“Why?”
I tried stepping back out of the car. She shoved me down again with terrifying ease. Actually shoved me. My brain barely processed it because she kept glancing back at the cottage with visible tension.
“Winnie, you’re scaring me.”
That finally made her look directly at me. And for one awful second, I saw it. Not fear of me. Fearforme.
“My circumstances have changed,” she said quietly. “I need to focus my energy elsewhere.”
“What circumstances?”
No answer.
“Was that guy threatening you?”
Still nothing.
“Winnie.”
She stepped back slowly. And I realized with horrifying clarity that she was dismissing me.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Then she turned and walked to the cottage without another word.
Stunned, I watched the door close behind her. The woods around me felt suddenly enormous and wrong and deeply unfriendly.
I was genuinely afraid.
The drive home passed mostly in numb silence. By the time I pulled into the driveway, the porch light was still on. Lady Ferdinand waited at the door. The second she saw my face, she tilted her head in concern.
“Conrad,” she said carefully, “are you all right?”
I opened my mouth.
Nothing coherent came out. “I’m… not sure.”
She touched my arm gently. “The children are worried.”
I barely remembered walking inside or Lady Ferdinand leaving. The kids practically collided with me in the foyer.
“Did you find her?”
“Is she alive?”
“Was it evil hunters?”
I shook my head helplessly as I walked into the living room and sank down on the couch. The children crowded around me. Bianca tucked against one side. CJ practically climbed the armrest to get to me. Billie directly jumped into my lap.
I suddenly felt completely lost. How had this happened so fast? How had Winnie become so essential so quickly? And now it was over. Just like that.
I swallowed hard. “She…” My throat tightened painfully. “Winnie quit.”
“No, she didn’t,” Billie said.
The certainty in her little face almost destroyed me. “She did.”
“She wouldn’t.”
