Beauty: an Everland Ever After Tale (16 page)

“Are you feeling better?”

She thought about the letter, about Vincenzo leaving her. Leaving them, again. She thought about the future she wanted for them; the future she hadn’t known she’d wanted until she met a blind violinist. She made her decision.

“Yes, sweetheart. Yes, I am.” She would go after him, like the letter suggested. She’d stop him from leaving. She’d make him understand that thanks to him, she had learned to see past his appearance and understood his worth. She’d make him believe that she’d learned to love him—
Vincenzo
, not Edward—and hope that he might learn to love the woman she’d become, too. She’d do it for him, for her, and for their son.

With a smile, she hugged Eddie once more. “Now, let’s go make breakfast. You’re smooshing my legs.”

He giggled and hopped down, pulling her to her feet. She inhaled deeply, thinking about what the letter said. Wondering if it would work.

One kiss will solve everything
.

He could feel the stares as he hurried along the sidewalk of Andersen Avenue, his violin in one hand and Gordy beside him. He’d come here to retire from the public eye, to avoid his neighbors, and he’d done a good job of it, so far. But here he was, walking down the main street in broad daylight, and everyone was looking at him. He felt hot and itchy in a way that didn’t have anything to do with the shave Gordy had given him yesterday, and everything to do with this feeling of guilt. He was running away again.

“I’ve got yer stick, an’ I’ll speak with the porter about helping ye get off at the right stops.” Gordy seemed more nervous about this trip than Vincenzo was. It was his first time traveling without his friend, and Gordy knew it. “Don’t worry about meals, m’lord, I’ll arrange everything.”

“I hadn’t,” he said blandly. “And I can arrange my own meals.” It was his experience that waving enough money at a problem made it go away, and he had plenty to wave.

“Remember to keep yer wallet in your inner breast pocket. Thieves will see ye as an easy target.”

“Yes, I remember.” The irony in his voice was lost on Gordy.

“I just don’t want ye ta be taken advantage of, m’lord.”

“I seem to recall a time when you attempted to take advantage of me.” Young Gordy had been surprised when his ‘easy target’ had grabbed him by his collar when his hand was still in the blind man’s pocket. “And why are you back to all of the ‘m’lording’?”

A sigh from the man beside him. “There’s steps here. Two of ‘em.” He touched Vincenzo’s elbow to direct him down into the street. “I thought things had changed, here. I thought we were making a future. But if we’re not, callin’ ye by yer given name seems wrong.”

Vincenzo stopped there, in the middle of the street. When he heard Gordy’s little questioning grunt, he placed his free hand on the other man’s shoulder. “You’ve been my friend for years, Gordy, and will always be, I hope. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

And then, to Vincenzo’s complete surprise, Gordy pulled him into a one-handed hug. They held each other like it was the last time they’d see one another. The younger man’s voice was muffled when he finally said, “I’ll miss ye, Vincenzo. Ye’ve been like…well, like a brother ta me.”

“I haven’t been nearly that nice to you, and you know it. I’ve taken outrageous advantage of your kindness, and treated you like dirt.”

A laugh, then, which is what he’d been aiming for. “Aye, ye have.” Gordy stood straighter, much taller than Vincenzo. “I just wish…”

Vincenzo knew what the other man wished; he’d made it quite clear. And a big part of Vincenzo wished the same thing. But Arabella had made her standards, her rules, quite clear too, and he knew that no one who looked like him had any place in her life. And he couldn’t stay here in Everland, couldn’t continue giving Eddie lessons, like nothing had changed between them.

“On the other hand…” Gordy’s voice told him that he was facing in the opposite direction, and the speculation Vincenzo heard was enough to make him frown.

“Other hand, what? We need to get to the station.”

“Aye, but wait a moment.”

“For what?”

“For Mrs. Mayor to catch up to us. She’s got her skirts hiked up above her ankles and she’s running as fast as she can for us. For you, rather.” Vincenzo had stopped breathing as soon as he’d heard her name, and whipped around to face the way they’d come, as if he could see her just from Gordy’s words. A fierce, desperate hope rose in his throat and coated the back of his tongue in a sour, vain taste. “Oh look, there’s Jack Carpenter, talking with Micah. I think I’ll just wander over that way to say good morning.”

Vincenzo thought he might’ve nodded at his friend’s lame excuse for giving him privacy, but wasn’t sure. She was chasing after him? To say goodbye, surely? Or to slap him, for what he’d done to her all those years ago?

He caught her honeysuckle scent before she drew to a sudden stop in front of him, and he knew from her heavy breathing that Gordy hadn’t lied about her running. He didn’t know what to say. Didn’t even know if he should smile, for fear of his smile revealing more than it should. Like the way he felt about her. Last night…last night he’d almost confessed to her. He’d told her that maybe he could’ve learned to love this new her, but it was a lie.

He’d loved her for weeks.

After a long moment, he heard her take a deep breath. “Don’t go, Vincenzo.” She was still calling him that, even after what he’d told her last night?

“Arabella, I—“

“Yes.” She stepped closer to him; he could feel her, taste her breath. “Yes. I know.” She took his free hand, then, in both of hers, and he wasn’t sure her intentions. “What you said last night was true. I’m not your Jane, and you’re not my Edward. But…” She lifted his hand, and placed in on her cheek, and he heard a lifetime’s worth of unspoken promises in that
but
.

She was wearing her hair down and loose around her shoulders. He felt it brush against the back of his hand, and stooped to lower his violin case to the ground. He wanted both hands free for this. Slowly, he threaded his fingers through the thick tresses, the way…the way he used to. Then, he dropped his hands to her shoulders, and felt silk. His questing fingers followed the collar to the belt, and realized two things simultaneously; that she was still wearing her dressing gown and nightie, and that she was holding her breath.

For someone who’d bent her life to fit rules and dictates about propriety, she was sure throwing it all to the wind now, wasn’t she? “Are you still wearing what I think you’re wearing? Here, in public?”

“Absolutely everyone is looking at us, Vincenzo.”

“And are they eyeing you appreciatively?” He ran his hands up her arms, and resisted the urge to pull her against his chest. He didn’t have that right. “I know I would, were I in their shoes.”

She made a surprisingly sexy little noise of dismissal. “You might be used to the stares, but I most certainly am not.” When she took a deep breath, he felt her press a little closer. “But that’s why I did it.”

“Because I’m used to the stares?”

“Because I wanted you to know that I understood.” Understood what? “Understood what you’ve been trying to teach me, Vincenzo Bellini.”

He tried for a smile, but having her here, this close to him…having her under his hands, but not in his arms…having her say his name in that breathy voice…it was torture. It was all he could do to swallow and try not to think of what it would feel like to slip that silk off her shoulders and pull her down on top of him.

Her voice was a purr worthy of Rajah when she said “I understand now, my darling.” Her hands were on his cheeks then, and
Oh God
, she’d stepped closer. He could feel
all
of her under the dressing gown, and there was no way she couldn’t feel all of him—even the suddenly tight parts. But she didn’t jerk away in surprise or disgust. Instead, she—a little shudder of desire passed over his skin—she pressed her hips against his and twisted her fingers through his over-long hair at the base of his neck.

“I…”

“You’re leaving us because you think that I don’t see your value. You think that I assume you’re a lesser human being, because you’re not physically perfect. And maybe I
did
think that, when we met. Maybe I’ve been using Milton’s rules and dictates on how to appear proper to hide from the truth; I’m not physically perfect, either. Maybe I thought that by following those rules, I could make up for my lost beauty.”

“’For as you were when first your eye I eyed, such seems your beauty still’. Shakespeare wrote that, and I’ve always thought it was about you.”

She laughed then, the same tinkling giggle he’d remembered during a decade of darkness. “That’s because you’re blind, darling.” She pressed her cheek to his shoulder and he was at a loss for what to do with his hands. “What I’m trying to tell you is that I was wrong. Milton’s rules are wrong. You... you taught me that.”

Heart soaring, he wrapped his arms around her. “Do you mean it?”

Her fingers were drawing little circles on his shoulders, and she sounded hesitant when she said, “Yes. I…” A deep breath. “You taught me that it doesn’t matter what a person looks like, only how they make others feel.”

She understood! “And you have the most wonderful way of making others feel accepted, Arabella. You’ve raised a fine son, and have made a strong home for him. You are beautiful, inside and out.”

“This realization wasn’t supposed to be about me. I chased you down—I’m outside in my night-clothes, for goodness’ sakes!—to tell you not to go, because you’re wrong about me. I don’t care what you look like. I just want…”

When she trailed off, he thought he might choke. “What?” He swallowed, but that didn’t help the tightness in his chest. “What do you want?”

“You. Just you.”

With a groan, he gave in to the inevitable. He loved her, and she’d just told him that there was hope for a future for him, after all. “Arabella, honeysuckle, I’m going to kiss you now.”

“Thank God.”

And then neither of them were speaking. Kissing her was better than he remembered. Better than he could’ve imagined, over the last few weeks of dreaming about her taste. Her lips pulled at his, and he lifted her off her feet. The sexy way she moaned almost undid him then, and he couldn’t help thrusting his tongue against hers.

They fit perfectly. That was all he could think about. So much had changed—they were two different people. But they still fit together perfectly. And she smelled of honeysuckles, just like his dreams.

Her arms were tight around his neck, and he liked how she didn’t let him go, even when he lifted her higher. God, she was perfect. This was perfect. She kissed him like a starving woman, and the realization made him hotter than he could’ve imagined.

It was the train whistle that finally drew their lips apart. He didn’t lower her to her feet, though; just pressed his forehead to hers and tried not to gloat at how heavy she was breathing. “I’m going to miss my train, honeysuckle.”

“Good. You don’t belong in San Francisco. You belong here, with us.”

“Us?”

“Your family, Vincenzo. Eddie and Gordy and…me.” She pulled back a bit, and he let her slip down his body and stand on her own feet. “I don’t want you to leave. I want you to stay and make your life here in Everland. I want to live with you, and read to you, and listen to you teach our son to be a world-class violinist.”

He had to be sure. Reaching up, he yanked the blindfold down, so it hung around his neck. “Even looking like this?”

He felt her gentle touch on his cheek, and then brow. “The first time I saw you, Vincenzo, you looked like this. You still moved me to tears with your incredible talent. I knew from that very moment that you were special, no matter how you looked, but it took me a while to realize it.”

His was flying again. He felt like a different man, a better man. “I told you that I’ve never loved another woman the way I loved my Jane—“

“And I’ve never loved a man the way I loved my Edward. But…” His breath caught. “But I think that I could. I love you, Vincenzo. I’m sorry it took me so long to realize it.”

Throwing back his head, he laughed, loudly and freely and full of hope for the future. Then, wrapping his arms around her once more, he pulled her into another kiss, one she enthusiastically returned.