Page 19 of The Doctor and the Devil
Sensing my trepidation, she placed a hand on my arm. “Despite our past, Rafael, I am here to listen.”
I took a deep breath and began.
7
RAFAEL
April 16, 1768
Château du Diable
“When you andyour father came to our townhome in Buda that evening, neither of you could know what kind of an effect it would have on our family. My father had heard of your father’s reputation—and now, the great Doctor Van Helsing was in our part of the world? If anyone could have found an end to our ancient curse, it would have been him. What my father didn’t count on, however, was you,” I said.
“Me?” Mina echoed, her brows knitting together.
I nodded. “When it was agreed that you and your father would come to our ancestral home in Wallachia to help find a cure, we all believed it would only be a matter of time before the good doctor found what we needed and the both of you would be on your way. You were just a girl, then—a young, annoying, impetuous sixteen. No one paid much attention to you, Mina.”
She snorted. “And these are the words of a gentleman.”
I grinned in response. “I never claimed to be a gentleman, and I was always a terrible prince.”
“Pray, continue delighting me with these flattering memories,” she quipped.
“For the two and a half years that you stayed with us, my father grew to suspect myattachmentto you. At the time, it meant little because Laszlo was set to replace my father as heir to the throne of Wallachia, and I was free to be the spoiled monster I was, indulging every whim of sin and vice. My father frowned upon my flirtation with you but knew that stopping it would only increase my ardor,” I explained. “But then the unthinkable happened.”
Mina placed her teacup onto the table with shaking hands.
“We fell in love,” she murmured.
I nodded once, swallowing around the lump of emotion in my throat.
“You were eighteen then. Your father—while making great strides in understanding the blood plague—was no closer to finding a cure than any of the others had come. He discovered so much about it, but when he couldn’t explain to my fatherwhyonly my family would be born with the curse and every other sufferer simply had to be bitten, my father lost faith.”
“Yes,” Mina nodded, shuddering with the awful memories. “I remember the argument they had. I half expected your father to impale mine and leave him to rot on that horrible castle’s battlements.”
I frowned. “I won’t pretend that didn’t cross his mind.”
Squeezing her eyes shut, Mina blew out a breath laced with disappointment.
“My father accomplished a great many things in his life,” she said. “But on his deathbed, the unanswered riddle of the blood plague was all he spoke of.”
I froze. “His deathbed? Mina, when…?”
She waved away my concern. “Long ago, Rafael. Just over a decade.”
I swallowed. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
She lifted a shoulder in forced casualness, but I sensed the air between us thickening with grief.
“It was a natural death,” she said. “Given the horrors we’ve seen in this world, I think that’s something we can at least take comfort in.”
Realization dawned. “That is why you were able to study,” I said. “He didn’t want you to when he was alive, but with his death, you must have found a way.”
“My mother’s passing preceded his by a few short months. I think his broken heart played a factor in his decline, as was his desire to be with my mother in Heaven. I was lucky to grow up without much family. My parents left me with their modest estate and a comfortable annuity. That, along with my father’s reputation, was nearly enough to earn my place at the university in Padua,” she said quietly.
I couldn’t contain my shock. “They allowed a woman to study?”
She turned a disapproving gaze on me. “Don’t be ridiculous. I bound my breasts and attended as a man. Wilhelmina is very close to Wilhelm, you see, and rather easy to forge on the necessary documents. By the time I earned my degree and made my way to Paris, most people who truly needed my services were willing to overlook the inconvenience of my gender.”
