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Minerva smiled softly and touched her husband's aret me that box out of the back, I'll run on into the house while you "

Jack stared at Minerva's sentle, possessive way her fingers lingered against the rough wool of her husband's sleeve He stood rooted to the spot, , thrown suddenly into a world all his own A world in which once, long ago, his wife had touched him like that

Ours Lissa had said the word so quietly that at first he thought he'd iined it Ours If only it were true

The thought caainst it Longing and despair spilled through in its wake, bringing with it the inevitable fear Need closed around his neck with cold, suffocating fingers

What was she doing to him?

Suddenly he felt as if he were standing on a slippery slope ofa battle he'd thought he'd gained the upper hand in long ago

He was losing his will to fight Even knowing how easily she couldthe impossible softness in her eyes The softness that had left her gaze long ago and never really returned

Except, of course, in his mind There it had never left There, in that crazy, cowardly,seen could be believed, she'd always looked at him like that

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Only now the line between reality and fantasy was blurring He wasn't sure if anything about her?about them?

was real

God help him, for one moment in the kitchen, when she'd whispered ours, he'd believed in her completely "You're a fool," he muttered "What was that, Mr Rafferty?"

Minerva's voice wrenched him back to the real world Jack shook his head to clear it What the hell rong with hiodda toto aht Caleb had been conceived That wonderful,

He had to reht, the way she'd manipulated and shamed him No matter what she did, or how she appeared, he had to releness of spirit that

He squeezed his eyes shut as a cold wave of regret washed through him If only he weren't so daoddamn much