Page 65 of Euphoria
He’d backed me into a corner, and he knew it. I had no evidence save for a sound I’d heard in the darkness. I’d not once seen Grace laugh or cross paths with me on the nights I heard it echo through the halls. Nor did I lay eyes on her the night of the fire. I had no proof.
Edward loosened his grip, but the firm look in his eyes didn’t dull. “Leave this matter to me. I will not ask you again.”
I cowered slightly and nodded.
“Come,” he said. “Let us walk a little before returning. The air will do both of us good.”
He strayed down a path to our left, and I followed at his side. A fine dew covered the grass and plants, the air cool on my exposed legs.
The walk was bordered with box hedges on the left, which rose taller than his looming stature, their leaves shielding us from Thornfield. To our right was a mixture of cherry trees and beds of old-fashioned flowers such as primroses and pansies, all of them in bloom. The light was still low, the sun just now rising over the horizon, but I could make out their colors just fine.
Edward stilled and knelt, picking a pale pink peony.
“Do you like the sunrise, Jane?” he asked, rising and offering me the flower.
Taking his little offering, I nodded. “I like it just fine.”
“The colors will be brilliant this morning,” he murmured, casting his eye across the lawn to the moor where the first rays of the sun were staining the sky all manner of orange, pink, and blues. “But it always is after such an escape.”
“I fear I cannot stay silent,” I said, drawing his attention.
“You must, Jane,” he pleaded. “You are mine, are you not?”
I nodded, unsure of his intent. I was not completely his, but part of me was still tethered to his soul.
“Jane Doe,” he said, turning to face me completely. “With you, I trusted this strange night. Only you. I plead with you now to keep it a secret from all but myself. You now have some of my carefully guarded power. How will you wield it?” He grasped my shoulders, his eyes swirling with emotion. “How, Jane?”
“I wish to please you,” I said haltingly. “I wish to do what is right…”
“This is right, Jane.”
I lowered my gaze, studying the delicate petals of the peony. “Then a secret it will remain.”
He sighed in relief, his grasp on my shoulders loosening until he let me go entirely.
“And Mason?” I asked.
“What of him?”
“Will he be bound by the same pact of silence? He seems to be a man easily led.”
“That he is,” Edward replied. “We needn’t worry about Richard, Jane. He knows not to defy me.”
Glancing through the cherry trees to the moor beyond, I watched the changing colors in the sky as he studied the wavering emotions moving across my features. Neither of us spoke for a long time as we stood just so, our minds wandering where they would.
“You are a rare one, Jane,” Edward murmured, breaking the spell the wild countryside had cast over us.
“Am I?” I hardly dared to look at him for fear he’d see right through me and know what my heart held for him.
“Such beauty and strength defies words,” he went on. “I scarcely know how to describe what I see before me.”
“Then don’t,” I replied, finally working up the nerve to meet his gaze.
His brow furrowed, and this time, I was the one who had puzzled him.
A door banged, the sound echoing through the silence, and we were drawn apart.
“I must go,” I said, turning from him.
“Jane,” Edward exclaimed. “You would leave me without the pleasure of your lips?”
Hastening down the path, I replied, “I am cold.”
And there I left him.
