The Pretenders (26 page)

I took one tiny little step away from the wall. The crunching sound made by my feet sounded as loud as a gunshot to my petrified ears.

I stopped, but there was no unusual sound from Robert. His own steps came steadily on.

The noise made by his own footfalls would drown out mine, I told myself firmly. And slowly, carefully, resolutely, I moved away from the wall and into the running water that formed the central channel of the cave.

Because of the rut worn by the running stream of water, the central floor of the cavern was lower than the floor along the walls, which took away some of my advantage. But I was tall, thank God. I would have no trouble reaching Robert’s head.

The trouble would be finding it.

His steps came on. My heart was hammering in my chest so loudly that I felt sure that he would be able to hear it. My fingers tightened on my rock.

Then I could hear his breathing. I concentrated intently, trying to place him in the dark. He had almost reached me. Just a few more steps…

I lifted the rock, rushed toward the wall and, bringing it down as hard as I could, I struck.

I knew the moment it landed that I had missed his head.

Robert grunted with surprise and pain, but he spun around and grabbed out at me. His hand tangled in my loose, salt-stiffened hair. He pulled hard, dragging my head back.

“
Deborah
,” he said, his voice sounding horribly triumphant. “
At last
.”

I still had the rock in my hand and I struck out at him again, aiming once more for his head. I got him in the face instead. I thought I could hear his nose squish. He cursed vilely, and I wrenched away from him, dropping to my hands and knees, trying to escape into the darkness. But he was after me like a shot. I felt his arms come around me from behind as he clasped me around my waist so tightly that the air was crushed right out of my body.

The both of us were sprawled in the small stream of water that ran down the middle of the cave. It was freezing.

“You and I have some unfinished business, bitch,” Robert said in my ear. “And then I’ll say goodbye to you forever.”

I screamed and kicked and tried to free myself. There was no one there to hear my cries, but I couldn’t stop myself.

He laughed. He liked it that I was so afraid.

I was lying on my stomach with Robert’s weight crushing me into the ground. I had to turn my head so that my face wasn’t pressed into the water.

I couldn’t see a thing, but my hands were spread out over my head and I groped with my fingers in the stream bed, searching for another rock.

Robert will rape me
, I thought in panic.
He’ll rape me and then he’ll kill me
.

Reeve
, I screamed in my mind.
Help me, Reeve
.

But Reeve was trapped on the mainland, and the only person who could help me now was myself. My mother wasn’t going to come running to my rescue this time.

My God, my God, my God. Was I going to die here in this horrible cave?

I won’t.
I thought
I
won’t
.

I got my knees up under me a little and bucked as hard as I could, trying to throw him off me. His hands moved up from my waist to my breasts and pinched. The pain made me lose my breath again. He had pressed himself against my thigh and I was horrified to feel that he had an erection.

I screamed again and thrashed under him, trying to break free.

“You’ll hang for this, Robert,” I yelled. “Even your father knows you for the monster that you are.”

“The only thing I regret is the dark,” he panted. ”I wanted to see your face as I slammed into you.”

At that moment, my hand connected with another rock.

I grasped it in my fingers and struggled to turn over, so that I would be facing him.

He laughed again, a chilling, inhuman sound. “You’re only making it worse for yourself by struggling this way, Deborah. Relax and enjoy it.”

I reached up with the hand that was not holding the rock to feel for his face. I didn’t want to miss my aim this time.

He grabbed my hand and stretched it over my head, the way he had the last time he had tried to rape me. Before he could locate my other hand in the dark, I struck.

I brought the rock down as hard as I could onto the place where I hoped his temple was. This time I connected with bone, not flesh, and I thought I felt something giving way beneath the weight of my blow. He didn’t make a sound, but fell across my body, where he lay, as still as the stone I still clutched in my hand.

I crawled out from underneath him, crying hysterically. I dragged myself to the wall and leaned against it because my legs refused to hold me up. I don’t know how long I huddled there, shaking and weeping. Finally I pulled myself together enough to realize that I had better not wait around for too long in case Robert regained consciousness.

My knees were trembling so badly that I could scarcely walk, and my joints were so stiff with cold that they would hardly bend, but I managed to feel my way along the wall of the cave, heading back toward the entrance. At last, far in the distance, I saw the first faint glow of light.

It seemed as if I had been buried in this horrible place for centuries, and I hurried forward, longing with every fiber of my being to step out into the clean light of day.

The entrance to the cave was completely clear of water when I reached it, and the sun actually broke out as I exited onto the rough beach. I looked up to the blessed sky and saw that it was still full of clouds, but that patches of blue were blowing in from the south. The storm was apparently over.

I leaned against the cliff wall and drank in the scene before me. Never again would I take for granted the gift of light.

At last I took stock of my own situation.

There was blood on my jacket, but when I opened it to check myself, I could see no injuries.

Then I remembered how I had hit Robert in the nose. The blood was probably his.

Good
, I thought. /
hope it’s broken
.

I pulled up my skirt and took a look at my knees. They were a sorry sight, but all the cuts would heal. The same with my hands, which were slashed in a number of places from my searching in the cave bed for rocks.

I drew a long, shaky breath. It could have been so much worse.

The thing to do now, I thought, was to get back around the island to the causeway. As soon as it was open, I would make my way to Fair Haven and have someone drive me home. That is, if Reeve didn’t get to me first.

I didn’t even make it all the way to the south side of the island before I saw two horses cantering toward me along the beach path.

“
Deb
!” Reeve’s frantic shout was as clear as if he were standing next to me. His was the first horse, and he came tearing up the beach toward me, his horse in full gallop. I leaned against the cliff wall and waited for him.

In less than a minute, he had reached me, was out of the saddle, and had me clasped tightly in his arms. I buried my face in his shoulder and began to cry.

“You’re freezing,” he said, and, still holding me, he managed to shrug out of his riding jacket and put it around my shoulders.

I cried harder.

“Are you all right?” I could hear the effort he was making to keep his voice calm. ”Don’t cry, Deb. Can you tell me what happened?”

I couldn’t. I couldn’t talk. All I could do was cry.

“All right, love. All right,” he said, still in the same determinedly calm voice. ”We’ll get you home and dry, and you can tell us when you are feeling better.”

I realized then that Robert was still lying in the cave.

“Robert,” I gulped. ”Robert tried to kill me, Reeve. I hit him over the head. He’s in Rupert’s Cave. I hit him and I ran away. He’s still there.”

“Robert.” said a weary, disgusted voice that I recognized as belonging to Harry.

Reeve’s arms tightened painfully. “Did he hurt you, Deb?”

“N… n… no.” I sobbed.

I couldn’t say any more. I couldn’t speak yet of my ordeal in that cave. All I could do was press myself into Reeve’s warmth and cry.

Harry said, “Put her up on my horse and get her home, Reeve. You can send my father and some extra horses back here for me. In the meanwhile, I’ll go and look for Robert.”

Reeve said to me gently, “Can you ride by yourself, Deb, or do you want to ride with me?”

I tried very hard to pull myself together. “I can ride by myself,” I said.

Harry dismounted, and Reeve lifted me up onto his horse. I was so stiff with cold that at first I didn’t think I would be able to stay on, but Reeve took my reins in his hand and told me to hold on to the front of the saddle.

There were still several feet of water on the causeway as the horses waded across it, but the wild waves that had whipped it six hours earlier were considerably calmer. I held on to the saddle, and shivered and cried the whole way back to Wakefield.

We rode right up to the front door of the manor, and Reeve lifted me out of the saddle. Mama came running out onto the front steps.

“Deborah!” she cried. ”Thank God!”

It was terrible, I knew, but I couldn’t face her.

“Please, Reeve,” I murmured. ”I just want to go upstairs to bed.”

He gave me a very worried look, but said, “All right, Deb. Whatever you want.”

He put his arm around me to help me, and I leaned gratefully against him as we mounted the stairs together.

“She’s all right, Mrs. Woodly,” I heard Reeve assuring Mama. ”She was caught in Rupert’s Cave by the tide, and she needs to warm up. I’m going to take her upstairs to bed and cover her with blankets. Perhaps you could have some hot soup sent up?” His voice was quiet as he addressed Mama. ”And tell Bernard to get out to Charles Island as fast as he can. I brought Deb home on Harry’s horse, so he needs to bring a horse for Harry. And one for Robert, too.”

“Robert? Robert was out on Charles Island with Deborah?” Mama said. ”Dear God. Is it true that you’re all right, darling?”

“Y… yes,” I said, and started to cry again.

“Do you want me to help you with her, Reeve?” Mama said.

He must have felt me shake my head, because he said, “No, Mrs. Woodly. She’ll be fine with me.” We entered the house, and he began to walk me toward the stairs.

As we passed Mama I refused to look at her. I just couldn’t bear to.

At the first stair, I stumbled, and Reeve startled me by swinging me up into his arms. I put my own arms around his neck and let my forehead rest gratefully on his shoulder. He carried me all the way up to our bedroom.

“
Susan
,” he roared as we came into the room.

My maid must have been lurking at the dressing-room door, for she opened it immediately. “Yes, my lord?”

“Get me the warmest robe her ladyship owns. Then get hot bricks for the bed. And check in the kitchen to make sure they are going to send up some hot soup.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Reeve began to strip my sodden clothes off me himself and when Susan came into the room with my robe, he took it from her and made an impatient gesture for her to be gone. Once he had my clothes off, he held up the robe for me to put on, his eyes scanning me quickly before he covered me up again and tied my sash so that the warm robe was snug around my shivering body.

“Your knees and your hands are all cut,” he said.

“They’ll be all right,” I quavered.

“Deb.” His dark eyes met and held mine. “What happened?”

We were standing at the bottom of the bed, facing each other. I met his eyes, thought of what I had to tell him, and shivered even harder.

Someone knocked on the door. It was Mama with the soup.

“Reeve,” I whispered to him urgently. ”Please don’t let anybody in. I only want you.”