He dropped his eyes to the floor and nodded his head. “Your hate would never change my love.”
And then he left.
Alone in the parlor, Scarlet let centuries of tears spill down her face.
CHAPTER 16
Charleston 1790
Scarlet exhaled through her nostrils, slowly and with a low grunt, as Nathaniel checked her eyes for the fourth time that month.
He smiled at her. “You are not a very patient thing, are you?”
“It is not a matter of patience, but a matter of I’m-fine-go-away.”
Nathaniel chuckled as he dropped his hands from her face. “You do, indeed, look healthy.” He listened to her chest with the odd device he’d been carrying around his neck lately. “And your heart sounds fine. I think my biggest health concern with you is your mood. It is dreadful.”
“Is it?” she asked dryly.
He nodded. “Yes. And you look awful.”
“You flatter me.”
He looked at her sympathetically. “Too bad medicine cannot fix a sad heart.”
“Too bad, indeed.” Scarlet sighed, not even pretending to hide her brokenness. Nathaniel knew she missed Tristan. Gabriel knew. The birds and the flowers knew. It was no secret.
She watched him take her pulse. “Have you ever been in love, Nathaniel?”
“I have loved before, yes. But I do not believe I have ever been in love. Not in the way you are suggesting, I suppose.” He smiled. “Someday, though.”
A moment passed and he cleared his throat. “I have obtained some new information about your condition.”
“Oh? Is it good news?”
“Not exactly.” He shifted. “It seems the connection you and Tristan share is stronger than it is supposed to be. Glowing eyes mean that the immortal blood in your body has taken on a greater power than it should—and they only glow when you are close to dying or incredibly frightened. The problem is that there is not a way to undo the strength of your connection once it has intensified. Had you and Tristan kept from touching in your last life, you potentially could have lived out a full lifetime, died, and then returned again. But because your connection became…stronger, you are permanently more vulnerable to death. So touching Tristan, even in the slightest, will strengthen the bond even more and make you more susceptible to your semi-immortal state. Which is why it is critical that you take your distance from him seriously. I know you are sad, but it truly is to protect you.”
Scarlet nodded. So their excessive touching in her last life had turned her into a fragile semi-immortal? Brilliant.
Just one more reason to be angry with the world.
Scarlet managed not to grumble throughout the rest of Nathaniel’s examination and, once it was over, bustled into her room. She essentially had the entire left wing of Gabriel’s house to herself. Well, herself and Beatrice—the jolly woman Gabriel had hired to tie Scarlet into dresses and force her out of bed in the morning.
“What is the doctor’s word, Miss Scarlet?” Beatrice asked, laying skirts on the bed as Scarlet entered the room.
“He says I’m healthy, but I look awful. Why is everyone so concerned about my mood?”
“Because Mr. Archer says you are a beautiful thing when you are happy and we would all wish to see that.” Beatrice smiled.
By “Mr. Archer” she meant Gabriel—since Tristan had disappeared completely—and by “we” she meant the household driver, Jensen, and herself.
“Happiness is overrated.” Scarlet stared the layers of material Beatrice was fluffing. “What is all that?”
“It is your dress for the day.”
Scarlet tried to look as horrified as possible. “And why, exactly, do I need to wear a dress?”
Beatrice smiled. “Because Mr. Archer wants to take you out and I refuse to let you go wandering around in that dirty mop skirt you’re so insistent on wearing everyday.”
“This mop skirt,” Scarlet gripped at the linen around her waist, “is comfortable. This,” she plucked up the light blue bodice on the bed and wrinkled her nose, “is misery. Will these blasted corsets ever go out of fashion?”
“Probably not. Now, quit arguing and come get dressed.”
Scarlet sighed and made herself available as Beatrice bustled about, yanking fabric over her head and around her body. “If I didn’t love you so much, Beatrice, I swear I would throw you out the window.”
Beatrice laughed. “Then it is a good thing you love me.”
An hour later, Gabriel smiled as he watched Scarlet shift around in her dress in the front room, cursing under her breath in a very unladylike—yet entirely entertaining—way.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“Yes. Yes.” She flipped a hand at him. “Let’s get on with your foolproof plan to cheer me up.”
He laughed. “Why are you so determined to be miserable? Not everything in your life is dreary. Just this morning I saw you smile at breakfast.”
“That is because you served me chocolate.”
“Then I’ll be sure to keep extra chocolate around for future bouts of depression.”
Scarlet put her hands on her hips. “I am not depressed.”
Had he not understood how sad she was with Tristan gone, Gabriel would have laughed at her. But instead, he kissed her cheek.
“Yes, you are,” he said quietly. “But that is what I’m here for.” He gave her his arm. “Come along. I want to show you something.”
As they headed out the front of the house, Jensen, the driver Gabriel and Tristan shared, tipped his hat at them.
“Where to, Mr. Archer?” Jensen opened the carriage door and helped Scarlet inside. Gabriel heard her growl as her skirts caught in the door latch, causing her to stumble against the seat inside.
“I hope in my next life, all women dress like boys. I’m never wearing a skirt again.”
Gabriel smiled. “Well, that would be a shame. You look so good in a skirt.”
“Shut up.” She gathered her dress around her and sat down, facing forward with her frown back in place.
Jensen, taking in this scene with his respectful lack of interest in Scarlet’s claiming to have a ‘next life’, waited patiently on Gabriel’s instructions.
“First we shall go to town, where I’m very much hoping there will be something to temper the cat we’ve just herded into the carriage—
“I am not a cat.”
“And then,” Gabriel went on, “I would like to take Miss Jacobs to the back of the property.”
Jensen nodded. “Very well, sir.”
Gabriel crammed into the carriage with Scarlet and soon they were on their way to town. He leaned back in his seat and shook his head with a smile.