Page 14 of Enkindling

“Well, it worked, didn’t it?” I groaned. “You followed me everywhere. You did all sorts of crazy things. You took all sorts of risks, knowing I would intervene just in time. I still rue the day you found out how capable I was.”

She giggled. “I couldn’t help it! That first day – when I nearly broke my neck, and you saved me – left a deep impression on my mind. You were like a demigod, like something out of my mythology books. Nothing got past you; I only rarely managed to surprise you. Your movements were so smooth, so quick. I couldn’t help drawing you out after that. Plus, it had the added effect of forcing you to take notice of me, to touch me. I’m not exactly proud of it, but I’m not sure I regret it either.”

“You were clumsy beyond reckoning back then,” I complained. “And damned stubborn, too, not to mention calculating. Here’s to hoping you grew out of that at least a bit.”

“We can always find out,” she said, turning to give me a brazen look.

“Be careful what you wish for,” I said and challenged her stare.

She held my gaze for several seconds before finally looking away. “Either way,” she said more to the window than to me, “you were gone by the end of the year, just when I’d finally gotten you to take me seriously, and I didn’t see you again for two whole years, except for literally two or three short visits.”

“DidI take you seriously?” My dry tone drew a scowl and a withering sidelong glance. I chuckled.

“You certainly did later, when I was seventeen,” she fired back. “You couldn’t keep your hands off me after that first time.”

That caught me off guard. I opened my mouth to reply but ended up clamping it shut again.

She grinned in triumph. “I planned that encounter, you know. I’d been working up to it for a while. I’d wager you didn’t see it coming until the moment itself.”

“Hey, now!” I objected. She was right, though. By that point, I had developed a potent attraction to Kathy, but the last thing I had planned to do was act on it. Regardless, the subtle Circe had outfoxed me in the end, and I had been too blind to see it until it was too late in the game, determined as I was to leave her be. The irony of ironies, I had taken her maidenhead in an attempt to preserve it.

I needed to redeem myself. She couldn’t have the last word here, or I’d never lived it down. “You were supposed to be innocent, inexperienced! What in blazes were you doing, hiding such thoughts under that studious exterior? Don’t act high and mighty with me!” I warned her. “It’s been a long time since those days, and I have no reason to hold back now as I did then.”

Her defiant stare did not falter in the slightest. “Who said anything about me wanting you to hold back, Will?”

I would have taken her right there and then, but I clenched my jaw and stayed the impulse even as those eyes pierced me and challenged me outright. Instead, I closed my eyes and exhaled.

“Look, Kathy, do you remember what happened next?”

“Naturally,” she replied. “We became a couple. You weren’taround all the time, but those three years were among the happiest of my life.” She stated it matter-of-factly as if to ward off some menacing emotion. “I thought you were going to marry me. That’s what you told me, anyway.”

I winced inwardly. Of course, I had told her that. I never had any intention of coupling with Kathy the way I had only to throw her aside later. I had not been raised that way, and I had grown much attached to her. But this was not what I was trying to get at.

“And then?” I urged.

“And then you abandoned me. You said things to me I shudder to remember. You ground my heart into a million pieces and scattered it on the winds. Then you disappeared from my life, despite my begging and pleading.” Her face was utterly blank now, and she refused to look at me. “I then moved to France, got my education, and the rest is history.”

“Yes, yes,” I said impatiently. “But I’m talking about my parents.”

Her eyes darted back to mine, and she hesitated. “They died,” she said softly. “While I was in France. What about them?”

“That, Kathy!” I pointed out, grabbing her hand. “Theydied!Ask yourself why and answer it with the cruelest option that occurs to you.”

She thought for a moment, and I watched as the color drained from her face. “You’re not going to say it had anything to do with you, are you?”

I sighed heavily. “That’s exactly what I’m saying, Kat.”

It was her turn to grab my hand now. She was suddenly very earnest. “Oh God,” she whispered, eyes wide. “No, Will… Will, no! I’m so sorry!”

“That’s what happens to anyone I’m foolish enough to get close to,” I stated dryly. “It’s what I meant earlier when I said I should never have gotten close to you.”

“But Will—” she began, now kneading my hand absently as she searched my face.

“That was almostyou, Kathy!” I told her pointedly. “Two died – it would have been three. More, even. Your family could have been targeted as well. I was compromised, Kathy. In my line of work, you have to be wary even of those you call your superiors or your friends.” I paused, surrendering to the bitteremotion for a moment. Then I continued, “There was no way they could have known if an ally hadn’t given them the information. But it happened, and my parents paid the ultimate price.”

“I trusted the wrong people, Kathy, and in my line of work, you rack up a list of powerful individuals with personal vendettas against you. I managed to get you out of the way in time. It was brutal, but it ensured you wouldn’t come searching for me and make yourself a target. So, they didn’t see you as useful. For all they knew, you were just the girl who took care of my parents. It wasn’t worth bloodying their hands over a village girl and risking even more attention drawn to themselves. But rest assured, if they had realized who you were to me, we would not be having this conversation now.”

Kathy stared at me in bewilderment. “Who’sthey, Will?”

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