Page 41 of Mikhail
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We need in love, to practice only this: letting each other go. For holding on comes easily; we do not need to learnit.
—Rainer MariaRilke
Piper crept downstairsto the kitchen, her boots dangling off her fingertips so she could tread as softly as a cat. Mikhail was asleep in his bed. They’d spent all night making love, each time more desperate and hungry than the last. A tide of guilt rolled through her, battering her like waves in a cold, numbing way. But she couldn’t ignore it any longer. She had to do the right thing and go back to London. Dragons and humans didn’t belong together. He was immortal, and she had another sixty years atbest.
We have no future. It’s the right thing to do. We have to break this up before we get too tangled up in each other and it hurts evenmore.
Her hands shook as she reached the kitchen and set her shoes down. The empty room still felt welcoming and warm, which only made what she was about to do even harder. But first she had to find the letters he’d shown her. If she didn’t have those, she might never have a chance of explaining what had really happened and why. She doubted he would have moved them somewhere else; he had no reason to suspect she’d want to takethem.
The letters were right where he’d left them, tucked safely in the drawer by the fridge. The clock in the kitchen reminded her with each steady tick that time was running out. But she had to make sure she was right. Settling into a chair, she unbound the twine containing the letters and began to read them one by one. Some were addressed to a woman he called “Dearest Glory.”Elizabeth…
He had loved her dearly, passionately. She was surprised by the pangs of jealousy she felt, even though this had all happened more than half a millennium ago, but she pushed onward. She had to find the letters with evidence of the jewel trade between Belishaw and Mikhail because it could prove his ownership of the jewels. And if she could prove his family’s ownership, Scotland Yard would have to admit he couldn’t steal what rightfully belonged to him, wouldn’t they? There would be a mountain of paperwork involved, but at least he’d be free to leave England with the hoard, and she’d hopefully not be sent to jail for aiding and abetting him in theburglary.
Mikhail, why didn’t you think sensibly and tell Mr. Thorne who you are, the descendant of the rightful owner of the jewels? All this could have been avoided if you’d only thought itthrough.
Pride, stubbornness, fear of exposure—who knew what his reasons had been for the subterfuge and theft. But it didn’t matter now; what was done was done. Piper opened the next letter, its first words catching her eyeimmediately.
“My perfect pearl…lit by firelight…my belovedGloriana.”
Her heart skipped a painful beat. It was no wonder he was slow to trust anyone. To feel that way for someone, only to have her turn on him… Piper just hoped he didn’t see her as doing the samething.
She finished the last letter and folded it back up, putting them back in order. They were her only evidence of the truth, and she prayed they would be enough. She knew enough of law enforcement to know that the police wouldn’t just take her word that he’d forced her to help steal the jewels. There was video footage of her carrying the boxes to the car, and that in itself was damning. She had to convince them she was innocent, but also that Mikhail had every right to the hoard. It was the only way she could see to clear her name and set himfree.
She rebound the letters with twine and searched the kitchen for a pad of paper. She had to tell him what was in her heart, to explain everything. She didn’t want him chasing after her, not to rescue her or stop her from contacting thepolice.
When she finished she dried her eyes with her hands, then picked up Mikhail’s cell phone and a spare set of car keys for the Range Rover parked out back in the garage. She’d seen another SUV there, which meant he could come after her, but she didn’t think he would, not after she left him likethis.
Piper got into the driver’s seat and set the letters down beside her. The jewels were still hidden away in Mikhail’s wine cellar. She had no intention of bringing them back with her. They belonged to the Barinovs, and nothing was going to changethat.
She drove out of the garage and down the winding path that would take her away from the one thing in life she didn’t want to give up. But to be with him she would have a life on the run, and that wasn’t fair to either of them, especially when his time with her would be soshort.
She bit her lip as the rocky coastline echoed the ragged tears of her heart. That was the real reason she was leaving, the one she had trouble admitting, even to herself. She couldn’t be the cause of Mikhail’s untimelydeath.
Mating a human was effectively a death sentence for a dragon. This way, maybe someday he would find a dragoness to mate with, one who would live many more millennia beside him. Not just the short amount of time she had to offer, if he waslucky.
Tears stung her eyes. Piper knew she was doing the right thing, she had to be. But the farther away she got, the more it felt likeshewas the onedying.
After an hour, she pulled off to the side of the road and covered her face with her hands, unable to stop herself from crying. Everything was shattering inside her. The man she’d come to care about, the man who made her feel alive whenever she was with him, would never forgive her.I’m trying to save him, but he’ll neverunderstand.
When her sobs gave way to shaky sniffles, she pulled out Mikhail’s cell phone and called Mr. Thorne at the auction house. The phone rang three times before someoneanswered.
“Hello?” a familiar voiceanswered.
“Mr. Thorne, please, whatever you do, hear me out before you call ScotlandYard.”
“Ms. Linwood?” Mr. Thorne spoke softly now. “Do you have any idea how serious this business is? I have professed your innocence, as has your colleague, but those fools don’t believe you were coerced. I watched the footage from the alley myself. It’s clear you were pushed into the car, but these idiots are convinced you are involved. It isn’t safe for you to return, not unless we can prove your innocence. I can hire excellent barristers to defend you, but I don’t want you locked up for the next six months while court proceedings areheld.”
His concern for her and his belief that she was innocent in all this touched her. He really was a wonderful, sweetman.
“I might have a way to prove my innocence, but I have to bring it to you.” She rushed on before he could stop her. “I can prove that the man who stole the jewels is the rightful owner of them by right of his family’s lineage. His family was given these jewels by the Belishaw family. You remember Mr. Belishaw from thereception?”
“Er, yes, I do. Goon.”
She licked her lips nervously. “I have letters dating from the year 1559 that prove Queen Elizabeth stole those jewels from a family by the name of Barinov, who owned the jewels because of a treaty between the Barinovs and the Belishaws. These letters can prove that the thief believed he had a right to the jewels. I believe Mr. Randolph Belishaw will corroborate the evidence. Tell me youunderstand.”
She hoped that if Mr. Thorne agreed, she could have Belishaw meet with the Elwes-Bush family, the people who owned the property where the jewels had been found. Belishaw could mesmerize them to convince them not to press charges against Mikhail and herself, accept the letters as proof of ownership, give up the trove to Mikhail’s family, and take what had been left behind as a finder’sfee.
