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And Genny laughed softly. “I can understand that.”
* * *
Later, after her parents had left so that she could rest, Rafe came back.
He stood by the bed in dark trousers and a white shirt, so broad and solid. He was all she’d ever wanted. Too bad it had taken her so much longer than it should have to figure it all out. He asked if she wanted a mild painkiller. “Dr. Eldon said acetaminophen should be all right, for the baby.”
She shook her head. “It’s not bothering me that much. And there are things we need to talk about.”
“Later,” he said in a rough whisper. “When you’re stronger.”
She shook her head. “We’ve waited far too long already.”
He stood there, just looking at her, for a full count of ten. “All right. If you’re certain.”
“I am.”
He dropped into the chair her mother had sat in earlier. “There are a few things that happened while you were missing.”
“Tell me.”
“Melinda called Brooke, came clean about everything and promised never to darken our doorstep again.”
“I’m glad that she told Brooke the truth.”
“And speaking of Brooke, I actually think she’s had a change of heart.”
Genny nodded. “She seemed...different this afternoon. In a good way.”
“She told me she considers you her sister. That she loves you.”
Genny gave a low chuckle and felt the slight burn of tears at the back of her throat. “Believe it or not, I always knew that. I love her, too.”
“Love...” He repeated the word so softly. She couldn’t tell whether he meant it as a musing remark, or his pet name for her.
She drew in a slow breath. “I...had a lot of time to think. That can happen when you’re trapped down a well.”
He sat forward slightly. “And?”
“I started...I don’t know, reliving, remembering moments, events from the past. It helped to distract me from the pain in my ankle and the darkness and the rain coming down, from the water that kept rising, from my terror that I would die in there and so would our baby.”
“God, Gen...” There was real pain in his face—pain for her, for what she’d lived through in the long night before.
“I’m here.” She reached out her hand. He caught it, clasped it. When he let go, she pressed her palm to the slight swell of her belly. “Both of us are safe and well—and I’m not trying to upset you. It’s only that there are things that I really do need to tell you.”
He sat back purposefully. “Go ahead.”
“I thought of you, Rafe. I thought of all the years we’ve known each other. I thought of our four hot, wild days and nights in March, and the beautiful days and nights since then. And I...I thought of Edward, too.”
Rafe shut his eyes. She feared he would turn from her. But then he opened them again and he looked at her steadily.
She continued, “I remembered that day again—that summer day when I was fourteen and saw you kissing Melinda on the boat jetty. Before I came to the lake looking for you, I saw Edward, did I tell you that?”
“I don’t think so.”
“He flirted with me the way he always did, charming me, making me feel important and feminine and all grown-up. And then some friends of his drove up. He went out to get in the car with them. He ducked into the backseat—and this is the important part. Because I had forgotten what happened next. I think I forgot because I really didn’t want to remember....”
“What?” He said it warily, watching her so closely.
“Fiona was in the car, waiting in the backseat. She would only have been nineteen at the time. It couldn’t have been more than a few months before she married Gerald. I...saw her face, just a glimpse. She smiled at Edward and reached out a hand to pull him close to her. There was something in the way she looked at him...a look I didn’t really understand then. A look of heat and anticipation. Of powerful desire. And last night, in the well? That was when it finally hit me. Fiona was in love with Edward. She was talking about Edward that night last month when she got so drunk. They were lovers, she and Edward. And from what she said that night a month ago, it didn’t end when she married Gerald.”
Rafe closed his eyes again. He let his head drop back against the chair.
Genny waited—for as long as she could bear it. And then, finally, she pleaded, “Please, Rafe. I need to know. I need the truth. I need to understand.”
And in the end, he didn’t disappoint her. He lifted his head and he gazed at her, unwavering. “Yes. They were lovers. I think it started when she was very young, fifteen or sixteen. And it kept on. They hid it from Granny and the parents, but not from us—not from Brooke and me. They were...crazy with it, the two of them. Fiona wanted him to marry her. But he wouldn’t. So she found her banker and married him, mostly to get even with Edward for not making her his countess.”
