After everything that’s happened to her…
I don’t know how to react, how to deal with this. I take shelter in barking a laugh, the edges sharp and bitter as aloe.
“What could possibly be funny?” says Michael.
“She’s gone out, against every protest and effort to stop her. She’s achieved what she set out to do; Beth is back with Richard. She’s certainly been beaten, perhaps raped. She gotten home, God alone knows how…. That’s obviously what all her interest in the City plans was about, so she anticipated that too….” Helpless with frustration, I run fingers through my hair. “She’s pulled up out of the sewers…. And now she cries…”
Jade…. How do I help you?
I’m supposed to be your protector….
Michael chews at his knuckles. “Did you ask for a female doctor?”
“Mmm, yes.” Then, at the knock on the door, “Ah, that should be her.”
But it’s not. Instead, Richard, one arm draped around Beth, stands there. Wearing bright smiles, they’re carrying champagne and a brightly wrapped parcel, gay with ribbons and foil. But as they step inside, the smiles vanish. “James? Michael? Is everything alright?”
“She’s been beaten. She’s covered in bruises. And we think she’s been raped.”
Beth blinks, her head drooping a little, then she sweeps by us. “Here, let me talk with her…”
After a few seconds, there is the quiet murmur of voices.
Richard scuffs at the carpet. “Elizabeth did mention something to me about this. I didn’t want to say anything because she wasn’t sure.”
Michael’s eyes raise, violence in his gaze. “You didn’t want to say anything?”
“Would it have helped? When there was nothing to be done?”
Michael takes a step towards Richard, but I hold up a staying hand. “Calm down. We both knew what the possible consequences were if she was captured. So did she.”
the three of us
her resources. She’s been running for days. She was beaten while we were held, and she took some more damage while she was running, and…” She fixes a laser stare on me... “She thinks
you to
brow, but then looking
His sub….
broken by Michael. “James isn’t going to punish
for you
a moment we face each
you?” he
You’ve paid
that she’s done and achieved God-only-knows-what
I doubt. Let me handle it.…
folded. “Right now, I’d say that what she needs, is the pair of
back later,” says Richard, nodding her to the door, a touch of ice in his eye. “Give me a buzz, James, when you think she’s ready
they go, leaving me and Michael to ponder
I
nods, but
What am I missing?
the bedroom to find Charlotte, red-eyed, sitting on the bed
you very angry with
her, by Michael, by myself and
her and kissing her cheek. “Yes, we are, but
sit by her on the other side of the bed, but he doesn’t. Instead, he simply stands, looming over her. She looks up at him, then away again.
leave you with James, then.”
What the fuck?
him, blinking, then leans into my chest as I stroke
knock