Lacybourne Manor (Ghosts and Reincarnation #3)(118)
There was no reason for it; he didn’t suit her, not in the slightest. He was autocratic, possessive, dictatorial and had far more money than one person with good conscience should. He was nothing like she expected her true love would be and somehow everything she wanted. She didn’t think it even had anything to do with reincarnated souls of dead lovers, they could have been entirely different people altogether and they would have found each other.
He wasn’t Royce but now Colin looked at her the same way as if she was the centre of his universe and nothing else existed or mattered beyond her.
Not to mention, he was a good man, he didn’t like to let on to that sweet, simple fact but he was.
So, there was nothing she could do. She let him into her heart or more to the point clicked him into the place that had been waiting for him since the day she was born.
And she thought he fit perfectly.
Colin had regained consciousness in Accident and Emergency not half an hour before, groggy for approximately five minutes, he shifted quickly to icy fury. Knowing with relief that he was going to be all right, Sibyl escaped to check on Mrs. Byrne and left Colin to talk privately to the police.
Sibyl had already given the police her account of the evening, of the two masked men who came stealthily into her office, demanding to know where Colin was and for her to take them to him. Neither Sibyl nor her attackers saw Mrs. Griffith who was waiting for her taxi while dozing on the couch, hidden by a precarious pile of Talent Show costumes and props. Sibyl had backed away, telling them Colin had already left and it was then they grabbed her. At that action, Mrs. Griffith rose, like the Eternal Wrath of the Pensioners, wielding her cane and making imperious demands. Moments later, Colin had burst into the room.
As she sat by Marian’s hospital bed, Sibyl struggled to sort through her rampaging thoughts of tranquilliser darts, knives, Mrs. Griffith avenging her and, most terrifyingly, Colin’s savage display of violence. He was like a Warrior God and she could easily transpose him on an ancient battlefield, swinging a broadsword with deadly intent rather than an old lady’s cane.
She could still hear the sickening crunch of bone mingled with splitting wood.
She shuddered at the memory.
She felt a light touch on her hair and her thoughts skittered away as she lifted her head to gaze into the faded, opened eyes of her friend.
“Will you call my daughter?” Marian asked weakly.
Sibyl nodded, her heart breaking at the feeble sound of Marian’s usually strong voice.
Then she took the number down on a scrap of paper from her purse.
“They say you’re going to be all right,” she assured Marian after she’d taken her daughter’s telephone number. “You’ll need to stay here a day or two –”
“It’s the dark soul,” Marian broke in fervently, her eyes growing bright with intensity. “They want to keep you and Colin apart, Sibyl you must listen to me, believe me.”
Her words were fierce, frightened and Sibyl nodded her head even though she didn’t know what the older lady meant.
“Sibyl, you must –” Marian went on.
“Marian, please rest now,” Sibyl interrupted her gently. “Don’t get excited, we’ll talk later.”
“It’s crucial that you know –”
Sibyl squeezed Marian’s hand. “I promise I’ll come back tomorrow. You can tell me all about it then and I’ll listen.”
Mrs. Byrne closed her eyes and there was pain in her expression that had nothing to do with the blow to her head. When she opened them, she nodded.
“Please, my dear, take the utmost care,” she whispered.
“I will.”
Sibyl went to the front of the hospital and stood outside to make the awful call to Marian’s daughter, Angie.
After Angie expressed her shock and horror, she asked, “What did you say your name was again?”
“Sibyl Godwin.”
“Oh my God,” Angie breathed then rushed on, “I’ll leave right away.”
Understanding that likely Marian’s daughter knew the whole story of Royce and Beatrice and even Sibyl and Colin, Sibyl didn’t react to her urgency and quietly ended the call with a promise to meet Angie the next day.
She walked to the A&E and found Colin her family, and a variety of police officers standing in the middle of the bustling department. Colin seemed to be tearing into one of the officers but she could tell it was in his supremely-controlled, still-very-frightening way by how he held his body and the fact that he wasn’t shouting the roof down.
Sibyl noted absently that Colin, surprisingly, was suffering no visible ill-effects to the dart, indeed he seemed fully awake, alert, emanating his usual power with his face a mask of rage.
Then he saw her approaching and he turned blazing eyes on her. “Where the bloody hell have you been?” he barked, his voice cracking like a whip.
She jumped at his tone. “I went to see Mrs. Byrne.”
“Don’t you f**king leave without telling someone where you’re going and taking someone with you, do you understand me?” he demanded angrily.
“Colin,” she murmured soothingly, shaken by his tone and his words.
He was not to be soothed. She knew this when he thundered, “Do you understand me?”
She nodded mutely. She had left without saying anything to anyone; it just hadn’t crossed her mind. Realising he was worried rather than truly angry with her, she sidled up to his side in an additional effort to soothe him. Gently, she pushed under his arm and slid both of hers around his middle. Without hesitation, he lifted his arm to rest tightly around her shoulders and she felt the tension ease slowly out of him.