He did not give her an answer. Instead, he looked around the wretched little room and strode forward. He took her arm and began to pull her to the door.
“Let me go!” She yanked at him, frantic to be free.
He paused as he gazed down at her.
She glared at him. “I won’t go with you.”
He shook his head and, in one smooth move, caught her up in his arms and rushed toward the landing and the stairs.
Behind him, Inès sensed another.
She squirmed and kicked.
Evan stumbled. But held her fast.
“Sir!” Whoever the other man was, he pulled at Evan and drew them into the next room. There, he stepped inside with Evan and her and stood against the door.
Evan plunked down on the thin little mattress and captured both her hands in his. “Stop this! You cannot do this!”
“Let me go. Let me go. Let me go.” She fought him like a wild woman, batting at his chest, a wall she could not tear down.
“No. Stop! Stop! This plan of yours is useless.”
“Nooo. No. It isn’t. I must do this. You cannot know.Cannot.” Fresh cold tears poured down her cheeks, and the sight of her husband’s face so well lined with compassion only made her sorrow bottomless. “Oh, Evan.” She moaned and shook her head. “Let me go. You do not understand.”
“I do. I certainly do, my love.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“But you are mine and my love.”
“Not after I do this! No, no. I must not be! You must never claim me!”
She was weary, worn to a frazzle by her interminable hours of plotting and planning, denying and failing, then starting all over again.
Evan sent a hand up into the coif of her hair and led her to put her face against his chest. He stroked her hair. Kissed her crown. Hugged her securely to him.
“You may leave us, Neville.”
“I’m on the door, sir.” The man left them.
How long she stayed like that, held close to her husband, defeated and drowning in her failure, she did not know.
Evan bent to her ear and kissed her there. “Tell me now what you planned to do.”
She shook her head.
“Say it once. Give it up to the universe. Then you need never say it again.”
She frowned, but instinct had her putting her arms around his shoulders.
Eventually she said, “I cannot. You will hate me.”
“If you think me capable of that, why did you marry me?”
“Oh, Evan! You try me.”
“Good!”
