He wasn’t completely recovered from the reconstructive surgery, and should really have been using at least one stick for stability and safety, but with Livvy by his side, providing physical support as well as all the emotional and psychological sustenance he could ever want, he’d decided that their trip couldn’t wait any longer.
‘Then there’s a reunion we need to get to…one that’s years overdue,’ he said, hearing the husky tone in his own voice and unashamed of it. To have learned after so many lonely years that some of his family had survived those terrible days and were even now waiting to welcome him home…it was hardly surprising that he’d broken down after that first phone call and wept in Livvy’s arms.
And he had a feeling he would be weeping again when he proudly introduced his wife to them and told them that the next generation of Davidovs was already on its way.
He glanced down at the barely-there curve of her slender body, still unable to believe how much everything had changed for the better since he’d had Livvy back in his life. ‘We’ve been so lucky,’ he whispered, the soft words almost lost under the growl of traffic around them.
As if she was reading his mind, Livvy stroked one hand over the just-visible evidence of the pregnancy and leant her head on his shoulder to say, ‘It really wouldn’t have mattered, you know…if we hadn’t been able to have this without some form of medical intervention. I still wouldn’t have let you use it as an excuse to get rid of me.’
‘Get rid of you?’ he exclaimed, stung by the suggestion. ‘That wasn’t what I wanted to do. If I hadn’t been able to…’He shook his head. ‘I just wanted you to be able to have the family you deserve, and if that meant I had to let you go…to let you find a man who could give you those babies…’
‘Well, I hope you understand now…that there wouldn’t…couldn’t have been any babies without you,’ she said fiercely. ‘You are the heart of my family. Without you there wouldn’t be any point. The babies are just…just a by-product — a very welcome by-product, I agree,’ she said hastily when he would have interrupted, ‘but they could never be more important to me than having you in my life.’
‘I hope you still feel that way when you find out what’s waiting for us when we get to the end of our journey. Janek and Oksana have been notifying even the most distant family member they can find, and it sounds as if they’ve been organising a gathering for the official wedding reception we would have had if we’d married in my home.’
‘Official wedding reception?’ She frowned as she looked up at him. ‘What do you mean? Gregor, everything’s already been sorted out now that your death has been struck off the records.’
‘I know that, but apparently the official wedding reception is what the old people are calling it.’ He shrugged. ‘Of course, so much has changed in the last twenty-five or thirty years. Titles and estates aren’t as important these days the way they were centuries ago when — ’
‘Hang on a minute,’ she interrupted. ‘What do you mean, titles and estates? You’re not telling me that you come from a family of wealthy landowners?’
‘Well, I don’t know about wealthy,’ he said diffidently, ‘nor do I know whether there’s still any land involved, and as for titles…in a country that had communism imposed on it for so long, such things really don’t have much place…’
She started to chuckle and his words died away.
‘What?’ he demanded, slightly taken-aback by her reaction.
‘I’m sorry, Gregor, but don’t you see the funny side of this?’ she asked through rising gales of merriment. ‘My mother has spent years looking down her nose at you, wishing I’d married into the titled family nextdoor instead. I can’t imagine what her reaction will be if she ever finds out that she’s had the son-in-law of her dreams right under her nose all the time.’
‘I imagine even your mother might be impressed if she saw that map,’ he agreed. ‘Do you remember the one Janek emailed, in with all those historic documents that showed the region my family came from?’
‘The one with that red outline on it?’ she asked. ‘I thought that was the equivalent of the parish boundary around the houses and fields where you lived?’
‘Actually, they were whole villages that were once full of the people who worked the land around there…the land that was once owned by my family.’ He raised a dark brow, uncertain for a moment exactly what she was thinking. ‘I’m sorry if you’re disappointed that any titles there are left don’t come with any vast estates.’
‘I’m not disappointed at all,’ she reassured him. ‘I’m quite happy with the man I married straight out of medical school. He’s a dedicated doctor, a committed humanitarian, a wonderful husband…’
‘A spectacular lover,’ he prompted.
‘That goes without saying,’ she agreed with a grin, ‘especially since you seem determined to make up for all the time we lost.’
They shared heated glances and he reached up to cup her cheek. ‘It’s a shame we have to check in at the airport so early, only to wait around for hours. I can think of other, far more pleasurable things we could be doing rather than wasting time.’
‘Hold that thought,’ she murmured as the taxi drew up outside the terminal at the start of their long-awaited journey. ‘But remember, Gregor, we’ve got all the time in the world now. We’ve been given a second chance and not one minute of it will be wasted all the while we have each other.’
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6114-7
HER LONG-LOST HUSBAND
First North American Publication 2010.
Copyright © 2010 by Josie Metcalfe
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Her Long-Lost Husband Page 17
