A Christmas Night to Remember(51)

She glanced at her watch and was amazed to see how the time had gone. It was nine o’clock. Zeke might be awake now, wondering where she was. She had to get back to the hotel.

She gulped down her bacon sandwich, anxious to be gone but not wanting to offend Mabel after all her kindness, and then hugged the little woman before she left the house.

It was bitterly cold outside, but the morning was bright, a high mother-of-pearl sky and a pale sun giving brilliance to the snow-covered world beneath. The city was properly awake now, and although it was not as busy as usual on the main roads, Melody passed lots of pedestrians picking their way along the icy pavements, some with children in tow on new bikes or scooters, which their parents were endeavouring to manipulate through the snow, panting and puffing as they urged their offspring along.

Melody was halfway back to the hotel when she caught sight of Zeke in the distance—a tall, hatless figure head and shoulders above most other folk. Even being so far away she could see his face was as black as thunder. He was angry, furious. Her heart buffeted itself against her ribcage and she stopped, watching him get nearer. He hadn’t seen her yet, and she didn’t know whether to wave or not. In that first moment of panic if she could have disappeared through the floor out of sight, she would have. He was clearly beside himself.

She had always tried not to upset him in the past. Confrontation of any kind had always crushed her. Not just with Zeke, with anyone, she acknowledged rawly. She had always needed people’s approval, or at the very least their acceptance, and to achieve it she had sometimes stifled her own opinions or desires. Somehow the accident had changed that, and she mustn’t go back to how she had been. She didn’t want to do that. She straightened, her slim shoulders going back as her chin lifted.

Zeke saw her in the next instant, and even from fifty yards away she could see the relief which flooded his taut features. She swallowed, feeling her heart rate skip up another couple of notches, and began walking towards him, wondering how her life had become this constant plunging spiral of emotion. She wanted some kind of normality again. Life would never be humdrum if she stayed with Zeke, she knew that, but their day-to-day existence had been if not ordinary then part of a pattern. The times when they had been alone had not been as many as she would have liked, but there had been the nights locked in his arms when he had been all hers. If only that could happen again.

She didn’t know what to expect when Zeke met her. Certainly not the blank face and the voice empty of all expression when he took her arm, saying, ‘Let’s get back to the hotel.’ He suited his long stride to her shorter one, but that was the only concession he made as they negotiated their way along the snowy pavements which were lethal in places.

Melody looked up at him from under her eyelashes, her gaze registering the lines of strain round his mouth and eyes. She had been right. He was angry, but he had been worried too—as she would have been if their positions were reversed. But she’d had to get away for a while, selfish though it had been, although she couldn’t expect Zeke would understand that.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said in a small voice. ‘I went for a walk to think. I—I didn’t mean to be so long.’

‘Some four hours in all, according to the receptionist who saw you leave the hotel,’ Zeke said silkily.

Melody winced. She would have preferred him shouting at her than his dangerously controlled soft tone. It never boded well.

‘And it didn’t occur to you to ring me and let me know you were all right?’ he continued. ‘Or even turn your mobile on so I could contact you? But, no, why should it? You’re totally in Melody world, aren’t you? I’m merely your husband, that’s all.’

Melody bit her lip to stop herself firing back. He had every right to be mad. ‘I was fine.’

‘And I knew that by what? Telepathy? I had no idea where you were when I found you’d gone a couple of hours ago. I’ve been scouring the streets looking for you and trying to ignore the fact that the river is very deep and very cold.’

‘You didn’t think—’ She stopped, appalled he could imagine she would take her own life. ‘You couldn’t have imagined…’

‘I didn’t know what to think, Melody.’

The very fact he had used her full name told her he was beside himself—that and the rigidity of his features.

‘I can’t reach you, can I? That’s the nub of the issue,’ he ground out flatly. ‘You’ve shut me out more effectively than I could have imagined. There’s no room for me any more. We’re not a couple. Perhaps we never were. Maybe all I imagined we had was just wishful thinking on my part.’