Matt’s expression relaxed. “American English is just a weaker version of the real thing.” His smile faltered, though, and he clasped her hand. “I enjoy your company and your work ethic, Gabe, but I prefer you safe. If you need to leave, I’ve got your back.”
She nodded. Tired of living in constant fear, she craved a hug from anyone who would call her by her real name. Instead, she had to run. “Can you return this book to Fred? I don’t want him to get a late charge.”
“Absolutely.”
They stood at the same time. She took two steps and froze.
Dressed in black with arm muscles the size of telephone poles, Pascal pushed through the entrance and glanced around the room. He hadn’t noticed her yet, so she ducked behind the bar, grabbed her pack, and crawled into the bathroom.
Please, God, just let him leave.
She climbed on top of the toilet and waited.
Glass shattered, as did her nerves. Angry words between Matt and Pascal escalated into a full-blown argument. Several other patrons joined in, and then a gunshot.
Horror clawed through her composure, and her legs nearly gave out. She couldn’t go back out there. He’d kill her for sure. After a quick prayer for Matt, she smashed the bathroom window with her boot to make her escape. The backpack fit out the window with room to spare. It wasn’t large, but big enough to shimmy through. She pulled herself up with relative ease, but her left hand slipped and rammed into the ragged edges of the glass sticking up from the frame. The glass sliced into her palm and her thumb and made several gashes in her wrist. She bit through the pain, climbed out to the alleyway and ran. Again.
Keeping an eye out to see if she’d been followed, Alex walked for an hour until she had no choice but to stop and tend to the blood dripping from her hand. A white sock from her bag soaked up most of the mess, but the blood continued to flow. Her vision clouded for a second, and she shook her head to stay alert.
A few blocks later and she was in one of the outer neighborhoods surrounding Oxford University. Professors’ houses lined the streets. Dressed in a faded black leather jacket with long pink hair, she blended into a group of students moving toward an elegant brick house.
She had to get off the street.
She climbed the front steps to an open red door. The two female students entering in front of her were dressed in cute dresses and high-heeled shoes. She hadn’t worn heels since leaving Luc. Combat boots and sneakers were more practical, and she could run fast in them.
Smirking faces and rolled eyes greeted her as she maneuvered through the crowd toward the main salon. The boys, sporting silk ties and arrogant grins, stood around pontificating on the plight of the less fortunate of the world as they drank Chianti from lead crystal glasses. The girls, no older than twenty-two, nodded with feigned interest at their dates while trying to keep an eye on their competition. A few artistic types, dressed like Alex, stayed together and mocked their better-dressed counterparts for mocking them. She could pass for one of them as long as she stayed in the periphery of the conversations. All she needed was five or ten minutes to find a bathroom to rinse off her wounds, and then she could figure out how to move on to a new location.
A quick stop in a small bathroom provided her with a few moments of privacy. Cleaning the bloody hand with soap, she dried it off with a very nice towel she hid in the back of the cabinet so no one would notice the bloodstains on it until after she’d departed. Hiding the towel was preferable to stealing it. She pulled out another somewhat clean sock to wrap her hand. Perhaps no one would notice if she kept the hand in her pocket as she walked around. After she finished, she tried to wash off the heavy black eyeliner and black lipstick she’d used to hide her features. The makeup smeared, but didn’t disappear. She almost took the safety pin out of her ear, but it wouldn’t draw any more attention than cotton-candy hair, so she left it.
When she returned to the crowded foyer, Alex noted the beautiful oak paneling in the hallway, carved by a master almost one hundred and fifty years ago. The three oil portraits by George Frederic Watts, two of distinguished men and one of a lady, also caught her attention. Art soothed her mind, but now wasn’t the time to appreciate Watts’s brilliance using color to capture detail.
“Professor Chilton, I’d like to introduce my flatmate Jenny.” The formal introduction pulled her from her thoughts. A boy, no older than nineteen, was introducing his date.
The professor, a faint smile on his face, shook the girl’s hand and welcomed her to his home. He didn’t look like any professors she’d ever met. He seemed too young and handsome, and his expression carried more confidence than anyone she’d met since Luc, but in a different way. The man wore a brown tweed jacket and beige pants as the idealized English professor should, but his coloring indicated he spent a lot of time outside. Rugged, yet preppy and safe.
She remained standing in the hall staring at him, mesmerized by green eyes, framed by dark-rimmed glasses, and his brown and gold hair that had enough length to curve, but not curl. In the past, she would have fantasized about a man like that. Now she preferred to be left alone.
The girl, wearing a short red dress and high heels, gazed up at the professor, leaving her hand lingering in his a moment longer than necessary with her boyfriend standing at her side. Alex watched as the girl shifted her hips, plumped her lips, and batted her eyelashes. The professor didn’t seem to notice, he turned his attention to the boy, and Alex turned her attention to finding food. She wasn’t sure when she might get to eat again.
She roamed toward the study, admiring the exquisite art and furniture around her.
When she turned the corner into the room, her breath hitched at the reader’s paradise. Huge windows overlooked the lawn, two leather recliners faced a large fireplace, and on the wall between two oak bookcases full of novels, journals, and knowledge hung a seascape by Gustave Courbet from the 1860s.