The next morning, Kate wakes to a scratchy sensation on her hand. She blinks several times in the dim light, her brain sluggish to rouse itself. A brown blob comes into view before Kate reaches for her glasses on the bedside table.
“Oh, Oz,” she mutters. “I know. We’re late for breakfast, aren’t we?”
Beside her, Ian turns over onto his side, stretches his bare arms up over his head. “Morning.”
Kate smiles at him. “Morning.”
After he’d driven her back to the Oakwood from the hospital, Kate had led him inside and up the stairs, and for the first time in a long while, she felt like she was on the right path. It wasn’t fully illuminated yet, she couldn’t see very far ahead, but she knew she should hold true and see where it led. Live her life.
It was strange, though, to see anyone other than her husband in bed next to her, like a remake of a film with new actors. But sleeping with Ian was the first excitement she’d felt in months. Under his soft and meticulous touch, she felt as though she was thawing, that it was finally spring after a year of winters. It gave her hope, and made her wonder what kind of heat the summer could bring.
“Should I make us some breakfast?” she asks Ian now.
He runs a hand through her hair and shifts his hips a little closer. She knows he wants her again, and the knowledge sends warmth through her whole body.
“Trying to get rid of me so fast?” he teases.
“No. But Audrey’s going to be discharged this morning and I’ll need to be ready to go get her.”
“Not alone, I’ll come, too,” Ian says.
The realization that he doesn’t want to leave her, that he cares for both her and Audrey, hits her so hard that her heart starts to race.
Ian holds her gaze for a moment. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m all right, I guess. Processing.”
“Do you think…” Ian starts. “Do you think you’ll have enough time to finish? For her to tell you the rest of the story?”
Kate’s nose starts to tickle. “I hope so. I still don’t know how it all ends.” She’s desperate to know what happened to Ilse, and to Audrey’s hands. How she ended up here in the first place.
“The good news is you get to be there for that bit.”
“What bit?”
“The end.”
Ian reaches a hand up, runs his thumb gently along the scar on her cheek, then kisses her temple. She wraps her arms around him and holds on to his body like a life raft.
A while later, they dress and head downstairs to feed themselves and the dogs. It’s chilly on the main floor, and just as Kate goes to ask Ian to build a fire, there’s a loud knock at the front door.
“Who could that be?” Ian asks.
“No idea.”
She opens the door to see a man standing on the snow-covered porch. He huffs his breath out into the cold air, like a puff of smoke from a fire that’s about to rage, and her stomach drops.
“Hey, Kate,” Adam says.
Ian is at her elbow now, face quizzical. “Can we help you?” he asks.
“Adam,” Kate begins, “what—?”
“Can I come in?” Adam says, stomping his feet in the leather boots Kate gave him last Christmas. “It’s freezing.”
She lets him pass in a state of disbelief, her mind skipping ahead to how she’s going to explain this to Ian, who has stepped back into the hall.
“I’m sorry,” he says, “but who are you?”
Ozzie bounds around the corner from the sitting room, drawn by Adam’s voice. He runs over to him in a blur of brown, the tags on his collar jingling. Adam looks from Ian to Kate and back again.
“I’m her husband. Who are you?”
Chapter 30
Kate
ALNWICK, ENGLAND | DECEMBER 2010
Your husband?” Ian asks, facing her. “What?”
Kate’s face and hands are starting to tingle. She hasn’t had a full-blown anxiety attack in months, and she can tell this one is going to make up for lost time.
“Kate?” The hurt and confusion glazing his features breaks her heart. She knows the look on her own face is all the confirmation he needs. “You’re married?”
“Yes, but Ian—”
