“What do you mean to say, Miss Wains? Are you like Rosaline? Are you intending to preserve your chastity forever? Well, I implore you to remember as the poets say that ‘worms will take that long-preserved virginity’ and then what, dear Miss Wains? Then what? What good will it have been?”
My God, he was insane. Did blood loss make one insane or was she lucky enough to get one crazy from the beginning?
A devious part of her brain wished to tell him that just the night before she had thought of asking a mermaid if it was possible for him to take that long-preserved chastity.
But she recognized the poem that quote came from. “Sir, I’m not being coy nor am I rejecting you specifically.” Though she absolutely was. “Please. Let’s go to the boat and I will take you back. There’s a good chance if your men are as capable as you said, that they will be there waiting for you. And we wouldn’t want them to worry.” She doubted that but anything to get him to go.
“No, Miss Wains, I’m telling you: it’s against policy.”
“And I’m telling you it’s not. I would know; it’smylighthouse.”
“Yourlighthouse?” he scoffed. “Yours? Miss Wains,I think you are mistaken. Yes, in fact you are.” Here, he started smiling, a smile that made her skin crawl. “This lighthouse—you’re employed by the Northeastern Shipping Company, are you not?”
She could guess the next words and she already recoiled from them.
“Well, my father owns it and all the lighthouses, and I could have you fired tomorrow.”
CHAPTER 64
Was it wrong that her first thought was how easy it would be to get away with killing him? No one would question an injured man not surviving a storm and Kallias could make sure the body ended up inveryshark-infested waters.
But quickly she shook the thought away. Violence was never the answer. Never. No matter how deplorable someone was being, and though she might regret saving him already, she could never kill. She felt ashamed that the thought had even crossed her head.
“That’s blackmail,” she said levelly. “That will hardly make me come around to your side nor make me think of you as the man I’m sure you wish to be thought of.”
“No, no, my dear Miss Wains,” he practically cooed. “No, you misunderstand me. I am merely doing what is best for you. You don’t realize it because you’ve been here all your life, but on this island, surrounded by all this junk”—his eyes looked dismissively at the suit of armor and the books—“this is no place for you to be.”
“And I would say that I should know myself quite better than you who just met me.” She stepped closer to get in his face. “Go ahead and fire me, Mr. Runington. I have a great record and I’ve saved many men, and the townspeople all know how my father and his before him ran this lighthouse with their lives, how they put their heart and love in it. Do you not thinkeveryonewould question why you’d kick me out, especially after saving you? And do not consider me so generous as to not tell them. Because, Mr. Runington, there are other lighthouses and other companies, so even ifthislighthouse means the world to me, I would sooner leave it of my own accord than be plucked out to become your doll.”
He looked stunned, truly stunned.
“Now, go get in the boat,sir,because I have to report your wreck, and that is one hundred percent part of protocol.”
He still looked too stunned to speak but finally he started again, “Miss Wains—”
She put up a hand. “No. If you have any gratitude for me saving your life—as I absolutely did last night—then please cease to give me added troubles. I was arm deep in your blood last night. The least you could do is not trouble me.”
He looked sad. “I really do think I’ve been misunderstood.”
“Please, Mr. Runington, to the boat.”
Head bowed, looking properly rejected, he headed outside. She grabbed a few things—compass, food, blanket, jacket—and started off after him only to hear him exclaim, “My God! There’s a man in the water!”
CHAPTER 65
Her heart hammered loudly and then dropped to a stop. There were only two options: a shipwreck survivor or Kallias. Oh Lord, let it not be Kallias.
She leapt over the stairs, down the path to the dock, and saw nothing.
Mr. Runington was pointing to the spot where Kallias usually met her and she could not breathe. “There!” he cried. “There! I swear he was there. With long white hair and no clothes.”
That was it, yes. She was dying. Her heart could not take a second more.
She could not even blame Kallias—why would he expect anyone other than her to come down here?Shewas the stupid one, telling this man to go ahead when she hadn’t even thought to check herself for any mermaids.
She hoped he wouldn’t notice how pale or sweaty she felt—or the fact that her hands were shaking and clammy. “Mr. Runington”—she tried to go for concerned and worried as if questioninghissanity; she wasn’t sure she hit it—“there’s no one there.”
“No, but there was. I’m sure of it. Maybe he drowned.”
