The Cursed One (25 page)

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Authors: Ronda Thompson

BOOK: The Cursed One
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Gabriel stared at the lights burning in the windows of
his family home, Wulfglen. Amelia must be inside now, surrounded, he hoped, by his brothers, hearing the tale of how she'd come to be there. He longed to be there, too, beside her. He longed to be an ordinary man who'd just had an extraordinary adventure. But of course he was not ordinary, nor had he ever been.
Even now, as darkness fell, he felt the wolf inside preparing to emerge. Gabriel would roam the woods of his home as a beast. For how long? How long until he could go home again?
“Tell me your hopes and dreams.”
Startled, he turned to see Amelia standing a short distance from him. “I thought you would have gone on to the house. What are you doing out here?”
She shrugged, and for a moment she looked like a lost little girl with her valise sitting beside her on the ground. “It's odd, to travel for days, fearing for your life, only to find when your destination looms up before you, you cannot go.”
Gabriel was confused and more than a little concerned that the beast would soon be upon him and
Amelia had not taken herself to a safe haven. “Of course you can go,” he said. “It's just there.” He nodded toward the house. “Someone is home or all the lights wouldn't be burning. I haven't seen the place lit up like that in years.”
“Come with me,” she said softly.
He longed to, but he could not. “You know I can't,” he said. “Not now. Not when the night is nearly upon me. You shouldn't be here. I'm afraid I'll hurt you, Amelia.”
“You already have,” she said. “But I do not fear you when you become the beast. I told you, you won't hurt me. Besides, perhaps your brothers have found a way around the curse, since they are happily married.”
“I do not know,” he said. “But I do know I am not willing to take a chance that I might not hurt you. And neither should you.”
She took a step toward him. “That is how we differ. I am willing to take chances. I am willing to trust.”
Her stubbornness was a trait he might find endearing under different circumstances. “I do not want you here,” he said more harshly than he wanted. He had to make her understand she should go. Even if a small part of him did not want her to go. Not ever.
She bowed her head and he hated having to be harsh with her. Amelia Sinclair Collingsworth could wrap him around her little finger with a pout or a tear. He knew that and wished he could spend the rest of his life spoiling her. Loving her and making love to her.
“I am afraid,” she whispered.
Afraid? She shouldn't be afraid of anything now, except him. Mora and Raef had kept their word. Robert's
death would be ruled an accident once Amelia reported him missing and his body was found in the fields. She would be a young widow, wealthy due to her own dowry, which Robert had not had time to spend. Collingsworth Manor would belong to her, since Robert had no living relatives and Amelia had been his wife, even if for only a night. Gabriel had made certain the consummation of her marriage could not be questioned. What did she have to fear?
Although he wanted to keep distance between them, he was drawn to her, standing in the coming dark, looking like a lost child. He walked to where she stood, reached out, and lifted her chin.
“What are you afraid of, Amelia?”
Her eyes shimmered with tears when she looked up at him. “I don't want to go back to my world without you. I would rather stay here in yours.”
She couldn't mean what she'd just said. How could she trade the glittering life she had known for one in the shadows? Why would she want to? He didn't want her to; not even in his most selfish dreams could he deny her all that she deserved in life. That was when Gabriel realized he did have dreams, he did have hopes. Amelia had given them to him again.
“Let me tell you my hopes and dreams,” he said. He reached out and gently took her shoulders between his hands, pulling her closer. “I hope that you will be happy. I hope that you will become the most shocking woman in London, because you will live your life as you choose, and not how others would have you live it. I hope you will savor each day, because now you know what it is like to fear that you have no tomorrows left.
And no matter what happens to me, I will dream of you. I will dream of seeing you dancing in a London ballroom, or riding in men's trousers and boots, and it will warm my heart. It will see me through whatever I must face.”
She smiled softly at him. “And have you no dreams and hopes for yourself?”
He thought about it for a moment. And he realized that he did. “To be as brave as you are. To be as strong as you are. To love as you love, and trust as you trust. To feel compassion and know there is no shame in it. To understand that my weaknesses are what make me human, and to therefore cling to them.”
Her eyes were the softest blue in the coming dark. “Oh, Gabriel,” she whispered. “I do love you so.”
He didn't resist when she rose on her tiptoes and kissed him. And somewhere in his jaded heart, he began to believe that she did love him. That neither of them could have escaped this moment in time no matter what paths their lives had taken. He had known from the moment he saw her on the streets of London months ago that she was special.
“I love you, too, Amelia,” he said against her lips. “And no curse will stop me from loving you.”
She pulled back to look at him. “Let me stay with you. Out here in the darkness tonight; then come morning, together, we will go to the house.”
Doubt immediately returned. Allow Amelia to stay with him? While the curse took him? While he became a beast to roam the night? Could he do what she had asked and trust in himself? How could he when he would soon not be himself? And yet, staring down
into her eyes, Gabriel thought that for her, he could do anything.
“Please,” she whispered. “Trust in me; trust in yourself. Trust in our love.”
Did he dare? God, he wanted to so badly. To cast off the dark cloud that had hovered over his head for ten years. Walk in the sunshine with her by his side. Feel whole. Feel loved. Be happy despite all the odds stacked against him. Live each moment with her as if it were his last. Her eyes told him he could … that his hopes and dreams were in reach. Could he hold out his hand to them?
“All right, Amelia,” he said. “I will trust in myself and in my love for you. And pray to God that doing so is not a mistake.”
He thought to bend and kiss her again before the darkness came to claim him, but the pain in his stomach hit him so quickly that it made him gasp and stumble back from her. He went to his knees.
“It's happening, Amelia,” he said through clenched teeth.
She bent beside him. “I am here with you,” she said. “I am not afraid.”
He was. Not for himself, but for her. If Amelia could have courage in the face of the beast, so could he. It took all of his strength, all of his will, to trust as she asked him to do. He let the beast come. Challenged it to steal his dreams and hopes. Shouted out against the pain. Amelia was still there. He felt her cool hand against his forehead.
His eyes had started to blur, but he focused upon her beautiful face. “I love you, Amelia,” he said.
“And I love you,” she said in return.
Something boiled up inside of him. He thought he would become ill and tried to turn onto his stomach to retch, but it was not bile that spilled from his throat. It was a blue light. Wider and wider his mouth opened until he thought his jaws would crack. Amelia stumbled away from him, but she did not run. He saw her through a haze, felt pinned to the ground, unable to do anything but open his mouth wider for the blue light. It seemed to last forever, seemed to pull his very insides out with it as it spilled forth into the air. And as he watched it float above him, the light took shape. The shape of a wolf.
It now stood upon his chest and the pressure crushed him. It lowered its head and stared down into his eyes. Gabriel gasped for breath. Amelia appeared above him. Her face was pale.
“Get off of him!” she shouted.
The wolf raised its head and stared at her.
“Begone, beast!”
Helpless to do anything but lie there, for Gabriel felt as if he'd been beaten black-and-blue, he saw the beast flinch at her words; then it crawled off of him and slunk into the night. Gabriel's breath came back to him in a gasp. Amelia was kneeling beside him again.
“Gabriel!” Tears filled her eyes. “Gabriel, speak to me! Tell me you're all right!”
It took him a moment longer to catch his breath. A moment longer still to find the strength to reach up and pull her down to him. He held her pressed against him and felt her tears against his neck. And then the enormity of what had just happened struck him. The beast
had left him. He felt its absence. In the coming dark, he had trouble making out the trees overhead. He couldn't hear anything but normal night sounds around him.
“It's gone,” he said.
Amelia raised her head to look down at him. “What do you mean?”
“The curse, Amelia. It's broken.”
Her eyes widened. “Are you certain?”
He was. And for the first time in ten years, he felt free. Truly free. He pulled her down so that he could kiss her. “Love is the curse, but 'tis also the key.”
As their lips met, he understood the riddle. He understood his enemy had lain within himself. His inability to trust. Amelia's love had given him the strength to overcome his greatest enemy. And now, he was free to love her. Free to marry her. Free to have a life besides the solitary one he had chosen for himself. It was the greatest joy he had ever known, to dream again. To hope again.
While their lips lingered against each other, Gabriel felt his strength returning. His ardor returned just as quickly and he wanted to take her there on the ground. To make sweet love to her and know he was not deceiving her. He would never deceive her again.
“Don't you think we should go home?” she asked between kisses. “I'd love a hot bath and a soft bed. And you in both with me.”
He laughed. “You are shocking, Amelia Sinclair Collingsworth … soon to be Wulf.”
She pulled back and smiled down at him; then she frowned. “Not very soon. I must honor my mourning period of one year.”
The thought made him groan. “A year? I doubt that society will approve of me sleeping in your bed every night up until the nuptials. And I fully intend to.”
Amelia laughed. “I will suddenly develop a great love for spending time at my friend Rosalind's country estate. I cannot go back to Collingsworth Manor, Gabriel. Once we are wed, we will tear it down and use the land for the horses.”
It was a good plan. A dream, a hope he would never let go. Gabriel eased Amelia off of him, rose, and offered her his hand. “I miss my brothers. I need to tell them what has happened to me. If I can break the curse, so can they.”
She took his hand and he helped her rise, reached down and grabbed her valise, and together they walked toward the lights of Wulfglen. Gabriel suddenly wondered what his brothers would think of him showing up with a woman whose wedding they had attended only a week ago. He smiled over the mayhem sure to come.
Gabriel couldn't have been more surprised when
Hawkins answered his summons at the door. The man rarely visited the country estate but kept the home fires burning in London when the Wulfs were not in residence at the townhome. The man's cool expression never faltered upon seeing Gabriel standing at the door wearing coarse clothing and with a woman wearing outlandish boots with her torn and dirty gown.
“Lord Gabriel,” Hawkins said formally. “Welcome home.”
The man's gaze moved to Amelia. “Lady Collingsworth,” he clipped, then bowed before he straightened and opened the door wider. Gabriel led Amelia inside. He heard voices coming from the front parlor. A man he did not recognize came down the hallway carrying a bottle of brandy. Both stopped and stared at each other.
“Who the hell are you?” Gabriel asked him.
“Merrick,” the man answered. “Who the hell are you?”
It suddenly occurred to Gabriel that the man standing
in his hallway was the spitting image of Jackson, only his hair was dark.
“Merrick, where's that brandy?” A man stepped into the hallway. Gabriel didn't recognize him, either … at least not for a moment. His eyes stung with tears when he finally did.
“Sterling,” he rasped.
Sterling Wulf, his youngest brother, whom Gabriel had not seen in ten years, stared back at him. “Gabriel,” he said. “We were just making plans about you, and wondering where the hell you were.”
Gabriel set the valise down, released Amelia's hand, and stepped forward to hug his brother. Sterling had run away the day their mother died. None of them had seen him since. They had feared he was dead.
“Good God, man, where have you been?” Gabriel said against Sterling's shoulder.
“Traveling about with a circus troupe,” he answered. “At least until my son was born. Then I thought it best to bring him home.”
“Your son?” Gabriel found it shocking enough just to have Sterling home.
Sterling grinned, glanced at the man standing behind them, and said, “Have you met our half brother, Merrick?”
Gabriel could only nod dumbly.
“Where's the brandy?” Armond stepped into the hall. Upon seeing Gabriel, he breathed an obvious sigh of relief. “Gabriel, thank God you finally came home. We were planning to come and search for you.”
Armond stepped forward and slapped Gabriel on the shoulder.
Jackson came into the hallway next. “Where the bloody hell did everyone go? Left me alone in there with all the ladies, not that I minded so much, but Lucinda and I wanted tea and I thought I'd tell Hawkins …” His voice trailed upon noticing Gabriel. “About time you came home, Brother,” he grumbled. “I was actually starting to worry about your sorry hide.”
Gabriel smiled and pulled Jackson into a hug. All the brothers, with the exception of Merrick, who hung back simply taking in the exchange, hugged. Then Gabriel saw Armond's eyes squint into the shadows.
“Lady Collingsworth? What are you doing here?”
Gabriel stepped away from his brothers and took her hand, pulling her into the light. “It's a long story,” he said.
Armond glanced between the two of them. “Hawkins! Bring more brandy!” he shouted.
“And tea!” Jackson added.
 
An hour later, Amelia was soaking in a tub upstairs.
Gabriel had not joined her, as was their original plan. Instead, she was surrounded by Rosalind, Armond's wife; Lucinda, Jackson's wife; Lady Anne Wulf, formally Baldwin, Merrick's wife; and Elise, who was married to Sterling, both of whom Amelia had never met.
After days of seclusion, running for her life, the room upstairs seemed overly bright and overly crowded. Amelia knew the men were cloistered in the study downstairs. She felt certain Gabriel was telling them about his and Amelia's extraordinary adventure and about his own. She, to the opposite, didn't even
know where to begin explaining what had happened to her at Collingsworth Manor.
Rosalind helped Amelia wash her hair. She was comforted by her friend's presence but would have been more so by Gabriel's. It was odd, but for days Amelia had been hoping to awake from a nightmare and now she actually was afraid she would wake up in her room in London and discover she had dreamed it all. That Gabriel did not even know her, had never made love to her. That they had not vowed to marry in a year, when her mourning period had ended.
“When you feel like talking about what happened, I will be here for you,” Rosalind said softly. “We are all here for you,” she added, including the women stationed around the room like a small army. “We have all seen things no ordinary person has seen. We will understand what no one else ever will or can.”
Emotion closed Amelia's throat. “Is the curse broken then?” she asked softly. “For all Wulf brothers?”
Rosalind smiled, although somewhat sadly. “For now,” she answered, then unconsciously pressed a hand against the noticeable bulge beneath her dress. “Who knows what the future will bring? But together we will all stand strong against the bad and share each other's joys.”
Having finished her bath, Amelia glanced around for a towel. Rosalind lifted a fluffy one from beside her and held it open. Amelia rose from the tub, immediately wrapped in the soft fabric. She was steered toward a vanity table where she sat while Rosalind brushed out her wet hair.
“Tell me, friend,” Rosalind asked, “do you still not believe in love?”
Amelia's eyes met Rosalind's in the vanity glass. She smiled at her. “What do you think?”
Rosalind laughed, as did the other women gathered in the room. “I think you have been captured by a Wulf,” Rosalind said. “We are all captives, very willing captives,” she added.
“A word of warning,” Lady Anne said. “The Wulf brothers seem to be highly fertile. There isn't a woman in this room who isn't currently breeding or already a mother. Well, except for you,” she added. “Prepare to be a mostly-swollen-with-child captive.”
It wasn't a horrible thought; in fact, it was a most pleasing thought, Amelia decided. Part of her dreams was to have little boys running around her skirts who favored their very handsome father.
“I hope I am not swollen before I am able to marry Gabriel next year,” she said, then realized what she'd confessed. Her cheeks burned for a moment, but she saw no censuring in the warm gazes trained upon her. Instead, Lucinda, Jackson's wife, a beautiful redhead rumored to be a witch, walked over and placed a hand against Amelia's stomach.
Curious, Amelia stared at the woman as she closed her eyes, seemingly lost in a trance. A moment later, Lucinda opened her eyes and smiled down at Amelia. “You will not get your wish,” she said softly.
Amelia hoped her mouth didn't drop open. Surely Lucinda couldn't know what Amelia couldn't possibly know until more time had passed, but she had a very
strong feeling Lucinda was right. Just the thought made Amelia warm and tingly inside.
“You said you wanted to be the most shocking woman in London,” Rosalind reminded her, then gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “Be careful what you wish for, Amelia.”
 
Gabriel had told his brothers the story that had led him
and Amelia back to Wulfglen. He felt a little odd speaking in front of Merrick, who he did not know even existed, but the man was clearly one of them, and Gabriel knew he must accept him as the rest of his brothers obviously had done. Five men, all cursed, but now free. And all because of love.
“Mora and Raef,” Armond spoke, swirling his brandy in his glass. “Do you think they will try again with their plans?”
Gabriel was sure of it. He just wasn't sure when they would try again. Or what they could now do about it if they did. “The curse has been broken for us, but along with it, we have lost our edge,” he said. “We might have used it to our advantage if we someday felt it was necessary to sniff these others out. If they do not play by their own rules.”
“True,” Jackson said. “Now, we are like everyone else.”
Gabriel was amused to see Jackson drinking tea when every other man in the room had a snifter of brandy. He was proud of his brother. He'd obviously fought his demons and emerged the victor, and his wife might be a witch, but she was the prettiest witch
Gabriel had ever seen. The babe, Sebastian, had been introduced to Gabriel before Lucinda took him upstairs for bed, and although Amelia had told him true and the boy did not in the least resemble Jackson, it was clear to Gabriel that his younger brother doted upon the child.
His nephew Trenton was a big strapping babe with blond curls and green eyes who resembled Gabriel more than Sterling, and so he'd immediately taken to the babe. It was all a bit overwhelming. To find Wulfglen, once so quiet and solitary a place, teeming with such life. They even had a housekeeper. Mary was her name and she'd once worked for Rosalind's stepmother. Hawkins, stuffy man that he was, had developed feelings for Sebastian's nurse, Martha. Jackson predicted the woman wouldn't be leaving, even when the babe was old enough to no longer need her plump breasts.
“Pardon, but I couldn't help but overhear.” Lucinda, Jackson's wife, stepped into the study.
Gabriel was immediately struck by her beauty and the warmth in her eyes when she glanced at her husband. She clearly adored the scoundrel, and to Gabriel's surprise, Jackson in turn clearly adored her. Odd, but Gabriel recalled hearing certain rumors when Jackson returned from abroad over a year ago that he'd been chasing one Lady Anne Baldwin all over Europe. And now that same lady was in the house, married to a man who was Jackson's half brother.
There was no tension between either couple, so Gabriel assumed the past was not an issue between them. Lucinda walked across the room to stand beside
her husband. Jackson, naughty as ever, pulled her playfully down into his lap.
“What is on your mind, Wife?” Jackson asked. “Besides when I'm coming up to bed.”
Lucinda flushed and gave Jackson a halfhearted nudge to the ribs. “Behave,” she said. “Gabriel, I heard your concerns about losing the gifts that went along with your curse. There is something you should know, something I have not even told Jackson.”
“You tell me everything,” Jackson argued, summoning an expression of mock hurt.
“This is serious,” she said, and Jackson's expression immediately lost its playfulness.
Lucinda rose from Jackson's lap and walked to a large window that overlooked the front lawn of Wulfglen. “I'd like for you to all to come to the window for a moment.”
Gabriel had no choice but to follow suit when his brothers rose and joined Lucinda. He was bone tired and he wanted to go upstairs and crawl into bed with Amelia. He joined them all by the window.
“Look out there, along the tree line,” Lucinda instructed.
Gabriel realized in that moment that his gift of seeing easily in the dark was gone. He squinted in the direction she had instructed them to look and saw nothing … at first. Five sets of glowing eyes shone in the darkness. Gabriel tensed.
“The others, they lied. They are out there.” He immediately thought to search for weapons to protect themselves, but Lucinda stopped him.
“No, it is not these others you spoke of. It is the spirit of the wolf that once dwelled in each of you.”
“Why are they there?” Jackson asked his wife. “What are they waiting for?”
She glanced at each brother in turn. “For you to call them back.”
“Call them back?” Armond repeated. “Why in bloody hell would we want to do that? Bring the curse upon ourselves again?”
Lucinda shook her head. “No, not a curse, because the choice is yours this time. They are only there in case you need them.”
Gabriel was confused. “But how could they help us? When the wolf took me, I could not remember what I did or where I went. The gift is not a gift at all if it cannot be controlled.”
“But it can be controlled,” Jackson informed him. “Lucinda taught me how to think like a man, even in the form of a wolf. If need be, I'm certain she can teach all of you, as well.”
Gabriel hadn't been normal long enough to know if he missed having the gifts that went along with the curse. “If need be,” he agreed. “Until then, they can stay put.”
The night got the best of him. He was tired, and he wanted to be with Amelia, regardless that he was filled with joy to be home, to have all of his brothers, even one he didn't know about, at home with him. Gabriel walked over and took what was left of the brandy and two glasses.
“I am retiring for the evening,” he said to everyone. “We can catch up with one another in the morning.”
It didn't escape his notice that each of his brothers took note of the second glass in his hand and raised
their brows. Gabriel just smiled at them and moved toward the door leading from the study.

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