‘They’re fabulous. Can you make sure you thank Lynne for me?’
‘Perhaps you can tell her yourself. She said she’d come and visit on the weekend.’
‘With her camera, no doubt.’
‘Of course.’
The conversation dried up and Joanna began fiddling with the photos. He took them from her, put them away in the drawer of his bedside cabinet and grasped both her hands in his.
‘We need to talk.’
‘Yes,’ she said in a quiet voice. Then she presented him with a heart-melting look and added, ‘About our future.’
‘That’s right.’
Richard was about to continue: to try and explain how much he wanted the marriage to work again; to tell her he couldn’t imagine spending the rest of his life with anyone else.
But she spoke first in a trembling voice so quiet he didn’t quite hear what she said. At first he thought she’d said, ‘I’m pregnant,’ but he knew that was impossible.
‘Pardon?’
She cleared her throat and reached for his hand.
‘I’m pregnant.’
There was no mistaking the words this time. He beamed, not quite believing that she was telling the truth but thinking there was no reason for her to lie.
‘Pregnant?’
She nodded, a smile spreading across her face.
‘But—’
‘We didn’t believe it was possible, but we’ve been given another chance, Richard, another chance to bring a child into this world.’ She took a deep breath and the tears began to trickle down her cheeks. ‘And I’m scared to death.’
He spread his arms and reached out to her and she dissolved in his embrace.
‘We’re in this together, my darling Jo,’ he managed to say, before tears started streaming down his own face.
They were tears of happiness.
It appeared all his dreams were coming true.
CHAPTER TEN
THE next month turned out to be an ordeal for both Richard and Joanna. Despite the pain and frustration of what seemed to be a never-ending struggle to get Richard back on his feet, an unfailing light shone bright to keep them both moving forward with hope and optimism.
That light was their love for each other, which was fuelled by the knowledge of the new life they had created. That love survived and sustained them through those awful early days of tests and surgery and not knowing.
Fortunately Richard’s only broken bone had been his femur, which had apparently taken the full impact of the motorbike and snapped in two. Its repair had involved surgery to insert an intramedullary nail to hold the broken ends in place over the many months it would take the fracture to heal. Joanna still cringed at the thought of a massive nail being hammered through the top of the femur at the hip down the hollow part inside the main bone of the leg.
His other injuries had been relatively minor—concussion with no sign of long-term brain injury, a dislocated shoulder, a badly bruised ankle and various cuts, abrasions and bruises.
‘I’m beginning to hate the physio sessions,’ he said on the Monday of the third week when Joanna called to see him at the rehabilitation hospital. He’d been transferred from Perth General the previous week, keen to at least learn the basics of day-today living so he could be discharged. He sat on a chair next to his bed. It was the first day she had seen him dressed in day clothes, the clothes he had insisted she bring when he had been moved. He looked even more handsome than usual.
She leaned across and kissed him, at first a light touch of her lips on his but he captured her face in his warm, strong hands and kissed her long and thoroughly until she had to pull away to catch her breath.
She laughed.
‘You’re feeling better, then?’ she said.
‘When can you take me away from all this, my wonderful fairy godmother?’
‘You know they say doctors make the worst patients. Have you forgotten already what it’s like, dealing with those stubborn souls who think they know best and don’t do what they’re told?’
He looked wistful for a moment.
‘No, of course I haven’t. That’s why I want to get out of here. As soon as I can manage getting around on my own for longer than the regulation half-hour in this place, I should be able to at least touch base with work.’
Joanna chose to ignore his comment. She realised it would be a while before Richard was strutting the boards of Matilda Ward again but she had no doubt he would.
‘You’ve had two days of rehab and you think you’re ready to go back to work?’
He grinned sheepishly.
‘No, not really.’
‘Good, you’re not as pig-headed as you pretend to be. And Alan Price is quite happy to interrupt his retirement. He actually said he’d become bored with golf.’
‘Not too happy, I hope,’ he said with a grin, and then added, ‘Patience is something I’ve had to learn quickly here to stop me going insane.’
‘Mmm.’
They sat in comfortable silence for a minute or two, holding hands. Richard had a single room on the second floor, overlooking an expanse of garden crisscrossed by several meandering, wheelchair-friendly paths. Joanna was impatient for the day they could walk together through the gardens and hoped it wouldn’t be too long.
Richard had been told by his surgeon that early intervention following surgery focused on immediate weight bearing and then progression to strengthening exercises. She’d been amazed at his progress and suspected in those early post-op days he’d made a heroic effort to work though his pain without complaint.
* * *
Richard and Joanna decided to reaffirm their vows in the second week of spring to allow Richard’s bones to heal and to give them plenty of time to make sure the day was as wonderful as it could possibly be. Joanna would be nearly six months pregnant by then. They decided on a small morning ceremony in one of their favourite places followed by a lunch for a group of close family and friends in the recently renovated and landscaped garden of their spacious new home. On a Saturday in mid-September it dawned an ideal day for a wonderful wedding and by mid-morning the small group of guests had assembled.
Joanna held a bouquet of yellow, perfectly formed, sweet-smelling rosebuds, which complemented the delicately feminine, cream silk dress that was softly gathered below the bust to accommodate her now very obvious pregnancy. Richard looked elegant and sexy and gorgeous all at the same time in a tailored black suit, the palest lemon-yellow shirt and a silver-grey tie.
The second-time bride hesitated as she reached up to tame a feral lock escaped from her dark glossy cap, still a long way from reaching her pale, bare shoulders. His smile reached out to her like the first sunlit rays of a delicate spring dawn and her husband made her feel so special in an amazing way she’d always dreamed he would…again.
They stood at the makeshift altar in the secret courtyard garden of Lady Lawler Children’s Hospital amongst a crowd of beaming children. Some were on crutches; others were in wheel-chairs hooked up to IVs and portable oxygen cylinders; many were bald and had the round faces of chemotherapy—but every single child was brimming over with happiness for the couple about to endorse their love and commitment.
Richard and Joanna recited their vows of love and caring to an audience hushed with anticipation, and then the clear, sweet voice of a boy soprano rang out in the crisp air of a perfect spring day. Danny Sims sang ‘The Rose’.
Then a tiny girl in a long white dress toddled forward and presented the bride with a small posy of sweet-smelling freesias to add to her bouquet.
‘From all us kids,’ she said grandly.
Joanna bent forward and kissed the child’s cheek.
‘Thank you, Taylor,’ Joanna whispered a moment before the little girl ran back to the protective arms of her smiling mother.
Richard squeezed his wife’s hand.
‘And I’d like to thank everyone here today for sharing our happiness. Though I’m afraid we can’t put it off an
y longer: what you’ve all been waiting for; what started this whole thing with Joanna and I.’
The guests chuckled and then began to clap as Jessie and Cassie brought out a chair, Karen following close behind carrying a small case and what looked like a Spiderman cape slung across her arm.
Lynne and Barbara came next with sombre expressions on their faces.
With the theatrics of a circus ringmaster, Lynne led Richard to the chair. He sat down and Karen draped him in the cape while the noise of the clapping gradually increased to a crescendo.
Barbara raised her hands.
‘Quiet, everyone.’
She beckoned Joanna to come across and handed her a set of battery-operated shears.
‘Since Dr Howell…er…your husband is making this sacrifice for you and for all of us too, would you like to perform the first cut?’
Joanna laughed. ‘No, I think I’ll let you do the honours,’ she said, as she bent to kiss her apprehensive husband.
‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ she added.
‘Definitely. I’ve never been surer of anything in my entire life.’
And as the first locks began to fall Danny again began to sing…the opening verse of ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’.
* * * * *
ISBN-13: 9781460377178
HOW TO SAVE A MARRIAGE IN A MILLION
Copyright © 2015 Leonie Knight
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