The little boy in the nearest bed stretched his tiny arms above his head and yawned. He turned over to face them, mumbled something in his sleep. Grace couldn’t help but stare. His hair was as black as night, the same colour and texture as Elliot’s. She stepped closer until her knees touched the wooden frame. She examined the shape of his mouth, noted his ears had small lobes.
Evelyn came to stand at her side as they loomed over the boy.
“How old do you think he is?” Grace asked, part of her wishing the answer would be five, part of her desperately wanting it to be three or four.
“I’m not sure,” Evelyn whispered. “It’s difficult to tell while he is tucked under the blankets.”
They heard the creak of a floorboard behind them. “How old is this boy?” Grace whispered directing her question to the man behind her shoulder.
“Christoph? He is three.”
They both swung around, alarmed to hear the feminine voice. The goddess standing before them smiled. Her golden hair hung loosely about her shoulders. Grace noted that her eyes were a piercing blue, noted the absence of fangs.
“He will be four in a few days,” Frau Lockwood said. “Indeed, he looks remarkably like his father, wouldn’t you agree?”
Chapter 12
Ivana’s gaze drifted over their stunned faces.
Perhaps it was wrong of her to scare them so. But she was angry. They had lied to Herr Bruhn, persuaded him to let them into his home. A mere hour ago their husbands had looked upon her with disdain. One of them had been ready to end her life.
“You do not need to fear me,” she said noting the way the muscles in their cheeks twitched, how they were possessed with a need to swallow continually. “Leo has told me much about you.”
When she spoke, they could not help but stare at her teeth.
“Frau Lockwood.” The lady with wide blue eyes and full lips smiled. “I am Evelyn, Alexander’s wife.” She gestured to the flame-haired lady at her side. “And Grace is married to Elliot.”
Ivana sensed a certain strength of character emanating from both of them, although Evelyn appeared to be the most confident. It took an immense amount of courage to marry a gentleman with such a terrifying affliction. To love such a man took an open mind and a pure heart.
“Then you must call me Ivana. I have just had the pleasure of meeting your husbands again,” she said, her irate mood mellowing, although she maintained an air of detachment. “Let us just say they were not at all pleased to see me.”
Grace’s eyes widened. “Did … did you hurt them?”
Their husbands must have told them gory tales of the night a devil tainted their blood, so she could not blame them for thinking the worst.
Ivana smiled. “They were alive and well when my carriage passed them on the road heading back to the village.”
Despite offering reassurance, a look of panic marred their pretty faces.
Grace glanced at her friend. “They will know we have left the room.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Evelyn replied. “We have other more important things to think of now.” She turned to Ivana. “Are there any other children here, children younger than Christoph?”
Ivana knew why she had asked. “No. There are no younger children.”
A look of disappointment flashed in Evelyn’s eyes.
“Your husbands, they should not have brought you to Bavaria.” Ivana’s tone rang with an ominous warning. “It is not safe here.”
Evelyn raised her chin. “But you said we have nothing to fear.”
“From me,” Ivana clarified. “You have nothing to fear from me. Despite what your husbands have told you, I believed I had a justifiable reason for what I did to them.” She glanced at Christoph stirring in his bed. “We cannot talk here. Let us step outside. Herr Bruhn knows nothing of my affliction, and I do not want to alarm him.”
Grace glanced back over her shoulder. “Before we leave, just tell me one thing. The boy Christoph, is he Elliot’s child?”
Ivana knew she should lie. Every terrible deed she’d committed had been done out of love for the children. It was her responsibility to protect them. But things had changed. The Bruhns were growing frailer by the day. Ivana’s life dangled precariously in hands of another. Who would care for the children then?
She would have to trust her instincts. She would trust Leo’s word that these women were kind, loving and generous.