I lay with my cheek on his breast as he recovered his strength. I had never in my life been so happy, or so complete. My fingers caressed his chest and the hollow of his flanks.
He quivered at my touch, and I laughed softly. "I love you," I whispered. "I love you."
Finally his breath grew even again; he lifted me off him and reached for his clothes.
"What are you doing?" I asked, rising onto my elbow, my hand reaching for him.
"Must you go already?"
He grew still, his back to me. "I must be mad," he said.
"Yes, Robbie! We are both mad, mad with love for each other."
"If your father and mother find you gone, Jessie, there will be hell to pay!"
I laughed with joy. "Why should it matter? The only thing they would do is force us to marry!"
He was silent another moment. At last I felt him turn toward me, looking down at me where I lay on the ground, though I could not see his face. "I have no wish to marry, Jessie," he said.
My heart stopped. "But you must!" I said, my mouth dry. "You have compromised me this time! You cannot refuse!"
He said nothing.
"I will tell Kevin! He will call you out!"
He laughed, with the familiar derision. "Go ahead then and do so! Then one of us will die." He stood up, yanking me up with him. "Which one of us would you have it be, Jessie?"
he whispered, and terror flooded through me, settling in my belly like a lump of ice. His hands were painful on my arms. "Which one? I, your lover," he spat the word, "or Kevin, your beloved brother?"
I began to struggle for breath, despite the freedom from stays. My hands clenched together at my bosom, and I was nearer fainting than I had ever been in my life. I could feel Robbie's seed trickling down my thigh; a cool rivulet that chilled my entire body. My voice cracked when I at last forced words from between my rigid lips.
"Then what do you mean to do with me?"
The words hung in the still night air, the sound of my voice plaintive, lost.
He released his grasp on me; I fell to my knees. I felt more than saw him as he drew on his waistcoat, then his coat, put on his hat. He paused before turning away. "What, indeed?" he said, then he walked away and left me there on the ground.