Snow Falls in Prague; I Won't Wait for a Heartless Man novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: The Man at the River

I followed the footprints along the embankment, with my heels in my hand and my dress soaked to the knee.

They ended at the stone wall above the river.

Jakub stood there in his shirt, with his back to me and his hands flat on the wet stone.

The snow had settled on his shoulders.

He had been standing there for a long time.

"You'll freeze," I said.

He did not turn.

"The lights are on in the Rudolfinum. The man who owns the world knelt to you tonight. I think it is a good place for you to be."

"Jakub."

"I saw you touch his hair."

"I told him to get up."

"I did not hear that."

"I know you didn't. You left before the end."

He turned around then.

His gray eyes were red, and his hands hung open at his sides.

"I went to stop her at the back door," he said. "I stopped her. Then I came back and he was crying and you were looking down at him. I said to myself, here it is. Here is the part where I am the man who fixed her heater."

"You fixed more than my heater."

"I am too quiet." His voice broke. "My wife said it every night for a year. A woman wants to be told. I never said anything. Tonight I had a whole hall of people to say it to, and I carried a pen."

"You carried a pen and brought down a murderer."

"I did not say anything to you."

"You drove a tram across a road for me."

He opened his mouth, and shut it.

I went up to him in the snow and put my palm flat against the wet front of his shirt.

His heart was going hard.

"Listen to me," I said. "I said no to Brecken in the snow because I don't wait for people. I'm not waiting for you to talk, either. I decided. I'm staying."

← Chapter 21 · All chapters · Chapter 23 →

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