“Jealous, Nellie?” His grin was back, so deep it made grooves at the corners of his eyes.
That smile of his hit her like a wallop.
“She may have you all to herself in eight days,” she said with a sniff.
His smile died, and something inside her heart withered as well at the sight.
She was hurting him. And the more time they spent together, the more she hated his every somber look, the shadows in his eyes, the distance between them.
The more she never wanted to leave.
And that was the biggest problem of all.
“I still have eight days to change your mind,” he reminded her.
“You will not,” she promised him, passing him and the duck on the path, making certain to give Elsa a wide berth.
She would not put it past the duck to chase her.
“I would not be so certain if I were you,” Jack countered from behind her. “I do believe I am wearing on you, Nellie love.”
He was wearing on her more than he knew.
But she would never admit that to him. Because she knew him, and he would only exploit this newfound weakness until she could not bear to resist him. All whilst she knew, deep within her heart, that she did not dare trust him again.
She had trusted him and he had ruined that trust in most cruel fashion.
Only a fool would give him a second chance.
And she was beginning to fear she was very much a fool. That she was Jack’s fool.
“The rest of the ducks are hungry,” she called over her shoulder, ignoring his taunting words. “I am going to feed them their breakfast. You and your little friend can do as you like.”
Elsa quacked.
Nell did not think she imagined the sound was triumphant.
NELL WAS JUSTahead of Jack in the lake. Her back was to him, her hair unbound and floating around her like a silken serpent. Just as the night he had caught her swimming beneath the full roundness of the moon, she was naked. Swimming away from him.Alwaysaway.
Why did she never swim toward him? Why did she never come to him and take him in her arms? Why did she never breach this insurmountable distance keeping them apart?
He attempted to call out to her, but his voice did not seem to work. It rasped, swallowed by the vast echoes of the outdoors. She drifted farther from him and he paddled faster, desperate.
But as hard as he pushed and thrashed and fought through the water, his progress seemed to stagnate. He could not move. And Nell continued to paddle in the distance, her ivory arms arcing cleanly through the air, splashing in the water as she swam away.
He tried to call for her again and again, but his voice was eerily silent. He could not seem to yell her name. And Nell grew smaller and smaller, farther out of his reach. Desperation hit him. He tried to swim faster, but the water fought him. Something seemed to catch him from the depths of the water, dragging his head beneath.
He coughed, fought, sputtered for air.
He was drowning.
“Jack?”
A soft voice broke through his terror.
He woke with a clench in his chest, as if invisible hands sought to squeeze all the breath from his lungs. He was panting, his heart pounding. The night was dark around him, and it took a moment for his wits to gather where he was.
Home, at Needham Hall, in his chamber. It had all been a nightmare.Thank Christ.
