She yelped and tumbled sideways into the water.
"Jess!" He lunged forward, his heart leaping into his throat. Could she swim?
CHAPTER 12
Panic flooded Gil as the water covered Jess. For a frantic moment, fear paralyzed his mind. Had she hit her head and drowned?
But then she rose so both shoulders cleared the surface.
Relief crashed through him, overpowering every other emotion.
Water streamed down her face and hair. She pushed the wet strands back, wiping liquid from her eyes. Only when her face held the hint of a smile did he let out a breath.
He reached down to help her out. “Are you all right? What happened?”
She took his hand and let him help pull her up the steep side of the pool. When she reached dry ground, she collapsed to sit in the moss. Her skirts hung limp, fully drenched and probably heavy. Her shirtwaist clung to her, outlining every one of her curves.
He forced his gaze back to her face as he crouched in front of her. “Did you slip on a rock?”
“Went lightheaded. My vision blackened for just a second. By the time I could see again, I was already toppling.”
Concern clenched inside him. “Why? What’s wrong?” Was she ill? Did she have a disease she hadn’t told him about? Maybe from living in that cave without enough sunlight.
“Nothing’s wrong. I don’t think so, anyway. This has happened a couple other times since I learned about the baby. I remember my mother saying she swooned once when she was carrying me.”
Baby.
He froze. Was she saying…? His mind reeled as he tried to process what she meant. "Baby? You're...with child?"
Her eyes narrowed, confusion gathering in her brows. “I told you I was. When we spoke to my father.”
His body finally thawed enough that his heart surged, hammering through him. “I thought it was a desperate ploy to make him see he had no choice but to accept we were married.” His legs could no longer hold him, so he dropped to sit on the ground beside her. He couldn’t pull his eyes from her though, even as he tried to wrap his mind around what her revelation meant.
Who was the father?Wherewas the father? Why hadn’t he married her? And not just as a pretense.
How far along was she?
A new thought pressed in, smothering out the rest as anger roared back to life. Had someone accosted her?
She placed her hand on his arm. "I'm sorry I didn't make it clearer before. Everything happened so fast, and I..." She trailed off, looking out over the water.
He searched for something to say. His muddled mind couldn’t find a coherent word.
“I need to get back. The food.”
He leaped to his feet before she could untangle her sodden skirts enough to stand, then gripped her arm to help her balance.
Clearly, she didn’t want him asking all the questions that hammered him. Maybe, hopefully, if he gave her space, she’d tell him in her own time.
She sent him a quick smile before pulling away and striding back the way they’d come.
As he followed her to the cave, one thought finally came clear amidst the muddy mess of questions. The stakes in this mission had suddenly become so much higher. He had to get Jess and that tiny life inside her to safety. No matter what it took.
Later that afternoon, Gil scrubbed the last of the dishes, his thoughts a whirlwind. Sitting beside Mick while they ate the midday meal had been just short of torture, especially with Jess gone to tend Ezekiel. Gill had disliked her father when he’d arrived, but he was coming to loathe the man more every day. Which made being civil to him just a hair shy of impossible.
Now Mick had finally gone back to his work, and Jess hadn’t yet returned.
The water sloshed around the tin plate as Gil worked off the remnants of their lunch.
