“Yes, it is.”
“Your father was very glad to see you,” he said, uncomfortable with the strange awkwardness between them.
She sighed softly, the sound echoing in the night. “We need to talk, Ridge.”
His heart sped up. He didn’t like the edge he heard in her voice. “All right. Talk.” He reached over and took her hand, rubbing his thumb over the soft skin of her wrist.
“Would you stay here?” she blurted. “I mean would you be willing to stay...forever?”
His hand stilled on hers. “Stay? You mean not return to England?”
She nodded and continued to stare out across the water.
“I can’t do that. I can’t do that to my father...my mother. She’s already lost one son. She never had a chance to say goodbye to Robby. I can’t simply desert my duty.”
He broke off. He could say so much more, but the thing uppermost on his mind was why she was asking him to stay. It could only mean she had no intention of leaving.
His breath left him in a panicked rush.
“I can’t stay, India. But you could come with me.”
She turned sad eyes on him and he knew. He knew in that moment precisely what she would say.
“And leavemyfather?” she asked. “I can’t leave him any more than you can leave your parents. He’s the only family I have left.”
“What of Kavi and Udaya?” he challenged.
“They would want me to be happy.”
“And will you be?”
She didn’t answer. Didn’t look at him.
“Will you see to Kavi and Udaya once you’ve returned to England?” she asked.
“Of course I will, but India, I want you to come with me,” he pressed.
“I can’t,” she whispered. “How could I leave my father?”
“Your father, has he always placed the same value on you?” Ridge demanded. He knew he hurt her with his words, but he had to make her see reason. She couldn’t do this to him, to the both of them.
“I can’t leave.”
“Youwon’tleave,” he bit out. “You’re afraid to leave. Afraid to trust me with your happiness.”
She swallowed hard, her throat working up and down. “I can’t be who you want me to be,” she said in a stricken voice.
He stood up. He wanted to shake her. He wanted to yell. He wanted to weep.
“I never wanted you to be anyone but you,” he said softly. “No one else. Just you. The woman I love. But I’m not going to beg, India. I can’t make you trust me. I can’t make you love me.”
He turned, no longer able to look at her, and began to walk back to the cottage. What had been the culmination of a lifelong dream was now his worst nightmare. He had found the city, but in doing so, he had lost India.
The old man, the one who had greeted their arrival in Pagoria was standing outside the cottage when Ridge walked up. To his surprise, Maximus, his father, and Robby all stood outside with him. They looked up when he approached.
The older man stepped forward, his hand outstretched to Ridge. “I have yet to thank you for returning Gabriel’s Bracelet. How fitting that you and your grandfather should return the final two.”
Ridge allowed the man to clasp his arm in a gesture of thanks, but his heart wasn’t in it. How could it be when it lay on the ground back at the lake?
