She did not know if Rohan, or anyone else, had realized she was missing yet, but deep down, she knew that relying on soone to find her in ti was a dangerous gamble. Waiting would only an getting caught again, and that was sothing she could not afford when she feared being sold.
Unfortunately for her, her body had not recovered. It was far too weak, and the drugs still clung to her system like a heavy fog that sleep hadn’t been enough to clear. Her vision swam in dizzy circles, and before she could steady herself, her knees buckled beneath her and she crashed face-first into a shallow puddle of cold, sticky mud.
A cry escaped Belle’s lips, low and pained, but she couldn’t dwell on it. The sound of fast-approaching footsteps snapped her out of her daze, and she forced herself to twist around on the ground, blinking through the blur to see the cloaked person closing in, just a few feet away.
Fear gripped her so fiercely it stole the air from her lungs. She couldn’t run, could barely move, but her hand scrambled through the mud and curled tightly around a rock lying beside her. She clutched it with trembling fingers, wide-eyed and desperate.
She braced herself, her body shaking as she prepared for the figure to co close enough, close enough for her to strike. Just a second longer, and she’d hit them with all the strength she had left and run again.
But then the voice ca.
"Oh my God, Belle! Are you hurt?!"
The words rang through the chaos in her head, cutting through her panic with a rush of relief and disbelief. Her fingers unclenched around the rock as her wide, frightened eyes searched the shadowed face beneath the cloak.
"Jamie..." she whispered, her voice breaking, barely more than breath.
Relief slamd into her like a crashing wave. Her limbs turned to jelly, and the flicker of bravery she’d felt only monts ago vanished beneath the weight of exhaustion and pain. Her entire body sagged against the ground, and she realized then, she wouldn’t be able to walk for at least an hour.
She did not try to fight again as Jamie caught up to her, bent over, and hurled her into his arms and strengthened. Belle couldn’t even move and let her head lay weakly against his chest where his heart was beating wildly just like hers. She wanted to ask how co he was here and had abducted her, but her mouth couldn’t form any words. Her thoughts moved through thick fogs and her body did not feel like it belonged to her.
Weakness was all she felt.
"Damn it, Belle. You would have killed yourself. Why the hell would you jump out of a moving vehicle?!" he demanded, worry and concern in his familiar hoarse voice as he put her gently down on the open back of the wagon and then sat next to her so she could lean her head against him.
He brought out a gourd of water and held it to her mouth. Belle parted her lips and gulped it down thirstily, but the urge to vomit overca her. She quickly pushed it away from her mouth and bent her head. Her stomach turned and knotted painfully with every breath, and she gripped it and squeezed her eyes shut.
"What... is wrong with ? What did you make breathe in the castle?" she questioned forcefully, as she did not like how she was feeling.
Jamie’s face twisted with guilt. He crouched beside where she was bent holding her stomach, brushing back the damp hair that clung to her clammy skin.
"I’m sorry, Belle. I didn’t want to do it like this... I had no choice, and—"
"What is it you gave ?" she demanded, too in pain and disoriented to care about his explanation for it. She just wanted to know what it was that was strong enough to make her feel worst than she had ever in her entire life. The back of her eyes burned with tears from the discomfort in her stomach and throat.
"It was a mix," he admitted softly, his voice laced with remorse. "Just sothing to make you sleep until we reach our destination—belladonna, and a little opium... I soaked it into the cloth. You weren’t supposed to wake up before it wore off, which is why you are feeling sick. The ride back was long, so I dropped a little belladonna on your tongue to make you sleep more into the journey," he said, guilt heavy in his eyes as he watched her raise her head.
Her lips parted in disbelief, her teary eyes trembling.
"You drugged ," she whispered. "Why?"
She couldn’t believe he had done that. She had believed until now that he had left Nightbrook a month ago—but only for him to abduct her right under her roof, after drugging her with substances that were known to be deadly when used incorrectly. She was familiar with belladonna and opium, all thanks to him in the past.
Jamie had beco a tailor not because he wanted to, but because he had been denied the license to open his own dical house in Aragonia by the king. He had studied dicine for decades but could not practice it, as he had no connections to help him build the career, which he had eventually given up to beco a dressmaker.
He was soone who liked to talk about his dical training, and she had known those substances were used to keep patients unconscious during treatnt—but they had to be diluted, or they could cause death. He had not only made her inhale it in such a high dose, but also dropped it on her tongue...
She did not know what to feel as she stared at his guilty blue eyes on a face that looked so different from the man she once loved.
He looked unhealthy and skinny, and his skin dull. His blonde hair had grown longer and untrimd.
"I couldn’t leave you there," Jamie said, almost begging her to understand why he had to do it this way. "When you sent that letter, I know I should’ve left like you said and gone back ho, but sothing told you had written it under pressure by the madman. So I applied for work in the inn I’ve been staying at as their valet to arrange for how to get you away from it, Belle. I couldn’t leave you in that dreadful castle," he said shakily as he reached his hands out to grab her shoulders, but she pulled away and looked at him hurtfully.
"Is that why you drugged instead of coming to ask if I was forced to write it or not? You... ugh!" she groaned as her stomach clenched painfully, but she took in a large gulp of air and then continued when it subsided a little. "What if I had died?"
Jamie dropped his head guiltily, unable to et her gaze.
The sky was slowly darkening, the rain clouds fading to reveal the moon, which lit up the lonely road leading out of Nightbrook. The air slled like damp earth.
He looked back on the day he had received that letter from her.
Sothing in him had told him she had totally moved on and accepted her husband, but the love he had for her was blinding enough to convince him that she was forced to write that letter and send it to him.
If not, how could it have gotten into his room if not for the madman bringing it in with so vampire ability? His door had been locked, and none of the inn workers had seen anyone go into his room or co to visit him.
Jamie had been unwilling to accept that he had lost her and made his plan to get her away. But that nagging voice in the back of his mind, telling him she had written the letter because she no longer loved him, had made him take the steps of drugging her. He knew it was absolutely wrong of him, but he couldn’t risk going back without her.
What if he confronted her and she told him the bitter truth he himself did not want to accept?
He had taken that asure and hoped she would be unconscious until they reached the ranch he had prepared for them to stay in Barbara. Once they got there—whether she still loved him or not—he had been determined to make her love him again and make her rember all the dreams they had together.
It hadn’t been easy getting into the castle, but then there were no guards guarding the castle like many other rich hos, and he had studied the days the servants went out to the market by standing in the junction that led from town to the castle. He had seen the servants’ carriage pass by and made his move.
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