Free Uncaged by Lucy Gordon Page B

Megan, and she turned to stare at Daniel with wild eyes. “It’s all right,” he said quickly. “I’m here.”
    Why he should think this might comfort her was later to puzzle him, but he spoke instinctively, and he seemed to be right, for the tension left her face and she didn’t protest when he took her hand. “I don’t know this room,” she said, blinking vaguely. “How did I get here?”
    “It’s my son’s room. You were walking in your sleep,” he said gently. “Come on. Let’s get you back to bed before you catch cold again.” He took hold of her shoulders, but she wouldn’t move. “Tommy...” she said desperately. “He was here—”
    “Megan, he was only a dream. You were asleep.”
    “You mean, he was never here at all?” she whispered. “I don’t really have him back?” She crossed her arms over her chest and bent her head, rocking back and forth in silent grief.
    Her pain seemed to shiver through him unbearably. If only he could do something, anything, to make things right for her. “Come along,” he said helplessly. “Come back to bed.”
    She let him draw her to her feet and lead her away. She seemed stunned. Once in her room, he urged her to sit down on the bed, lifted her feet and swung them around until he could pull the blankets over them.
    “I didn’t even know I’d gone to sleep,” she said slowly. “I was thinking about Tommy...and then I heard him call me... It was so clear...but I was just hallucinating, wasn’t I?”
    “Not hallucinating, dreaming,” he said. “When you want something very much, it can be so strong that it seems real.”
    “Want something very much,” she echoed. “Yes, you could say I want Tommy very much. For three years I dreamed about nothing else, night and day. When I knew I was going to be freed I thought I’d see him again. I knew Brian would fight me about his custody, but I didn’t think he’d refuse to even let me see him. It’s become an obsession. I’d do anything—anything...” Her voice trailed away.
    Daniel sat down beside her. “Was that what it was all about?” he asked gently.
    “Yes,” she admitted wearily, “that’s what it was all about. I want him back so much I just couldn’t see anything else. You don’t have to tell me that I behaved badly—”
    “I wasn’t going to—”
    “I know I did. I tried to use you. You were right, I was trying to turn you into my instrument, to clear me. I didn’t think about you as a person, or your rights. I was too desperate to care what I did.”
    “Would you have gone through with it?” he asked curiously.
    “Yes,” she said simply.
    “With me? Hating me as you do?”
    For the first time she looked him in the eye. “With the devil himself if he’d help me get Tommy back,” she said. “There, now you know how wicked I can be, and you’re disgusted, and you’re probably right. I’ll be out of here tomorrow.”
    “Where will you go?”
    She shrugged. “Back to the boarding house, I suppose.”
    Only a few hours ago he’d told himself that he’d enjoy throwing her out, but now he heard himself saying, “You can’t go back there.”
    “I can’t stay here,” she said stubbornly.
    He wasn’t by nature a tactful man, but somehow tact came to him now. Or perhaps it was guile. Whatever it was, it was what he needed. “But you don’t have to rush off tomorrow morning. Take a couple of days to find something.”
    She didn’t answer him directly. For the first time she seemed to become aware that she was holding a small teddy bear in her hand. “How did I get this?”
    “It was in my son’s room. You must have thought it was Tommy’s.”
    “I’m sorry.” She gave it to him.
    “Go back to sleep, Megan.”
    Daniel crept out and made his way back to the room where he’d found her. He put on a small table lamp at the side of the bed, straightened the bedspread and replaced the teddy bear, adjusting its position twice before he was satisfied. When he was