“Only if you need me to be,” Tully replies, tightening my arms around him. “Did you say what you needed to say and hear what you needed to know?”
“Yes. And don’t you dare laugh.” I feel his body tremble as I anticipate his response.
“No, seriously, my dear, I wasn’t laughing.” He rolls overcarefully, adjusting our positions so we face each other. “I’m embarrassed but something bit me.” He smiles shyly. “And it hurts like hell.”
I caress his lips with my fingers. “Where? Let me take a look.”
“I shouldn’t have mentioned it. It’ll be all right.” He kisses me gently. “We should get some rest.”
CHAPTER 42
OTHELLA
Accompong, Maroon Village, Cockpit Country
That night, Robbie and I lay on my cot, fully dressed. I often feel butterflies in my stomach when I’m alone with him. I no longer find his long-winded chatter annoying. Now, his voice is a soothing sound that comforts me.
“You and I should stay here in Jamaica forever,” he says. “Together.”
“Should we stay in Accompong, or find another town on the island?” I finally feel safe enough to ask such questions. The outcome of the dinner at the Tynesdale Estate proved I can trust my new friends. They’ll look out for me, but Robbie will do the most to protect me.
“I like it here,” he says, rubbing my shoulder. “But there’s no reason we can’t travel and find the place that suits us best.”
I sit up straight on the bed. Hard rain pounds down from the sky. It doesn’t scare me—the wind, the thunder, and the lightning bolts—as it has before. “Okay, then, let’s make a promise.” I extend my hand, form a fist, and lift my pinky finger.
He chuckles. “You seem giddy.”
“No one has ever said that to me before. Is it a nice thing to say?”
“It’s a wonderful thing to say. It means you show your happiness with every part of your body, and it’s contagious. Anyone near you will feel happy, too. Your joy cannot be slowed or stopped.”
I wiggle my little finger. “Guess what I want to swear to tonight?”
“I have no idea, but I’m all ears.”
“It’s amusing to think about, with your handsome face overshadowed by your big ears.”
He tugs at my earlobe. “Yours aren’t exactly small, my dear.”
“You know, I’m going to draw a picture of you with just ears. I’ll erase my drawings of your precious bugs, plants, and roots, and keep only the ones of you.”
“And my ears.”
I suddenly feel very serious and don’t want to talk about ears anymore. “You know, I keep a notebook with my sketches that I’m proud of, even though not all are meant for anthropological study. My sketches aren’t perfect, but they are much better than your illegible scrawl—and each day, I get better. All this is to say, I like to draw sketches of you, Robbie, and the other members of the expedition.”
“Othella, you’ve hidden this journal from me. Why?”
“Because I want to capture you perfectly in my drawings.”
His expression shifts, and I see the words he’s struggling to express reflected in his eyes. “I promise to love you forever,” he says as he kisses me.
My heart pounds, and if I could describe how I feel, I would choose the wordgiddy.
I am about to tell him how much I love him when suddenly, hell storms through the door and brings a commotion so quick and brutal that I don’t react right away. Not untilit’s too late, and then there’s nothing I can do. Within seconds, Robbie lies on the floor, knocked out cold. I can only pray that he’s not dead.
“You won’t escape from me this time, sweetheart.” Tony Schaefer has come for me. “I don’t get bested by any man or woman, colored or white.” Tony has a handful of my hair, and it feels like he’s pulling it out by the roots. I struggle to break free, but Tony is strong. I should’ve known what would happen next, but I never see it coming—the fist aimed at my face. Just like when Perry hit me that time in Chicago. And now, it’s Tony’s turn. But then I stop thinking as the world goes black.
CHAPTER 43
