Dinner was an awkward affair. Excitement hung over the table where the travelers had assembled, but India couldn’t bring herself to join in the joviality. She smiled and nodded at the appropriate times until her face felt frozen into a mask of fakeness.
As soon as she could excuse herself without drawing undue concern, she did so, using the excuse of their impending journey the next morning.
Ridge stood as she did and followed her from the room.
“Shall I escort you to your room?” he asked with a wink.
She smiled tightly but didn’t refuse.
“I’ve procured horses and enough food and supplies for two weeks,” he said as they walked down the hallway to her room. “If we have need of more, I’m sure Madrid will offer it.”
They stopped outside her door, and he smiled broadly at her. “Can you believe we are on the verge of the greatest find of our time? Perhaps in our history?”
His eyes shone with excitement, and her heart spiraled further downward.
“We’ve a long journey ahead of us,” she said quietly. “Perhaps you should get some rest.”
He bent and brushed his lips across hers. When he pulled away, he murmured, “There is more to this, to us, than just what we are seeking.”
With a slight grin, he turned and walked down the hall toward his room, a cocky whistle filtering back to her.
She barely made it inside to the wash basin before she emptied her stomach. Her body heaved and she leaned heavily against the stand for support.
Tears leaked from her eyes and ran hot trails down her cheeks. At that moment, she hated herself. Truly despised herself.
She stood there a few minutes more until she had regained her composure then she walked to the bed where her packed valise lay. She dug into it and pulled out her last remaining money and paper to compose a letter to Udaya, Kavi, and indirectly Ridge. The money she would leave on the bed so that Udaya and Kavi could travel back to England.
Her stomach fluttered. She couldn’t write to Ridge. There was too much to say, too much she couldn’t say. Nothing she could tell him would make up for her lies anyway.
But she ached to tell him of her feelings. She wanted so badly to share with him all the dreams she had begun having since meeting him. Home and family. Children.Hischildren. Love and laughter. Things she was throwing away.
She moved to the small desk in the corner of the room and began writing before she could change her mind.
Each word was akin to tearing a piece of her soul away. She scrubbed angrily at her face as she continued to write, wiping the tears away before they could streak the ink on the paper.
Finally she had put down every damning word. She blew over the ink and quickly folded the paper before she could dwell on it any longer.
She stood and stretched then surveyed the window, surprised to see darkness had long since fallen. Her pulse began to race. It was time.
Mechanically, she collected her bag, and slipped from her room. The hallway was dark, no lights shone under any of the doors of her companions. She paused at Kavi and Udaya’s door then bent and slipped the letter underneath.
Quietly, she moved forward, creeping down the stairs at the end of the hall. The dining room still boasted patrons, and she hurried through, hoping she didn’t draw undue notice.
Soon she was outside, the night air blowing over her heated cheeks, drying the tears that fell despite her best efforts to keep them at bay.
“SenoritaAshton?”
She whirled around to see a tall imposing man with a heavy Spanish accent standing in the shadows. As he stepped forward, she saw how formidable he was indeed. Dressed in black trousers and a green tunic, his legs resembled tree trunks, and his chest easily the breadth of an ale barrel. Long black hair streamed down his back, a single thin braid trailed from his temple.
“Juan Miguel?”
She tried to keep the tremble from her voice, attempted to put on a much braver front than she felt.
“Si.”
“Where is my father?” she demanded.
“Come this way. I have horses,” he said, ignoring her question.
