That morning, before Robert left his room to get his cereal, he prepared himself. He would only talk to Georgie when necessary today. No more mistakes like the day before. When he went in the kitchen, she looked up and said, “Hi.” He didn’t say anything as he passed her but he didn’t feel good about it. He wished she wouldn’t try to get him to talk to her.

While he ate his cereal, he kept his attention on his bowl. She read for a few minutes then set her book aside, saying, “We clean the windows today.” He didn’t want to be rude again, so he made a grunting noise and pretended to be too busy eating to talk.

“You should work out first because this is one of the bigger jobs.”

He was done eating by then, so he stood up and said, “Alright,” as he walked to the sink. He washed and put his bowl and spoon away, then left while she was still drinking her coffee.

When he’d finished working out and dressed, he joined her in the sitting room where she was washing the panes of glass in the French doors. As soon as she saw him, she said, “The glass in your bedroom windows and doors needs to be cleaned but I wasn’t sure if you –.”

“Right, I’ll do it,” he said, interrupting her and grateful for the excuse to go to another room.

He grabbed a bucket and a rag, and started to go into his room, when he heard her say, “Don’t you want me to show you what to do?”

He felt a prickling of irritation. He was trying to keep a distance but she just kept at him, trying to get him to talk to her. He turned around, pushing his hair out of his eyes and said the first thing that came into his head. “D’you think I don’t know how to clean glass, Georgie?”

Her face fell and he instantly regretted saying it. She immediately looked at the floor and said quietly, “No, Robert. I didn’t mean that. I’m sorry.” She looked humiliated.

He turned and went into his bedroom, feeling deeply ashamed of himself. There was no cause for him to be rude to her like that, he told himself angrily. He should’ve handled it more tactfully. He swore he would never talk to her like that again. She deserved to be treated better than that.

While he cleaned the glass in his room, he realized he should’ve taken whatever advice she’d wanted to give him. He had to use one of his bathroom towels to dry the panes of glass after he washed them with the one rag he’d grabbed. He briefly considered going out to get more rags, but he was too ashamed and embarrassed.

When he’d finished cleaning the glass in his bedroom and bathroom, he went back to the sitting room. He was grateful to find she’d left a small pile of dry rags behind when she’d gone to the music room, and he took them. She was at the far end of the room, cleaning windows so he started on the opposite side of the room by the door. He was glad the room was so big they didn’t have to work right on top of each other like they had the previous day.

While he cleaned, he happened to glance over and noticed she was using a step stool to reach the top panes of glass. He stopped and watched because the stool looked like it was in constant danger of tipping. She looked scared as she carefully climbed on and off of it while it shifted under her. Maybe because he’d done so much swimming and he was just enough taller than her, he wasn’t having any trouble reaching the top panes to clean them.

He couldn’t bear it when he saw her climb on the stool again, watching how it wobbled, and how scared she looked as she tried not fall. He picked up his bucket and walked over, reaching her just as she’d finished cleaning the top of the window and was carefully climbing off the stool.

He pushed his hair out of his eyes and said, “I’ll do the high bits, yeah?”

She looked surprised, but he turned away to start washing the high panes of the next window. She stood watching him and as soon as he was finished, she took over cleaning the rest of the glass. He cleaned the top panes all the way down the room, feeling better he’d helped her. He hoped it made up for his rudeness earlier.

When they finished, he helped her put everything away, avoiding saying anything. He was going to eat lunch, but when he saw Georgie heading to the kitchen to eat, he changed his mind and went to his room. He’d wait till she was finished before he ate, he decided. It would be better if they didn’t eat together so often.

He sat on his bed with his book and suddenly realized, he felt – alright. Not great, but definitely a lot better than he had in a long time. The more he thought about it, the more he realized he felt a lot less lonely, and his mood had improved as well. Working with Georgie had made a huge difference in how he felt, even though they’d hardly talked. This was going to save him, he thought. He was going to be able survive with his sanity. For the first time since he’d been kidnapped, he felt hope.

Later, he went to eat lunch after making sure Georgie was in her room. While he ate alone, he was amazed he still felt better. The sadness that always seemed to be with him lately had eased, and the oppressive silence didn’t seem to be pressing down on him like it usually did.

On the way back to his room, he heard a shuffling noise in the music room and stopped to listen. He realized it must be Georgie dancing ballet. There was only the sound of her moving, and he wondered how she could dance without music. He couldn’t help it, he had to look.

He peeked around the doorway, and was so surprised he stepped inside to get a better look. She was watching herself in the mirror and concentrating so hard on what she was doing, she didn’t seem to notice him even though he was standing in the open. She was dressed, not in her ugly shapeless clothes, but just like his sisters had when they took ballet lessons with a black leotard, pink tights, pointe shoes, and her thick hair up in a bun. Just like when she’d been on the treadmill, it was a shock to see her dressed in normal clothing, and to see her body out of the shapeless clothes. He couldn’t help noticing again how slender she was, but with curves that kept her from looking skinny.

He also saw the terrible bruises from the beating for the first time through her tights. No wonder she’d screamed so much, he thought grimly as he looked at the dark blue and purple bruises covering nearly all of her upper thighs.

She wasn’t exactly dancing. Her movements were more like exercises that she was repeating over and over, as if she were in a class. As he watched, she moved her body with fluid and precise motions, looking at ease and confident as she stretched herself to her full height and fully extended her arms. This was not the girl he normally saw, hunched over in her chair, or slumped nervously looking at the floor as she talked to him. It was like she’d completely transformed into someone else.

He saw the muscles of her legs and back working as she balanced all her weight on her foot, leaning over slightly, extending the other leg in the air up and behind her, holding the pose with her arms held above her head before stepping out of it and doing the same with the other leg. It had been a long time since he’d seen the dancers Georgie’s age at his sisters’ recitals. He’d forgotten how athletic they had to be to be able to dance ballet. When he’d seen her on the treadmill, he’d noticed how shapely her legs and bum were, but now he realized she had a dancer’s body.

Then he noticed a small black iPod clipped to her leotard with the cord tucked under the strap leading to ear buds. That was a shock too, seeing a modern electronic device in the flat, like it didn’t belong. He stood there for a few minutes before it occurred to him he really didn’t want her to notice him watching, and left.

When he was back in his room with his book, he couldn’t see the words on the page. Instead he saw Georgie, at ease and graceful as she danced. He couldn’t stop thinking how she’d looked so different while she was dancing. The look on her face made it seem like she was somewhere else. It had to be the reason why she never noticed him standing in the room watching her all that time. Maybe that was how she escaped from this horrible place, he thought. He couldn’t help thinking she’d looked really beautiful, and then immediately pushed the thought out of his head with irritation.

He thought about the iPod. It was funny how he’d felt so desperate to have one the first few days, and now that he’d seen one after just a few weeks here, it was a shock. At least now he knew how she listened to music while she danced.

Robert suddenly felt his whole body grow cold. He’d asked her about music players the very first day. It was when he’d asked her what electronics were in the flat for entertainment and she’d told him she didn’t have one. He could scarcely believe it, she’d fucking lied to him.

Then he felt his heart stop for a moment. Why hadn’t he found that iPod when he was looking for the key? He was very careful when he searched, and there was no way he should’ve missed it. She’d not only lied to him, she’d taken pains to hide it somewhere he wasn’t able to find in a thorough search. He was glad he was finding this out about her now before he’d been fooled into trusting her, he thought as a seething anger filled him. Which girl was she, he wondered, the victim, the liar, the confident dancer, the sneak?

He decided to wait till they cooked dinner to confront her. He needed time to think how he wanted to approach it. He wanted to make sure he trapped her in her lies so she’d have to tell him the truth. Later, when he heard her playing the piano, he didn’t open his door.

When she came to his bedroom, he was eager to say he would cook with her and followed her to the kitchen. He waited until they were both working before he started.

“Can I ask how you dance without music?” he said in a normal voice, not wanting to tip his hand just yet.

“I have this tiny thing that plays music with headphones. I can clip it to my leotard. It’s called an iPod, I think,” she said casually. He had to give it to her, she was good.

“Can I see it?”

She seemed surprised but went to get it. When she came back, she held out the small black iPod in her hand but he didn’t take it. Now was the time to let her to know he was on to her.

“Where did you have that?” he asked suspiciously.

She shrugged and said, “I keep it with my dance clothes.” She was very good at keeping her cool, he thought.

He said slowly and firmly, “Why didn’t I find it when I was looking for the key?”

She looked up at him nervously and said quickly, “I don’t know why. It was clipped to my leotard. I sweat a lot when I dance and I always hang up my ballet clothes and shoes on a hook on the back of my bathroom door so they dry out.” She watched him carefully, her body tensed as if she was waiting for him to lose his temper.

Of course. He hadn’t thought to look on the back of her bathroom door for the key, and he was angry with himself for being that careless.

He couldn’t hold the anger in. “I asked you if you had a music player the first day! Why didn’t you tell me about it?” he shouted.

Her eyes got wide and she said desperately, “I don’t remember you asking me about a music player! I’m sorry, Robert, I don’t! I don’t remember you asking about an iPod either! If you had, I would’ve told you! I wouldn’t lie to you!”

His immediate reaction was not to believe her, but she deserved for him to be sure of what really happened. He owed her that much. He tried to remember exactly what he’d said.

Perhaps sensing he was trying to remember, Georgie said very quietly, “I didn’t know what everything was. That you asked me about, I mean,” and she looked embarrassed.

He found it hard to believe and he stared at her for a minute, trying to see what kind of a game she was playing with him now. She held his gaze, her eyes wide and begging him to believe her. He tried again to think what exactly he’d asked her that morning.

“D’you have an mp3 player?” he asked finally.

She slumped a little. “What’s that?”

He let his breath out and said dispiritedly, “An iPod, for one.”

She looked sadly at the iPod in her hand, saying quietly, “Oh.”

He felt the anger drain out of him as he looked at her. It was unbelievable she didn’t know what an mp3 player was. How could she not know that when she owned a fucking iPod? It didn’t make any sense. But he was certain she didn’t see him when he’d watched her dance. And she didn’t try to hide it from him when he’d asked her now. He could go to her bedroom and check her bathroom door for the ballet clothes. But as despair started to take the place of the anger, he decided against it. What was the point anymore?

“D’you mind if I look at it?” he asked quietly, holding out his hand for the iPod.

She handed it to him and he put in the ear buds and scrolled through the songs. It was all piano music, rubbish music, really. He realized in that moment, he’d hoped she had a secret hiding place where the key was hidden so he could finally escape. He felt like he’d just found out he was trapped all over again, and the black weight was there. He could feel it settle on him like a heavy blanket instead of crushing him.

Without looking at her, he handed it back to her, saying, “That’s great, cheers,” and he could hear the despair in his voice.

“I know it’s not very good music. It’s just for ballet lessons,” she said apologetically in a quiet voice.

Robert tried to hide how despondent he was feeling, keeping his eyes on what he was doing. The black weight was pressing on him, and all he wanted to do was go back to his room and climb under the bedcovers. Get a grip, he thought, you’ve got to keep it together so you can survive this.

They sat down to eat, and he was still fighting back the black weight when he noticed Georgie hunched over her plate, not eating. He checked the door, in case the bastard was back, but they were alone. There was only one other explanation for her acting like this, she had something to say to him, something he probably wasn’t going to want to hear. He realized he knew her well enough now he could read her, and it did not make him feel good. He was getting too damned close to her.

He could ignore her and wait for her to start, or get it over with. He decided he was in no mood to play any games with her tonight. He put his fork down, saying loudly, “What is it?” She immediately hunched over her plate more. He knew this wasn’t going to be good.

She swallowed and said, “There’s something I have to tell you. I haven’t been honest with you.”

He stared at her, his mouth open a little in shock. She’d really fooled him. Now that he’d started to believe he could trust her, she was admitting she was a liar. He could scarcely believe it. He’d been right about her all along. And not a half hour before, she’d fucking told him she wouldn’t lie to him. It was unbelievable how brazen she was.

She said quietly, “It’s about the key,” and he suddenly felt like he couldn’t get enough oxygen in his lungs.

She started hesitantly, stammering, “That day you were looking for the key –. That morning you were so upset –.” She looked at him and he could see tears welling up in her eyes. He glared at her, not caring.

“I didn’t blame you, Robert – I never blamed you. It was so horrible – what happened to you – being kidnapped. It wasn’t right – you were so upset.”

He could not fucking believe her. She was still trying to make herself seem sincere, even while she was admitting she’d lied to him. She could see he wasn’t buying her act, and she hunched over her plate again.

She said with her voice wavering, “It’s just that it was so hard for me. You were so angry and you kept asking me questions that I didn’t know the answer to. So when you asked me about the key –. You asked me if I had a key and I told you the truth – I didn’t have one. And then you started looking for it and I –. I knew it was wrong – I knew I should tell you the truth!” She started crying and he was dreading what was coming.

She looked at him, saying through her tears, “It’s just that you were so quiet while you were looking and I was so –. I know it was wrong, Robert! I’m so sorry I did it! The truth is – there could never be one key that would open that door. On the other side there are more locks – a lot of them. I knew I shouldn’t let you look for a key that didn’t exist but I was – I was just so grateful you weren’t – you weren’t mad at me! I’m so sorry, Robert! I’ll never forgive myself!” and then she covered her face with her hands and turned away from him, crying.

It took a moment for it to sink in. There was no escape through that door, there never had been. She’d fucking watched him search the entire flat looking for a fucking key that never existed, letting him believe he was close to getting away. But she hadn’t just watched him look for that key.

He felt the rage building, as he said through his teeth, “What was the fucking strip tease for?” and she hunched over, crying even harder.

After a moment, she turned around. “I wanted you to trust me!” she cried through her tears. “I wanted you to trust me because you thought I was part of kidnapping you! I thought if you saw I didn’t have it, you would trust me and wouldn’t be so mad at me! I’m so sorry, Robert! It was so stupid!” and turned and covered her face again, crying.

She was right, it was incredibly stupid. It didn’t make any sense to him at all that she thought it would work better than just telling him the truth, and he said to himself, “This is fucking unbelievable.” When she heard him, she bent over, sobbing into her knees.

Robert put his elbows on the table and covered his face with his hands, trying to make sense of it, thinking back to that first morning when he’d looked for the key. He remembered he’d been more than ‘upset’. That was the morning he’d grabbed her and shoved her into a bookcase in a rage, hurting her. Then, when he’d assumed there was a key and started looking for it, she hadn’t told him any differently because he was being quiet and wasn’t mad at her, meaning he wasn’t attacking her or threatening her. He remembered when she’d tried to show him she didn’t have the key. She’d said she didn’t want to get naked in front of him and he’d grabbed her by her slip and yelled at her in a rage because he’d felt manipulated, terrifying her.

He hadn’t thought about those early days in a long time, and he felt profound shame at how he’d behaved towards her. She’d said the same thing that day in the library that she did just now. She didn’t blame him because he was upset about being kidnapped. Her capacity to excuse his behavior was astonishing, like she didn’t expect to be treated any better. Maybe she didn’t, he thought grimly, thinking how she was repeatedly abused by the bastard. Now that he knew her history, it made perfect sense to him that she would make such a stupid mistake, lying by omission to keep him busy so he would leave her alone. But that didn’t excuse her entirely, he thought, suddenly angry again.

He uncovered his face, saying, “Georgie!”

She was still crying but sat up right away. “Yes, Robert.” she said quietly through her tears.

“Why didn’t you tell me the truth sooner? Why did you let me think there was a key all this time?” he asked loudly.

She looked at him intensely for a moment, her eyes wide. They were the purple color, but he could see the tears had made them darker.

She wiped her tears with her sleeve, and said softly, “I did try to tell you, Robert. When you went to your room, I knew right away I’d made a mistake and I wanted to tell you right then but – you wouldn’t come out of your room.” He remembered he’d stayed in his room until the next morning. She’d come to the door twice, trying to get him to come out for meals and he’d ignored her. He was starting to get a sinking feeling he was as much to blame for this mess as she was.

“The next morning at breakfast I tried to tell you, but you said you didn’t want to talk to me. And when I still tried to tell you, you got really mad.” She had tried to talk to him, but he didn’t trust anything she was saying. He remembered with shame how horribly he’d treated her that morning, yelling at her and scaring her in the kitchen.

“Then you calmed down, but – I didn’t want to make you mad by talking to you so I didn’t say anything. And then – I guess – I forgot until tonight. I’m so sorry, Robert! I know I should’ve told you the truth from the beginning!” She hunched over her plate again crying quietly, tears rolling down her cheeks while she wiped them away with her sleeve. She had essentially stopped talking to him once he’d calmed down. Was it any wonder? She was terrified of him.

As he remembered how his behavior those first few days affected her, Robert slumped over his own plate. He’d abused her and terrorized her – there was no other way to describe it. He’d witnessed her being beaten by another man just two days before, and he didn’t miss the irony that he’d wondered then what kind of man would abuse a girl. How had he been any different than the bastard? Had she looked at the bastard with terror in her eyes like Robert remembered her looking at him? He felt lower than he ever had in his life, as guilt and shame burned through him. He had caused this. He was the one who’d fucked up, not her.

“Georgie?” he said quietly.

She looked up at him, saying, “Yes, Robert?” She looked like she was steeling herself for what he was going to say.

“I’m sorry about what happened too. I was so awful to you then. I hurt you and scared you. It was wrong for me to do that to you and I’m sorry.” She was looking at him intensely, her eyes wide.

“I know you said you don’t blame me, but I blame myself. I’m to blame for what happened as much as you. Actually, I think I’m the only one to blame for –.”

“Robert, don’t say that! You’re not the one to blame!” she said fervently.

He held his hand up to stop her. He wasn’t about to get into a pissing match with her about who was the bigger screw-up. He was too tired for this.

“Georgie, let’s just eat, yeah?” he said quietly.

He could tell she didn’t want to let it go, but she wiped her tears with her sleeve and started eating, hunched over her plate. He wasn’t hungry, but he forced himself to eat in case she’d think he still wanted to talk. They were silent while they ate and cleaned up the kitchen together.

As soon as they were finished, he went to his room and crawled in his bed, pulling the blankets over his head, feeling awful. As he beat himself up over the fact that he’d even brought up the stupid iPod, he didn’t see any other way he could’ve handled it. He had to confront her, he’d thought she’d lied to him. Even though he knew it was unavoidable, he was still angry with himself. There was no denying what had happened tonight had made them even closer. Despite his efforts to maintain a distance from her, things had changed dramatically between them over the last two days. He’d never wanted to get involved with her, but it seemed every time he was around her, he got more involved than he was before.

It was clear he’d already developed some kind of relationship with her. The way he could read her, how he interacted with her, it was like he knew her, and it did not make him feel good. He didn’t want this, he thought desperately. But what the hell was he supposed to do? There was no escape from her. He just had to stop it from getting worse. He didn’t have any choice.

He should be going home soon, hopefully very soon. All he wanted was to be able to go back to his life the way it used to be, and leave this terrible place far behind. When he got home, he’d track down the bastard, and make sure the authorities knew what was happening to her so she could get help. Then he’d forget he’d been kidnapped, forget about the bastard, and especially forget about her.

Until then, he just had to make sure he was on guard around her. He could not allow himself to be drawn into any more interactions with her, or get involved with her any deeper. Hopefully, now, things would settle down. No more secrets to reveal. No more questions about her life here. He’d just keep his mouth shut, help her with her fucking chores and stay in his room the rest of the time. He could do this.

******

I have to admit, nine times out of ten, when I read that last line, I bust out laughing because poor Robert doesn't have clue how deep in it he is.  The two of them are getting closer in spite of his efforts to halt it.  I love the build up of tension between them!  How far will it go before things get really serious?  Read to find out!

Thanks so much for reading!  Please remember to vote and leave me a comment!