The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.) (88 page)

She looked up at him
, ‘at least you’ve dropped that phoney French accent.’ She had tried to sound disparaging but her voice came out nothing more than a hoarse croak.

He frowned whether at her words or her croaky voice she wasn’t sure but then he smiled a rather self deprecating smile, ‘sorry about that, but I thought it necessary until we were safe.’

Her voice was high pitched
and
croaky now as she said, ‘safe?’ She pulled at the bonds that held her to the chair, ‘oh yes, I feel
very
safe.’

He sighed deeply
, ‘I’m sorry about that, but that’s also necessary, for now anyway.’

She opened her mouth to speak again but instead began to cough; he held the b
ottle to her lips again, ‘drink some of this, please.’ She was taken aback by the “please.” Looking at the water she couldn’t prevent herself from licking her lips but then pursed them stubbornly.

He was obviously trying to control his impatience as he said, ‘we  need to talk, and I’d rather you could speak without that frog in your throat, and at least if not comfortable, then not dying of thirst.’

She looked up sharply when he said “we need to talk.” But remained stubborn.

He gave another heartfelt sigh and said, ‘all right, maybe we can talk tomorrow instead,
if
you’ve stopped being stubborn by then and feel more like drinking some water of course.’

She stared at him then at the water and
once more licked her lips before nodding.

He didn’t smile or smirk as she had expected him to at her compliance but looked relieved and held the bottle to her lips. She was ashamed at how eagerly she drank the water; the feeling of the cool clear liquid sliding down her throat was exquisite. She drank deeply until she spluttered and the water ran down her chin and onto her chest. She pushed the bottle away with her tongue. He held out the tablets saying, ‘stick out your tongue.’

As much pain as she was in she would not give in to him again. She said, ‘I don’t want any pills.’

‘They’re not poison you know. Would you like me to take one to prove it.’

‘If they
were
poison I would say please do, take them all.’

He stared at her for a moment then gave a wry laugh, ‘I understand how you feel.’

She said softly but with conviction, ‘no, I don’t think you do, you never really did.’

He stared at her for a moment a look of surprise and something else she could not define on his face. Then he turned, hooked a foot round  the leg of a chair, dragged it towards him and sat  straddling it leaning his forearms on the back of it. He said, ‘oh, I think I got to know you pretty well in the time we spent together, Miss. Faraday.’

She fought against it but could not control the heat that rose from her chest to her face and forced her eyes to the ground. He knew what she was thinking of course and said quickly, ‘for instance I know you’re quiet and shy, a bit of shrinking violet, I know you don’t like confrontation, but I learned that you don’t let any of those things stop you from speaking your mind, from intervening when you see an injustice being done. You’re gutsy and feisty as you proved just now and at your cabin earlier. But even though I know those things about you I keep underestimating you, your strength and your fighting spirit. I thought back at the cabin that you would be too terrified to fight, that you would just comply with my demands, but I was taken by surprise when you fought back.’

She
stared at him keeping his gaze, determined to show him she would not be intimidated by him or her situation. ‘Well next time I’m abducted from my home I’ll try to be more accommodating.’

He chuckled then was quickly serious again, ‘but please believe I never meant to hurt you, and if it’s any consolation… which it probably isn’t…I didn’t hit you as such. I used a technique I learned, there are certain pressure points on the body and if manipulated correctly cause a person to black out. But it leaves them with a pain in the place where pressure was exerted, in your case neck pain, and a headache.’

She said, ‘you’re right, it is no consolation,’ she coughed and swallowed painfully before adding, ‘pain is pain however it’s inflicted.’

He had the good grace to lower his eyes for a moment and nod in agreement. He said, ‘I know. I’m sorry that I had to do what I did.’

‘Oh really? Did someone have a gun at your head forcing you to do it?’ She returned, her tone rich with sarcasm, ‘oh no, of course not, 
you’re
the one who carries the gun.’

He looked into her eyes, noting the tension and the dark shadows around them before saying, ‘I did what I did to prevent you from being hurt any more than I could help. I didn’t want to…

She cut him off, ‘you shocked me with something.’

Again he lowered his eyes for a second befor
e looking back at her, ‘yes. I
did
intend to use that to immobilize you momentarily, but as I said things got out of hand. I believe you thought I was going to rape you when I pulled you towards the bed, but I did that only so you wouldn’t fall on the hard floor when I…

‘Immobilised me?’ Again she cut him off and he gave a deep heartfelt sigh and nodded, ‘I see now that was a bad idea since it caused you to start fighting back. My intention was to overcome you when you were asleep in bed but of course you slept on the sofa, ‘his expression told her he knew why she had slept there and not in the bed, ‘I was going to grab you then but you got up and went into the bathroom and I thought I’d better not stop you since we had a long journey ahead of us. Then I had to act quickly because you sensed my presence in the house didn’t you?’

He was good she thought, she had sensed a presence in the cabin and he had sensed that she had. She said, ‘I didn’t before that.’

‘No, I was under the floor.’

She frowned and knowing what she was about to ask he satisfied her curiosity, ‘I discovered that some of those cabins have a trapdoor under the floor which comes out in the kitchen. In fact it was those awful Carter kids who put me on to it, I saw them sneaking in and out of their own cabin when I called on you one day.’

She could only stare at him in stunned amazement. She eventually found her voice and said quietly and with concern, ‘did you kill the policeman outside my cabin?’

He kept her gaze for a moment as if considering something before saying, ‘no. I just shocked him then knocked him out, he’ll be all right. I don’t kill people for no reason.’

She didn’t quite know how to take that but said, ‘no, you just beat them senseless.’

He shrugged. When she didn’t speak again he said, ‘I am
very
sorry about the discomfort you suffered on the journey. But I was afraid you might start struggling again and I didn’t want to hurt you any more than I already had.’

Sarcasm was not something she indulged in too often but her fear seemed to have brought it to the fore. ‘And I’m feeling
very
comfortable right at this moment.’ She turned her head to glance over her shoulder at her bound hands.

'I’m sorry about that but I don't want you to start fighting me again and I need you to sit and listen while I explain.'

'Oh I think it's pretty self explanatory.'

He sm
iled a rather sad smile, ‘you know, Miss. Faraday, you’re much too nice, not too mention too smart to resort to sarcasm. However, I do get your point and once again I apologise.'

She could feel the anger growing in her and she snapped, ‘stop saying that, stop saying you’re sorry for my discomfort, stop saying you’re sorry for hurting me, you’re
not
sorry or I wouldn’t be sitting here now like this and you wouldn’t be sitting there saying it.’

He arched his eyebrows in surprise then his face darkened for a moment and Adela felt a ripple of fear pass through her which replaced the anger. But he said quite gently, ‘I’ll loosen the bindings if you give me your word you won’t try to fight me again or to escape, it won’t do you any good and I don’t want things to get any worse for you.’

The ripple increased to a shudder at his words but his expression was not threatening only placating, almost pleading.

She glared at him
then took a deep breath before saying, ‘I give you my word.’ She crossed her fingers behind her back.

He stared into her eyes for a moment as if weighing up her words then stood up and walked behind her taking a knife out of his belt. Adela startled and frightened tried to jump up but he pushed her gently back down with his free hand saying, ‘don’t worry, I’m just using the knife to cut the tape, okay?’

She didn’t reply but he felt the tremble pass through her. He cut the tape binding her hands to the chair then the tape holding her wrists together. She bowed her head as the blood began to flow back into her hands bringing pain; she moaned and bit her bottom lip hard. Then to her surprise he began to massage her wrists and lower arms.

She jerked forward and tried to pull her hands away but he held on, ‘you’ll be more comfortable with some feeling back in your hands.’ She had to admit even now that he was very gentle, but then he always had been, specially when, no, she wouldn’t go there, she was in enough turmoil as it was. She told herself that his gentleness, his concern and compassion meant nothing, it never had.

She made one huge effort and pulled her hands free. She heard him sigh as he said, ‘suit yourself.’ Then holding both of her wrists with one of his own she heard the tape being pulled from the roll again. She didn’t try to fight him as he wrapped the tape around her wrists this time though this time not as tightly as previously nor did he tie them to the chair. Then he walked around her and squatting down cut the tape keeping her feet secured to the chair releasing them. Again she bowed her head and bit her lip as feeling once again came back into her feet.

He hesitated a few moments but this time he did not attempt to massage her feet instead he said, ‘move your toes back and forth.’ She was in two minds not to do as he said, but knew that was stupid, it wouldn’t harm him if she refused to help herself. He gave her a few moments before tying her ankles together again with the tape, this time not tying them to the chair.

The words “thank you,” came to her lips but she swallowed them, she would be damned before she showed gratitude to this man again. He rolled the used tape up into a ball and tossed it onto the floor.

She looked down at the ball of tape; he followed her gaze and smiled then bent down to pick it up and threw it
into the empty fireplace, ‘sorry, bad habit, I’m not a very tidy person and I’m not used to having guests.’

She looked at him incredulously but before she could say the inevitable he held up his hand, ‘I know, bad choice of words.'

She stared at him until he turned and sat down again in the same position he had been in previously. Adela was astonished at how calm he was, so in control, so unconcerned by what he’d done. He said, ‘feel a little better now?'

She didn’t reply just continued to look at him. He said, ‘I wish you’d take some of the pills I offered.' Again she didn't reply. He sighed, 'look, I'm sorry for keeping you restrained but it
is
for your own safety, I don't want you fighting me again, and we
do
need to talk. I want to explain...everything. Then maybe you'll understand.'

'Oh I think it's pretty self explanatory.'

He gave a wry smile, 'believe me, it is anything but.'

She looked surprised and sceptical at the same time but she took him by surprise when she asked ‘why did you use that phoney French accent?’

He gave a sheepish smile, ‘it was just an extra precaution, I thought that if my plans went wrong and you escaped me somehow you wouldn’t have known it was me, therefore couldn’t tell the cops that I was your would be abductor, I didn’t want them to know I was still in Mississippi.’ She was amazed afresh at his forward planning, ‘but I forgot how smart you were, how perceptive. I thought my accent was almost perfect, after all I’ve been speaking French most of my life.’

‘You accent
was
perfect, but even the very best of us slip up and use terms in a foreign language we use in our own.’

‘Oh? And where did I slip up?’

“Is all.”

He gave an almost embarrassed laugh, ‘oops.’

‘Yes, oops.’ She agreed ironically.

She looked around her and nodded at the two lamps saying, ‘nice ambience.’

He laughed, ‘I know it’s not very, what was that word you once used? Oh yes, salubrious, but think of it as camping out, you did say you would like to go camping with me didn’t you?

She looked away from his teasing gaze and didn’t answer that but instead asked, ‘where are we?’

His eyes narrowed as he studied her face obviously wondering how much to tell her, apparently he thought it safe to tell her something because he said, ‘suffice it to say we’re a long way from your cabin?’

Her heart sank
, ‘where exactly?’

He smiled, ‘you mean in longitude and latitude terms?’

She gave him an impatient look, ‘no, just where in Mississippi?’