Johanna Lindsey - Captive Bride

"That's enough, Christina! You're playing me for a fool again, and I won't have it. You have always wanted him, so don't try to tell me otherwise!" Tommy raged, the muscles twitching in his cheek. "All the time we were engaged you wouldn't even let me touch you, but you've let him put his hands on you, haven't you? Well, no more! You won't have him, Christina—nor his son." Tommy laughed again when he heard her gasp, but he kept a steady eye on the motionless Philip. "Did you think I would leave that brat alive to remind you of him? No, Christina—they will both die! I have two bullets, one for each of them."

"You will have to use them both on me, Huntington. And even then I will tear you apart." Philip's voice was calm but deadly.

"I doubt that, Caxton—I am an excellent shot. My first bullet will find your heart, and that will leave me one to kill that bastard son of yours. She will have nothing left of you." He paused and stared blankly at the floor. "You were all I ever wanted, Crissy, but they took you away from me." He looked up at Philip, and the madness returned to his eyes.

Tommy raised one of the pistols and aimed straight at Philip's heart. A bloodcurdling scream escaped Christina, and she plunged forward just as Tommy fired. Philip had stepped aside to avoid the bullet, but he was able to catch Christina in his arms as she collapsed, blood pouring from a head wound.

Christina felt that she was falling, falling in slow motion and spinning around and around. Everything flashed red before her eyes—and then blackness engulfed her.

"Oh my God. What have I done? I've killed her!" " Tommy cried. The color drained from his face, and with a sickening cry he turned and ran down the stairs. But before he'd reached the front door, John came tearing through the dining room, with Kareen and Johnsy right behind him.

"Tommy!" John yelled, halting him at the door. Tommy turned slowly around, and John paled at the sight of the two pistols in his hands. "My God! What have you done?" Tommy dropped the weapons instantly, as if they burned his hands. But one pistol was still loaded, and it exploded with a horrible sound when it hit the floor. An anguished scream echoed from upstairs. Tommy fell to his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"She's come to haunt me already!" Tommy cried. "Oh, God, Crissy, I didn't mean to hurt you. I loved you."

"Stay where you are, Tommy," John commanded in a choked voice before he ran up the stairs, the women right behind him.

"Where will I go?" Tommy mumbled to himself in the empty hall. "Why doesn't Caxton come after me? Justice must be done! Oh, God, how could I have been so blind as not to see how much she loved him—so much that she would run into my line of fire to protect him? I can't live with what I've done—I want to diel"

DAMN it, Doctor, why won't she wake up? It's been 3Ljr three days now, and you said it was only a superficial wound—it didn't even need bandaging!" John paced the floor in Christina's bedroom as old Dr. Willis closed his bag.

"From what Mr. Caxton tells me, I'm afraid Christina's condition is mental, not physical. When she awoke from the first faint and heard the second shot, she instantly assumed her son had been killed. There is absolutely no reason why she shouldn't wake up—she just doesn't want to."

"But she has every reason to live!"

"We know that, but she doesn't. All I can suggest is that you sit here and talk to her—try to bring her out of it. And don't fret so much, John. In all my years, I have never lost a patient who died of plain stubbornness. Except your mother. But she was awake, she willed herself to die. Talk to Christina. Tell her that boy of hers needs her—tell her anything that might make her come out of it Once she's awake, she will be fine."

After Doctor Willis left, Philip came into the room and stood beside the bed.

"What did Willis have to say?" Philip asked soberly.

"That there is no reason why she shouldn't wake up, she just doesn't want to!" John replied heatedly. "Damn itl She's willing herself to die from grief, just as our mother did."

Late that night, after John had spent the whole day talking to her, Christina finally opened her eyes.

She looked at John, who was sitting in a chair beside her bed, and she wondered why he was there. Then she remembered what had happened.

"Oh, God, no—no!" she cried hysterically.

"It's all right, Crissy—Philip Junior is all right! He is alive, I swear it!" John said quickly.

"Don't—don't lie to me, John," Christina implored him through her sobs.

"I swear, Crissy, no harm came to your son. He is in the next room sleeping."

She couldn't stop crying. "I heard the shot. I heard itl"

"The shot you heard came from downstairs, Crissy, when Tommy dropped his pistols on the floor. No one was hurt by it—Philip Junior is all right."

Christina threw back the covers and started to get out of bed. But a blinding pain shot through her head, and she fell back onto the pillow. "I have to see for myself."

"Very well, Crissy, if you won't believe me. But sit up slowly this time. You've been in bed for three days."

John finally had to carry her into the nursery. He set her down gently beside the bassinet and held her so she wouldn't fall. Christina looked down at her sleeping son. She put her hand close to his small face and felt his warm breath, then she caressed his cheek. He stirred and turned his head.

"He is alive," she whispered happily. John picked her up and carried her back to her bed. She started crying again from sheer joy.

"I'll have some food brought up, Crissy. And then you should rest some more."

"But you said I'd been sleeping for three days. The last thing I need is more rest. I want to know what happened, John," Christina said soberly.

""One of the Huntington servants found me in the stables. Lord Huntington had sent the lad over to warn me that Tommy was coming here armed. I heard the first shot before I reached the house. I found Tommy in the hall. The second shot was fired accidentally. You screamed, and I thought Tommy had already killed Philip. But when I got upstairs, I found that you'd been shot. Crissy—I thought you were dead. But Philip assured me you had only fainted on hearing the second shot If you hadn't blacked out, you would have known that Philip Junior was all right. The first shot didn't bother him, but the second shot echoing through the house scared him and he was screaming his lungs out. He wouldn't even stop crying for Johnsy."

"Philip is all right, too?"

"Yes. You both would have been all right if you hadn't run into the line of fire. I know why you did it, Crissy, but I didn't think it my place to tell Philip. Thank God the bullet only grazed you."

"Where is Philip now?"

"I believe he's downstairs getting drunk, as he has done these last three nights."

"And Tommy—is he all right?"

"Tommy, I think, was more shaken than the rest of us. He really thought he'd killed you. He cried like a baby when I told him you were only unconscious. But I'm afraid he was arrested. After all, he did shoot you."

"But I'm all right—it was only an accident. I don't want him in jail, John. Tommy went crazy because I broke off our engagement. I want you to have him released—tonight."

"I'll see what I can do, but first I'll get you some food."

"Miss Crissy, love, wake up. There's someone 'ere who'd like to see 'is mama."

Christina turned over in bed to see Johnsy rocking Philip Junior in her arms. She smiled, for even though he was being cuddled, he was still fidgeting. She unbuttoned her nightgown, then put him to her breast while she watched Johnsy, who was obviously agitated, straightening the room.