He sensed surrender in her voice, and acknowledgement that she was fighting for control as much as he. For a moment, he was tempted to sweep her into his arms and finish what they had started in the carriage, but her stance was fragile, vulnerable, as if she could break into a hundred tiny pieces if he pushed too hard.
Now wasn’t the time.
Instead he focused on the reason she stood out here every night, refusing to sleep in her cabin.
“Why do you fear the night?” he murmured, keeping his voice low, nonthreatening.
She seemed to shrink, melding further into his embrace. He tightened his arms around her, lending her strength.
“I don’t fear the night. I fear the dark.”
Her honest admission struck a chord within him. At the same time, anticipation seized him. Would she confide in him? Let loose the demons that tormented her?
He squeezed her shoulders, massaging them with his hands. Unable to resist the temptation of her skin, he slid a finger to where the collar of her shirt met the skin of her neck. It felt velvety, enticed him to keep touching, stroking. He rubbed and massaged, wanting to relax her, offer comfort.
She emitted a small sigh. Of pleasure?
“And why do you fear the dark?”
She became still. Silent. As if struggling with her decision. She looked down, her shoulders slumping as she was folding inward on herself.
“They locked me in the darkest, deepest hole they could find,” she whispered.
His chest tightened. “Who?”
She trembled against him and he tightened his hold on her. He pressed his lips to the back of her head, kissing her soft hair. If only he could take away her hurt.
“We were in India. We had just returned from the mountains of Nepal when we were set upon by a group rebels who supported Nepal against the British in the war. The war has just ended, and tension was still high in the area. My father and I were British, and so they intended to hold us for ransom.”
She sucked in another shaky breath.
“Their demands were absurd, and we were nobodies. We hadn’t set foot in England in years. The British High Command had no interest in us.
“I assumed my father had been captured as I was. It wasn’t until my own escape that I realized he must have left with Kavi and Udaya.”
Ridge frowned and pulled his head away from her hair. With gentle hands, he turned her to face him. He smoothed a knuckle under her chin and tugged until she was looking at him.
“What happened, India? You were prisoner for three months. I remember you saying so.”
His stomach flipped and curled into knots as tears brimmed in her eyes. He felt sick over what she had endured, and he didn’t even know the extent of it. Yet.
Her fingers went self consciously to her shorn hair. “They cut my hair. Then they took my—clothes,” she managed to choke out. “There was a hole in the ground. A small, dark hole, deep enough that I couldn’t climb out, but not long enough that I could lie down. They covered it with heavy boards so that it shut out the light and piled rocks on top so I couldn’t move them. I squatted most of the time, huddled against the cold dirt.”
Tears streamed down her cheeks, and the fires of remembrance burned brightly in her eyes. He stood frozen, afraid to move, speak until she finished.
“Once a day they would toss down stale bread or a cold piece of meat and a dipper of water.”
She turned from him and returned to the railing, her hands gripping the wood tightly. She looked down at the sea, her tears falling to mingle in the depths.
He leaned against the rail and placed a hand to her back, rubbing up and down as the rage built within him. That anyone could treat a woman worse than an animal was beyond comprehension.
“I lost all sense of time. My days were spent digging hand holes in the walls of the pit. I did what exercises I could to maintain what strength I had. One day after they gave me food, they didn’t replace the rocks over the boards. Maybe they thought I was too weak to escape. Maybe they just forgot.
“I waited until I was sure it was night, and then I climbed to the top using the footholes I had carved. Iwasweak. I barely managed to shove one of the boards over enough that I could see out. It took every ounce of strength I possessed to haul myself out of the pit, but I did it.
“I stumbled naked out of the encampment. Made my way through the jungle. I don’t know how long I wandered. I was half unconscious when I realized I was just outside Calcutta. I walked to the High Command five miles outside the city and announced I was British and in need of assistance.”
She turned her head to him and smiled crookedly. “The rest, as they say, is history. They clothed me and put me on a ship to England.”
