I run both hands through my hair, though what I really want is to pull it out, my despair is so overwhelming.
“What I was trying to tell you, Your Grace, is that the accident involving Her Grace was caused intentionally.”
“What?”
“The duchess was forced off the road by another driver. Miss Elizabeth Boyd.”
My blood boils. Despite loving Jazmina, the hatred I’ve cultivated for years resurfaces easily inside me. “Where is that bitch? I’ll go to hell if I have to, but she’ll pay for what she did.”
“You won’t have to go to such lengths. I believe she’s already there. Apparently, she wasn’t satisfied with forcing your wife off the road and wanted to see the damage she’d done, even though the car was already on fire. The duchess had escaped, however, and Miss Boyd approached at the exact moment of the explosion. She died.”
The next day
I haven’t left her side.
I had a vague sense that at some point Athol came into the room and said Kaled was arriving in Scotland, but aside from that, every thought was for Jazmina and my child.
They are both fine, and I spent the last day thanking God for yet another miracle.
There is a difference betweenacceptanceanddesire.
When I learned she was pregnant in Rheadur, because I loved her so much, Iacceptedour child and the idea of having a family.
Now, after nearly losing everything, after seeing our world shattered, I understood that I don’t merely accept having children with her—I desire it with every drop of my blood.
Not only because it is Jazmina’s dream to bear descendants, but because it will be the crowning of our love.
My head rests on the gurney as I hold her hand, and when I feel a gentle caress in my hair, I think I’m dreaming.
“I thought I would never see you again. I was so afraid . . .”
I squeeze my eyes shut before looking at her. Jazmina was so brave. Even hurt—and I’m sure, terrified—she fought for her life and for our child’s.
I finally lift my head. “I wouldn’t survive without you,” I confess.
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s the truth. I may never have managed to show you what it meant for me to fall in love with you, princess. I didn’t think it could happen because to love a woman, one must trust her, and until then, I thought that was only possible with my friends and Athol. Loving you was like walking into a house in the dark. Not the familiar kind—ours—where you’ve been many times and know where the furniture is, but one I’d never walked through before, risking bumping into something precious, breaking myself or you forever in the process.”
A single tear falls from her eyes. “And still, you did it. You took all the risks.”
“I wish I could say it was a choice, but it wasn’t, Jazmina. You slipped under my skin in such a way that I could do nothing but let you stay.”
“You didn’t want to love me?”
“At first, no. But it took very little time for me to see that I couldn’t send you away. I love you. I need you in my life. This baby. And the children we may have.”
Her crying intensifies, and it isn’t the reaction I expected.
I stand and pull her into me, careful with her broken arm. “Did I say something wrong?”
“That woman tried to kill me because I’m carrying your child. She said we would have a mixed-race child and that you should marry someone of your own color.”
I feel my jaw clench. “She was crazy, love.”
“No. Deep down, it’s the same thing my people think. What have we done, Rodrick? Will we bring children into the world just for them to suffer?”
I hold her face. “Jazmina, prejudice exists everywhere, at all social levels. It isn’t your people or mine but the narrowminded mentality of some individuals. We can’t protect our children from everything, but we can teach them not to bow their heads to anyone.”