“She left a note,” he said, “but we never found a body. She plunged into the waves below.”
“I am so sorry,” Vanessa whispered. She lowered her hand. “I had no idea. And that is why you married me.”
“I could not allow another woman to be abused by their husband,” he said, nodding. “Not when there was something I could do about it.”
For a long moment, they just stared at each other. It was difficult for Winston. It felt too intimate to gaze into her eyes, like being stripped naked, but he also could not look away. No one had looked at him with so much empathy and care in such a longtime, and it made his heart feel as if the ice that had formed around it was beginning to crack.
“Winston…” she began, and she took another step forward.
But she must have stepped on loose soil or a piece of the earth had started to erode already because suddenly, she swayed backward, as if she had lost balance. Her arms came up and began to cartwheel around her as she tried to keep from falling. She was leaning back—way too far back, and Winston realized, with a horror that filled every inch of his body, that she was going to fall.
Fall backwards. Off the cliff. Into the sea.
“No, Clementine—!” he screamed, his sister’s name springing to his lips unconsciously.
And with a strength and speed he never knew he had, Winston launched himself forward. Every muscle in his body was working harder than it had ever worked. He was sprinting flat out, not a thought in his head except that he had to reach her in time, that he would do anything, give his own life even, to make sure that she did not fall.
Not again. I will save her this time.
“Help!” she screamed, as she began to tumble backward. Her face was a mask of fear. “Help me!”
Winston reached out his hand. Hers were flailing, but he had to try. He had to reach her.
He wasn’t going to make it. She was too far. She was falling too fast.
He put on another burst of speed. It didn’t seem possible, but somehow, he did it.
And then his hand found hers. He was grasping it. Tightening his fingers around her and then pulling backward. Back toward safety. Back toward him.
She was very light, and she came with him easily. He was so much heavier, he was able to use himself as a counterweight, dragging her back away from the cliff and forward onto him.
She landed with a smalloofon top of him. Instinctually, his hands wound around her, clutching her to him. She hugged him back, burying her head in his chest and letting out harsh, angry sobs.
He held her closer. The ground was cold and hard under his back, and he was afraid he might have hurt his leg in the fall, but he barely noticed. All that mattered was reassuring her that she was safe. All that mattered was that she was okay.
After several minutes, Vanessa stopped crying, and then she sat up, pushing herself out of her arms. She scooted back along the ground, watching him nervously.
“I am sorry,” she whispered, her eyes filling with tears again. “I did not mean for any of that to happen.”
“Do not worry,” he said quickly. “It is over. Now, we must get you out of this cold and somewhere with a hot bath.”
“To Thornfield Castle?” she asked.
“No, it is too far. You need to be warmed up now before you catch a cold.” She had begun to shiver, and now that the immediate threat of the cliff was gone, his most pressing concern was her health. “Where is your horse?”
“She ran off.”
“I see. Well, she will find her way back home. You can ride with me.”
He stood and went to her. She stumbled as she tried to walk, so he scooped her up into his arms, carrying her to the horse. She did not protest.
After putting her on the horse and draping his cloak around her, he swung up behind her, turned the horse around, and began to make his way as quickly as possible back along the path. He did not look back. He had seen enough of those cliffs for one lifetime.
Fortunately, he knew of an inn not too far from where they were, on the other side of the forest, and he took them there. It was nota long ride. Despite that and his heavy cloak, Vanessa was still trembling violently by the time they got there.
“I need hot soup and a fire!” he called out the moment he threw open the door of the inn. “At once! My wife is ill!”
A door opened, and the innkeeper came into the hall, looking confused. The moment he saw Winston, he dropped into a bow.
