Ophelia by D.S. Read Free Book Online

the room without their accompaniment.”
    “Mr. Westbrooke called me and told me to come pronto! ”
Eduardo snapped. “I left a shoot for this!”
    The maid shook her head, but Eduardo shoved her aside and
barged into the room.
    The curtains were pulled and the lights were off. He couldn’t
be sure in the gloom, but Eduardo thought that it appeared that the drapes had
been drawn on the four-poster bed. Unsure of what to expect, he crept closer.
    “ ¿Cariño? ”
    Eduardo swept one of the curtains aside to find a blindfolded
form huddled in his bed, its features obscured by a mask. He frowned at the
thought of having to lecture the servants about being overprotective.
    “Ophelia?”
    He lifted the blindfold and tenderly pulled the mask down
around her chin.
                “ Corazón ,
what’s wrong?”
    “Hmm?” Her eyes fluttered, but did not open.
    “David called me and said there was an emergency.”
    “I do not remember what happened,” Ophelia said in a flat voice. “Dr Octavius had that exhibition
today…Harry could not go…I went. Fire…explosion…I think Rosalie Octavius is
dead. Maybe others.”
    Eduardo tried not to let the shock register upon his face,
but his wife had yet to open her eyes.
    “I’ll go find Whitaker or Westbrooke. There might be
something on the news.”
    Ophelia didn’t respond and he allowed the curtain to fall
back into place. David had replaced the maid by the time Eduardo returned to
the corridor.
    “How is she?”
    “Barely conscious,” the younger man replied. “She was
cognizant enough to answer me, but has no idea what happened.”
    David nodded. “I’m going check on her and then I’ll come back
and get you squared away.”
    The bodyguard disappeared into the chamber and Eduardo gave
in to the urge to pace. At least six weeks had passed since he had moved into
the mansion and he had begun to wonder about the wisdom of marrying Ophelia
shortly after.
    It wasn’t that he questioned her fidelity any longer—many
months of counseling had shown him where he went wrong—but more than he
questioned the changes in her life. When he met her, Ophelia had been a
carefree woman who designed clothes and relished the time they spent practicing
the Old Ways in the Temple they had founded together. Since her father’s death,
however, Ophelia seemed to have a higher stress level and no desire to start
another Temple—or at least find another coven. Worse than her increasingly
overprotective bodyguards was the uptick in nightmares. There had been a few
times where he had even snuck out to sleep in Harry’s old suite, but they never
discussed it in the morning.
    The click of the door announced David’s return.
     “She’s sleeping peacefully.”
    “Ophelia’s accessories were clearly Whitaker’s idea. I gave
him the responsibility of escorting her back here and putting her to bed while
I addressed the appropriate people at Osborn Scientific.”
    “She doesn’t appear to be hurt. Why was she sedated?”
    “I suspect that was Andrew’s doing, as well.” David shook his
head. “The short version is that Dr. Octavius’s fusion generator backfired
horribly, to the point of destroying his laboratory and killing his wife.
Several went to the hospital, including the doctor. From what I understand, the
needles that connected the actuator harness to his central nervous system fused
with his spine. There was an inhibitor chip for his brain, but I suspect that
that was broken in the explosion.”
    Eduardo looked bemused.
    “Octavius has…octopus arms, for lack of a better term. The actuators
help him control the fusion reaction and the needles eliminate the need for a
control box. The chip ensured that he controlled the actuators and not the
other way around.”
    The younger man cringed. “Ophelia won’t be thrilled at the
loss of a profit-bearing investment.”
    “She’ll be livid when she’s fully conscious!” David
countered. “Mr. Osborn held a press