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TRIGGER/PHOBIA WARNING...a creepy crawly makes a very brief appearance in this chapter.

...

When Edith woke, in the half light before dawn, she felt another person next to her, cuddling her. It had been a long time since this had happened with a man she truly loved, and it was the same man now. To think that Anthony still wanted to be with her, just be with her...it made her smile so broadly it almost hurt. Her heart ached to think that he had loved her all this time. Well, this time, Sir Anthony Strallan, I am not going to let you get away!

She felt him playing lightly with her arm, and almost patted his hand, but instead let him continue until it became too ticklish to stand.

"I didn't know you could be such a tease, Anthony" she whispered.

Anthony stirred. After several days and nights without sleep, he had finally succumbed around five in the morning, at last sure that he could do so without undue risk. He was still a bit sleepy and cuddled Edith closer to him.

Edith felt the hug and melted into it a little more. Then she thought He said he could only use one arm. If he's hugging me, what's tickling my arm?

She looked down at her forearm and saw on it the biggest, blackest scorpion she had ever seen.

Her whole body went ice cold and she couldn't move for terror, but she found enough courage to call gently to Anthony without too much panic.

"Anthony, don't move. There's a scorpion on my left arm."

He was instantly awake, assessing options and taking charge of the situation.

"Hold very still. He's probably only sitting on you to keep warm." He reached inside his boot carefully and drew out a long-bladed knife, and softly placed it underneath the scorpion's belly, then powerfully flicked it away. The whole operation had taken less than three seconds. The animal was thrown six feet and skittered away from them into the rocks.

Edith jumped up searching for other creepy crawlies, and began to shake, the panic rising with the tears. Instantly, Anthony was at her side, his good arm around her shoulders, his hand rubbing her gently, comfortingly. She hugged him close, gripping on to his solid, reassuring presence.

"Shh, it's alright. Things like that are pretty rare, even out here in the desert. There won't be another one on you. Have a good cry. It'll help. You've been through a lot. Shh. My Edith, my brave Edith, my love. Shh."

Gradually Edith calmed, but Anthony didn't let go. And neither did she.

They stood in the quiet of the desert dawn holding each other, refusing to break the spell. In time, Edith turned her head away from Anthony's shoulder and towards his face, hoping he would know what she needed.

Anthony, his heart racing, fought against the urge which had been constant in him ever since he'd first seen her again. But with Edith's beautiful, desirous, yet vulnerable face gazing up at him, he finally succumbed. He lent down and kissed her.

It was a soft kiss, undemanding and tentative, fearing that she might pull away in disgust at any moment. But she didn't. She wanted him to kiss her, her hands stroking him possessively as they moved from around his waist up his chest and around his neck, her mouth moving against his. He'd yearned for this for years, ever since that dreadful day at the church. It was both an affirmation of love, and forgiveness for past mistakes. He hugged her ever closer as confidence in themselves and each other returned. Her tongue whispered over his lips and he opened to her gratefully, rapidly losing everything to the feeling of Edith once again in his embrace.

"My darling…my sweet one…"

"Anthony…"

The kiss deepened and became fiery, with absolutely no room left between their bodies. Anthony couldn't believe that his lovely Edith was once again in his embrace, wanted to be in his embrace despite everything he had done to her.

Then he stood back.

"I'm so sorry, Edith. That was…really bad of me."

"What was? Kissing me? I did ask for it."

"And I took advantage of your vulnerability. You wouldn't have asked for it if we were in a normal situation. If we were in a normal situation, I doubt whether you'd want anything to do with me, apart from a well-deserved slap in the face."

"But Anthony…"

"I jilted you, and now you're engaged to another man. I'm a bastard, but I…I couldn't help it, Edith. I wanted to kiss you so much…sorry, sorry. I'm just making it worse. We should just get you home, and then you needn't ever see me again."

He leaned down to pick up his robe, heard a whistle just over his bent head, and a bullet ricocheted off the boulder behind him.

Like lightning, he had his robe in his hand, and barrelled into Edith pushing her behind the boulders at the top of the path down to the town.

"Bugger! I knew they hadn't given up" he cursed, knowing that if he'd agreed with Edith to go down the path last night, they'd be safe now.

He risked a glance but immediately pulled his head back to safety. He took the pistol, still with its silencer, and put his headdress on it. When he lifted it above the rocks, it was peppered with bullets. He looked at Edith.

"I think there's about six of them, and they are well armed."

Edith pulled herself up to the mark. She didn't want Anthony thinking she was no more than just a terrified civilian, not after what they'd just shared.

"What do we do now? Tell me what you want me to do."

"I want you to get down this path to the road and then into town to the British Embassy as quickly as possible and tell them what's happened. I'll join you when I've…finished here. Just remember to keep your head down."

Edith nodded, got up to go, and then turned back.

"Anthony, you are coming, aren't you?"

His hesitation was all she needed.

"No! I will not allow you to sacrifice yourself. We stick together!"

Anthony had retrieved his machine pistol and two spare clips from the folds of his robes. He found a small gap between the rocks at ground level and let off a short burst as cover.

"That will show them we mean business."

"I mean it Anthony! Give me the pistol and we'll do this together."

Anthony turned and put his hand up to her face, as though nothing else as important was going on around them.

"Listen to me, sweet one. We're lost. If you stay here with me, we will run out of ammunition before they do, and then we'll be sitting ducks. If we both make a run for it down the path, they will realise we're not returning fire and they'll pick us off before we can get anywhere near safety. But if I hold them here, and you run for the town, then at least one of us gets out of this alive. Please, Edith. Please! Don't let me fail you again. I want to manage to do right by you, at least once in my life. Let me do this in my own way." He gave a sad smile. "It really is all my life is worth now."

Edith shook away the tears, but she knew that Anthony was right. She reached up and kissed him desperately.

"I love you, Anthony."

"And I love you, my Edith. I always have."

He kissed her again, knowing it would be their last.

"Now go. Go!"

He spun round and fired again, trying to focus on spotting where the gunmen were hiding. When he dared to look round, she had gone.