A Ghost of a Chance (16 page)

“
Well you’ve got to spread some positive energy around to counteract it.”

“
And how do I do that?”

“
Good question. Good luck with that Jack.”

He grimaced, super. At times the old lady’s presence just seemed to add to his frustration. She told him just enough to drive him crazy. How could he lighten things up around here?

Hallie sat, curled up in her lounge chair, just staring blankly ahead. She was thinking about him. He could feel it. And then he had an idea.

It was mid-afternoon and Hallie sat at the computer terminal feeling antsy. She truly wasn’t in the mood for writing. She started to stand up, but felt the pull again – the insistent tug to come here that had been gnawing at her all day. She clicked her fingernails on her wine glass. It was her second glass of wine.

She hadn’t really wanted wine. And then she stopped, “Jack?” She spoke out loud. She sighed. Maybe she really was crazy. Oh well, “Jack,” she began again, “I guess you’re trying to help, I guess, but I’m just too cluttered to write.” She started to stand up but felt a pressure on her shoulders. It was almost physical, but in all fairness it could also be construed as her imagination. “Please Jack, if this is you, I just want to go watch TV or something. I haven’t got it in me to do this right now.”

She felt her fingers tingling, itching to hit the keyboard. Damn it, if this was him he was relentless. But right now being pushed just made her feel more stubborn. After all, he was the one turning her life upside down, what life she had. And then she felt a soft breeze pass through her hair. The air conditioning wasn’t on. It was actually a cool day for summer time. It tickled a little. What was he doing? Looking down at the keyboard begrudgingly, “All right I’ll try, but it will be crap. I know it."

Gabriella’s head ached terribly. Somehow, Jacob had gotten her away from Samory, but she could not begin to recall just how it had happened. Somewhere in the midst of her terror she had lost consciousness.

And she awoke in unfamiliar surroundings. She was stretched out on a bed in a sparsely decorated room. And Jacob stood near a far window rinsing his face in a porcelain-washing basin. With embarrassment, she suddenly realized that he had removed his shirt. She sat up tentatively, but her head continued to ache with every movement. “Where am I?” she whispered.

He turned around drying his face off with a towel. “I’m glad you’re awake Gabriella. I was on the verge of calling a physician.” He moved to the only dresser in the room and retrieved a cup that he brought to her. “Here is some tea that Madame Guillard brewed for you.”

“
Who?”

“
The kind lady that has been renting this room to me.”

She took the warm cup into her hands and began to sip it. It had the smell of rose petals and peppermint. It did taste soothing. With a sudden concern she inquired, “But who did you tell her that I was?”

He sat on the edge on the bed staring at her with his liquid blue eyes. Even in her present state of ill feeling, they disturbed her, to a degree that even Samory had failed to elicit within her. “Why the only thing I could. I told her that you were my wife.”

Hallie paused. Her heart was beating ridiculously fast. “Jack this isn’t me, so it must be you. Where are you going with this?” With much uneasiness, she returned her hands to the keyboard.

“
You told her what?”

“
It would not have been proper for you to be here under any other conditions. So I told her an untruth. An untruth that I hope will come to pass before too long.”

She looked away from him feeling a blush creep beneath her skin. “Where is my father?”

“
I encouraged him to leave the city for a short time. I convinced him that I would protect you.”

“
From Samory?”

“
With my life Gabriella, I am pledged to it.”

The horror of the night before came rushing back to her. “How did we escape him? The last thing I remember.”

He took her hand that was trembling uncontrollably. “Fortunately, he retreated. But there is no assurance that he will again. He wants you and is determined to have you Gabriella. So we must frustrate him at every turn.”

“
How do you mean?”

“
Once we are married, I believe the thread of control that he retains over you will be snapped.”

She straightened up, “Married? I have not agreed to marry you Captain Mcfarin.”

He grasped her other hand warmly in his. “Gabriella I have already gained your father’s consent as well as made arrangements with the priest of St. Michel’s cathedral.”

She forcefully pulled her delicate hands away from his much larger, coarser ones. “That is all very well monsieur, but there is one person, very important person, whose consent you have neglected to obtain.”

He grimaced, “Yes well, I have always had the habit of mastering the simpler tasks first and building up to the more complicated ones.”

“
That is a failing on your part,” she retorted with spirit.

He smiled knowingly, “I have heard it described as a charm.”

“
Evidently sir, you have been listening to the wrong people.”

Even in her weakened state, she was determined not to let him get the best of her.

She made a motion to get up from the bed, but her head began to spin with dizziness again. Gently, he pressed his hands against her shoulders to pressure her down again. The warmth of his touch was almost more dizzying than her injuries. “Gabriella, you are not well enough to get up yet. You must allow me to take care of you.”

The beat of her heart was quickening again. He was so very near her now, and she could see closely his strong, rippling muscular chest. Leaning even closer, he whispered to her, “What kind of proposal would be most acceptable to mademoiselle?”

Her head was still spinning, but it was his nearness now that continued to increase her disorientation. “ But you scarcely know me Captain Mc. . .”

“
Jacob, Gabriella. “ He was holding her hand again, but stroking it intimately in a way that sent tingling shots of pleasure up her arm.

She looked up at him shyly and hesitantly. “But you don’t love me Jacob.”

And then he brought the palm of her hand to his lips and gently kissed it. The effect was devastating. No one’s touch had ever brought fire to her veins before as his did. “You are wrong. I have known from the first moment that I saw you that you were the woman who had walked in my dreams all of my life. I thought that I had come to this foreign land to exact revenge for my sister’s death, but the truth was that I came for you. To save you and to claim you for my own.”

“
Jacob,” she whispered. But it was too late, for he had cut off her words with his lips, his mouth, his sultry, insistent, passionate kisses.

And she knew that she would deny him nothing. Even as an ordinary mortal man his will over her was more binding and more powerful than Samory’s could ever hope to be.

Hallie took a swig of her wine. “Aren’t you laying it on a bit thick Jack? His will over hers, please. All the independent women of the 21st century will balk at that.” But she couldn’t help grinning. In an overblown kind of way, it was horribly romantic and it made her weak in the knees and it made her wish Jack was here in the flesh so she could kiss him again and again

and. . .

“
Rrrrrrrnnnng”

The sound of the telephone jolted her from her romantic musings. A little shakily, she picked up the cell phone on her desk.

“
Hello.”

“
Hallie.”

She waited. The voice was distantly familiar. “Yes, who is this?”

“
Well, I suppose I deserve that. It has been awhile.” And then a coldness clutched in her stomach. It couldn’t be, not right now. She said nothing. “Hallie, it’s Edward.”

Quietly, “Yes, I was coming to that conclusion.”

“
I hope it’s all right that I call you now.”

She drummed her fingers beside her wineglass nervously. “I just can’t imagine why you would be calling me Edward.

Everything with the divorce was tied up a long time ago.” “Well, that would be a shame indeed if that were all that was left between us.”

She said nothing. She didn’t know what to say, couldn’t even begin to imagine what he was driving at. Experience had taught her that with Edward, apparent or not, there always seemed to be an agenda. “Are you still there, Hallie?”

“
Yep,” she rustled a few papers on the desk, “and actually swamped under with work right now.”

“
Yes, your writing career. I’ve been following it with interest.”

“
You were saying why you were calling.”

“
That’s my Hallie, to the point.”

She was irritated and feeling curiously trapped. Old habits seemed to die hard with her. “Well, I’m not your Hallie anymore Edward, and frankly I’m not up to having an idle conversation with you just now.”

“
Time has certainly roughened you around the edges.”

“
And you haven’t changed at all,” he laughed at her remark in his slightly superior manner.

“
Actually, I’m going to be in your vicinity this evening. And I wanted to invite you out to dinner.”

“
How did you. . .”

“
Your sister was kind enough to give me your number some time ago.”

She frowned, where was this coming from? “Edward, given our history I don’t think. . .”

“
I’ve always felt that I wanted us to remain friends after the divorce, Hallie, and I never was able to quite bridge that gap with you.”

“
A lot happened Edward.”

“
Yes, but I think as adults we could manage to spend one pleasant evening in each other’s company.”

“
I really don’t. . .”

“
Don’t say no to me Hallie. If it’s a fiasco, then at least we can say we gave it a try.”

Her head was beginning to hurt. “The thing is, right now I don’t really want to give it a try.”

“
I know how obstinate you can be darling. I was married to you long enough. But I think you owe this to all the years we were together. I’ll even meet you there. I heard of a good Italian place, you know in the college town near your little city.”

“
Edward . . .”

“
How about seven? Marcello’s I think it is. Do you know it?”

“
Yes, I do.”

“
So I’ll see you there. I insist.” And then he hung up not waiting for a reply. That was so like him. It would serve him right if she stood him up. But then he would probably show up out here. Damn him, now she was intensely irritated. It was probably better just to go and cut things short. She didn’t want to deal with ghosts from her past when she was, well, dealing with other ghosts. The timing really stunk.

She got up, heading into the bedroom to find something sedate to wear. Jack remained behind. This was some kind of move in the chess game he’d been playing with this thing. “It” was striking at vulnerabilities, at Hallie’s. And it really bothered him that she hadn’t turned him down flat. Damn the bastard, he obviously still held some kind of control over her. And even contemplating that possibility was making him crazy.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

She brushed out her dark, brown hair as she watched in the mirror. It was a little longer than shoulder length. What had he said? Oh yes, that was right, Edward liked her hair short. It was more sophisticated, respectable for a woman her age. How old was she then? She was only twenty-seven at the time. Calmly, she pulled her hair up into a large barrette, letting the tendrils escape and fall softly around her face.

Why are you doing this? Why are you going at all? The whispers resounded in her head. And she couldn’t help wonder if they came from her or somewhere else.

As surely as if he were standing next to her, she knew that Jack did not approve of this. He did not want her to go. For the most part, she didn’t want to either, to step back into a place that had been so painful.