The Hermit Read Online Free Page B

seconds before you’ll hear it connect and start to ring.”  He
moved to a small table with a drawer across the front and took out a pen and a
piece of scrap paper.  Jotting down latitude and longitude as well as his name,
he placed it under the phone. 
     
    “Everything
you need is right there.  If you remember the phone number for your friend, you
can call her, too.  Or I can look it up for you.  I’m going to go outside so
you can relax without stress for a little while.  Make yourself at home and I’m
happy to give you anything you need.”  He set the laptop on the coffee table. 
“If you want any other information, you can use this.  It won’t time out for
another thirty minutes.” 
     
    He
backed to the front door and opened it, grabbing his jacket from the hook, and
shrugging it on.  As he started to turn, he murmured, “I’m so sorry for
everything you’ve been through, Daphne.  But you were right.  Everything is going to be fine in the end.  You’re safe now and no one is ever going to be
able to hurt you again.”  Ryan left and pulled the door closed quietly behind
him. 
     
    Daphne
sipped the water, holding the candlestick to her chest.  The phone was close
enough for her to bend at the waist and pick it up.  The thought of anyone from
her old life seeing her, knowing what she’d been through…it was too much.  Not
yet. 
     
    After
half an hour, she stood up and made her way slowly to the door.  “I’m not ready
yet.”

Chapter Three
     
    Ryan
nodded and said, “I understand.  You’re welcome to stay as long as you need to,
Daphne.  I’ll keep you safe; let you get your legs under you.”  Gesturing to
the bathroom, he said, “You can shower if you like, the bathroom door locks
securely from the inside.” 
     
    He
gave her a new toothbrush and more of his clothes, told her to use anything she
needed.  She spent a long time in the shower.  He heated stew and made tea,
sliced up dried fruit and one of the loaves of baked bread he’d made a few days
before. 
     
    Ryan
told himself he wasn’t glad the broken young woman was staying a little
longer.  He’d come here for a reason and his reasons were still the same.  He
needed his solitude.  He worked to convince himself that he was helping her
because he was a doctor, because he had a responsibility.  There would be no
close examination of his inner feeling of elation when she’d said she wasn’t
ready to leave yet.  He had kept his features blank, revealing nothing. 
     
    “Maybe
I need small interactions with people once in a while,” he murmured to
himself.  He was not a stupid man.  He’d seen much in his life, had loved women
and been loved in return.  His reaction to her was based on his internal drive
to protect.  No matter how much he separated himself from society, from other
human beings, there was bound to be a residual need to care. 
     
    Looking
through the kitchen window at the mountains beyond, he gave a small laugh at
his idiocy.  As broken as she was, as traumatized from she’d been through, Ryan
found himself attracted to her spirit.  Against all odds, she’d survived
something few people could have.  He admired her. 
     
    Fooling
himself into thinking there could ever be anything between them was
irrational.  Daphne had a long road ahead of her.  Possibly years of therapy. 
     
    And
what woman in her right mind would ever want a man who’d withdrawn from the
world?  A man who carried a past filled with guilt and violence?  Shaking his
head, he returned to putting their meal on the table.  Pushing thoughts of the
woman from his mind…where she had no business being in the first place.
     
    Several
minutes later, he heard the shower shut off and small shuffles as she dressed. 
When she opened the bathroom door, Daphne had a look of almost-happiness on her
face.  His clothes were enormous on her emaciated frame but she’d rolled back
the sleeves and tucked the long