Page 52 of Twin Flames

In Berwick-upon-Tweed, George waited for the reappearance of the special envoy. He’d been informed that word had arrived from King James V and his fate, and that of his family depended on the contents of the letter.

CHAPTER 16

York, present day

‘Hello, how are you?’ said Cara.

‘Okay. You?’

‘I’ve missed you.’ Her voice was low, almost a whisper.

‘So why didn’t you answer your phone when I called you then?’ said George, his tone was light, but she detected a note of anguish. She knew him well after five hundred years.

‘Because I was upset. I mean, I am upset. You don’t want to see me, but you won’t let me go either. I don’t understand what you want from me.’ Her voice rose as her words gathered momentum.

‘I want to talk to you every day. I thought I’d explained.’

‘I feel as though I can’t be with you and can’t be without you. I don’t know what to do,’ she said.

‘Why do we have to do anything? Can’t we just enjoy things as they are for a while?’

Cara paused as she tried to quell her emotions. ‘It’s horrible not seeing you. It’s been weeks.’

‘I know. It’s not easy for me either.’

‘So why can’t we at least see each other? As soon as we get close, you push me away. We go round and round in the same old pattern. I don’t know how you expect me to deal with it.’

‘What we have is more important than sex. You mean more to me than that,’ he said.

His words stung. Her throat constricted and tears welled in her eyes.

‘Oh I see, so we won’t bother having sex again?’ she said. ‘I’ve never been rejected by anyone who supposedly loves me, as much as I have by you. I don’t get it. Don’t you want to be with me?’

‘Of course, I do. You know, I do. That’s the problem.’

‘What do you mean? I wish you would just say what you mean, for once. You talk in riddles, George. Trying to figure out what you mean and what you want is exhausting.’

A tense silence hung between them.

‘Pining for you is too hard,’ he said after a long pause. ‘That’s what happens when we see each other as we did before. I can’t do it. I will want you every day and won’t be able to have you.’

Cara closed her eyes. Intense, raw pain ripped through her heart; she feared it would consume her. She wished they were together in Tudorville; or anywhere but here in this dreadful limbo.

She tried to calm herself and said, ‘But you can have me. Don’t you find it even harder, us not seeing each other? It’s not just the sex. It’s being close to one another. I miss you.’

It was too much. Cara lost control and began to cry silently.

‘Could we just be friends for a while without seeing each other?’ he said, relentless.

His words seared her soul. After they met in the bookshop, he had been demonstrative and loving, like her husband from Tudorville, but now he had sealed his heart. He had made up hismind, and she knew nothing would move him. Cara was gripped by white-hot anger, the type she had never experienced before.

Why must he insist on being so stubborn? I could shake him.

‘After what we’ve shared, it’s beyond me how you think that’s possible. Do you really think what we have is only friendship?’

‘No. I didn’t say that. But I think it’s the best we can have now, in the circumstances. I’d rather have that than nothing. I want you in my life.’ His voice was hard and flat, devoid of the customary lilt she loved so much.

Cara swallowed, her throat thick with tears.