Crystal Warrior: Through All Eternity (Atlantean Crystal Saga Book 1) by Jen YatesNZ Page B

weakly against the wall clutching her midriff. It was all too stupid for words.
    ‘George!’ Case slapped her smartly across one cheek.
    She stopped laughing abruptly, straightened herself, and looked him in the eye.
    ‘I'll forgive you for that because I realize you think I'm hysterical. I'm not falling apart like some milk and water Victorian female. But I will sit down, if you don't mind. I do feel a bit shaky and only because I don't know when I ate last.’ Dropping back into her chair, she closed her eyes and muttered, ‘What a stupid bloody mess.’
    ‘I'm sorry,’ Case offered a little stiltedly, then asked his wife, ‘Is dinner ready, honey?’
    She nodded, then giving her sister a loving look, said, ‘It's okay to fall apart, George. It'd be perfectly natural in the circumstances—and better for you in the long run, if you vented your feelings now.’
    Georgina nodded and rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand. Crying was so weak. It had never solved anything in the past, nor could it now. She wouldn't cry.
    ‘Well, how about we eat and then maybe George would like to tell us what's going on. It's obvious to me she knows something we don't,’ Case said.
    Georgina nodded again.
    ‘It'd be a good thing if Fran and I had had the sense to sit down and talk things out—like we used to. Hell! Feed me Merryn, then I think I need some advice from you guys.’
    With dinner out of the way and the baby tucked up in bed, Georgina settled down on the rug by Katja who promptly wriggled round until she could lay her big head on her mistress's lap. Staring into the fire, Georgina pensively ruffled her fingers through the dog's thick creamy coat and allowed herself the luxury of letting her thoughts rest on Torr. Where was he? Had he forgotten her? Did he know Fran had organized a place for Gould on the expedition to explore the waters off Bimini Island and look for evidence of an ancient civilization many thought to be the mythical Atlantis? Did he know they were on a yacht missing in the very center of the treacherous Bermuda Triangle?
    ‘Okay, George, let's have it,’ Case said as he and Merryn dropped down onto the rug on either side of her. ‘Would I be right in thinking Fran and Gould weren't alone in finding they had the wrong lover?’
    Georgina winced. So did Merryn.
    ‘Why don't you let George tell it her way?’ she suggested.
    Case shrugged.
    ‘I've been totally restrained all through dinner and you have no idea how hard that was and now—I—want—to—know—what—the—hell—is—going—on!’
    Merryn smiled weakly at her sister.
    ‘He hates secrets.’
    ‘I'm beginning to wish I hadn't kept this one,’ Georgina admitted ruefully, ‘but I really felt it was for the best.’
    ‘Will you stop beating about the bush and get on with it?’ Case demanded, though his eyes were smiling.
    Merryn waggled her eyebrows at him then looked back at her sister.
    ‘I'm inclined to agree with him, George. I'm rather anxious to know what's been going on as well.’
    ‘Nothing really.’
    And yet so much.
    ‘Georgina!’ Merryn and Case growled together.
    Georgina sighed. When any of the family used her full name it was not to be ignored.
    ‘It began at the airport,’ she said, shuddering as the thrill and the sheer horror of the memory of that first moment of connection with Torr, rolled through her. ‘Before Frannie even introduced him. I looked at him over her shoulder and I knew—and so did he.’
    ‘Knew what?’ Case demanded.
    ‘That I knew him in a way—far more intimate even than I know Gould. Yet I'd never set eyes on him before.’ Georgina gazed unseeingly into the dancing flames and continued sliding her hands rhythmically along the dog's back. ‘Then we started talking to each other—communicating—telepathically. I don't know when I've ever been so confused—so—scared.’
    ‘Go on, George,’ Merryn urged when it looked as if Georgina had forgotten where she was.
    Half an