Escape for New Year. Shirley Jump

hot pin had wedged under her ribs and, try as she might, she couldn’t remove it. What had happened—what had been said—to make her feel as if she’d crashed into a ten-foot high brick wall at warp speed?

      She focused on his eyes. What aren’t you telling me?

      “There is … something,” he said.

      The hot pin slid out and, breathing again, she leaned back, letting the railing catch her weight.

      So it hadn’t been her imagination. For a second she’d thought she might be going mad! But whatever it was nagging, there was a reason and Bishop was about to tell her.

      “I haven’t told you …” he began haltingly “… not enough anyway … how much you meant to me.”

      Like a well filling, her relief rose higher, but then that niggling pricked again and she frowned. What he’d said didn’t quite make sense. The tense was wrong. I haven’t told you how much you meant to me?

      “You mean, you haven’t told me how much I mean to you.”

      “I want you to know it now.”

      His tone was so grave and his expression … He looked almost sad.

      Her heart melting, she found his hand and pressed it to her cheek as a lump of emotion fisted in her throat. Her husband loved her. Really loved her. She was so lucky. So much luckier than most.

      “I know, darling,” she murmured. “I feel the same way.”

      He seemed to consider his next words. She could almost see him lining them up in his mind.

      “I was taken aback when I saw you lying in that hospital bed.”

      She thought that through and came to a conclusion.

      “You thought something was wrong with my heart?” Oh, no! She wanted to hug him so tight. Reassure him everything was all right. “I would’ve been in a cardio ward. Besides, that’s all under control.” She turned her head to kiss his palm. “Easy.”

      That pin jabbed again, deeper and sharper this time and her heart missed a beat at the same instant her gaze trailed away and she tried to grasp on to and hold that elusive, annoying thought.

      “I wasn’t sure what to expect,” he was saying.

      Drifting back, she found his gaze again. “That’s why you acted so strangely?”

      He nodded. “I’d seen you in hospital before.”

      She narrowed her eyes, thinking back. She’d been in hospital in her younger years, but …

      Certain beyond doubt, she shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

      “No?”

      The pin stabbed again, so deep it made her flinch. She held her chest and, a knee-jerk reaction, wound away from him. At the same time, a noise—a crunching kind of rattle—echoed to her left. Her gaze shot over. She expected to see—

      She held her brow.

      —she couldn’t think what.

      She concentrated to form a picture in her mind, but she only saw those wallabies bounding off; they must have pushed loose gravel over the side. Now their boomerang tails and strong hind legs were catapulting them away, farther into the brush.

       Here one minute. Gone the next.

       Gone for good.

      Those words looped around in her mind. She shivered and hugged herself tight. Her mind was playing tricks. Tricks that were seriously doing her head in. But she had a remedy.

      Shaky inside, she feigned a smile. She hated to sound fragile, but she needed to lie down.

      “Bishop, do you mind if I take myself off to bed early? Our late night must be catching up.”

      “You have another headache.”

      “No. Just … tired.” Taking her elbow, he ushered her inside. “Wake me up when you come to bed?” she asked.

      As if to confirm it, he dropped a kiss on her crown. As they moved down the hall, she felt compelled to ask him to promise. That’s what a newly married bride would do, no matter how tired, right?

      But the words didn’t come. And as that pin pricked again—niggling, enflaming—she only wished she knew why.