Forever My Love(117)

"Yes," Juliana said, sounding faintly breathless. "Yes, it has worked. My sight is improved." She blinked and looked around the room slowly, her canny sharpness replaced temporarily by an expression of wonder. Then she dabbed once more at the rivulets running down her cheeks, saying gruffly, "My eyes are still watering from those deuced weeds." "It will stop soon," Mira said gravely, respectfully. After Lady Falkner had left, Mira did not know how to answer Rosalie's impatient questions. Although Alec's mother had left with a satisfied smile on her face, nothing had been resolved… had it? Juliana had indicated that she would not tell Alec about the visit, nor would she approach her son on Mira's be­half. What had the meeting actually accomplished? Very little… but somehow Mira was reassured by the knowledge that in Juliana Falkner she had a strong ally.

Another day passed by, and Rosalie began to make alarming hints about possible solutions to the dilemma. Perhaps, she suggested, they could go riding and stop at the Falkner estate on the pretext that Mira's horse had lost a shoe. Perhaps they could call on LadyFalkner at a time when Alec was there. Horrified at the prospect of her friend's well-intentioned meddling, Mira refused all of Rosalie's ideas vehemently. Unex­pectedly Rand lent his support to Mira's side, telling his wife that Alec was not a man to be taken in by such transparent tricks.

"Mira has a right to her pride," he said to Rosalie in private, sitting on the edge of the massive bed they shared and pulling her close to him.

"Pride! This has nothing to do with pride. One has only to look at her to see how unhappy she is—"

"Fleur, I understand that your motives are the best—"

"I just want her to be as happy as we are. It's true that I would not have chosen a man like Lord Falkner for her, but she seems to think that he is the only one… I wish I could convince her that somewhere there is a man capable of giving her his whole heart—"

"Why can't Falkner?"

"Because he is a Falkner."

"Perhaps she sees him with different eyes than you do."

"She doesn't see him at all. She's blind where he is concerned. Rand, do you think there is a chance that he really might love her?"

He smiled and pressed his lips against her forehead, closing his eyes in contentment. "You cannot force love," he murmured, kissing her neck and then the softness of her earlobe, "or create it when it isn't meant to be, or destroy it when it is destined to survive. Don't you"—his lips touched hers gently— "agree?"

Her arms crept around his neck. "No," she said softly. Rand chuckled as he looked into her deep blue eyes.

"My love… you would smother a flower by giving it too much care, too much water and light. Let this one take root on its own. Agreed?"Reluctantly she nodded, smiling at him and lifting her face for another kiss.

The message was signed with the scrawling initial A. Mira examined the note, delivered into her hands early that morning by Mary. The letters were precise and strongly marked. She was not familiar with Alec's handwriting, but this looked like a valid sample. He had asked her to meet with him at the northwest corner of the Berkeley estate at three o'clock. Why had he chosen to meet her this way—wouldn't it have been easier to pay a simple call? Privacy. He wanted privacy, she thought. Her whole body felt as tightly drawn as a bow as she imagined what he might say.

"Rosalie," she said casually during the midafter-noon meal, "I am going out walking after luncheon—"

"Splendid. I will join you."

"Actually," Mira said, giving her a placating smile, "I would like to go alone." Oh, why hadn't she just kept quiet and sneaked out later on?

"Alone?" Rosalie turned to' her husband. "Rand, do you think it is safe for her to go out walking alone?"

"Mira, do you intend to stray far from the Hall?" Rand inquired carelessly.

"No, no…" she said hurriedly. "There is no rea­son for me to go far. Really, I should not have men­tioned it, it is so insignificant."

"Then I have no objection," he replied, causing her to relax with an inward sigh of relief.

"Now, what were you saying before about the docks?" Rosalie asked Rand, and he launched into a grim description of the increase in crime that had started to affect his shipping business. Recently the Bow Street runners that he had hired to protect his various cargoes had caught a number of thieves on the docks, some of whom had confessed to being members of Stop Hole Abbey, an extensive criminal organiza-answers, the irrepressible curiosity, the insistent at­traction when their eyes had met. "Is that why you wanted to meet here?"