chapter2193

Cradled in the crook of his arm, Cecilia exhaled and let her eyelids drift shut.

Hours later a sharp, tentative rapping shattered the silence, vibrating through the wooden door like a pebble against glass.

Half-asleep, Cecilia blinked into the darkness. "Who's there?"

A small, trembling voice answered from the hallway. "Mommy..."

She sat up at once. "Sweetie, what's wrong?"

Nathaniel swung his legs over the mattress, alert now despite the hour.

Cecilia opened the door. Elliot stood there in cartoon pajamas, rubbing sleepy eyes, tears hanging from his lashes. "Mommy, I had a nightmare. Can I sleep with you tonight?"

Her heart melted at once.

Before she could speak, Nathaniel scooped Elliot into the air. "Aren't you supposed to be a brave young man?"

Dangling mid-air, the boy kicked and wriggled, more startled than comforted.

"Daddy, put me down. I'm scared."

Nathaniel's brow furrowed. "You're old enough to sleep in your own bed. I'll walk you back."

Elliot burst into fresh sobs. "No-Mommy, please..."

He rarely asked to share their room; Nicholas' earlier words had twisted into nightmares that clung like shadows.

Cecilia hurried forward and grabbed Nathaniel's arm.

"It's all right—let him stay with us just for tonight."

Elliot wasn't one to fuss without cause; the fear in his eyes felt real enough to her.

Nathaniel's shoulders tightened. "Then let him sleep with Jonathan instead."

A boy clinging to his mother, he thought, could never learn courage. Cecilia considered, then knelt to Elliot's eye level. "How about staying in your brother Jonathan's room tonight—would that feel safe enough?"

Elliot lowered his head, cheeks flushing a shy pink beneath the hallway light.

His small voice drifted up from the foot of the master bed, fragile but determined. "Jonathan says I talk in my sleep, so he refuses to share a room with me anymore."

He lifted his face again, eyes shining in the dim glow of the night-light. "Mommy, know I'm a big kid nowe and shouldn't bother you and Daddy. If you let me stayin your room, can take the couch-really, I don't mind."

Cecilia and Nathaniel exchanged a look-equal parts resignation and tenderness before summoning a housekeeper to wheel in a small ped. They tucked the boy beside their bed as though anchoring him to a safe harbor.

But once the lights went out, Elliot twisted beneath the blanket, turning over and back again, every rustle loud in the hush until sleep refused him entirely.

"Mommy, Daddy, are you asleep yet?" Elliot whispered into the darkness, hope trembling at the edge of the words.

Nathaniel growled from his side of the bed, voice thick with impatience. "Yes."

A beat of silence, then the boy ventured, "If you're asleep, how can you still talk?"

Nathaniel's arm—draped possessively around Cecilia's waist-twitched with the urge to smack the boy, but he forced his hand to stay where it was.

Elliot pressed his lips together and tried, once more, to settle.

A while later, he asked again, "Are you sure you're asleep now?"

Cecilia bit back a giggle; the child's persistence tickled her even through grogginess.

"I'm still awake, sweetheart. What's wrong?"

Hearing her voice, Elliot exhaled a shaky breath. "Mommy, I dreamed someone tried to hurt me—really hurt me. I don't want to die."

A chill slid down Cecilia's spine. She never imagined a nightmare that dark could find her son.

She pried free of Nathaniel's

embrace and lay beside Elliot. One

gentle hand stroked slow circles

over his back. "Dreams are nothing but shadows darling. They cant touch you while here.

Elliot nodded against the pillow. "Okay. I know."

Nathaniel watched them and sighed.

Then, he swung out of bed, scooped both into his arms, and deposited them in the much larger mattress. "Just this once," he muttered, though the corners of his mouth betrayed him with a smile.

Cecilia and Elliot beamed.

Morning painted the living-room windows gold. Jonathan lounged on the couch, gaze sliding toward his mother and younger brother as they descended the stairs together.

"Mommy, did you sleep with Elliot last night?" Jonathan asked, tone deceptively mild.

Flushing as though caught misbehaving, Cecilia explained, "He had a nightmare, so I stayed with him for a little while."

Jonathan's brows pinched in melodramatic jealousy. "Elliot, next time you get spooked, come to my room instead. I suppose I can tolerate you for a night or two."