Robert put on his jeans and walked up to the bastard. He realized he needed to be careful. He couldn’t afford to do anything that might antagonize the man. The bastard’s face was impassive, giving nothing away.

“I believe I have just met your requirements,” Robert said, trying to sound as neutral as he could.

The bastard nodded, and said tersely, “Yes, you have. Get her dressed and go back to your rooms.” Then he turned and walked to the door. He knocked once, the door opened immediately and he walked out, leaving Robert and Georgie alone.

Robert dressed quickly and then had to dress Georgie as she laid on the bed, almost too tired to sit up when he needed her to. He did his best to braid her hair and found the hair tie to secure it. Then he half-carried half-guided her to the door and knocked. The door was opened and they walked back to the flat, flanked by the two guards.

The door was already open and once they were inside, it was closed behind them. Robert heard the locks being set as he walked into the sitting room still holding Georgie up. When he reached the middle of the room he stopped, listening to the silence as they stood there. And then it hit him – he had actually done it – he had actually achieved Georgie’s freedom.

All the tension that had built up inside him over the last week suddenly snapped and he pulled her into a tight hug, clutching her so tightly he was nearly crushing her and started sobbing into her shoulder. His legs gave out and he sat down hard on the floor, pulling her into his lap as he sobbed. He had her – she was going to be with him forever – he would never have to let her go – was all he could think.

He was vaguely aware Georgie was struggling to get free of him, calling his name. He loosened his grip on her but he was still reeling from what had just happened.

“Robert! Why did we do that?” he heard her say.

“Georgie, I love you! I love you so much!” he sobbed.

Finally, she struggled free from his arms and held his cheeks so she could look in his eyes, trying to get him to focus on her, saying loudly, “What did we do that for? Robert, please tell me why we did that?”

He came back to himself enough that he was finally able to see her. The worry in her eyes made him remember, he still wasn’t certain it would really happen, it was still possible the bastard could double cross him, and it helped him recover. He thought quickly.

“I bargained for more time, Georgie. I wanted more time. I love you so much! God help me! I don’t want to leave you! I want more time!” He was losing control again and Georgie kissed him to stop him from talking, attempting to calm him down.

When she released him, she said sadly, “Its okay. I understand why you did it. I don’t blame you, Robert.”

Then he heard a cold voice say, “Well, well. This is a very touching scene, I must say.” It was the bastard.

Robert struggled to stand up, pulling Georgie up with him. He wouldn’t face the fucking bastard lying on the ground. He turned around to face him, holding Georgie tightly. The bastard’s steely deep set eyes were blazing as they looked at Robert, his face was a mask of rage.

Robert and Georgie began wrestling, desperately trying to push the other one behind them in an attempt to protect each other from the bastard. Georgie managed to stay in front and the bastard began shouting at her in French. She started crying but after a minute of him shouting at her, she shouted back. They argued back and forth and somehow, Robert knew what it was about. The bastard had never figured out how serious things had gotten between them, how intimate they had become. It was obvious he thought he’d been tricked.

After a few minutes of them arguing, the bastard shouted, “Enough!”

There was silence and Robert started to get a horrible feeling in his stomach as he watched the man’s face change. He looked vicious.

“Robert!” It wasn’t the hearty greeting, it was a bark.

“You’re leaving in three days!”

Georgie screamed, “No!” and grabbed Robert around the neck. He didn’t take his eyes off the bastard while he held her tight.

“You will leave wearing the clothing you arrived in!” He had to shout now because Georgie was wailing ‘No!’ over and over again.

“You will take nothing else with you!”

Georgie began struggling wildly to get free of Robert but he wouldn’t let go of her, suddenly fearful of what she might do. She managed to turn herself around and begged the bastard in French as she sobbed not to take Robert away from her. After a few seconds he realized with horror, she was bargaining with the bastard, offering everything and anything she had to him. It made him sick to his stomach and he tried to stop her by putting his hand over her mouth, but she kept pulling it off as she continued to beg and grovel.

While they struggled, Robert continually searched the bastard’s eyes for any recognition that the bargain would be kept, but the man turned suddenly and stormed out of the flat. Robert never got his answer.

When the door slammed shut, Georgie turned and grabbed onto his neck again, letting out long piercing screams of grief while he held onto her. The pain he was feeling in his heart was matched by the anguish in her heartbreaking screams and he started sobbing. His legs couldn’t hold them anymore and he sunk to the floor, holding her. He ended up lying on his back as he sobbed with Georgie lying on top of him, clinging to him and writhing as she screamed with grief. After a while, the pain was just too much and he went away.

Robert came to lying on the floor in the dark. Georgie was still on top of him, clinging to him and occasionally moaning. He wasn’t sure what time it was or how long they’d been lying there. He tried to get up, but she clutched him tighter and started wailing. He didn’t have the strength to make her get off. He knew how much pain she was in, knowing he was going to be taken from her. He felt it too. He didn’t want to leave her. If he did, would he ever see her again? Eventually, he just went away again to escape the pain.

When Robert woke up he was alone, lying on the floor of the sitting room and it was daytime. He felt disoriented, not sure how long he’d been out or what day it was. He struggled to sit up, his body stiff.

“Georgie?” he said, looking around the room.

The Christmas tree was gone, as if it had never been there. Her bedroom door was wide open and the flat was completely silent. She’s gone, he thought with anguish, the bastard had taken her from him. He crawled to a standing position and wandered into her bedroom, starting to cry.

“Georgie?” he choked out.

She walked out of her bathroom holding a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste. They stood looking at each other for a moment, too numb to speak before she walked up to him and hugged him, then turned to go brush her teeth. He sat on her bed, wiping his face with his shirt sleeves, waiting for her.

When she came out, she took his hand and led him to his bed, covering him with the blankets after he got in. She left and returned with a glass of water.

“Here, Robert. Drink,” she said quietly with a raspy voice, handing it to him.

He didn’t know he was thirsty until he drained the glass. Then she refilled it in his bathroom and he drained that one too. She took the glass from him and set it on the table, then took her hair out of the braid before she got in bed with him. She nestled next to him under the blankets like she always did, with his arms around her and her head on his shoulder. She pulled her hair over so it was lying across his chest. He ran his fingers through it while she cried, wetting his t-shirt.

He must have fallen asleep again because when he woke up, she was standing next to his bed, wearing one of his white t-shirts and pajama bottoms. She was holding a plate of sandwiches and a glass of milk for him. He sat up and she joined him on the bed putting the plate between them. He didn’t realize how hungry he was until he took the first bite. They ate in silence.

When they were finished she said in a voice that was still a little raspy, “Get the clothes, okay?”

He knew what she meant and went in the chest of drawers to find the briefs, socks, black t-shirt and jeans he was wearing the night he was kidnapped. It wasn’t hard to locate them, they were so much older than the other clothes. She left with the dishes and returned with her sewing basket.

“I need the bracelet,” she said.

He reached under his mattress and felt papers, the notes from his meeting. He’d need to burn those when she wasn’t around. He found the bracelet and pulled it out. She took his jeans and turned them inside out. Then she positioned the bracelet so that it was hidden, sandwiched between the white cotton cloth of the pocket and the blue jean material close to the waistband.

“Yes, I think this is going to work,” she said quietly.

She sewed it in place with a few stitches, then had him put the jeans on. She rubbed over both pockets with her hand then slipped it inside both pockets and rubbed. She opened his jeans and put her hands down inside, feeling all around to see if she could detect the bracelet.

She had him take off the jeans, cut the stitches and repositioned the bracelet before holding it in place with a few stitches again. She had him put them back on and searched him again, trying to detect the bracelet. She did it four times before she was satisfied the bracelet wouldn’t be found.

While she sewed it in place she said quietly, “Make sure you only cut the thread inside the pocket or you might damage it, okay? I’ll leave a few bigger stitches in there for you to cut with a small pair of scissors. Your mom should have something you can use,” she finished, her voice breaking and blinking back tears.

He felt despair as he watched her, wondering if this would be the last time he’d ever see her sewing. He remembered she was sewing when he saw her the very first morning. He tried to memorize how beautiful she was sitting there with her head bent over his jeans, her dark wavy hair hanging down, sewing his bracelet into place with tiny stitches.

When she was finished, she had him put on the jeans again and searched him, trying to see if she could detect it but she seemed satisfied. When he took them off, she folded them and set them aside.

“Robert?” she said quietly, after sitting back on the bed with him.

“Yeah.”

“You said we did it for more time. But – he only gave us three days,” she said sadly. It was bad enough he knew he’d probably been double crossed, that they’d done it for nothing, he couldn’t bear for her to think it too.

“Christmas,” was all he could manage to say before his throat closed up. Her eyes got wide, and she suddenly seemed like her old self.

“That’s what you bargained for?” she said, loudly. Then she lunged at him, hugging him tight. “Thank you, Robert! It was so worth it! I’ll never forget it! I’m glad we did it!”

He hugged her back, grateful she couldn’t see the look on his face. He didn’t know why she couldn’t see through his blatant lie. There was no fucking way the bastard would give them Christmas and then demand payment afterward.

Later, while they were lying on his bed and he was running his fingers through her hair, she said quietly, “Remember that day we were washing the floor and I told you I was here to protect you, and then I said it was a mistake?”

“Yeah,” he said quietly.

“That wasn’t the truth.”

He already knew it. She’d told him so few lies and he always knew when she was doing it. He’d lied to her so many times he couldn’t count them, and she’d trusted him each time.

“The night they brought you here, they just dumped you on the bed and left. You looked so uncomfortable, the way you were lying there, I couldn’t stand to see you like that. I decided I had to move you – get you on your back with the blankets on you.” Robert remembered waking up like that.

She laughed suddenly and lifted her head to look at him. “You’re really heavy, you know that?” He couldn’t help laughing with her, even though he could see tears on her face.

She laid her head back down, saying, “To move you, I had to pick you up and hold you. It took me a long time because you were so heavy. While I held you I felt so sad for you because I knew as soon as you woke up, you were going realize what happened to you. I knew how much pain you were going to be in – and I didn’t – I didn’t want you to be hurt. I cried for you – a lot.”

He gave her a squeeze and kissed her forehead. She’d been so caring and she didn’t even know him yet. She’d been so caring to him the entire time he’d been with her.

“I made a promise to you that night that I would protect you. I would do whatever I had to do to make sure you went home the same way you came here – not hurt. And he never found out – I kept it a secret from him the whole time.”

He waited but she didn’t say anything else. He couldn’t tell if she thought she’d failed or not. He would not leave the same way he came here and he was hurt. He held her tighter, and neither of them said anything.

Later, Robert told Georgie he wanted to wash her hair. She drew them a bath and they got in together trying not to slosh water out of the tub. They sat with her between his legs, his arms around her as she leaned back against him. They stayed like that for a while soaking in the hot water.

When he washed Georgie, it felt wonderful to rub her with soap, feeling her entire body under his hand. He tried to memorize how each bit of her felt. How soft her breasts were, and how tiny her nipples got when they were cold. He could feel her ribs under the muscles on her back. How soft her hips were. How her legs felt, long and smooth under his touch. Her feet were ticklish and she could barely hold still long enough for him to wash them.

Then she washed him and he was surprised how it made him feel for her to touch him all over. When she discovered his erection under the water, she stroked him until he came, looking at him intently to watch his expressions.

They drained the tub and refilled it with more hot water. She washed his hair first and it felt good to feel her fingers in it. Then he washed her hair, taking his time, working the shampoo into every bit of it. He massaged her scalp with his fingers, and scratched it while she groaned with pleasure before he rinsed it clean. He got out and dried off quickly before he had her get out. He dried her body and wrapped her hair in a towel.

He combed her hair in front of the fire, one section at a time starting at the ends and working his way up to the top of her head, carefully holding it as he worked so he wouldn’t hurt her. When he was finished, she sat with her back to the fire to dry it and they ate cold spaghetti out of the container and drank the red wine. When they’d finished, he leaned against the couch and she sat with her back leaning against him so they could watch the fire together.

The wine relaxed him and made him more melancholy at the same time. He thought about all those documents on the table. Georgie’s whole life had been there – past and future. He couldn’t believe after everything he’d gone through, after everything he’d done to try to win her freedom, he would come away from it with nothing.

Why would the bastard go to all that trouble to get everything on his list if he didn’t plan on letting her go? But then, he’d tried so hard to make sure Robert failed so maybe he didn’t intend to let her go. Or was he just trying to make sure Robert would have to hurt her so that when he did let them go, their future would be destroyed. Robert couldn’t figure out what the man’s motivations had been, or what outcome he’d wanted. He just wished he knew what was going to happen.

He remembered her name, Georgia Ann Russo. It was such a beautiful name, not terrible like her dad thought. He wished he could tell her he thought her name was beautiful. He thought about her parents, Gianni from Italy and Margery from Bath. Bath wasn’t far from where he lived and he’d been there a few times to see the ancient Roman baths.

“Georgie?”

“Yes?” she murmured.

“How did your parents meet? D’you know?”

She hummed a little while she thought, and then said, “Yes!” He could tell she was a little drunk from the wine.

“Dad came to England when he was ten years old. He didn’t know a word of English and the school year had already started. It was so hard for him that first day because everything was so strange and he didn’t know what anyone was saying. When he was walking home from school, some boys started bullying him. He tried to stand up to them, but he was small for his age and he couldn’t understand what they were saying. Mom saw it happening and she got so mad she attacked the lead boy. I understand she kicked him in the balls.” Robert burst out laughing and Georgie laughed with him.

“The next day, he realized she was in his class. She told the teacher that morning he was going to be sitting at her table with her from now on and she was going to teach him English – she was kind of stubborn that way. She taught him word by word and showed him what to do during the school day. And she looked out for him, walking him to and from school every day. She helped his mom with her shopping and practically became part of his family.

“From those first days, they were best friends. His dad died when he was a teenager and she was there for him and helped him through it. They even decided to go to the same college. But the whole time, from when she fought that boy for him, my dad loved her. He never told her because he thought she only wanted to be friends. She had boyfriends and everything, and he never told her. Then, when they started college, they went to a party together and he got drunk and spilled everything to her.”

Robert thought the story seemed eerily familiar. Her mum protective and her dad, loving her secretly until he confessed while drunk.

Georgie continued, “Mom didn’t really know what to think at first. But she said, the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she loved him so much as a friend already, it wouldn’t be hard to love him as more than a friend. She always said she was lucky because her husband was her best friend.”

Georgie wiped her eyes with her fingers, saying, “They had a really special marriage. I didn’t know it until I went to my friends’ houses and saw how their parents were together. My parents weren’t perfect. I mean, my dad was Italian, and my mom was pretty stubborn, but there was always this feeling underneath it all that they really liked and respected each other. Their relationship felt solid, you know? I always thought I’d never be lucky enough to have something like that.”

She couldn’t talk anymore and wiped her eyes while she looked at the fire. Robert wanted to tell her that she did have it, but he couldn’t. In two days time it might be gone. He hugged her tighter and buried his face in her hair while he cried with her.

When they got in bed together that night, they held onto each other. He kissed her gently and she responded to his kisses, slipping her fingers in his hair and breathing more deeply. When her tongue slipped in his mouth, he was suddenly overwhelmed with a desperate need to be close to her, to feel all of her skin pressed against all of his, to possess her. After all the sadness and pain he’d felt, he was surprised by how strong the feelings were, by how much he desired her. She seemed to feel it too and they both stripped down at the same time.

They were all hands and mouths as they touched and tasted each other, as if they couldn’t get enough of each other. When he entered her she clutched him closer to her, wanting to feel his full weight on her and they made love passionately, quickly, almost in a frenzy. It wasn’t long before they came together, her digging her fingers into him, crying out loudly and him groaning, his hands buried in her hair. While he laid on top of her, waiting to catch his breath, she started crying.

“Georgie, what’s wrong?” he asked, suddenly afraid he might’ve hurt her somehow. He started to get off but she tightened her hold on him, keeping him inside her.

“No, Robert. Please don’t leave me,” she pleaded quietly, her voice breaking.

He shushed her as he laid on top of her, kissing her tears as they ran down the sides of her face until the pain overwhelmed him and he cried, his face pressed into her hair. When the tears finally ran out, they laid side by side, holding onto each other but it was hours before they fell asleep.

During the few hours of sleep he did manage to get, Robert dreamt continuously. He dreamt Georgie was lost and he was desperately trying to find her, or she was home with him and they were finally safe. She woke him with her nightmare and then again later in the night, mumbling in French and crying out his name.

They got up the next morning, still tired but unable to sleep anymore and went to the kitchen. He was eating cereal and she was drinking her coffee when the phone by the door started ringing. They looked at each other while they listened to it ringing over and over.

****

Oh no!!  Robert is leaving!  But is Georgie going with him?  Will the bastard honor the agreement?

This chapter was difficult to write because I wanted to capture what it would be like if two people who loved each other desperately thought they were going to be torn apart, possibly forever.  It's a very sad and poignant situation.  And one that brings up a lot of conflicting emotions and behaviors in the people experiencing it.

This is almost the end!  Only one more chapter to go and then . . .

I won't keep you, I know you're dying to find out what's going to happen!  But please vote for this chapter before you move on!