The Earl, the Lady and the Song of Love by Fanny Finch
Prologue
The Countess’ screams reverberated off the manor’s walls, seeming to fill every room with the echoes of her agony. Keith Wilkinson, the Earl of Ramsbury, paced outside his wife’s room, his gut clenching with anxiety, though it was not only for fear of his wife’s wellbeing.
He could not shake the feeling of foreboding that hung over his head like a storm cloud. He knew he should be happy in that moment. His first child was about to be born after all.
It should be a day of celebration. A Christmas miracle. Yet, he felt far from joyful.
“Darling, you will never believe the strange conversation I had at the market today…”
His wife’s words from that day, over a year ago, rang through his head as if she had only spoken them to him the day before. She had told him of an old woman who had given her a prophecy. One that claimed that his barren wife would bear a child…and that that child would be his family’s ruin.
“Is not that silly, darling? To think, after ten years, that we would even have a child at all.”
Yet, his wife’s screams ringing through their home were proof that the first part of the woman’s prediction had come true.
Which also means that the other half could come to pass.
Suddenly, Meredith’s screams stopped. Keith froze in his pacing and stared at the doors, his heart hammering wildly in his chest. At length, one of the doors cracked open and a maid who had been assisting with the birth poked her head out.
“My Lord, I have been told to inform you that you may come in now.”
Hesitating just a moment, he gave a curt nod and moved with purposeful steps into the room. The maid stepped aside to allow him to enter, and he paused, once he had crossed the threshold, to gather his bearings.
The room had been darkened, the curtains drawn over all of the windows, and a fire roared in the hearth, making the space stifling despite the freezing temperatures outside.
Another maid and the midwife bustled about the room, their work not quite done as they began to clean up and care for mother and child.
Slowly, Keith made his way closer to the large bed opposite him. In the center of the plush mattress, propped up by pillows and bedding, lay his exhausted wife.
She cast him a soft smile as he neared and raised her hand, reaching for him, though he could see the simple motion required effort on her part. He closed the distance between them and sat on the edge of her bed, taking her hand in his.
“Sweetheart, you look pale,” she chuckled. “Was the birth so trying for you?”
She was teasing him, but he could find no humor in her words. His mind was still racing with his dreadful thoughts and fears, but he did not want to confess them to her.
Not yet.
Forcing a smile, he replied, “I am just happy to see you well, my dear. No one told me how difficult it would be to hear you in such pain, and all the while I was unable to comfort you.”
“That is sweet of you,” she murmured.
Out of the corner of Keith’s eye, he saw a figure approach the bed. Turning, he found the midwife smiling with a small bundle in her arms. His heart jumped in his throat as she bent over to hand the baby to Meredith.
“Is she not perfect, Keith?” his wife asked, glowing with happiness, as she pulled the blanket covering the baby to the side so he could see the infant’s face.
He gazed down at his daughter, but he did not feel the tenderness which he knew a father should feel when seeing his newborn child for the first time.
There were only fear and anxiety as he stared down into her tiny pink face. She appeared so innocent and harmless, and yet…
This small thing is to be our ruin!
“Keith? Darling? Are you all right?”
His eyes shot up and met his wife’s concerned gaze.
“I…I am,” he nodded, forcing his lips to curl into a tight smile. “She is beautiful. Truly.”
His wife’s expression lit up with joy once more as she turned her gaze back down to their baby. Keith felt his own smile dip when Meredith’s attention was off him.
As she cooed over the child, Keith’s mind scrambled to come up with some way to save his family before they faced a ruin he could not foresee.
***
“Keith, darling, come sit with us.”
Glancing up from where he stood, staring into the fireplace, Keith met his wife’s eyes from across the parlor. She was sitting in a cushioned armchair, a blanket tucked in her lap, looking much recovered, despite having given birth just the day before.
Their baby rested in a bassinet beside her chair, sleeping soundly beneath the candlelight softly glowing from the Christmas decorations adorning the parlor.
Slowly, Keith made his way to the chair next to his wife and sank down into its seat. He did not look at Meredith. He simply could not.
He could feel her eyes on him, however.
“Keith, is everything all right? You have been acting strangely all day.”
“How do you mean?” Keith still would not look at her, his eyes darting around the room.
“You have been very distant,” she said. “You have not even held Hope yet.”
He gripped the arms of the seat so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
“Meredith…we must talk about the baby.”
Tension thickened the air around them.
“What do we need to talk about?” she asked in a small voice.
Finally, he forced himself to turn and look at her.
“It is about what that old woman told you a year ago.”
Meredith’s eyes widened in instant shock and disbelief.
“Keith! You cannot possibly still be holding onto that? It was ridiculous. A crazy old woman ranting nonsense…”
“She was right, though, was she not?” he snapped back. “Ten years, Meredith. Ten years we tried to conceive before we lost all hope. We were convinced that you were barren, and then some old woman approaches you and predicts that you will soon be with child…”
“It was just a coincidence,” Meredith hissed, her eyes flashing defensively. “Nothing more.”
Keith shook his head. “No. No, I do not believe it was. I believe the woman was telling you the truth of our future. This child will grow up to somehow ruin our family before she turns eighteen…but you will die before you can witness that.”
Meredith’s breath caught in her throat as she stared at her husband.
“Keith, please, be reasonable…” she pleaded in a forcefully calm tone. “I know you are inclined to certain beliefs, but you cannot let those superstitions cloud your judgement right now.”
Keith could not deny her claim, though it irked him that she would so easily dismiss his concerns. He would readily admit that he was a superstitious man, just as his mother had been, but he firmly believed that there were forces at work in the world that could not be explained away by logic and reason.
In his mind, it was better to err on the side of caution than to dismiss the possibility of the supernatural altogether.
“Your own mind is being clouded by your motherly affection for the child,” he replied sharply. “If there is any chance that old woman’s words could be true, we must do what we can to protect ourselves from the dire fate she laid out for us.”
“What are you thinking?” Meredith asked, her tone cautious. She reached out her hand to grip the bassinet protectively. “Keith, what are you planning to do to our daughter?”
He released a heavy sigh. “I have no intention of hurting the child, so you may put that fear to rest.”
Meredith did not appear to relax at all at his admission. In fact, her fingers tightened around the bassinet.
“What do you intend, then?” she demanded to know.
Keith hesitated, not wishing to hurt her or earn her wrath, but feeling as though he had no other choice to keep them all safe.
“We shall send her away to Wales. To your sister.”
“No!” Meredith instantly cried, causing the baby to stir, though she did not wake. “You will not take my baby from me!”
“Meredith, I am doing this for your own good…”
Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears as her face turned red with her rage.
“Keith, you are being ridiculous! Hope is not a curse! She is a blessing! A miracle! You cannot send her away because you are scared of the insane words of a stranger!”
“This is not a discussion!” he barked, startling her, if her wide eyes were any indication. “I understand your urge to keep the child close to you, but if she is to be our doom…”
“She is not just a child,” Meredith spat. “She is our daughter! Why can you not say that? Why can you not say her name, or even look at her? Are you truly so afraid of your own flesh and blood?”
“It is my duty to protect this family and its legacy,” he insisted. “From any threat, including my own flesh and blood.”
Meredith’s lip trembled as she stared at him and he could see the hope dimming in her eyes as her tears broke free at last and began to fall. It tore at him to see her so distressed, but he would not let his resolve waiver.
I am doing this for her as much as I am doing it for my family’s sake.
“So, you will banish our daughter,” she spoke softly and with a finality in her tone that he knew meant she realized there was no fighting his will. “Will I be permitted to see her?”
Shaking his head, he said, “No. But you may write to her, if you wish.”
Her expression was filled with such heartbreak, for a moment he felt himself faltering. Clenching his jaw in determination, he held her gaze as she took time to let his words sink in.
“Will she ever be able to return?” Meredith’s voice was so soft, it was barely more than a whisper.
“When she is eighteen, and the threat she poses has passed, she may return,” he answered.
“Eighteen?” Meredith muttered in a dejected voice. “I will not be allowed to see my daughter until she is eighteen? She…she will be all grown up…”
“I know that what I am doing to you is terrible,” Keith said with a nod. He shot a glance toward the bassinet and felt anxiety twist in his gut. “But this is for the best, I assure you.”
She did not look as though she believed him, but she did not say anything for a long moment. At length, she turned her gaze back to the baby, her cheeks wet with her silent tears.
“Very well,” she murmured. “I shall not argue further. She will go to Wales.”
Her easy acquiescence surprised him. Though he knew his word would be law, he had expected her to try a little more to convince him to keep the child.
“I am glad that you are seeing things my way,” he nodded.
She shot him a vicious look. “I do not see things your way, husband! I will never see things your way, but I know that if Hope remains here, you will always look at her with fear and suspicion. I will not have my daughter grow up seeing her father’s resentment and mistrust every day of her life.”
Her words hit him like physical blows, but he told himself she was merely lashing out in her pain. She would see reason, in time, and understand that his actions were for the good of all of them.
She will forgive me. When the girl has grown and Meredith is still here to see her, she will forgive me.
Pushing to his feet, he gazed down at his wife, who now refused to look at him.
“Write to your sister,” he instructed. “Tell her of our plan, and to expect the baby within the month.”
The color drained from Meredith’s face, but she kept her lips a tight line, no doubt to hold back the tirade she wished to unleash on him. After several moments of heavy silence, she slowly nodded.
“Very well, husband. If that is your wish.”
Keith released a breath of relief and offered her a soft smile.
“All will be well,” he assured her. Then, glancing toward the baby still asleep in her little bed, he mumbled, “I will not let our daughter be our ruin.”