Come Near Me (37 page)

“Lady Jasper,” he said rather
conversationally. “Now there was a woman who didn’t understand me.
That horrid room, all those gargoyles and such. I’m not like that
at all, you know. Beauty. I adore beauty. Untouched, unspoiled,
untrammeled. A perfect rose. A glorious sunset.” He spread his
hands. “Beauty, Sherry. Simplicity. The way you enjoy it. The earth
in all its glory.”

He turned to Adam. “I was an archangel,
Daventry. Do you know what that means?” He held out his hands,
began ticking off his fingers. “Seraphim, cherubim, angels,
archangels.
And then the world became... cluttered.” He
shook his head. “Well, that’s enough of that, I suppose. As you’ve
said, I lost this time. I’ve lost before. Not enough to make me
humble, certainly.”

“Certainly,” Adam said, as Sherry stood up,
held his hand in both of hers.

Edmund raised his head, looked up at the
ceiling, spread his arms wide. Flames seemed to flicker in every
area of the room, although there was no fire, no heat. “Happy now?”
he asked the ceiling. “You wanted me to suffer? You want me back?
She brought me closer to both, and at the same time casts me
farther from what we once had. She’s only mortal, merely mortal,
one of Your flawed creations. That I could love her
appalls
me!”

“Sherry, don’t say a word, darling,” Adam
warned in a whisper. “He’s taking his bows. It’s almost over.”

“Shut up, Daventry, I’m not that much of a
gentleman,” Edmund warned. “Now,” he said, rubbing his hands
together. “What shall I do? Shall I go now? Yes, I suppose so. I’ll
probably make a small stop along the way, however, to pick up a
willing soul. So little challenge there, but she does want me.”

Sherry found her tongue. “The duchess of
Westbrook? Is that who you’re talking about, Edmund? But—but she
loves you.”

Edmund shook his head, smiled indulgently as
he looked at her. “You see, Daventry? Still so simple, so innocent,
even after all of this. Does it amaze you? It amazes me. Come
along, Lady J. I’ll be taking you now.”

Lady Jasper lifted her hands to her mouth,
desperately tried to pry her lips open.

Adam stepped forward, Sherry two steps behind
him. “I don’t understand. Lady Jasper said if we thwarted you—her
words, Edmund, not mine—that she would be free of you as well.”

Edmund smiled, shot his cuffs. “That’s true
enough, I admit. Except that dear Lady J probably forgot to mention
that she murdered her husband. Money wasn’t enough for her, her
title wasn’t enough for her. So she killed him. People go to Hell
for that, Daventry. Killing is not stealing a loaf of bread.”

He smiled as Lady Jasper fell from the chair
and began to crawl toward him. He looked down at her. “Poor dear. I
didn’t tell you that part, did I? But, then, I so enjoyed watching
you get your hopes up, believing you could—what did you call it,
Daventry? Oh, yes.” He allowed Lady Jasper to clasp his legs at the
knees; even patted her head. “You were going to thwart me, dear
Gytha, weren’t you? I think not.”

“Adam, shouldn’t we do something?” Sherry
asked as Lady Jasper looked up at her imploringly. The woman looked
so frightened... so
damned.

“I’ll leave her in her bed, just to save you
the bother of having to deal with my rubbish. She’ll have died in
her sleep, poor dear. You see?” he said, arching his eyebrows. “I
can be nice, if it suits me. And now for my exit. Should I just
walk away, Lady J dragging behind? No, I don’t think so. Besides, I
imagine you’re expecting some sort of dramatic leave-taking.” He
looked over at Chollie, snapped his fingers. “Wake up, Irishman.
Even though you won’t remember it, I believe you’ll enjoy
this.”

As Adam pulled Sherry against him
protectively, the flames shot up all the way to the ceiling,
surrounding them. Lightning seemed to strike inside the room;
thunder cracked and boomed with enough force that Sherry felt the
reverberations inside her chest. She turned her face into Adam’s
shoulder, closed her eyes, clapped her hands over her ears.

And then there was silence.

“He’s gone, darling,” she heard Adam say as
he put his hands on hers, took them down from her ears. “After all
of that, he’s gone.”

“Who’s gone?” Chollie asked, standing up,
stretching after his nap. “And would one of you be wanting to tell
me why I’m sleeping in a chair and not in a bed? That will teach me
to go to one of those masquerade balls, won’t it? Drink too much,
strut about looking stupid, and then fall asleep on top of it all.”
He looked at Sherry, at Adam. “Well? Isn’t anybody going to say
anything?”

“I am,” Adam said, taking hold of Sherry’s
shoulders, pulling her close against him. “I love you, Lady
Daventry. I love you with all my heart.”

“And I love you, Lord Daventry,” Sherry
whispered just before his mouth closed over hers.

“There they go again,” Chollie announced to
no one in particular. “Never met two so silly with love. I suppose
that leaves me to find my own way to my borrowed bed, in my
borrowed clothes? Yes, Chollie,” he then agreed with himself, “I
suppose it does. That’s just what I was thinking—it’s time to go to
bed. But you’d better have someone check that chimney someday soon,
boyo, give it a good cleaning. It smells of brimstone and hellfire
in here, don’t you know. Do you hear me, boyo? Do you hear a single
word I’m saying?” He took his spectacles out of his pocket, looped
them over his ears, shook his head. “Ah, the devil with it!”

Still grumbling under his breath, Chollie
picked up a single lit candle and walked out of the room.

Sherry and Adam never noticed that he had
gone.

A Scent of Roses...

They say miracles are past.

— William Shakespeare

O embrace now all you millions,

With one kiss for all the world.

— Johann von Schiller

A
warm September sun
played over the gardens at Daventry Court. It shone down on the
profusion of roses and other late-summer flowers just coming into
bloom, and on the infant playing with her toes as she lay on a
blanket spread on a small expanse of sweet grass.

“Oh, now, Julia, that’s inelegant. Should we
really let her put her foot in her mouth?” Geoff asked, frowning
down at his niece.

Adam put his arm around Sherry as the two of
them sat on their favorite bench. “I don’t see why not, Geoff,” he
said, smiling at Sherry. “After all, we let you do it.”

Sherry giggled, gave Adam a playful slap.

“Very funny, Adam,” Geoff growled, then
grinned. “She does look a little like me, though, doesn’t she?”

“Only when she drools,” Sherry quipped, then
clapped her hands to her mouth. “Oh, I’m sorry, Geoff. Truly. I
can’t imagine what made me say that.”

Geoff stood up, brushing bits of grass from
his knees. “I can. It comes from being married to this brother of
mine. Well, I’m off. I promised Chollie I’d meet him at the tavern
in the village. Seems he’s been teaching some of the locals some
rather bawdy Irish songs.” He shook his head as he ambled off. “And
you allowed him to be godfather to little Julia, here, along with
me. Shame on you. Shame on both of you.”

Adam reached out and broke a single bloom
from the rosebush next to him, offered it to Sherry. “Happy,
darling?”

She took the flower, sniffed its heady
fragrance. “You know I am.” Leaning her head against his shoulder,
she went on, “It’s so nice to see Geoff all but running about
again, isn’t it? There was barely the hint of a limp as he went
bounding off to meet Chollie.” She sat up once more as the baby
began to make more fussing noises than cooing noises, kissed Adam
on the mouth. “Your daughter’s hungry, darling. I’ll take her
inside to feed her, then possibly go down for a nap along with her.
Would you care to join me?”

Adam smiled. “That sounds like a remarkable
idea, sweetheart,” he said, helping her gather up Julia, who
grinned at her father as he picked her up, handed her to Sherry.
“In about half an hour?”

He watched as his wife and child went up the
steps to the patio, then disappeared inside the house. He was a
lucky man. A lucky, lucky man.

He heard a noise and turned around. He still
started at unexpected sounds from time to time. But, lately, not
quite so often. He was getting his life back. Both he and Sherry
were getting their lives back. Back, and better than ever.

“Good day to you, sir,” Augustus said as he
pushed a wheelbarrow along the brick path. “It took most of the
summer, but the gardens is looking right fine now, aren’t they, my
lord? Won’t ever be half of what we had last year, though. No, my
lord,” he said, sadly shaking his head. “We won’t see another
garden like that one, not none of us.”

Adam patted the old man’s bent shoulders. He
looked around at the blooms, some of them perfect, some of them a
little too small, or drooping, or too sparse on their bushes. It
was a beautiful garden, but it wasn’t perfect. It was real, and he
loved it. “One can only hope we don’t, Augustus,” he said, smiling.
“One can only hope....”

The End

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Come Near Me
, I would
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Kasey Michaels

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Come Near Me

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