A Proper Scandal (Ravensdale Family Book 2) (26 page)

The beach was a small alcove, the rock cliff towering above, cushioning the night’s sounds into a soft murmur.

Minnie swallowed again, her throat raw and sore. Then, so was the rest of her. All she felt was that disgusting touch. Just the thought made her stomach twist, again but she forced herself to focus on Alex and his strange stare.

She rose and edged closer, titling her head to examine him. Everything about Alex was otherworldly. She raised a hand to his face but drew back as he winced. He moved his eyes to her, staring at her and looking through her all the same. It was a hollow look, deep and lost.

“Alex,” she whispered. “Come back to me, darling.” Minnie leaned in for a quick kiss on his cheek. It broke her heart when he wrestled out of her grip as she tried to hug him close. “Come back,” she pleaded. Her voice was shaky. Damn it, she needed him and he couldn’t do this to her. Not now.

They couldn’t stay the night on the beach. They would need to travel further to ensure their escape, but for now…

The waves lapped the shore in a sleepy cadence.

“Follow me, Alex.”

He looked up as she untied the sheet from around her body. His grin was still not his own.

“The water is very nice. We should take a swim. Don’t you think?”

He opened his mouth to speak but only nodded.

“Very good, then.” She was thankful he had agreed. Perhaps if she could get him in the water, it would be enough of a shock to shake him awake once more.

She walked backward into the water keeping her focus on Alex, fighting the urge to turn around and dive into the icy depths to erase D’Ambreious’s phantom touch. “That’s right,” she coaxed. She wanted to touch him so desperately, but he withdrew from her reach. “The water is very nice,” she said again.

He scowled down as the water crashed around his pants.

She sank into the water, her body bobbing with the waves as she waited for Alex to come back to her.

*

Alex was getting wet, though he didn’t understand why. Minnie was before him in the dark, her pale shoulders floating stark against in what looked like a sea of diamonds. Floating before him like some evil mirage.

She had gone. At least, he had thought that she had left him. He remembered some trouble and a very ugly man with his hands on her and that had made Alex upset. So why was he getting wet?

He stared down at his feet and blinked. The ground rolled under him in an uncomfortable sway.

I’m not yours.

The words played over in his mind, growing distorted and revolting until his stomach rolled too, as if he was about to be sick. Alex clamped his eyes shut. It must all be a dream, but when he heard splashing, he saw her in front of him again.

It didn’t make sense.

Alex lifted his hands, examining his wrists. His stomach churned again painfully, the ground beneath him giving out. He could feel the chains but his flesh was inked. He remembered the chains when his skin was pale and unmarked. He remembered her voice talking of selkies and green, of a man who had loved her and one who had sent her away, but had given her the gift of a son. My darling boy, my precious son.

He stumbled, a strange weight pulling at his feet as he reached for Minnie’s haunting form. If they were to lock him up, he would keep her close. They couldn’t steal her away from him then. He would commit her to his heart.

Her skin was so white and he thought she might be crying, but why would a ghost be crying? As her figure retreated further, a feral growl ripped from his throat. The ground shifted again. He fought against being knocked down by an invisible enemy.

I’m not yours. Not anymore.

He studied her face, but the words were only phantoms of his mind, because her lips didn’t move. He hated her for even saying them, because now he’d be damned to hear them the rest of his tormented life.

“Don’t cry.” He drew back, not recognizing his voice. His mouth was dry and uncomfortable. He reached for her again, but she drew further away. Alex swatted at the water.

He was too young to be trapped in this hell. He had spent half his life living it. He deserved more than a few years of freedom from the screams and rat-infested rooms. And the blood. That maniacal laughter that set the hair standing on the back of one’s neck. He had lived that once and he had been free, so why was he suddenly trapped again?

Alex made another desperate grab at the air and fell, falling until he was slapped in the face with something cold and salty, and soon he couldn’t breathe. His lungs burned for air as he struggled, lost in some strange tide. He heard something faint and he thought he was dying, but he didn’t think it would feel this way.

An icy grip pulled at him, jarring him awake. He struggled to find a way to stand, finally bursting through some surface so he could breathe. Air. Salty air that made him shiver as he sputtered, desperate for it as his lungs burned.

Hazel eyes stared back at him.

Alex reached out, stilling as Minnie flinched with the threat of his touch. He steadied his hand and cupped her cheek, his Minnie. He drew in a painful breath as she leaned into his touch, a real fleshy form, not some taunting dream. And she had tears in her eyes.

He thought back, struggling to sort out what was real and what had been a dream. “You’re not mine anymore.”

Her faced was clouded with sadness, even as she framed his face with her shaking hands and kissed his lips, soft and tender.

“Sweet Alex,” she whispered into his ear.

He wrapped his arms around her, crushing her against his body, not caring if she was his or not. When she started sobbing, he realized there was more to be accounted for than why he was in the ocean with Minnie in the middle of the night.

“What happened?” he asked, circling her back with his hands as they bobbed in the gentle waves by the beach.

She dropped her head to rest between his neck and shoulder and took a shuttering breath. “We’re in trouble.”

Minnie had said that before, and the following day he had been beaten by her uncle. To hear the words again made him uneasy.

“Peprin gave me to D’Ambreious. Apparently I’m worth a lot,” she said, bitter. “And D’Ambreious…”

She tensed beneath him and he knew. She didn’t need to say any more. It put the night’s events in perspective.

“Did he touch you?” If only he could break through the remnants of fog clouding his mind, he would see them both leveled to the ground.

“Oh god,” she cried, pulling him tighter. “He tried, Alex. He tried and I…”

He didn’t want to hear the truth as he kissed her cheek.

“I knocked him unconscious before anything could happen and I ran. I found you, but you…oh, what a dark place you’ve been in. Are you back? Have you come back to me now? We’re in trouble and I’m scared.”

That word
scared
wasn’t part of Minnie’s vocabulary.

He let go of her and dropped below the waves, pushing himself to move below the water and swim. He must wake up. He had to wake up because he would see them safe. He would not let her down again.

*

They raced through the dark streets of Nice, settling on a small rundown hotel on the city’s edge. The room they secured was small, nothing impressive, but a striking callback to what they once shared in London.

She waited by the door as Alex shut the curtains, cloaking the room in darkness. She dropped their bag at her feet and walked closer, stripping off the damp dress, leaving it pooled on the floor. Her skin felt tight, still covered in salt. She was much too tired to care.

Alex lit the gas lamp by the bed. He froze when he noticed her naked. She stood before him, her palms opened to him. Her heart was his anyway—why must she hide behind clothes?

His eyes narrowed on her as he stripped, studying her from the other side of the bed. He remained silent as he peeled off the soaked clothes, each hitting the floor with the weight of a brick. It was an audible reminder of what had happened. She forced her eyes to stay open, afraid that if she closed them she would see D’Ambreious again and become ill once more.

That voice that had once nagged her back in England to run had returned. But she stayed it off as she watched Alex, refusing to believe that they would end now. They couldn’t be parted.

But come morning, there was no denying they would run and face a future that was no longer defined. She had ruined what he had fought for again. The pain of it struck at her heart and radiated out to her limbs, soaking down into the marrow of her bones. She would never forgive herself if she prevented Alex from achieving his dream. Hers had long since died, and tonight was the first time that she didn’t mind much.

She could return to England a ruined woman and hope for the love of her family, or she could continue living as she did in Paris where they celebrated her exile from proper society and welcomed her into the demimonde. They would still throw her parties and see that she was dressed prettily. Minnie would find another patron and live the lie that she was an independent woman. It was a lie that was so corrupted within her that sometimes she almost believed it true.

She hated the morning and the way it forced everything to become real. At least in the cover of night she could hide behind tidy lies and live a little. At least during the night she could pretend that she wasn’t miserable and alone.

Minnie tasted blood and realized that she had been biting her lip. She frowned at that. Obviously, she had been carried away with her thoughts, because Alex sat the edge of the bed now, his hand outstretched, calling her to him.

She hesitated. “I know nothing about you,” Minnie said, the cold truth freezing her in place. “And I can’t…”

The room was hot, the summer air sucking the moisture off of them as if she were back in the jungles of India. The air stuck to her, drowning her in the room’s must. She was so ashamed to be there, standing before a man she thought she had known, but who apparently had always been a stranger. And she had given him her heart.

“We have plenty of a past that’s shared,” he offered.

Minnie stood but feet away; still, it felt like miles. She couldn’t lose him. Not like this. But he must open up to her. She could not risk herself.

“Please, don’t look at me like that, darling.”

When he stood to hold her, Minnie took a step back, sickened as his hand dropped at her reproach. They were losing each other far quicker than she thought possible.

“Christ, Minnie.” He rubbed his wrists again with angry vigor, as if he would rake his hands through his hair next and pull until he was left bald.

“Tell me. Please.”

“Let me hold you. C’mere.”

She shifted on her feet, uncomfortable, yet still bared to him.

“Lay down at least. We can talk in the morning. It’s been a long day and you look—”

“Don’t tell me how I look.” Minnie jumped back, clapping a hand over her mouth, surprised at her anger. The silence became worse than the room’s heat after that. Her head swam a little as she stood still, her eyes fixed on the dimly lit wall. Suddenly the freezing ocean water seemed more hospitable than standing there in front of Alex, begging to be let in.

“In the morning, I’ll see you out of Nice safely. I have some money saved and you can return—”

“You’re so quick to see me off,” she said bitterly. The blood circled around in her mouth once more, and this time she didn’t loosen her grip on her lip. She needed to hang on a little longer.

“No.”

She nodded, wrapping her arms around herself because she didn’t believe him entirely.

“We’re here because of me,” he said. “I won’t forgive myself.”

His words weren’t fair, because she had caused this mess. Minnie excelled at bringing the world down around them both. And now he wanted her gone.

“So, you’re ending our arrangement?” Her voice wasn’t quite her own as she asked. It felt as if a hole had opened itself in her middle and she was being pulled inside, deep into an internal darkness.

Alex said nothing, which was answer enough. She snapped to, quickly bending down to grab her dress, and attempted to pull the wet fabric over her head. The room was too hot and she could no longer breathe properly. If she could escape the confining box, she might have a chance at rational thought.