Maybe his need to see Ellie was less about reassuring her and more about reminding himself of who he really was—climbing back out of the skin of lies before it strangled him.
Adam found Ellie at the edge of the camp, staring through the tents as though lost in troubled thoughts.Kalb had laid his head in her lap.Ellie’s hand absently stroked his ears.
Adam’s instincts flared.“What’s wrong?”
Ellie looked up at him in surprise.“Nothing.I…” She shook her head as though to clear it.“I just had an unexpected chat with Mr.Jacobs.”
A clean, familiar anger snapped through Adam.He embraced it.“Did he threaten you?”
Ellie removed Kalb’s head from her knee and stood up to join him.She winced at the movement, and Adam reached out instinctively to catch her.Placing his hand on her arm was hardly an intimate gesture, but at that slight contact, Adam’s need for her hit him like he’d been wading through a storm and Ellie was a spit of dry land.
Habit demanded that he let go.Adam had barely let himself touch her when other people were around, carefully maintaining the illusion that their relationship was nothing more than friendly.
With a start, he realized that he didn’t have to do that here.Thanks to Jacobs’ lie on the bridge, the soldiers around them—who were barely paying any attention anyway—all thought that Ellie was his wife.
Adam let his grip slide down to her palm and gripped it.The warmth of her skin was a balm.
Ellie squeezed his hand comfortingly.“Jacobs didn’t threaten me.Well—not any more than usual.But he is going to do everything he can to drive us away from here,” she warned.
Urgency snapped through Adam.He needed to use this moment before it was stolen from him.“Ellie… about earlier, when I left you.I…”
With a rustle of leaves, Dawson stumbled out of the forest.The professor drew up short at the sight of Ellie and Adam.“Oh—it’s you,” he noted with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.
Adam’s words died in his throat.He faced the man like an untrustworthy bridge.Dawson could easily out them both to Borthwick—which would likely get them shot no matter what Jacobs had to say about it.
The professor brushed at his bush jacket.The garment looked worse for wear since British Honduras.The man’s face was red and sweating under his pith helmet.
With horrified irony, Adam absorbed that his life might actually depend on this moron.
Dawson eyed Adam skeptically.“Mr.Jacobs tells me that you’ve realized your interests and ours are aligned when it comes to this particular mission.”
Adam’s brain scrambled to catch up with the professor’s words.
Jacobs had apparently dealt with the problem that Dawson posed by telling him a story only a full-blown idiot would have failed to see through.
But then, Dawsonwasa full-blown idiot.
“He… let you know that, did he?”Adam carefully offered back.
Dawson straightened self-importantly.“If you’ll recall, I did come up with that suggestion myself back when we first traveled together in British Honduras.I do tend to be quite prescient about these things.”
“Uh-huh,” Adam returned vaguely.
“I asked him what changed your mind, and he said I ought to just ask you about it.”
Dawson stared at Adam expectantly.
Adam cursed Jacobs.He’d bet good money the bastard had done that deliberately.
Ellie had warned him that Jacobs planned to make their lives uncomfortable.Nobody had ever accused him of being bad at his job.
“I must’ve just… thought a bit more about what you said,” Adam offered awkwardly.
“As well you should,” Dawson easily agreed.“I know we’ve had our little troubles in the past, but it’s nothing we can’t put behind us, being reasonable and well-educated gentlemen.Mr.Jacobs isn’t exactly scholarly in his inclinations, as you well know, and the colonel is always busy.It will be nice to know that there’s one person in this camp with whom I can engage in civilized conversation about scientific and historical matters.”
Standing right next to Adam, Ellie’s eyes narrowed dangerously.
“Right.Yeah.”Adam hooked a hand through Ellie’s arm—in case she was considering trying to stab Dawson with a stick.“Sounds great.”
