Guilty Love (Completed)

Chapter Thirty'Seven

She felt like a fox being haunted, except that there was no pack of hounds baying behind her, only a man on a tall horse, a man with a dark, formidable face, who came on relentlessly, closer and closer, until he rode level with her, his mount barely inches away from her shoulder.

Ritchie leaned down. She gave him a terrified glance, her blue eyes dilated, her skin overheated with the effort of her flight. His hand shot out, curling round her waist before she could get away. She felt his arm tightening on her body, then she was being lifted up off the ground, feet kicking.

As soon as she realised what he meant to do she began to struggle, attempting to break out of the hold he had on her.

Ritchie exerted pressure, trying to drag her on to his horse, which, alarmed, plunged sideways, snorting. Linzi was swinging in mid-air, breathlessly wriggling to make Ritchie let go of her. He tried to calm his mount, his knees gripping the animal's sides, one hand holding the reins while the other still held Linzi, but the horse was in a state of sudden panic. It bucked, hind legs kicking out, and Ritchie was thrown forward.

Surprise made him loosen his grip on Linzi. She gave a high-pitched cry of alarm as she felt herself start to fall. The ground seemed a long way away.

Ritchie grabbed at her instinctively and caught her by the shoulders, then the law of gravity came into operation and the weight of her body made her slip out of his grasp, his hand sliding through her silky hair, gripping her nape.

At the same instant the horse bolted.

Ritchie was thrown, heavily. He took Linzi with him landed on top of her, still grasping her by the throat. The back of Linzi's head hit the ground hard, she half lost consciousness, her body limp underneath Ritchie.

Coming back to awareness, she opened dazed eyes and began to scream. Ritchie sat up, looking down at her with anxiety in his hard grey eyes.

"Linzi, what is it? Are you badly hurt?"

She was white as a ghost, her blue eyes like deep, dark wells as she stared upwards, and Ritchie was shaken by that look in her face, by the wildness of her screaming. "What on earth is it, Linzi? Where does it hurt? Stop screaming, darling, tell me what's wrong."

He Shook her gently, but she went on making that terrible noise, as if she couldn't stop. Ritchie began feeling her arms and legs, testing for injuries. He couldn't find anything obvious, no broken bones at all, a couple of dark red bruises on one arm where she had fallen on it, a few light scratches. Nothing that could explain the way she was screaming.

"For God's sake, Linzi!" Ritchie was pale too, his face disturbed. "Does your head hurt? Stop screaming and listen. How can I help you if you won't tell me what's wrong?" He looked at her set, rigid white face. "Linzi, you're hysterical! I'm sorry about this, but if you won't stop I shall have to make you!"

He slapped her around the face.
Linzi stopped on a breath, and then began to cry, tears streaming down her face.

"Well, tears are better than that terrifying noise!" he said drily, and took her in his arms as if she were a child, began to rock her against him, holding her very close, his chin on her hair. "Ssshh..., ssshh..., calm down, darling, and tell me where it hurts. I'll get you to a doctor right away. My car is parked behind some trees two minutes from here."

"I...," she chokily sobbed. "I...."

"Yes, darling, go on," he urged, stroking her hair with one hand, still rocking her rhythmically, her body lying in his lap, across his legs. "What's hurt?"

"I did it," she sobbed. "Didn't I? It was me..., not you..."

Ritchie sat up straighter, tilled her head back over his arm, her long pale hair failing in a curtain of shimmering silk. He looked down carefully into her tear stained face. "What do you mean, Linzi?"

Wildly she cried, "I killed him, it wasn't you at all. I hit him with that candlestick...."

Ritchie gave a long, hard sigh. "You've remembered."
Her darkened eyes stared at him sightlessly, her face drawn with shock. Her teeth had begun to chatter and she was shivering violently, her body very cold.

"It's true, isn't it? I did it. I don't understand.... I can't understand how I forgot!" She looked at him, agitated, distressed. "I didn't know, Ritchie, I wasn't lying, I simply didn't remember doing it, until just now, when it hit me suddenly, out of the blue...."

He stroked back the tangled silvery hair from her face, his eyes soothing, tender. "Calm down, Linzi, nobody's accusing you."

She stared at him incredulously, her eyes searching his face. "But why didn't you say anything?" she whispered. "You went through that whole trial and you never said a word, not even to me! But you knew it was me who'd done it, you knew you hadn't! Why on earth didn't you tell the police it was me?!"

He didn't answer that. "When did you remember?" he asked. "Just now when you fell? Maybe you hit your head and -----"

She Shook her head, still shivering. "No! I remembered before I actually hit the ground. I suddenly remembered when you caught me just now, when I felt your hand round my throat...., it was deja vu... I remembered that night then....." She gave a violent shudder. "It was so vivid..., as if it was happening again. For a second I got you both confused, you and Barty...., he was holding me by the throat, that was when I knew he was going to kill me, I was choking  everything was going black.., and..., and..."

Her voice was quivering, very high, the words coming out jerkily, and Ritchie watched her with frowning anxiety.

"Linzi, slow down, stop talking for a minute and breathe slowly..., you must calm down, don't get hysterical again."

She took a long, painful breath, trembling, then whispered, "I didn't know what to do, you see, couldn't think..., except to keep saying to myself, he's going to kill me, I'm going to die, this is what dying feels like! And suddenly I didn't want to die. I wanted to live. I think I went a little crazy myself, I clawed at him at him like animal, trying to make him let go, and he knocked my hand away. As it fell down it brushed against the candlestick and I grabbed it instinctively and..., and hit him..."

Her voice trailed away and she groaned, closing her eyes.

Ritchie groaned, too, kissed her lids, her wet cheeks, her hair. "Darlingg, don't think about any more, you worry me when you look like that.."

She didn't seem to hear him. The hoarse jerky voice went on, "I hit him as hard as I could and I heard him give this funny deep moan, and he let go of me, he fell down, and I must have fainted, because I don't remember anything after that, until I came to and you were there, and Barty was..." She stopped, her hand to her trembling lips, choking back sobs, then turned her face into his chest and went into his shirt.

Ritchie silently comforted her, his face against her hair, until the sound of weeping slowed and stopped. With a long, wrenched sigh, she lifted her head and looked up at him, her wild blue eyes bewildered, dazed. "Ritchie, you knew...., you knew you hadn't done it, for God's sake, why didn't you tell the police the truth? Why did you let them charge you?"