It seems almost unnecessary to mention that I was never taught how to swim.
Chapter 22
I knew to hold my breath but not to close my eyes. It turned out that saltwater stings.
I was a fish without fins, sunk into the deep. I was engulfed in silver glow and bubbles and treacherous, looming chunks of pillars and craggy island stone. I was flailing still, unable to manage anything else, my body smacking against one of those huge ancient columns, scraping off muck.
Then there was a frothing of more bubbles, and a new shape was beside me. Armand, fleet as an arrow, grabbing me by the hair and then the shoulders. I clung to him and tried to breathe too soon when we broke the surface together, so I ended up inhaling mostly water.
He got me to the embankment, I’ll say that for him.
My fingers fumbled along the slick stone but couldn’t find a hold. Armand’s hands had become a painful pressure against my rib cage, but no matter how hard he pushed at me, I couldn’t do it. We were both flailing now.
Then, a miracle. Jesse was there, hauling me up to my feet, twirling us both about so that he stood between Armand and me.
I held on to him because my legs felt weak. I dropped my head to his shoulder because I was still heaving for air. I was naked and made of rubber and my hair was a long wet river draped along Jesse’s arm, and I wasn’t about to try to move anywhere else.
You can envision how it looked.
“Don’t,” Armand spat, pulling himself up atop the embankment with no apparent effort. I raised my head to see him better. He was pushing his hair out of his eyes and glaring at Jesse, his face white with rage. “Don’t you touch her!”
He was at us at once. At Jesse, I mean. He was shoving himself between us, trying to pull me away.
“No,” I rasped, holding on tight. “Let go, Armand! Let go!”
Jesse hadn’t released me, nor had he defended himself. He simply lifted a hand to Armand, grabbed him by the sleeve, and said a single word.
“Stop.”
And Armand did. He stood there dripping and panting, his gaze raking us both. Then he jerked his arm free.
“So this is how it is. This is what you’re about, Eleanore? This is what you like?”
“Don’t be smutty! It’s not what you think.”
“Actually, it is,” said Jesse.
Armand took a surging step toward us again. “Bugger you, Holms, and—what? What the hell? You can speak?”
I looked up at Jesse, who glanced down at me and offered a grave hint of a smile.
“What have you done?” I whispered.
“Right.” Armand was still furious. “What the bloody hell have you done, you lying bastard?”
“Not what you suppose, mate. Not yet, anyway.”
That was the barb that hit its mark. Jesse said it and instantly something in Armand shifted. It was real and utterly unmistakable: He was standing right there next to us, so close I could feel his exhalation on my neck, and that connection that had always existed between the two of us frosted into deathly ice.
“Get your hands off her,” he said, very quiet, very composed. “Or I swear I’ll kill you.”
Jesse met his eyes, then gave a nod. “You’re not going to kill me, Lord Armand. But I’m going to give Lora my coat now, so take a breath, and take a step back.”
“And close your eyes,” I added around clenched teeth, because I’d started to shiver.
He glowered at us a moment longer, then turned his back. Rigid shoulders, ramrod spine, legs apart, spoiling for a fight. If his eyes were closed, I couldn’t tell, but I took advantage of the moment, anyway, as fast as I could.
“I think you should just keep this,” Jesse said to me, again with that smile. He brought the lapels of the peacoat together over my chest. “You can grow into it.”
Armand turned back around. When he spoke again, it was still in that ghastly, deathly voice. “What’s happened to your legs?”
I glanced down. The coat reached to the middle of my thighs; the scratches I’d made last night gleamed a vivid red against the bluish-pale rest of me.
“Did he do that to you?”
“No,” I said. “I did it. I was asleep.”
“Fuck,” said Armand, very clearly, and walked back to his own pile of clothing and shoes. “Get on with whatever you want. I’m leaving.”
“Wait.” I trailed after him. “You can’t tell anyone about this.”