The Devil In Me

Chapter 46

"Love. The importance of it, the need for it, the sheer power of it cannot be overestimated. We are helpless without it, we are weaker, we are poorer... we are less.

Love is family, wherever we may find it, it is friendship and goodness. It is the root of kindness, to strangers... to brothers and sisters. It is hope, for a better future, for a fairer world.

Most importantly... love is the right of every soul, put upon this lonely earth... and yet it is a responsibility in the same turn... it is earned and fought for, it is won and it is inherent.

Love is a choice. It leaves no measure for selfishness, it has no leave for pride. Vengeance and retribution, jealousy and suspicion cannot face it, cannot exist in true love's presence. Choose love."

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Klaus grasped the case of cigars he had left in order to stow away safely before the wedding guests happened upon them, a lame excuse known to his brothers, as he congratulated himself on his prowess in escaping the sedate party, celebrating his brother's final night of bachelorhood.

In truth, he had reached his limit. His time away from Caroline could never last any length of time at all, so much time had been lost, and there was no time to waste, there never would be again. As he smiled to himself, thinking of surprising her, he turned the corner and spotted his sister coming along the passage way, a reticule hanging from her wrist. She stopped in his path and crossed her arms over her chest as she narrowed her eyes at him playfully.

"Well, smile you might Nik, always so selfish... but you'll not spoil our fun tonight, more than Caroline can lay claim to a deck of cards" she said with a triumphant smile, swinging the pink satin reticule before his face.

"Why, my dearest sister, why anyone should try to spoil your fun, I confess I do not know... but I can hardly be to blame, when I have only just left the company of the groom to be and your husband."

"Aha, so... it is the little imp who bares the blame, I suppose I can hardly be surprised... she is much more irresistible than you, no offence meant brother"

A laugh broke out from the sitting room to their right, and Klaus stepped past his sister.

"I pray, I do not wish to be blamed by Katherine for stealing not one, but two card bearers, so, pray, go on" he said with a grin as he started up the nearby grand stair case, leaving his sister attempting to swat him with the bag of cards, before giving up and turning back to her waiting party.

He took the stairs two at a time, as always his step quickening in anticipation of seeing his ladies. He reached the top landing and started along it. Reaching the nursery, he quietly opened the door, and poked his head around the door. Empty. It was oddly deflating as he looked for a sign of his wife or daughter, yet there was no sign of either. He turned on his heel and started toward their bedroom. If he knew his daughter, there was no place she'd rather sleep than in her mother's old bed... than one. In her mother's current bed. He reached the door and gently turned the knob, hoping not to wake them as he entered the dark room quietly, finding the room surprisingly bright, the light of the moon washing the walls a ghostly white.

Next, time seemed to stop, and to flash past all at the same time. The empty bed, the sound of his daughter's tears falling, the rough grunt of the stranger's curse and the whimper from Caroline as the pistol pressed into her forehead, the cold click of the metal in the barrel.

It all rushed in on him, overwhelmed him all at once, almost brought him to his knees. To come so close to a life worth living, a life he had almost grasped, one which, for one shining moment had almost been within his reach. The most sickening thud in the silence that followed was Klaus's realisation that no matter how he fought, how he tried to be a better man, his past, his crimes, his regrets would always follow him, and hurt the ones he loved the most.