Page 20 of The Doctor and the Devil
I barked a laugh and sat back, enjoying the swell of pride and admiration I felt for her.
She misinterpreted my laughter and sniffed in affront.
“I would never allow my sex to get in the way of a first-rate medical education,” she said haughtily.
“I cannot, for one moment, believe how stupid and blind the other students and faculty must have been to not recognize your feminine charms,” I said.
She smiled at that, warming me more than the thick tropical air of the greenhouse.
“Rafael, while I appreciate all that you’re telling me, not much of it is new information. I knew your father disliked and distrusted me; I knew you were a spoiled wastrel who I fell in love with, anyway; I knew your father and mine had a falling out. What you haven’t told me, however, is what happened the night we were supposed to elope,” she remarked. Then, there was a delicate tightening of her jaw and her eyes narrowed. “And why you betrayed me.”
“Yes, my dear, I’m coming to that. When I proposed to you that night, I couldn’t believe that you would dare to say yes. Knowing what it meant for you…knowing what it meant for me…what it would mean for us. When I planned our elopement, I thought I’d accounted for every eventuality, except, of course, for my brother Laszlo’s disappearance.”
Shock startled a gasp from Mina. “Wait, he disappeared the same night? I didn’t hear of his absence until the following year. Why didn’t you tell me?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t have time, Mina. I was in the stables, preparing for our departure when I found out. The stable master told me he’d caught Laszlo saddling our fastest horse the evening before. He gave me the letter Laszlo had left for our father.”
“What did it say?” Mina asked.
“Laszlo had fallen in love,” I answered. “The girl was one of my mother’s French maids.”
Mina’s brow furrowed. “French maids…not Marguerite?”
I nodded. “The very same.”
“She was very beautiful,” Mina remembered. “But I remember Laszlo being so serious. I can’t believe he was one to be ruled by his passion enough to run away with a maid.”
“We all underestimated him,” I admitted. “But as it is said,‘Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep.’Nevertheless, he alone noticed me making plans for us and beat me to it. His letter to my father said as much. He and Marguerite were leaving to start a life together, and it was useless for my father to pursue them. He had no interest in the throne and felt that I deserved a share of the responsibility of our family’s weighty history.”
Mina plucked another slice of mango from the fruit bowl, and I watched her take a bite and lick the juice from her fingers. My cock hardened immediately, and I gripped my chair, struggling to keep my thoughts on my confession.
“I took the letter to my father immediately,” I choked out, nearly drowning in my desire. “And what a fool I was to do so. Upon reading it, he flew into a rage, sending men after Laszlo and demanding to know about the elopement Laszlo had mentioned.Ourelopement, Mina. He told me he was disowning and disinheriting Laszlo and that I would be taking his place. If I refused—if I went ahead with our elopement—he would hunt us down and kill you.”
Mina froze at that, dropping the fruit onto her plate.
“He wouldn’t,” she breathed, incredulous. “I know your father never cared for me, but he wouldn’t resort to murder.”
I laughed. “My father was almost four-hundred years old by then. He had been on and off the throne of Wallachia several times—each time seized through war and violent bargains. He alone started the false rumors that my brother had the penchant for impaling people, all to spread the fear that would help our family maintain control of Wallachia. It was my father who enjoyed torturing prisoners. Vlad—Laszlo,as he always was to me—never tortured or killed anyone unjustly off the field of battle.”
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?” Mina asked, astonished.
“Because most of that happened before I was born. I was a late addition to my father’s house. I wasn’t born until 1701, long after my father had given up the hope of a second son. He and Laszlo came from a different time—one where brutality and fierce religious devotion reigned. I was moreAge of Enlightenmentthan they were, much to my father’s disappointment.”
“You told me it was rude to ask a vampire his age,” Mina said. “But you never told me you were that much younger than your father and brother.”
“My point in telling you all of this is not to trouble you with my family’s wretched history. The only reason I did not meet you the night we were meant to elope was because I believed my father’s vow. If I didn’t step in and take Laszlo’s place, he would kill you and, I suspect, your father. I couldn’t let that happen. I planned to bide my time and wait for things to settle, then hunt down Laszlo and force him to come back and make peace with Father,” I continued, rubbing at the ache building in my chest. The pain of revisiting those memories warred with the impulse to lay everything bare before her.
Mina stood abruptly, tears gathering in her eyes.
“I waited that night,” she exclaimed, her voice echoing off the glass and stone walls. “I waited for you to come and take me away. I waited for us to start a life together, Rafael. I would have walked through Hell for you. Why couldn’t you simply tell me?”
“Don’t you understand? I didn’t want you to walk through Hell for me. I wanted you to have sunlight and flowers andlife. Even if that meant life without me,” I said quietly. “I knew you would take on the world to be with me, so I did the only thing I could think to do.”
“You slept with another woman,” she said bitterly.
“No!” I grabbed her arm and pulled her to me, holding her fiercely against my chest. “No, I didn’t. I told the stable boy totellyou he’d caught me with another woman. I wouldn’t touch another woman for years after that.”
Mina was as still as a statue in my arms.
