Joan Johnston - Invincible (Benedict Brothers)

H ow hard could it be to find spouses for her five grown children before she died? Bella supposed it depended on how long it took for her failing heart to give out. No one had ever accused the five Benedict children of being easy to handle. All of them over twenty-five, and not one of them ever engaged, let alone married.

That might have something to do with the lives they led as members of British royalty. Bella was actually Isabella Wharton Benedict, Duchess of Blackthorne. She certainly had her work cut out for her finding mates for four British-American lords and a lady. Bella corrected herself. Make that four gentlemen rogues and a spoiled rotten lady.

Could she do it? Did she dare try?

Bella stared out the window from her hospital bed at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, wondering where to start. She ran a brush through her shoulder-length black hair, which was threaded with more silver every day. She might be in the autumn of her life, but here in Virginia it was spring, when love blossomed.

Cardinals flirted in the flowering dogwood trees. Blue-and-black-and-yellow butterflies cavorted in the daffodils. Squirrels chattered at each other and played tag, tails flying. With any luck, her titled offspring would find themselves equally vulnerable to romance during this fertile season.

She threw the engraved silver brush onto the bedside table and turned her attention back to the doctor standing at the foot of her hospital bed. Whats the verdict?

Youre still at about thirty percent heart function.

That was actually good news. At least she hadnt lost function since her last checkup. She could livefor a while, maybe yearswith that little heart function. But the point was, her heart was dying, and she was dying along with it.

Thats what she got for insisting she could ski down an icy slope in the Alps. Shed survived the blunt force trauma to her heart when shed lost control and gone over a cliff. But the injury had caused scarring that had resulted in reduced heart function and continuing heart failure.

How long do I have? she asked.

The new meds I gave you should keep you up and running for a while.

Running? Bella said with a quirk of her lips.

Figuratively, the doctor qualified. You should certainly be exercising regularly to keep whats left of your heart muscle healthy. And take your meds!

Bella eyed the numerous bottles of pills she needed to keep her heart functioning. She hated depending on all those pills, but they allowed her an almost-normal life. ACE inhibitors. Beta blockers. Aldosterone antagonist drugs. She couldnt begin to name the individual prescriptions. The problem was, at some pointin the not too distant futureher heart was still going to fail.

How long do I have? Bella asked again.

Cant say, the doctor replied.

Guess.

The doctor shrugged. A year for sure. Maybe two. Three if you take care of yourselfand youre lucky. Or you could have a heart attack tomorrow. We just cant predict these things.

Bella shivered. That wasnt much of a future.

I do have some good news, the doctor said.

Ill take what I can get.

Weve been making enormous strides in stem cell therapy. Stay alive long enough and we may be able to rejuvenate that heart of yours with your own stem cells.

How long is long enough? Bella asked.

The doctor focused on the medical chart in his hands. Cant say.

And if my heart continues to fail?

Heart transplant is a possibility down the line. Unfortunately, it wont be easy finding a heart for you, Bella. B-negative donors arent thick on the ground.

Bella smiled. Her doctor was young, a prodigy whose bedside manner left a lot to be desired. She appreciated his honesty. Knowing how muchor rather, how littletime she had left allowed her to plan how to use it wisely.

But a year? Two years? Three, if she was lucky? She had even less time than shed hoped to get her children wed. With so little time, some of those marriages might have to be arranged without her offsprings cooperation. It had to be marriage, shed decided. Nothing less would do. Her marriage to Bull Benedict had been her salvation.

It had started badly, with blackmail on her side. Her aunt had threatened twenty-nine-year-old billionaire financier Jonathan Bull Benedict with charges of statutory rape if he didnt marry destitute seventeen-year-old Isabella Wharton, Duchess of Blackthorne. Bull had sworn hed hate her forever if she forced him into marriage.

Shed bit her lip and gone along with her aunts wishes in order to save her hereditary home, Blackthorne Abbey. And to give her unborn child a name. It was only later that Bull questioned whether he was the father of their first child. Only later that he learned Oliver was some other mans son.

Because they were bound by law, theyd been forced to deal with one anothers lies. Because they were husband and wife, theyd scratched their bloody way through the tangled thorns of deceit to a love that healed all wounds.

Bella wanted her children bound to someone they could love by vows made before God. She was certain the moral commitment created by the spoken words, words pledging love and faith to one another, would give the young lovers the perseverance necessary to work through any differences that threatened their happiness.

She didnt want her children wandering the world alone after she was gone, believing that love was a false thing. That love couldnt be trusted. That was the lesson she feared theyd learned from the wickednessthe malicious trickerythat had finally torn her marriage apart.

Of course, Bella, if you do end up with a new heartor a rejuvenated oneyoull be good to go for another fifty years, the doctor said, interrupting her thoughts.

Thanks a lot, Bella said with a wry laugh. She was fifty-two. Reaching a hundred and two sounded pretty ambitious. And lonely, unless she could find a way to win her husbands forgiveness. Bella felt hopeless about any sort of reconciliation with Bull. Especially when she considered how little she could tell himcertainly not the truthabout the event that had caused their bitter separation ten years ago, after twenty-five years of marriage.