Then his arms were around me. “I’m sorry,” he whispered into my hair. “You are amazing.” He swallowed loudly. “But—”

“I know,” I said quickly, desperate for him not to finish that sentence. I squeezed his forearm. “It’s okay. I meant what I said at lunch. I know what this is. It’s just … this thing between us … it’s more than I planned … it’s difficult.”

He inhaled deeply. “It is,” he admitted. “It is for me too.”

I turned in his arms, and for a moment I could believe he might give us a chance for something beyond two days if he only knew how I felt. It was a scary leap for him. What if I made it first? “I … I’ve never felt like this before.” My voice broke on the admission.

“I’m sorry, Josephine,” he murmured, instead. “I don’t know if I can ever … you deserve so much. You deserve a whole heart.”

His eyes were fixed on mine, begging me to understand.

I laid my hand on his chest. “I’d be content with your broken one,” I whispered.

His throat bobbed thickly, and his eyes closed.

Water filled my vision, spilled down my cheeks, and dripped to the deck.

“Monsieur Pascale!” Paco’s voice suddenly broke the silence. “You are back. Thank God. I was about to sound the emergency horn.”

We both swung around to Paco. He’d aged fifty years since we’d seen him two hours ago.

“There has been an urgent call from the mainland.” He stopped, his face crumbling. “It’s Dauphine,” he said.

Chapter Forty-One

I wasn’t a mother, but even I knew as the shaft of terror cut through me that there was nothing worse than this.

As the anchor clanged back up into place, Paco haltingly repeated what he knew. Madame had taken Dauphine to see the Roman ship exhibit. Arriette’s brother had approached Madame while she waited for Dauphine to return from the restroom. While they talked, someone else must have somehow managed to get to Dauphine. She’d disappeared into thin air. Dauphine was missing.

Xavier’s knees buckled. Both Paco and I lurched forward to grab him. Immediately he shook us off, but his eyes went to another place. His mind had disconnected from his body. We were strangers to him. I followed as he scrambled to find his phone, cursing and yelling as he threw things across his desk to look for it. I saw it peeking out from his pink shirt lying across the bed. Grabbing it, I held it out. He snatched it from me and seconds later was barking down the phone at Evan.