Blood to Blood Read Online Free PDF

giving the slightest hint that he had any knowledge of why she had received it.
    As she turned to leave, she found Jonathan standing close behind her. He took her arm and led her from the room.
    She half expected that he would abandon her outside, but instead he traveled with her and the Beasons to the station and sat with them on the train. He seemed oddly silent, but that was hardly surprising with Winnie's chatty enthusiasm for the hospital's newfound fortune and her grand plans on how to spend it.
    Sometime during the journey, Jonathan and Emory began discussing business, leaving eventually for the familiar comfort of the smoking car.
    As soon as they were alone, Winnie took a small case from her valise, pulled a flask of sherry and a pair of shotglasses out of it and poured them both a drink. She held up her glass.
    "To change," she said. They drained them, and Winnie poured another pair.
    "So you two haven't spoken?" she asked as she put the cork in the bottle.
    Mina shook her head and looked away. It was the first time since this ordeal had begun that she felt like crying.
    "And we've intruded. Should I claim Mr. Beason and take him to a different car?"
    "No. When we do finally speak of the future, I want to be able to walk away from him if need be."
    "Then tell me everything that happened. Every detail."
    Mina adjusted her traveling bag on the end of the long seat, leaned against it and put up her feet. "Everything was exactly as I'd suspected, and so sad," she began.
    Mina told her story while the train rolled on, carrying her to an uncertain ending. Occasionally she looked out the window at the twilight mists blurring the edges of the landscape. She was finally free of the vampire's blood. How much longer before she could be free of his memory?
     
    The train pulled into Exeter a little before midnight. Without asking what her plans were, Jonathan retrieved Mina's bags. Since they lived close to the Beasons, they shared a cab. Winnie and Emory got out first, Winnie pausing to grip Mina's hands tightly. "If you need anything at all, come to us. I'll be sleeping with one eye open," she whispered, then kissed Mina on the cheek and said good-bye.
    In the few minutes it took them to get home, Jonathan said nothing. Instead he held her hand as he had that afternoon, and kept his eyes straight ahead.
    She waited until they pulled up in front of the house, the home she considered his, not hers, then asked, "Do you wish me to come back to you?" She hadn't wanted her voice to sound so cold, but he was taking too much for granted.
    "If we can reach an agreement, yes."
    "That might have been easier to reach somewhere else."
    "My aunt is away, I made sure of that. We can speak as openly as we wish."
    He carried her bags inside and up the stairs. She stopped in the foyer, inhaling deeply. The room smelled of lemon wax and Jonathan's cigars, of roasted onions and cinnamon. Familiar scents, welcome ones until Jonathan had brought her here and left her like some decorative piece of porcelain while he went on with his work.
    Yes. she thought, moving into the parlor and lighting a gaslight. Agreements had to be reached. She went to the sideboard in the dining room and poured them each a brandy, then took a seat at the table and waited for him.
    "Wouldn't the parlor be more comfortable?" he asked when he saw her there.
    "This is a better place to discuss our future. I think."
    He said nothing, only took the brandy she held out to him and sat across from her, solicitor and client, it seemed.
    "Did you get my letter?" she asked, as gently as she was able.
    "I did. Then I heard about Gance's will. Since you were coming to London, I thought it better to wait."
    "I was in Paris for days before I received the solicitor's letter. Why didn't you come earlier, as I asked?"
    He looked away for a moment, jaws working. "I suppose I should say I'm sorry, but I can't. I couldn't drop everything… again. And yet, I am sorry for everything that