Gabriel's Promise (Gabriel's Inferno)

by Sylvain Reynard

  Rachel appeared confused. “I thought Jules said her director was demanding she stay at Harvard?”

  “That’s what her director said.” Gabriel took a drink of water. “I refuse to take no for an answer.”

  A long look passed between Julia and Gabriel. Her eyes darted to Rachel and back again. She lifted her eyebrows at her husband.

  He pushed back his chair. “Let’s toast to Aaron and Rachel. Congratulations on your accomplishments. And good luck with this new chapter of your life.”

  Everyone lifted their glass to toast the couple.

  Richard finished carving and serving the turkey and finally sat down.

  Julia sampled three or four bites of her dinner, and Clare began to cry.

  “I’ll walk with her.” Rachel lifted the baby to her shoulder and stood.

  But a few minutes later, when the baby didn’t settle, Julia intervened. “She’s probably hungry. I’ll take her upstairs to feed her and be right back. Excuse me, everyone.”

  She kissed Clare on the cheek and climbed the stairs to the second floor.

  * * *

  “Is dinner over?” Julia asked Gabriel as he entered the master bedroom.

  He shook his head. “We are going to wait to serve dessert until after you have dinner. Is she finished?”

  “Just finished.” Julia handed him the baby and he put her over his shoulder.

  After he’d burped and changed her, he picked up a stuffed rabbit toy and brought it close to her nose and then withdrew it. Clare grinned and waved her arms and legs. He repeated the movement. “Do you like the bunny, Clare? Do you like the bunny?”

  He waggled the toy at Julia. “Did Rachel buy this?”

  “No. Paul sent it.”

  Gabriel dropped the bunny on top of the changing table. “Angelfucker.”

  “Language,” Julia admonished him, trying to keep a straight face.

  “We’ll have to destroy it. It’s clearly contaminated.” Gabriel regarded the toy with distaste.

  “Don’t be ridiculous. About a week ago, Paul sent a very nice card, with the bunny and a copy of The Velveteen Rabbit. I thought it was kind.”

  Gabriel sniffed. “He always had a rabbit fetish. In fact, he used to call you Rabbit.”

  “He did.” Julia could only laugh at Gabriel’s indignation, which was rather amusing. “He doesn’t anymore. So when we see him at Professor Wodehouse’s workshop in April, you don’t need to worry.”

  Gabriel growled. “So he’s going?”

  “He said so in his card.”

  “Which was addressed to you, I imagine?” Gabriel picked up the bunny with two fingers, examining it as if it held the secrets of the universe.

  Clare tracked the movement and reacted by waving her arms enthusiastically.

  “The package was addressed to Clare. But the card congratulated both of us.” Julia crossed to where Gabriel was standing and hugged him around the waist. “It’s time for you to let go of the past. You’ve held a grudge long enough.”

  “I was nice to Paul the last time we met. We even shook hands.” Gabriel placed the bunny on Clare’s chest to see what she would do. The toy slid off to the side and she squawked a little.

  “You’re still making him call you Professor Emerson.”

  Gabriel drew himself up to his full height. “I am Professor Emerson.” He glanced over at the baby. His expression softened. “Since Clare has grown attached to the rabbit, I suppose she should keep it.”

  Julia hugged him again. “See? That didn’t hurt at all.”

  She kissed his cheek and exited the bedroom, hurrying down the hall so she could finally enjoy her Thanksgiving dinner.

  Gabriel lifted his daughter and gazed into her big blue eyes. “Daddy will buy you a better bunny.”

  Clare laughed.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Come take a walk with me,” Gabriel whispered.

  Julia was standing in the kitchen, holding Clare, having just finished clearing the table. She noticed that Gabriel was holding a familiar-looking blanket.

  She looked out the kitchen windows over the back deck and toward the old orchard that stood behind the house. The orchard was one of Gabriel’s favorite places on earth. And in its center was a clearing he revered like a cathedral.

  They’d spent their first night together, chastely, in that orchard, years ago when she was a teenager. Gabriel had asked her to marry him in that same sacred place. And they’d made love there once or twice. Or more. She’d lost count.

  Gabriel’s eyes were solemn. Something lurked beneath their sapphire depths.

  “I need to help clean up.” Julia gestured at the pots and pans and dishes that were stacked all over the counters.

  “We’ve got it.” Rachel made a shooing motion with the dish towel she was holding. “Go.”

  “Go ahead.” Richard nodded. “Most of the dishes will go in the dishwasher.”

  Julia bounced Clare in her arms, making eye contact with Gabriel.

  “We’ll help when we come back,” he offered.

  “And I can take the baby.” Tammy held her arms out and Julia transferred Clare to her.

  Tammy hugged the child close. “I’ve missed having a baby. I can’t wait to have another one.”

  “What?” Scott came up behind her, touching Clare’s head.

  “I miss having a baby.” Tammy’s expression grew hopeful.

  “You never said anything,” Scott whispered, touching her face. He leaned forward and whispered something in her ear.

  “So yeah, you guys can go for a walk.” Rachel lifted her voice, trying to draw attention away from the private exchange between Scott and Tammy.

  “Are you sure?” Julia asked.

  “Go.” Once again, Rachel waved her dish towel like a flag.

  “I left my coat in the car,” Julia said to Gabriel.

  “One minute.” He kissed her cheek and disappeared out the front door.

  As he walked to the SUV that was parked in the driveway, he felt something eerie behind him. He turned his head slowly and saw a black Nissan idling three houses down, across the street.

  Gabriel examined the car out of the corner of his eye. When he was satisfied it matched the car he’d seen in Cambridge, he calmly walked the length of the driveway to the old garage and opened the door.

  No more than thirty seconds later, he emerged from the garage carrying an aluminum baseball bat.

  He broke into a run as soon as his feet hit the sidewalk, sprinting toward the black Nissan.

  The driver revved the engine and peeled out, leaving tire marks on the asphalt.

  Gabriel switched the bat to his other hand and picked up a large rock. He threw it hard. The rock hit the car’s rear window, shattering it on impact.

  The car swerved as the glass spilled out over the trunk and onto the road.

  Gabriel watched as the driver turned down a side street, speeding out of sight.

  After taking a moment to calm down, Gabriel walked nonchalantly back to the house, not caring if any of Richard’s neighbors had witnessed the altercation. He retrieved Julia’s coat from the car, depositing the baseball bat in the back of the SUV, just in case.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  It’s warmer than I expected.” Julia unbuttoned her coat as they walked across the back lawn. The inky sky stretched above them, and the stars and moon shone down. But the temperature was unseasonably warm, especially given Gabriel’s determined walking pace.

  He shined a flashlight to illuminate the way, gripping Julia’s hand tightly.

  She kept pace with him despite the discomfort in her leg. The numbness hadn’t gone away, although it varied in intensity. Still, she’d hidden it from Gabriel, and Dr. Rubio, and everyone else. Somehow she hoped it would simply disappear.

&nbs
p; They entered the woods, picking their way over fallen branches and sticks to embark on a well-trodden path.

  Julia wondered about her recent issues with memory. She was still sleep-deprived, despite dropping Clare’s two-o’clock-in-the-morning feeding. Getting more sleep had aided Julia’s memory, but she still struggled to assimilate new information. Ever since coming home from the hospital, she’d found she needed to read and reread academic books and articles, in a way she never had before. Novels were different. Late at night or early in the morning, Julia would read ebooks on her cell phone.

  “Careful.” Gabriel shined the flashlight over a large fallen branch. He stopped, grabbed Julia by the waist, and lifted her over it.

  She laughed in surprise, although she appreciated his gallantry.

  She’d been in these woods hundreds of times, most of them with Gabriel. She was fairly sure she could find her way back to the house, even under the cover of darkness. Although she remembered with horror the time she’d gotten lost. . . .

  It occurred to her that perhaps the human memory was like the sea. It moved with regularity, carrying bits of things on a current. But when the tempest came, that which was long forgotten bubbled to the surface. Julia never thought about being lost in the woods, if she could help it. But the memory would bubble up unbidden or trouble her in dreams. She clasped Gabriel’s arm, moving her body closer to his as the orchard swallowed them up.

  “Not far now.” His tone was comforting.

  A few more steps and they stood at the edge of the clearing.

  Gabriel sighed. “Paradise.”

  He led Julia to the center of the clearing and spread the blanket. Then he tugged her to recline atop it, switching off the flashlight. He held her hand as they gazed up at the stars and beyond. “Katherine emailed me.”

  “What did she say?”

  “She asked if she could spend Christmas with us and Clare. I didn’t respond. I wanted to ask you first.”

  “That’s all right with me, if it’s all right with Richard.”

  “I’ll ask him.” Gabriel paused. “You know that Katherine will find out about Cecilia.”

  “Not from us.”

  Gabriel’s body tensed. “It’s bound to come out.”

  “It’s still my decision.” Julia turned her head, examining what she could see of Gabriel’s strong profile. She elected to change the subject. “What do you like about the orchard?”

  He took his time answering her question. “It’s peaceful. The woods are so thick, even in fall, you feel as if you’re in your own private world. I can think here.”

  Julia lifted his hand to her mouth and kissed it. “I’ve been thinking about your lectureship.”

  Now he turned his head. “What have you been thinking?”

  “Everything about it is so fancy. The dinner they threw us at the castle. The announcement and reception. The media interest.” She gazed at him in admiration. “You could speak on any subject you want. And people would listen.”

  “They expect me to speak about Dante.”

  “Yes, because that’s your area of specialization. But you could choose any subject. Anything at all.”

  Gabriel looked back at the stars. “I enjoy studying Dante. This is a chance for me to work something out.”

  “What?”

  “About Dante and Beatrice. I feel as if Dante is hiding something in The Divine Comedy—that he isn’t telling us the whole story.”

  “The whole story about what?”

  “They marry other people. He’s devastated when Beatrice dies and resolves to become a better man. He writes poems in tribute to her. But then he admits to having strayed from the right path at the middle of his life, and Beatrice tells Virgil Dante did so out of fear.”

  “So far, so good.”

  “Indeed. But there’s the passage in Purgatorio where Beatrice scolds him about other women. He admits his guilt, bathes in the river of forgetfulness, and then the theological virtues declare him faithful to Beatrice.”

  Gabriel turned on his side to look at Julianne. “Faithless, faithful. He can’t be both at the same time.”

  “No, he can’t. That was the demon’s point when he described Guido da Montefeltro’s sin.”

  “So which is it, Beatrice?” Gabriel whispered. “Faithless or faithful?”

  “Dante always writes with more than one meaning. I don’t think Beatrice is just talking about Dante’s devotion to her. She’s talking about God.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Dante admits his guilt—both at the beginning of the Inferno and when he feels shame in front of Beatrice.”

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t understand how Beatrice can be so forgiving at the beginning of the Inferno, when she says Dante is trapped by fear and she begs Virgil to help him, and then so condemning in Purgatorio.”

  “I don’t, either. But I’m hoping to figure it out.”

  “You’ll have to do some detective work, but it sounds like fun. You have a year to prepare your lectures.”

  “Yes.” With his other hand, Gabriel reached over to touch Julia’s face. “You define love for me. And I believe Beatrice defined love for Dante, which is why I think we’re missing part of their story.”

  “Grief clouds the mind,” Julia said gently. “Look at my father. I don’t think he would ever have gotten involved with someone like Deb Lundy if he hadn’t been so messed up after my mother died.”

  “That’s true.”

  “Your sister is having a hard time right now. Much as I think it’s hilarious she believes Katherine is Wonder Woman, her pairing of Katherine with Richard is ridiculous.”

  “Ridiculous is a bit strong, don’t you think?” Gabriel’s tone was grave. “Wonder Woman can have her choice of partners at any age.”

  Julia struck Gabriel playfully in the chest. “It’s the costume. It does things to people.”

  “It does indeed.” Gabriel captured her wrist, his voice growing husky. “Which raises the question, why didn’t you dress up for me for Halloween?”

  “Buy me the costume, and help me get a good night’s sleep, and I’ll dress up for you anytime.”

  Gabriel moved closer to Julia on the blanket, wrapping his arm around her waist. “I’ll hold you to that.”

  “Please.”

  Gabriel chuckled and his smile widened. “How fortunate I am to have married my Beatrice and to be lying by her side.”

  He kissed her reverently, pressing his lips to hers. When he lifted his head, he stared down into her eyes. “You can’t fault me for wanting to do everything within my power to protect you. And to take you and Clare with me to Scotland.”

  “Of course I can’t fault you.” Julia reached up to twine her fingers in his hair. “We want the same thing. But my situation at Harvard is precarious.”

  Gabriel’s eyes reflected understanding. “It’s difficult for me to stand by and do nothing.”

  “You aren’t doing nothing.” Julia’s whisper grew fierce. “You’re supporting me.”

  “I just love you so desperately.” Gabriel lowered his head and tugged on her lower lip. He spread his lips across hers, firmly and with intention.

  His hands parted her coat and lifted her sweater, spanning her waist and stroking the bare skin with his thumbs.

  Julia made a noise and they parted. “Here? Now?”

  “I want you.” Gabriel’s eyes shone with desire. “Right here and right now.”

  Her hands lifted to his shoulder and she caressed his neck as their mouths joined once again. Their lower limbs tangled with one another.

  Above them, the moon hid behind a cloud and darkness became emboldened. Gabriel seized that opportunity to flick open the button on Julia’s jeans and rest his hand across her abdomen, avoiding her scar.

  She fluttere
d beneath him.

  His lips found her neck in the dark, trailing kisses up and down her throat. He worshipped the indentation at the base of her throat and ascended to the space behind her ear. “What do you want?”

  “I want you to touch me.” She covered his hand with hers and inched his farther down, retreating when he dipped below her underwear.

  His fingers caressed her before passing between her legs.

  He kissed the expanse of skin above her breasts before unbuttoning her shirt with one hand. With practiced ease he continued to embrace her with his lips, while his long fingers sought their prize.

  He lowered her bra, exposing her breast to the night air. His mouth descended, kissing around the nipple while stroking her below.

  “It’s all right,” she encouraged him, applying light pressure to the back of his head. “I’m not overly sensitive tonight.”

  He chuckled against her skin, for her eagerness pleased him. Experimentally, he licked her nipple. It constricted in the cool November air. Then his warm mouth engulfed her, licking and gently teasing.

  Julia lifted her hips as a strangled moan escaped her chest. She was trying to be quiet.

  “You can be loud,” he encouraged her, taking her nipple into his mouth once again. “We have more privacy here than at the house.”

  She gave voice to her pleas, begging him to taste her other breast and lifting her hips as he stroked between her legs.

  “Do you want to come?” he rasped, paying homage to her other nipple.

  “I want to come with you inside me.” The confession had scarcely left her mouth when he was tugging down her jeans and removing his own.

  The voyeuristic moon shone, giving light to Gabriel’s endeavors. He took one of her hands in his, resting it beside her head.

  He cupped her opposite hip and separated her legs more widely. His hips nested with hers.

  Gabriel’s eyes measured hers as he pressed forward. Again, with the practiced ease born of lovers who’d coupled to infinity, he slid inside.

  Julia moaned.

  “I want you to move.” Gabriel’s speech was terse, clipped. He seemed overwhelmed, holding himself still over her.