“Perhaps the moon rises at night because if it rose in the day then it would be called the sun.”
“You are so cynical.”
“Thank you.” Georgina gave her a wide smile that was too exaggerated to be anything but sardonic.
“You don’t think thereisa reason the stars shine?”
“I can’t think of anything else stars are good for. Shining will do. Keeps the night from being too boring, I suppose.”
“I used to believe that stars were something to wish on.” Amy’s voice sounded the way she was feeling. Ashamed.
“I’d say that kind of thinking was your first mistake.” There was cool amusement in Georgina voice that said she thought Amy was as foolish as she felt.
“I suppose you’re right.”
“Naturally.” Georgina oozed confidence.
Amy felt suddenly smaller and weaker because after today she had little confidence in her own beliefs.
“Well, I know one thing. I wish there would be a reason for the fog to lift so we could get off this stupid island. I have to get home. And soon.”
And here I am with no reason to go home, Amy thought. All that was waiting for her was a group of strangers sitting like gods in some granite building in Manhattan. She could just picture her executors huddled around a big expensive table while they devised ways to use her wealth to bribe someone else to take her off their hands.
It was clear to Amy that she had nothing to go home to, nothing that mattered to her anyway. She had wealth. But money wasn’t important to her. Her homes were really just expensive empty rooms with expensive empty fireplaces in expensive empty houses. Shells that held everything money could buy except the one thing she really wanted: to be part of a loving family again.
She swallowed because she knew she would cry again if she didn’t, then she looked around the cave. It was dark and clammy and smelled as if the sea had been locked inside those rock walls since before the beginning of time. That briny odor of the ocean filled the damp cave air the way smoke chokes a chimney. She could hear the water breaking on the ledges in the distance. Those waves sounded as far away and out of touch with the world as she was.
She wondered if Georgina Bayard ever felt isolated and lost. Probably not. She didn’t think Georgina would let herself be afraid of anything, especially being alone. Amy turned and watched her, half out of curiosity and half because she thought she might learn a way to be stronger.
Georgina was staring at the wall of rock across from them, her thoughts seeming very far away while she absently tossed a small handful of rocks that plopped in the water and sank.
“What do you think would make him do something like that?”
“Who? And what?” Georgina turned and looked at her.
“Kidnap us. Why do you think a man like Eachann MacLachlan would just snatch us as if we would be willing to do whatever he and his brother wanted?”
“Extreme arrogance.”
Arrogancewas one of the words Amy thought of when she remembered Georgina Bayard’s set of friends, people who were accepted like William and the others. They were arrogant and cold.
Amy felt Georgina staring at her and looked up.
“What did you mean when you said a ‘man like Eachann MacLachlan’?”
“A handsome man.”
The look Georgina gave her was thoughtful. “You think he’s handsome?”
“Don’t you?”
“I hadn’t noticed,” Georgina answered so fast even Amy didn’t believe her. She was probably just too proud to admit that Eachann was extremely handsome. He had those kind of green eyes that could look at you and melt your bones. Men like him always put Amy off a little. She didn’t know how to talk to them because she was too busy just staring at their incredible faces.
Now the other brother, Calum, was different. He was handsome, too. In fact, she actually preferred his dark looks and more serious manner. She never felt as if he were laughing at her.
For a few foolish minutes she had almost begun to like him. Imagine, a man who tucks blankets around you and polishes the dustpan.
Then he’d gone and ruined the whole thing by trying to take her to his bed. She supposed the brothers were just brutes at heart. Which made her a little sad and pensive. She looked at Georgina. “There has to be a reason for someone to willingly hurt another person.”
