Persuaded (32 page)

A
sigh. “Look, I know you think I’m some kind of miracle worker, but there’s not
a whole lot I can do at this point. It’s probably time for you to disappear
again.”

“I’m
tired of running,” Derick said through his teeth.

“Then
just be boring for a while. You know how it is—it’ll die out on its own.”

Paul
had a point, but it was the last thing Derick felt like admitting. “Can you
just send a couple security guys over to my house, at least?”

“Sure,
Derick. Text me the address and I’ll call it in. But you and I both know that’s
only a temporary fix.”

He was
right, again. But instead of telling him so, Derick hung up on him. Then he
texted Adam for his ETA.

Adam
responded with a call back. “I’m here—close as I can get without driving onto
the dock.”

Taking
a breath and promising himself he wouldn’t punch anyone on his way to the car,
Derick grabbed his duffel, locked the cabin door, and leapt onto the dock.

The
reporters peppered him with questions all the way to the car, then Adam
screeched the tires and nearly took two paparazzi out in the process. “So,
where to?” he asked, as if he drove a getaway car on a daily basis.

“Back
home, for now. They won’t be able to get through security.”

“Yeah,
but it’s not like they can’t get to the house from the marina.”

“Security
is coming to guard the house.”

Apparently
impressed, Adam shrugged and took the long way home.

“How
is Ella?” Derick asked.

Adam
laughed. “You’re going to love this, dude. She has
amnesia
. She doesn’t
remember her own family or any of us. The only person she seems to want around
is Benny.”

“Come
again?”

“He
stayed at the hospital almost the whole time she was out of it. Sitting by the
bed reading her that book Hanna gave him.”

Interesting.
Hearing Hanna’s name smarted a little, but he pushed it to the back of his mind
as Adam gave the guards a heads up and proceeded through the gate. Inside
Kelynch, Derick locked all the doors and windows, then closed all the blinds.
“Any photographers shown up here?” he asked Sophie, who was reading on the
couch.

“Not
so far.”

“We’re
getting some extra security, just in case.” He peeked through the blinds,
breathing a bit easier when he didn’t see the media buzzing around the house.
Finally he was able to relax a bit, enough to put Adam on lookout duty while he
took a shower.

So,
Ella was okay. That was a relief. He could understand Benny’s motivation to be
near her, but Ella’s sudden attachment to him seemed a little weird. It was
something he was going to have to see for himself. Determining to make a trip
to the hospital, he let his thoughts drift back to Hanna.

Upon
their return from Block Island, when Derick did a final sweep of the
Asp
before returning it to the rental place, he’d found Hanna’s sketchbook in one
of the cabins. He had every intention of returning it to her, but chaos had
been waiting to usher them back into Old Lyme Harbor, and it had been the last
thing on his mind.

The
last few days had made him grateful for the oversight that left Hanna’s
sketchbook in his possession. It was like having a piece of her with him out
there on Fisher’s Island. He’d studied her drawings until he knew them by
heart. Each one told a story, and he found himself scrawling captions along the
bottoms of the pages. Even those drawings that had nothing to do with him, like
the one of Eli, were vital parts in Derick and Hanna’s story. It had taken a
good amount of self-control not to scribble a mustache on Eli’s dimpled face,
and Derick’s regard for Hanna’s creativity was the only thing that stopped him
from doing it.

After
toweling off and dressing, Derick looked out his back door and was pleased to
see that security had arrived. He took one of the guards with him over to
Uppercross, explaining the situation to Charles. Mary informed him that Hanna
was in her room, and Derick went up.

He
hesitated outside her door, unsure what he would find on the other side. He
didn’t think he could handle her shrinking away from him like the last time he
saw her. Finally, after getting up the nerve, he tapped on the door and went
inside at the sound of her muffled voice.

Hanna
didn’t see him at first; she was sitting at the window looking out—no doubt
still torturing herself about Ella.

“Are
the boys in bed?” Hanna asked, obviously thinking it was Mary who had come in.

“Not
when I came in,” Derick answered, and Hanna’s head snapped around.

She
gaped at him for a moment, as if she was seeing his ghost and not his corporal
form. Then she got to her feet and stretched onto her toes to embrace him.
Derick obliged her, using his arms to hold her in place. After a long time,
Hanna leaned back, and he saw that she’d been crying.

“Please
tell me those are happy tears?”

“You’re
back,” she said, laughing at herself as she brushed her cheeks with her
fingers.

Derick
let his forehead rest against hers. “I missed you,” he murmured.

“I
don’t think miss is a very good word,” she told him. “There should be a word
for something between ‘miss’ and ‘die without.’”

Derick
couldn’t help grinning at her. “Maybe you should make up your own word.”

“I
will,” she agreed. “For now we’ll just use . . . want. I wanted you.”

“I
like the sound of that,” Derick said, then took her face in his hands. When his
lips met hers, it was like a drink of ice water after days in the desert
without so much as a sip. Funny—he hadn’t known he was dehydrated until now.

A few
minutes later, Derick regrettably released all but Hanna’s hand. “I’m going
over to the hospital. Do you want to come with me?”

From
the look on her face, it was the last place Hanna wanted to be, but she agreed
all the same.

“Good.
You can protect from the big bad paparazzi if they show up.”

“Have
they shown up?”

“They
were waiting at the dock when I came into the harbor,” Derick answered,
relieved when there were no reporters at the front gate. Hopefully they had thrown
in the towel for the day.

During
the drive over to the hospital Hanna brought him up to speed on Ella’s
situation, confirming what Adam had already told him.

“You
must be a good luck omen,” Derick told Hanna as they came through the automatic
doors of the hospital. “I thought we’d have the media crawling all over us by
now.”

It was
about a quarter after eight when they signed in at the nurses’ station on
Ella’s floor, earning an intimidating glare from one of the nurses. “Visiting
hours are over at eight thirty,” she informed them.

“We’ll
be quick,” he assured her with what he hoped was a winning smile.

The
nurse responded with a that-charm-doesn’t-work-on-me grimace, and Derick
couldn’t help wondering if she had two jobs: nurse by day, bouncer by night. He
pledged to avoid any of the local night clubs in the future, just in case.

At
Ella’s door, Derick took a steadying breath and looked over to find Hanna doing
the same. Then he leaned over and kissed her just once before knocking. There
was no answer, so he pushed hesitantly into the room. When Benny looked up and
found more visitors instead of hospital staff, the irritation was plain on his
face. “The doctor said no more visitors today.”

He was
clearly exhausted, but Ella’s next words made him perk up a bit. “I remember
you from earlier,” she said to Hanna.

“Hi,
Ella,” Hanna answered, looking paler than usual. “We just wanted to stop by and
see how you were doing.”

Ella
smiled at Benny. “We’re just getting to the good part of our book. Is this your
friend?” she asked, her eyes cutting over to Derick.

“Um,
yes,” Hanna said. “This is Derick.”

“Derick
is my brother’s wife’s brother, so that kind of makes him my brother-in-law,”
Benny clarified.

Ella’s
eyes widened. “Like Hanna is my sister-in-law, right?”

Benny
gave her a soft smile. “That’s right.”

She
beamed back at him. “See? I’m getting it!” Then she looked at Derick. “Did I
know you before too?”

“No,
you didn’t,” Benny answered for Derick. For once, he didn’t mind being cut off.

Derick
was glad he had come to the hospital; if he hadn’t witnessed the Benny-Ella
thing for himself, he never would’ve bought it.

“Well,
it looks like you are in good hands,” Derick said, and he meant the comment for
both of them. “There’s a nurse out in the hall that is going to come in here
any minute with a spiked whip and drive us out. We’ll let you guys get back to
your book.”

“Do
you need anything, Benny?” Hanna asked.

He
took his eyes from Ella just long enough to assure her that he didn’t, then
swiveled them back to her. And just like that, Derick and Hanna seemed to
disappear from the room.

FORTY-ONE

OVERHAULED

“We will write
the letter we were talking of . . . if you will give me the materials.”

—Captain
Wentworth,
Persuasion

On the
return trip to Kelynch, Hanna assumed that Derick was absorbed in his own
thoughts like she was. As normal as Ella seemed, Hanna still found it hard to
swallow that she had miraculously forgotten the scene before her accident and
had no ill feelings for anyone involved. It was simply too good to be true.
Obviously Hanna was thrilled that Ella was okay, that her brain was fine, and
that she had the use of all her limbs—to say nothing of the fact that Benny
seemed more content than she’d ever seen him—but the end didn’t justify the
means. Whether fate had stepped in and erased Ella’s memory or not, Hanna was
still indirectly responsible for the whole affair.

“What
are you thinking about?” Derick asked as they pulled up in front of Kelynch.

“How
differently it could’ve turned out, I guess.” When Derick just looked at her,
she clarified. “When I think what could’ve happened . . .”

“But
it didn’t. Ella’s not dead or paralyzed or still unconscious.” Even though
Derick squeezed her hand, there was an underlying note of impatience in his
placating words.

“I
know. But can you imagine what it would be like to wake up and not recognize
anyone? She can’t remember anything—not even who she was.”

“Yeah,
I sort of consider that a bonus,” Derick said.

“Derick,”
Hanna scolded.

“What?
You can’t tell me that Ella getting a personality overhaul is a bad thing. Or
that Benny finding his place in the world is a minus.”

Derick’s
lack of empathy toward the situation grated against Hanna’s already ragged
nerves. “Of course it’s not. But don’t you feel bad about any of it?”

Frustration
was evident in his voice now. “As a matter of fact, no. I think you’re feeling
enough guilt to last us both a lifetime. Ella’s fine—well, relatively normal,
at least,” Derick amended at the look Hanna gave him. He picked up her other
hand, so he was holding both. “I know you feel like crap, but raking yourself
over the coals isn’t going to undo the past. The only thing it’s doing is
making you miserable, which makes me miserable.”

“I’m
sorry,” she whispered, touching a hand to his face. “I never want to make you
unhappy.”

“Do
you mean that?”

“Yes.”

“Then
shut up and kiss me.”

Hanna
scooted sideways onto his lap. “Twist my arm.”

Derick
obeyed, trapping one of her arms behind her and clamping a hand on her wrist.
She smiled and pulled his mouth to hers.

A
moment later, they were both blinded by the flare of a camera flash. Hanna
blinked, seeing little red spots. Swearing under his breath, Derick threw open
his door, stood with Hanna in his arms, and set her on her feet. “Keep your
head down,” he said in her ear, then towed her through the crowd and into the
house.

☼

Once
inside, Derick bolted through his bedroom and out the back, notifying the guard
that the front of the house had been compromised. Then he took Hanna’s face in
his hands. “Are you okay?”

The
look in her eyes betrayed that she was shaken up, but she nodded. “I’m fine.”

Sophie
emerged from the bedroom, and Derick briefed her on the situation, then called
Paul and gave him an earful.

“I don’t
know what to tell you, Derick. If they found the house then it doesn’t matter
how many rent-a-cops we send over. There’s not much more we can do, and you
know what that means: it’s time for you to pull up roots again.”

Derick
glanced at Hanna. “I know. I’m working on it.” He chucked his phone on the
counter, vindicated by the staccato sound of it. “You might want to stay here
tonight,” he told Hanna, and her face turned crimson.