She thought that he would never break his silence. Had she angered him even further by those words of hers, she wondered desperately? And if so--oh! if so--Suddenly he spoke, and every pulse in her body leaped and quivered.
"Since when," he said, "have you begun to remember that?"
"I have never forgotten it," she said, in a voiceless whisper.
He took her hands, separated them, held up the left before her eyes.
"Never?" he said. "Be careful what you say to me."
She looked up with a flash of the old quick pride.
"I have spoken the truth," she said. "Why should I be careful?"
He dropped her hand.
"What have you done with your wedding-ring?"
"I--lost it." Nan"s voice and eyes sank together. "It was an accident,"
she said. "We dropped it in the lake."
"We?" said Piet.
She made a little hopeless gesture.
"Yes, Jerry and I. It"s no good telling you how it happened. You won"t believe me if I do."
He made no comment. Only after a moment he put his hand on her shoulder.
"Have you anything else to say?" he asked.
She shook her head without speaking. She was shivering all over.
"Very well, then," he said. "Come into the other room--you seem cold."
She went with him submissively. The fire had sunk low, and he replenished it. The hunting crop that he had brought from her father"s house lay on the table with Jerry"s banjo. He picked it up and put it away in a corner.
"Sit down," he said.
She sank upon the sofa, hiding her face. He took up his stand on the rug, facing her.
"Now," he said quietly, "do you remember my telling you that you had married a savage? I see you do. And you are afraid of me in consequence.
I am a savage. I admit it. I hurt you that night. I meant to hurt you. I meant you to see that I was in earnest. I meant you to realize that you were my wife. I meant--I still mean--to master you. But I did not mean to terrify you as you were terrified, as you are terrified now. I made a mistake, and for that mistake I desire to apologize."
He stooped and drew one of her hands away from her face.
"You defied me," he said. "Do you remember? And I am not accustomed to defiance. Nor will I bear it from anyone--my wife least of all. I am not threatening you; I am simply showing you what you must learn to expect from me, from the savage you have married. It is not my intention to frighten you. I am no longer angry with either you or the young fool whom you call your friend. By the way, I have not done him any violence. He has merely gone to find a lodging for himself and for the motor in the village. Yes, I turned him out of his own house, but I might have done worse. I meant to do much worse."
"Yes?" murmured Nan. "Why--why didn"t you?"
"Because," he answered grimly, "I found that I had only fools to deal with."
He paused a moment.
"Well, now for your punishment," he said. "As you remarked just now, I have you absolutely at my mercy. How much mercy do you expect--or deserve? Answer me--as my wife."
But she could not answer him. She only bowed her head speechlessly against the strong hand that still held hers.
She could feel his fingers tightening to a grip. And she knew herself beaten, powerless.
"Listen to me, Anne!" he said suddenly; and in his voice was something that she had only heard once before, and that but vaguely. "I am going to give you a fair chance, in spite of your behaviour to me. I am willing to believe--I do believe--that, to a certain extent, I drove you to this course. I also believe that you and your friend Jerry are nothing but a pair of irresponsible children. I should like to have caned him, but I had nothing but a loaded horse-whip to do it with, so I was obliged to let him off. Now listen! I am going downstairs and I shall stay there for exactly half an hour. If between now and the end of that half-hour you come to me with any good and sufficient reason for letting you go back and live apart from me in your father"s house, I will let you go. You have asked me to remember that you are my wife. Precisely what you meant by that you have left me to guess. You will make that request of yours quite plain to me within the next half-hour."
He relinquished his hold with the words, and would have withdrawn his hand, but she made a sharp movement to stay him.
"Do you--really--mean that?" she asked him, a catch in her voice, her head still bent.
"I have said it," he said.
But still with nervous fingers she sought to detain him.
"What--what would you consider a good and sufficient reason?"
The hand she held clenched slowly upon itself.
"If you can convince me," he said, his voice very deep and steady, "that to desert me would be for your happiness, I will let you go for that."
"But how can I convince you?" she said, her face still hidden from him, her hands closed tightly upon his wrist.
"You will be able to do so," he said, "if you know your own mind."
"And if--if I fail to satisfy you?" she faltered.
He was silent. After a moment he deliberately freed himself, and turned away.
"Those are my terms," he said. "If you do not come to me in half an hour I shall conclude that you leave the decision in my hands--in short, that you wish to remain my wife. Think well, Anne, before you take action in this matter. I do not seek to persuade you to either course. Only let me warn you that, whatever your choice, I shall treat it as final. You must realize that fully before you choose."
He was at the head of the stairs as he ended. Without a pause he began to descend, and she counted his footsteps with a wildly beating heart till they ceased in the room below.
CHAPTER XIV
She was alone. In a silence intense she lifted her head at last, and knew that for half an hour she was safe from interruption.
Far away over the snow she heard a distant church clock tolling midnight.
It ceased, and in the silence she thought she heard her stretched nerves cracking one by one. Soon--very soon--she would have to go down to him and fight the final battle for her freedom. But she would wait till the very last minute. She would spend the whole of the brief time accorded to her in mustering all her strength. He had swept her pride utterly out of her reach. But surely that was not her only weapon.
What of her hatred--that hatred that had driven her to this mad flight with Jerry? Surely out of that she could fashion a shield that all his savagery could not pierce. Moreover, he had given her his word to abide by her decision whatever it might be, so long as she could convince him of that same hatred that had once blazed so fiercely within her.