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“I apologize for walking out.” She jerked her fingers vaguely toward the alley door.
“What happened?” he snapped.
“I . . . I just . . .” She paused to swallow. “I was only surprised to see you. Of course I was.”
“No, not that. I don’t understand what happened. To you. What happened?”
“I have no idea.”
“No idea? We argued, Katie, and then you disappeared.”
Her smile slipped and she glared at him. “We argued, and you told me to go.”
“I was angry!” he shouted, but Kate cut him off with a sharp wave of her hand.
“There’s no point in discussing this. All that matters now is you’ve found me.”
For a moment, the clouds of confusion parted, and Aidan caught a brief moment of hope.
But Katie shook her head as if to warn him away from such foolishness. “How did you find me? How did you track me down?”
“What?”
“I need to know. I . . . I have no wish to present myself to my family. Do they know I’ve returned?” Her fingers twisted nervously together, and anxiety tightened her brow.
“Returned from where?” he asked before shaking his head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“How did you find me?”
Aidan threw his hands up. “I saw you on the street! I followed you here.”
Every muscle in her body seemed to freeze solid. “That’s it?”
“Yes! A ridiculous happenstance. Meaningless and random.”
She looked thrilled by the circumstances, but Aidan felt only a growing horror. If he’d left that office a few minutes before, or a few after, Katie would’ve walked on, unnoticed.
“Katie,” he said on a strangled breath. “You still haven’t told me what happened. Did you . . . the ship . . . did it sink?”
She spared him a distracted glance. “The ship?”
“To Ceylon.”
“Oh, that. No. But it hardly matters now.”
“Don’t be absurd. Of course it matters.” He took a step toward her but was stopped when she raised a hand.
“It was a lifetime ago. What story could I tell that would make any difference? I can’t . . . I can’t think. And I wish you would just go.”
Strange that words could cause such stunning hurt. Aidan drew his shoulders back in an attempt to hide the force of the blow. She wanted him to go. And he could only imagine staying. For hours. For days. Staying until he’d satisfied himself with every detail of every second of her life since she’d left.
“Did you mean to leave?” he asked softly.
Her mouth twisted into a grimace for a brief moment, but she stayed silent.
He tried again. “You said you would marry someone else.”
“You told me I should,” she whispered.
