Chapter 343:
Elaine froze.
Her entire body, which had been a live wire of sensation, pleasure, and pain, went rigid as stone. Her back, slick with sweat from his efforts, locked up. Her hands, which had been splayed weakly on the desk, dug into the wood, her knuckles turning white.
Her eyes, wide with a terror so absolute it was paralyzing, stared, unseeing, at the simple, wooden grain of the desk.
She heard it again. A voice that should not be here. The one voice in all the world that could make this worse.
"...Mother? Are you in there?"
It was her daughter's voice. Eleanor. Clear as a bell from just outside the thin canvas flap.
A silent, agonized scream ripped through Elaine's mind. 'No... no, no, no, no... please, gods, not her. Anyone but her. Not now. Please, not while he's... not while I'm...'
