Persuaded (29 page)

The
shot of her and Derick at the breakwater would have been easy enough to obtain,
but how did he know they were there? Had he followed her?

Cold
slithered along her skin at the possibility.

How
could she have been so deceived in Eli’s character? From the very beginning,
he’d been nothing but kind, helpful, and interested in her when no one else had
been for ages . . .

And
then reality broke over her, an icy spray of sea water that left her coughing
and gasping for air. With this new lens of verity, she peered into the past,
zoomed in on his motivation.

The
first day they’d met on the beach, he had offered to walk down to the marina
with them only after CJ mentioned the
Laconia
, in conjunction with
“Captain Wentworth.” Could it have been that Eli hadn’t been on a tour of New
England harbors after all, but was in town on a lead? She remembered all the
pictures of Derick’s boat in Eli’s portfolio, and her stomach began to churn.
She had led him straight to his mark.

He
never asked me anything about Derick, though,
Hanna argued with
herself. A second later she realized, he never had to. She told him the whole
story with very little prodding.

With a
slight sinking in her chest, Hanna realized that Eli had never been attracted
to her at all. He’d been interested in her only for her connection to Derick,
for the intelligence she could provide.

But
that wasn’t the worst part. What would Derick think when he saw this? What
would he say? Hanna sank into one of the kitchen chairs, pushing the magazine
away from herself with trembling hands.

All
she could do now was wait.

THIRTY-SIX

UNFORGETTABLE

“To my eye, you
could never alter.”

—Captain
Wentworth,
Persuasion

A few
short minutes later, Hanna looked up at the tapping that sounded on the back
door. Her emotions were in a power struggle at the moment: relief that Derick
had made it back safe from the marina, and dread at what would happen when he
saw the article.

Launching
herself toward the back door, she slid it open and threw her arms around his
neck the moment he was inside. He started to protest, something about getting
her wet and making a puddle on the floor, but she just tightened her hold until
he hugged her back.

A
moment later, he spoke into her hair. “You okay?”

She
shook her head, and he guided her back to the chair she’d been sitting in, then
knelt in front of her. “Is it the storm? I’m all right . . .”

When
the tears threatened to come again, she slanted forward and pressed her mouth
to his. Suddenly it seemed important—vital, even—to anchor themselves in that
moment, against whatever might come next. Hanna could tell that she’d caught
him off guard, but he recovered quickly and leaned into the kiss. After a
moment Hanna sat back, took a deep breath, and slid the magazine into Derick’s
line of sight.

His
eyes hardened the minute he saw it, muscles surfacing along his jaw as he
ground his teeth together. Very slowly, as if he was a prowling lion moving in
for a kill, he reached around her and pulled the magazine toward himself. He
stood, flipping impatiently through it before tossing it on the table and
digging his phone out of his pants pocket.

“Paul,
we have a problem. It looks like our old friend Hoss is up to his tricks again
. . .” He trailed off as he wandered into the foyer, and Hanna didn’t follow
until she heard him end the call.

She
approached warily, not sure of what she might find, but he was standing with
his back to the wall, glaring at the ceiling. Without looking at her, he said,
“I’m sorry about this, Hanna. I didn’t mean to get you or your family
involved—”

“Hey,”
she said, stepping up to him, “you have nothing to apologize for. This isn’t
your fault. If anyone is to blame, it’s me.”

He did
look at her now. “What are you talking about?”

“Eli
took those pictures. The day we met he told me he was on a tour of New England,
but I think he might have been following a lead on you. If it wasn’t for me, he
wouldn’t have gotten what he was after.”

With a
smirk, Derick said, “As flattering as that is, I’m pretty sure it’s not all he
was after.”

“Yes,
it was. I was just a means to an end.”

“If
that’s true then why did he wait so long to make his big move?”

“I
don’t know. I don’t have the answers, Derick. I’m just sorry that my poor
judgment landed us here.”

“You’re
forgetting that I’ve been ‘here’ plenty of times, without your help. Eli knew I
was on my guard with him after that day at the marina when I overheard his phone
call,” Derick said. “If he wasn’t interested in you, why didn’t he drop the
bomb then?”

All
she could do was shrug.

He
crouched to level their eyes. “You have this crazy notion that you’re not worth
looking at—that you aren’t worth anything. But you don’t see what I see.” 
He inched closer, putting his hands on either side of her face to keep her eyes
on his. “Do you want to know what I see? Benny started smiling again because of
you. Even a low-life like Eli couldn’t be totally awful to you if there was the
slightest chance of him getting you in the end. You may not think either of
them saw you as anything more than a friend—but I saw the way they looked at
you. And it made me want to claw their eyes out every single time.”

Relocating
his hands to her hips, he tugged her closer until she bumped into him. “I see
someone so unforgettable that all these years later, I still can’t take my eyes
off her.”

Such a
speech could hardly have missed its target. Hanna placed her open hand against
his cheek, loving the way his eyes closed at her touch. His lips parted as she
traced them with a fingertip, and then she stretched up on her toes and guided
his perfect mouth to hers.

There
was no trace of the patience he’d displayed during that first kiss on Block
Island now. His arms constricting around her might have been uncomfortable if
it hadn’t been exactly what she wanted. As her mouth moved under his, she
clutched at his arms and shoulders, wanting him closer, closer, but it still
wasn’t enough. Each point of contact along the length of their bodies was a
light she wanted to snuff out, little air bubbles that she wanted to compress
into nothingness.

☼

With
both Derick and Hanna so absorbed by one another, so tangled up in the pent-up
passion of a decade, neither of them heard the front door open. They didn’t
hear the gasped shock of the person who walked in to find them in such a state.
They couldn’t have known that their love, so precious to both of them, was
capable of destroying someone else.

THIRTY-SEVEN

ELLA
DISENCHANTED

It could
scarcely escape him to feel that a persuadable temper might sometimes be as
much in favour of happiness as a very resolute character.

—Jane Austen,
Persuasion

“What
the—?”

Hanna
practically jumped out of Derick’s arms, whirled, and found Ella dripping all
over the entry floor with a scandalized expression. She dropped her bags with a
soggy thud as Benny lumbered in after her. He started to say hello as he came
in but did a quick double take and fell silent. Hanna vaguely wondered where he
and Ella had been, if she’d been with Benny, and if so, how they ended up that
way. But then she looked at Ella, and behind the curtain of loathing in her
eyes, Hanna could see the hurt.

“Ella .
. .” she began, clueless what she could possibly say to salvage the situation.
Maybe there was nothing to say.

“So,
this is what sending Mary and Charles off on a couples’ weekend was about?”
Ella accused. “You guys having the place to yourselves?”

“No, that’s
not—” Hanna began, but Derick’s cool voice overlapped hers.

“If
that was the case, it wouldn’t really be any of your business, would it?”

Hanna
winced, and Benny closed his eyes as if he couldn’t believe Derick’s nerve.

“Excuse
me?” Ella said, holding up a finger. “Last time I checked,
you
were
still in a relationship with me.”

“We
broke up.”

“No,
you said you wanted to slow things down. We took a step back—to think about
where it was going.”

“I
didn’t like where it was going,” Derick said. “Which is why we broke up. Since
you started ignoring me the next day, I kind of figured we were on the same
page.”

“I was
giving you space!” Ella exploded. “And the first thing you do is jump into bed
with
her
?” Here she pointed at Hanna as if she was something unpleasant
Ella had stepped in.

“Hanna,
maybe we should—” Benny said, but Derick cut him off.

“There’s
no reason for Hanna to leave unless she wants to.”

She
did want to. The last place she wanted to be was in the middle of Derick and
Ella’s highly flammable “define the relationship” talk.

Charles
and Mary emerged from their bedroom with concerned expressions.

“Ella?”
Charles called down the stairs, “what are you yelling about?”

“The
boys are sleeping,” Mary added, put out.

“Did
you know about this?” Ella said, rounding on them as they descended the stairs
together.

“Your
sweet, selfless sister only gave the two of you a second honeymoon so she could
christen all the household surfaces in your absence.”

“That
is
not
true,” Hanna said, her cheeks aflame. It wasn’t an embarrassed
burning, though. It was indignation. “I know you’re upset about this, and I
don’t blame you. It’s not the best way to find out, but that’s no reason to
make it into something ugly. The fact is there’s a history here that you know
nothing about.”

Ella’s
eyes widened at Hanna’s outburst, but she recovered quickly enough. “How very
Count
of Monte Cristo
of you,” Ella spat. “Well, go on, then. Regale us with your
love story.”

“Enough,”
Derick said with a soft, deadly edge to his voice. “How we arrived here isn’t
important.” He scooped Hanna’s hand up with his, fixed his eyes on hers. “Hanna
and I are together, and there’s nothing you can say or do to change that.”

Hanna
looked up at him, grateful for the pressure of his hand in that moment—another
anchor in the midst of a hurricane-force gale. He lifted their twined hands and
brushed a kiss on her knuckles that warmed her cheeks.

“Get a
room,” Ella muttered, shouldering past them only to return seconds later with
her car keys.

“Don’t
be stupid, Ella,” Charles said. “It’s pouring out there.”

She
didn’t answer, just opened the door and walked out into the downpour without
looking back.

An odd
expression came over Benny’s face as he watched her go, and then he and Charles
ran out to try and talk her down. When they returned less than a minute later,
both of them looked as though they’d been caught in a tsunami. No one spoke.
The only sound was Ella’s tires spitting water as she backed out of the
driveway and sped off down the street.

☼

The
next couple of hours passed uncomfortably. As the minutes turned into hours and
there was still no sign of Ella, the Uppercross atmosphere became palpable with
tension. She hadn’t responded to any texts, and Callie hadn’t heard from her
either. Around ten-thirty, Charles declared his intention of going after her.
Benny jumped on board right away, and Derick called Adam to enlist his help.
Despite her husband’s attempts to reason with her, Mary insisted on being in
the search party. This left Hanna at home with the boys, which development
suited her just fine. She had no desire to go tromping around in the rain, and
in any case, she was the last person Ella would want to see.

Knowing
that she wouldn’t be able to sleep, Hanna made herself a cup of herbal tea and
called Maude. The last time she’d spoken to her was on the 4
^th
of
July—which seemed like another lifetime, given everything that happened since.

Hanna
didn’t realize that she’d been on the verge of tears all night until she heard
her godmother’s voice—and lost it.

“What
is it, poppet? What’s happened?”

“A
better question would be, what
hasn’t
happened . . .”

“Start
at the beginning, then.”

So,
she did. She told her about that first encounter with Derick on the beach, the
front-row seat Hanna had to his and Ella’s relationship, Eli’s coming into the
picture, the talk Derick and Hanna had at the Lymelight that gave birth to a
tenuous friendship . . . Hanna couldn’t bring herself to share the tender
scenes that followed, but it turned out to be unnecessary.

“So,
now that your chap knows he’s been in love with you all along, that beastly
Musgrove girl is in hysterics, is that it?”