[1997] Once and Future Love

by Anne Kelleher

  EPILOGUE

  ENGLAND, 1245

  “Grandsire, Grandsire?” The high-pitched voice of his grandson found Richard in the churchyard. He rose to his feet with a creak of aging joints. He heard the quick patter of five-year-old William’s feet coming closer, and wiped the moisture from his eyes. A year gone, and he still couldn’t believe he’d lost her again. At least she’d lived to see the children who’d survived infancy marry, and their first grandchildren.

  “William,” Richard said, as the boy rounded the hedge of yews.

  “Grandsire!” The child launched himself at Richard, wrapping his arms around his waist. “Mama wants you to come back…‌she’s says it’s time for dinner. Will you come?”

  Richard looked down at Eleanor’s crypt. He had plans to move it inside, once the church was finished, but he liked to visit this spot, here, under the sheltering tree. He remembered the day he’d first seen the church, so many hundred of years in the future still. He’d done his best to make sure it looked as exactly as he could remember it. Sunlight glinted off the new stained-glass windows they had ordered from London. It had been one of the last things he and Eleanor had done together. She had known, even then, that she was dying.

  He ruffled the boy’s hair. “You go, Willy-Billy. Tell your Mama I’ll be there…‌I just want to check on the work that was finished yesterday.”

  “Are you missing Grandmama, Grandsire?” The boy looked up at him with wide brown eyes, fringed with Eleanor’s long lashes. He had his grandmother’s heart-shaped face, too.

  Richard nodded, his throat suddenly too thick to speak. They had had a good life together, and then, once again, she’d been taken from him.

  The child seemed to sense Richard’s sorrow, for he grasped his grandfather’s hand and pressed a quick kiss on the back of it. Then he dashed away, calling “There’s apple cakes…‌don’t be late!”

  Richard smiled. They had been lucky, so lucky, to see so many of their children grow to maturity. Only three small headstones lined the narrow walk. The other six were grown and gone with families of their own. But each small headstone was a moment of grief. By the time he reached the church steps, he was aware of a heaviness in his chest, a mounting weight that seemed to grow with every step. He broke out in a cold sweat as a vise-like pain spread from his chest down his arm.

  He sank down on the steps, slumping all the way to the flagstones, his vision shrinking to a pinhead of light. He sagged against the stone wall, as the world went black.

  “He’s opening his eyes.”

  “I think he’s coming around.”

  “Dad? Dad, can you hear me?”

  The voices penetrated the cacophony of snaps and hisses that enveloped him like a shroud. Richard opened his eyes to a very bright light, and the face of his oldest daughter peering down at him. A blonde woman peered down from the other direction. “Mr. Lambert? Can you hear us, Mr. Lambert?”

  The odor of disinfectant stung his nose, disinfectant and something else, something he knew all too well. Blood. He could smell blood, a lot of it.

  The blonde woman held up a hypodermic needle, then injected it into the IV line. “That should help.” Then she leaned closer. “Mr. Lambert? Richard? You’re in hospital…‌can you hear us? Just blink your eyes if you do.”

  Richard felt as if he was floating just above his body. He took a deep breath, or tried to. There was a tube down the back of his throat. He felt no pain, but the effort of trying to breathe was too much and he closed his eyes as the world faded away and he sank down, into his skin.

  “It’s all right, you know.” Lucy’s voice…‌or maybe it was Eleanor’s…‌penetrated the fog.

  He opened his eyes and saw she was standing in the doorway, just beyond the knot of his children, all clustered in one corner of the room. They were weeping and whispering, and the nurse was still there, pretending to keep an eye on the machines. “What’s all right?” It surprised him that he could answer her, given the tube down his throat.

  “To come with me.” She held out her hand. “We could go on, you know. You don’t have to stay here, or anywhere. We can go…‌somewhere different…‌anywhere you like, really.”

  He sat up, intrigued and wanting to get a better look. The sight of her shocked him. She was Lucy. She was Eleanor. She was several others, too, he suddenly recognized…‌faces and forms all blending in one shifting form that shimmered like a rainbow.

  “I think I’d like that.”

  Suddenly he was standing beside her. He looked back at the bed, where an alarm had started to scream. His children reacted, and one of them—Mary—grabbed his hand and held it to her cheek. The nurse was bending over him.

  In the grayish light, his body looked both damaged and curiously at rest, like a puppet with broken strings. He took her hand and in that moment, he understood that they had been together for many lifetimes, and would be together for many more. Nothing would ever truly separate them, and nothing could keep them apart. Their love went on forever.

  “You choose,” he said, as they walked out of the hospital, into a bright new dawn. “I don’t care where we go, as long as we go together.”

  “Let’s go this way,” she answered, tugging to the left. “Our greatest adventures lie ahead.”

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR

  Dear Reader—My publisher and I are delighted that we can bring this story to you, revised and refreshed with an entirely new ending. I hope you enjoyed it…‌I know I enjoyed making it even better than it was the first time around! I’m in the process of editing my other romances, which include The Ghost and Katie Coyle, Love’s Labyrinth and The Highwayman. Look for those to be released by the end of this year.

  I would appreciate knowing what you think…‌and welcome your reviews on Amazon, Goodreads or other social networks, or your emails at AnnieKelleher@aol.com. Happy reading!

  …‌Annie

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Thank you to Sara Strecker, Patrice Fitzgerald, Richard Leslie and Emily Scott for your part in helping breathe electronic life into this old book.

  Anne Kelleher is the author of 13 published novels and one short story. She lives and writes in the wilds of northwestern Connecticut with her two rescued dogs and the youngest of her four children.

  A ONCE AND FUTURE LOVE

  Electronic Edition

  © 2013 Anne Kelleher

  All rights reserved.

  Edition: April 2013

  Published by eFitzgerald Electronic Publishing

  Cover design by Emily Scott

  eFitzgerald Publishing strives to create a professional product and a smooth reading experience for readers of indie ebooks. Please report typographical or other errors to eFitzgeraldPublishing@gmail.com.