A Risk Worth Taking

by Laura Landon

  “She’s not breathing, Jack! Help me!”

  Jack rolled a barrel out from the corner and Griff laid her facedown over it. He pressed on her back, gently at first, then harder when it didn’t do any good.

  “It’s not working,” Griff yelled, placing Anne on her side and pounding her back. Her face was blue, her lips a deathly gray, and she was so limp she nearly folded when he laid her down.

  “Anne! Anne, breathe, damn it!” He shook her by the shoulders, then held her to him, rocking her back and forth. “What should I do? I can’t make her breathe!”

  Jack’s face was pale, a helpless look of panic in his eyes. “I saw a man a couple years ago save his little boy when the lad fell into a river and nearly drowned.”

  “What did he do?”

  “He held the little boy’s nose and covered his mouth with his own and breathed for him.”

  Griff didn’t hesitate. With one hand he held Anne’s nose and with the other he pushed her chin downward until her mouth gaped open. He covered her mouth with his own and breathed a deep breath in, then pulled it out, then breathed it in, and pulled it out.

  “Breathe, Anne! Breathe!” he ordered, pushing his hand on her stomach as if he could make it move for him.

  “Do it again!” Jack yelled, pushing on Anne’s stomach like Griff had done.

  Griff pushed a deep breath into Anne, then pulled a deep breath out. On the second deep breath, water spewed from her mouth and she coughed and gagged. She spit out what seemed like half the ocean. Griff held her in his arms while she retched more water. It took forever, but finally she gasped for air, then breathed on her own.

  “Oh, Anne.” He held her to him while tears ran down his face. He waited until she moved on her own, then wrapped her in one of the rough blankets Jack found covering some of the wooden chests lined against the wall. “Are you all right?”

  She nodded, then tipped her face to look at him. She pressed her cheek back against his chest and leaned against him. “Are you all right?” she whispered, her voice weak and hoarse.

  He laughed. How could he be anything else now that he had her back with him?

  Griff held Anne in his arms while she slept. He refused to let her out of his sight. He couldn’t chance that she’d stop breathing. He couldn’t chance that he might lose her.

  She slept for several hours. Finally she shifted in his arms and struggled to open her eyes.

  “Are you waking?” he asked, brushing a strand of hair from her face.

  “I’m trying, but it’s difficult.”

  “I don’t doubt it. You took quite a beating.”

  “Is Brentwood dead?”

  Griff nodded. “We’re safe now. He can’t harm us any longer.”

  “Who was that man with you? Was he the one you were trying to find?”

  “Yes.” Griff lifted his gaze to where Jack sat. “Come here, Jack. I’d like to introduce you to my wife.”

  Jack walked to them, then knelt down beside Anne. “Jack, this is my wife, Lady Anne. Anne, this is the man who saved your life. Jack Hawkins.”

  “How do you do, Lady Anne. I’m very glad to make your acquaintance.”

  “And I’m very glad to be alive to make yours.” She reached through the slit in the blanket to shake his hand. “I will forever be indebted to you.”

  “I’m glad I could be of service. You gave us quite a scare.”

  She smiled, but her effort was weak. “I didn’t mean to.”

  She shivered and Griff pulled the blanket around her more tightly. “Are you cold?” he asked, unable to keep the concern out of his voice.

  “Just a little.”

  Jack stood. “I’ll tear apart more chests and put more wood on the fire. It would be a shame to save you from drowning only to have you freeze to death.”

  Jack built up the fire, and before long the cave was warmer.

  “Is that better?” Griff asked, holding her closer.

  “Yes, much,” she answered. “Especially being in your arms.”

  “I don’t ever intend to let you out of my arms again.”

  “That sounds very nice,” she said, laying her head back against his chest and closing her eyes. “I’m tired, Griff.”

  “You sleep now, Anne.” He picked her up in his arms and lay with her on the blankets Jack had spread out for them. “You’re safe now.”

  She snuggled closer and closed her eyes.

  “She’s asleep already, Jack,” Griff whispered, watching Anne slumber in his arms.

  “I don’t doubt it. She’s been through hell. She’ll no doubt want to sleep until she can forget it.”

  “No doubt.” Griff couldn’t keep his eyes off her, couldn’t keep his hands from brushing the hair from her face, from tracing her ears and narrow throat. He couldn’t keep the unbelievable joy from nearly bursting his heart. He loved her. He knew it without a doubt.

  “Jack?”

  Jack looked up from the fire. “Yes.”

  “Thank you. I’ll never be able to repay you for what you did. Never.”

  “You already have. You trusted me even after you knew what my brother did.”

  “You weren’t responsible for your brother’s actions. You had no control over the choices he made.”

  Jack Hawkins sat back on his haunches and fanned the burgeoning fire. He was a large man, as tall as Griff, with shoulders equally as wide. Griff always knew if he ever needed someone to watch his back or be his right hand, Jack was the one he wanted beside him. He knew that now more than ever.

  “Do you know what it’s like,” Jack said, adding wooden slats from the crates to the fire, “to watch your brother die and know there’s nothing you can do to stop it from happening? Or to be so ashamed that you can’t admit to the world that the traitor about to die is family? Or to live with yourself afterward because somehow what he did must have been your fault?”

  “You weren’t responsible for his actions. He was a grown man. Old enough to make his own choices.”

  “He was my younger brother. Do you know what his last words were to me?”

  Griff waited.

  “He told me he couldn’t compete with me any longer, that I cast too large a shadow. What did I do, Griff? What is wrong with me that my own brother hated me so much that every choice he made was to defy the principles I upheld? Every choice he made was to destroy me?”

  “There was nothing you could have done, Jack. He forged his own path.”

  “And I am forced to live with his death.”

  “Don’t let your doubts destroy you. I learned that lesson the hard way. For years, I tried to blame myself for my wife and child’s deaths. I thought they died because of something I did, but that wasn’t true.

  “Then, I thought I was responsible for Freddie’s death, and for Anne nearly being run over. Do you know what Anne told me once? She said we humans often feel the need to assign blame when something tragic happens, and sometimes there is no one to blame.” Griff smiled. “She said she thought I would like to blame God, but that I was not brave enough, so I blamed myself instead.”

  “Perhaps she’s right.”

  “I have no doubt she is.” Griff smiled down at Anne, then turned to his friend. “Get some rest, Jack. If you’re half as tired as I am, you’re probably dead on your feet.”

  “You’re a lucky man, Griff,” Jack said, looking at Anne’s sleeping form.

  “I know I am. And I’ll never forget it.” Griff pulled her closer into his arms.

  Anne was fighting the rising water and losing the battle. She was suffocating. Water rose to her chin, then covered her mouth and her nose. She took in huge gulps until she couldn’t see. Couldn’t breathe. She was going to die.

  She tried to scream but couldn’t. The water covering her face only muffled her sound. Ropes held her tight, and she struggled harder but could not get free.

  “Anne,” a voice whispered in her ear, and two strong arms wrapped around her and held her. She was safe. When sh
e finally woke up enough to realize she’d been dreaming, every muscle in her body ached. At first she wasn’t sure where she was. The minute she remembered, her heart skipped a beat and she jolted in fear.

  “Everything’s all right, Anne,” Griff whispered again, touching her, holding her. Kissing her.

  “I couldn’t breathe. The water was too high.”

  “It’s all right. You’re safe now.”

  “I was so scared, Griff.”

  “I know.”

  “How did you know to come here for me?”

  “Hawkins figured it out. He found out Brentwood was using this cave to hide his opium shipments.”

  “Did Brentwood really kill Freddie, Griff?”

  “Yes, then he tried to kill you when you refused to marry him. If I hadn’t been so blind, I would have figured it out long before now. But I was so convinced I was the one the killer was after. I didn’t think anyone could want Freddie dead. Or you. If it hadn’t been for Hawkins…”

  Anne looked over to where Jack Hawkins slept in the corner on the other side of the cave. His ebony hair shone in the firelight, and the flickering flames cast shadows over his face.

  “He saved my life,” she whispered in case Jack was awake. “How can I ever repay him?”

  Griff lowered his head to whisper in her ear. “Perhaps someday he’ll need our help, and we’ll go to him.”

  Before he lifted his head, Anne turned until her face was next to his. She raised her hand and cupped his cheek, then traced her fingers over his jaw. “Please, kiss me,” she whispered, and he smiled.

  “I’d be glad to, my love.”

  He lowered his head and covered her mouth. His kiss was warm and gentle. His lips touched her lips, tasted her, drank from her, worshipped her.

  Anne wrapped her arms around his neck and held him to her while he deepened his kisses. His mouth opened above hers.

  “I love you,” he said. He lifted his head and cupped her cheek in the palm of one hand. “I love you more than I thought it was possible to ever love another person again. I know the risk you took in marrying me. You were afraid I would end up like your father. That I’d want a drink more than I wanted you or the children we will have. But that won’t happen, Anne. Nothing will ever be more important to me than you are.”

  “Oh, Griff.” Anne wrapped her arm around his neck and brought his lips down to hers again. She kissed him hard, with enough desperation to show him how much she wanted him.

  “I love you,” she said when they broke apart, each of them gasping for air. “And I will love you until the day I die, and beyond. Loving you was a risk worth taking.”

  “And I intend to prove that to you every day of our lives,” he whispered, then kissed her again. “I’ll make sure you never regret the risk you took.”

  About the Author

  Laura Landon taught high school for ten years before leaving the classroom to open her very own ice-cream shop. As much as she loved serving up sundaes and malts from behind the counter, she closed up shop after penning her first novel. Now she spends nearly every waking minute writing, guiding her heroes and heroines to happily ever after. The author of more than a dozen historical novels, her books are enjoyed by readers around the world. She lives with her family in the rural Midwest, where she devotes what free time she has to volunteering in her community.