“I would have hidden you from the pain you suffered here,” his grandmother told him. “But I couldn’t take you. It’s strictly forbidden, even if… I could only give you the key, my dearest grandson. You had to do the rest. The key would have brought you to the future. I had to leave you to prepare that future for you, but you had forgotten about the key. You forgot everything. So, I sent her here to you to heal you. But this isn’t where she belongs.”
He closed his eyes. What if Aria chose to stay? Would she be punished, as his mother had been? “Then…why would you send me where I don’t belong?”
“My grandson,” she began tenderly, “you belong to either here or there. You see, you were conceived in Dartmouth Castle in 1767 and born in 1999 in an apartment in Astoria, New York.”
He laughed, it was a mocking sound, not a merry one. “You’re mad—”
“In an effort to escape your father, your foolish mother traveled there with you in her belly. She knew better than to give birth to you here. She knew the rules. She couldn’t stay. So she brought you back with her and returned to your father, until she grew miserable again.”
“Maybe,” Aria said scornfully, “she had him in the future because of things called hospitals and painkillers.”
Gray looked at her and found himself wondering what hospitals and painkillers would be like in the future. He was allowed to go. He was being told to go.
His gaze warmed on Aria. He didn’t have to lose her. Did it mean that much to him that he didn’t? How could his heart feel light when he’d just learned the truth about his mother? But his mother had been gone for eighteen years. He didn’t want to miss Aria for that long, or even for a day.
This key will lead you to your heart’s desire.
He reached out his fingertips and touched Aria’s temple. She was his heart’s desire.
It will help you heal.
The key had brought her to him, and she was healing his weary soul. He thought about what Harper had told him. He wouldn’t mind giving Aria seven children. He smiled slightly thinking about it.
She blushed as if reading his thoughts. He knew she didn’t possess that gift, but she could read his different, very subtle facial expressions.
“My dear, Aria,” his grandmother said, breaking through his thoughts of a future with Aria. “First, I know your dedication to your family. Dear girl, I know it better than anyone else. I saw the sacrifice you made every day for them. I wouldn’t leave them with nothing. I gave your mother your “pay” while you were away. Plus, a hefty bonus, which you deserve. She no longer has to worry about paying the rent or buying food. I didn’t take care of all of it while you were there because not having help strengthened you and made you an even better person.”
While she spoke, Gray noticed that Aria was holding back her tears. The tip of her pert nose turned red, and so did the whites of her eyes. Her cool blue irises grew more vivid and sparkling. But she remained silent, letting her friend explain herself.
“Perhaps I should have told you that you would be leaving them. But you never would have agreed to come here.”
Gray caught Aria’s eye when she glanced at him. Was she thinking that she wouldn’t have met him? How did she feel about that possibility?
“I’ll send you home, child.”
Gray turned away at her words. If he went with her, he’d be giving Dartmouth to Cavendish. Why did he care about people who thought he was a mad monster, or worse—a witch like his mother? Let Cavendish rule over them. Let them all be stuck in this drab life, void of creativity and originality. Aria showed him a little bit of her future in the way she danced and in the way she passed no judgment on him when she saw how he dressed and how he danced. He wanted to go with her when she went home.
“I’m sure the key will turn up,” his grandmother said, sounding convinced.
“Where is it?” Gray asked her. She didn’t answer him but continued speaking to Aria.
“The door is any door in this castle. When the time comes, just focus on something from home and turn the key.”
“All this time,” Aria said softly, “the door was any door?”
His grandmother nodded. “I am sorry, child, but…was coming here really so terrible?”
Gray faced her slowly, awaiting her answer.
“Does meeting him cancel out what you did to me?” Aria asked. “I was close to being frostbitten, alone and clueless in thepast. My logical mind had to stop working. I had to trust a stranger and sleep in his sister’s bed. Every day, every second of being away from my family was difficult, but no, it wasn’t terrible after seeing Gray dance. After seeing him dance, I became selfish.”
His grandmother smiled. “You haven’t a selfish bone in your body. Aria,” she said a moment later, growing serious again. She glanced at him. “I love this boy desperately and I hated being away for so long, but…” her gaze rested on Aria again.… “I wouldn’t let anyone who wasn’t worthy of him get so close to him. Sarah Gable and Rose Planc de’Vere are lovely women, but they couldn’t make him happy. And after being alone for so long, he deserves a woman who will stay by his side all her days.”
Aria slipped her gaze to him. Did she look worried? When her teeth chattered, he stepped closer to her and took her hands in his. “Let’s return to the castle.”
“Gray,” his grandmother said, stopping him. “Don’t go tonight. There are affairs to be seen to here so that they will be uncontested in the future. I need you here for at least a day.”
He nodded and turned back for the castle with Aria’s hand in his.