“You’re not marrying George?”
She shook her head, slow and sorrowful, biting back tears.
“You were never going to marry George? Were never engaged at all?”
The guilt and apology in her eyes confirmed it.
Never engaged… She wasn’t marrying George…
His ears were ringing. Suddenly weak, he gripped the edge of the desk, squeezing his eyes so tightly shut that when he opened them his vision danced with stars. Lucy was still there, wavering like a mirage, green satin and tumbling warm brown curls. But not a mirage.Real. True.
And not engaged to George.
Never engaged to George.
Aprank.
“Lucy,” he said.
She jumped at his voice, as well she might, for it held a note of wrath he’d never heard himself utter. Dark and grim, promising swift vengeance.
“Lucy,” he said again, taking a step around the desk. She squeaked and jumped back. “You, my girl, are in so much trouble.”
“Jack…” She backed a few paces, hands up. But she gasped a laugh because the devil of a grin was breaking out across his face.
“Come here,” he ordered.
She shook her head. “No.”
“A prank,” he said, stepping inexorably forwards as she backed further and further away. “Revenge?”
“You deserved it!”
“Did I, indeed?”
He tried to close the gap between them, but she turned and ran, getting as far as the bookshelves, where she turned to face him, cornered, breathing hard, half laughing, half crying as he advanced towards her.
“Jack, what are you going to—”
“Do to you? I have no idea. What do you deserve, Lucy, you minx?”
He was as close as he could be now without touching. He looked down at her wide-open eyes, the silver for once turned to his, unblinking. “A prank,” he said again, his grin fading as he reached out and twisted a finger into one of the curls at her neck. “Have you any idea,” he said, his voice a near whisper, “what I suffered?”
Her breathing was shallow, cheeks flushed, her chest rising rapidly, squeezed by the confines of her green satin. But her voice was sombre.
“I think I do.”
“Youhave suffered?” he asked softly, a wholly new idea occurring to him.Lucyhad suffered? Lucy…? It was a new idea and yet…not new at all, only the truth again, coming into focus for the first time.
His eyes dipped to her mouth as he leant closer, closer.
“Why have you suffered, Lucy?”
“In…in wanting what I could not.”
He felt the air of her words against his cheek, hushed and warm.
“In loving who you could not?”
