrs Minton,” Mr Hughes advised, coming forward to proffer Dimitri his overcoat. “The Young Lord is hardly dressed for company.”
Dimitri’s eyes were still wide and luminous, his face white. He looked a little like he wanted to be sick.
Adeline wished everyone else would vanish, would just let the two of them be. She had no idea what to say to him, only that she needed to be alone with him. Perhaps they wouldn’t talk at all. Perhaps they’d just hold each other like nothing else in the world mattered.
Because it didn’t.
The curse is broken. I broke the curse. I broke it.
Not with a kiss, but a confession. For it had to have been that, didn’t it?
Had Dimitri heard?
“Come on,” said Hughes, helping Dimitri to his feet. “Let’s get you cleaned up, lad. There we go.”
Dimitri wobbled slightly, as if he’d quite forgotten how to walk upright, and was tugged back to the Manor between Hughes and Minty. Halfway up the bank, he turned his head, just for a moment, and caught Adeline’s gaze.
A moment later, he was swallowed up by the dark.
Elliott’s hand reached Adeline’s shoulder. He looked around at the remaining party. A few more servants crept out of the trees.
“Can someone please fetch my sister a very strong cup of tea?” he asked.
“Tea?” Thomas appeared at her other shoulder. “She deserves a whiskey at the very least, and perhaps a medal.”
“I could go for a whiskey,” said Adeline numbly.
Elliott managed a weak laugh. “Come, sister dearest. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
Adeline had no memory of the walk across the estate, no memory of slinking into the servant’s quarters, or Thomas helping get her to her bedroom. The first thing she was truly conscious of was the footman slipping away for the promised drink, and Elliott waiting until the door had closed behind him before bursting into loud, noisy tears.
“I’m sorry,” he said, wiping his nose on his sleeve. “I know you must be more shaken up than I am, only there was a second there when I thought…”
“I know,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry. Truly.”
“I can’t do this alone, Adie. I can’t. I’m… I’m not as strong as you.”
“You don’t have to be,” she promised him. “I’m here.”
“I’m here, too,” he said. “We’re in this together, you know?”
“Is that why you came?”
He nodded. “Leonie can watch the children,” he said. “Although I should let her know everything’s all right. I’ll just stay here with you for a bit, first. If that’s all right.”
She patted his head, something she’d done years ago, but not since he grew taller than her.
There was a knock on the door, and in came Thomas with the drink and Posey with fresh clothes, kicking both boys into the corridor to assist Adeline with changing, helping her scrub the mud from her hands, her face, her hair. She didn’t speak much, which was just as well, as Adeline wasn’t sure she had much in the way of words to give her.
Mrs Minton arrived not long after she was clean.
“Is Dimitri—” Adeline shot to her feet.
Mrs Minton raised a hand, gesturing for her to sit back down. She poured another drink and dismissed Posey. She had a measure herself before refilling the glass and passing it to Adeline.
“The Young Lord is fine,” she insisted. “Sleeping, now. He’s had quite the night. As have we all.”
