Sara's Child

by Susan Elle

  Crouching down to look into his serious young face, Shenna gives him a motherly hug.

  “Muuuum,” he complains as she continues to hug him, but when she pulls away, he is smiling happily.

  “Us mums need hugs too,” Shenna tells him as she stands and pulls on her backpack. Opening the front door, Shenna steps out to feel a mild chill in the air. “It’s not too bad, what you’ve got on should be just right.”

  Their climb is long; mainly because they both enjoy looking at animal tracks and various birds they spot either sitting in trees or pecking at the ground for bugs and worms.

  By the time they reach the summit it is indeed lunch time, as Shenna predicted.

  “Shall we go to our log?” she asks Neirin when he joins her.

  Nodding enthusiastically he runs ahead with the energy of youth that Shenna can only envy.

  Unpacking their lunch and setting it between them on the fallen tree trunk, Shenna is struck by the familiarity of the situation. She’s done this many times with Neirin, of course, but right now it’s Cade that comes to mind.

  “Your dad and I loved this spot so much,” she tells Neirin and watches his upturned face brighten with interest. “This was the first place your dad brought me when he was offered the job of forester. It didn’t take much persuading to get me to move out here after I saw that,” and she waves a hand at the view of the valley bellow them and the countryside visible for miles around.

  “I never want to leave here,” Neirin tells her seriously, his young face so adult looking. “When I grow up I’m going to be a forester right here, just like dad.”

  Not quite five, Shenna never ceases to be amazed by his maturity. Sometimes his knowledge and understanding makes her very proud, at others it makes her wonder if living in the isolation of the forest is the best thing for Neirin.

  He has lots of play-dates and interaction with other children; she’s made sure of that. But his seriousness and un-childlike observations often give her pause.

  “Don’t you think you might like to live in a house like Tommy’s or the twins’?” she asks with a questioning frown over worried eyes.

  His shocked expression tells her better than any words that she couldn’t be more wrong.

  “Never!” he states uncompromisingly. “I love our house and the forest, and I love being close to dad.” It’s Neirin’s turn to wear a worried frown, “Are we leaving?” he asks quietly, as if not wanting to speak the thought out loud and make it real.

  Considering her son’s distressed face for just a moment, Shenna reassures him. “Not for as long as you’re happy here – but I am asking you to tell me if that ever changes,” she tells him with a smile to lighten the mood. “If you ever find it too lonely you’ll tell me, right?”

  Nodding with a huge grin of relief, Neirin turns his little face to regard the beautiful panorama before him and knows he will never leave.

  An hour later, when they are packing away all of their lunch things and checking they haven’t left any litter on the ground, Shenna laughs in the middle of telling Neirin a story about his father.

  “He was so funny,” her laughter is full of love and fond remembering, “I couldn’t stop laughing when he skidded and literally fell at my feet – the open yogurt he was carrying slopped all over him.”

  Neirin squeals with boyish laughter that Shenna is thrilled to hear.

  “We were so happy,” she tells him and lays a hand to his cheek. “We didn’t have as long together as we would have liked, but the time we had was precious and filled with love.” Her thumb is caressing his cheek so gently, her soft green eyes filling with emotion, “When I told daddy about you he was so happy, so proud to think that a part of him would live on in you.”

  They walked back to the cottage in a more contemplative but companionable silence.

  “What the heck does he want now?!” Shenna strides up to the cottage with Neirin in tow and scowls at Ryan Tempest.

  “Mrs Williams,” Ryan gives her a nod in greeting then turns his attention to Neirin. Holding a hand out to him, Ryan introduces himself, “I’m Ryan Tempest, one of the archaeologists working in the clearing.”

  Neirin doesn’t take Ryan’s hand but emulates his mother’s scowl.

  “You made my mum cross,” he states with all the simplicity of a child’s logic.

  Ryan nods, drops his hand and turns his attention back to Shenna. “Quite the little man,” he acknowledges with a half smile.

  “Neirin will be five next week, though his comprehension and vocabulary far exceed his age,” she tells him with no little pride and a lot of annoyance. “What do you want, Mr Tempest?”

  His own annoyance starts to rise and his steel blue eyes cloud over. “I merely wanted to make peace – we are going to be living and working in close proximity for a while – wouldn’t it be better for all concerned to do so amicably?”

  Her eyes fly wide in shock. “It was you who came to my door at an ungodly time of the morning accusing me of abusing your staff – though where the heck you got that idea from I can’t imagine,” Shenna huffs loudly and makes to walk past him to her front door.

  However, one small side step and Ryan has her effectively blocked.

  “Get out of my way, you arrogant man,” she scolds quietly for her son’s sake.

  “I also came to apologise for the early hour of my visit,” he continues as if she hasn’t spoken, “and to offer to show both of you around the site.”

  He hadn’t at all, but the thought struck him now as a good one.

  “You...you want to show us round...?” Shenna is still scowling only now it is in disbelief. “You told me to stay away from your staff – how am I supposed to do that if I’m walking round the site?”

  She knows she is being difficult but decides he deserves to be given a hard time after the wakeup call he gave her that morning.

  Pursing his lips then forcibly relaxing his expression, Ryan moves aside. “You don’t forgive easily,” he tells her then looks at Neirin, “but I would have thought, being a teacher, you might put your son’s needs before your own.”

  When he looks back at her, Shenna can see that all the annoyance and arrogance has gone out of him.

  “Ordinarily I would jump at the chance to give Neirin any new learning experience,” and her chin lifts defiantly. “However, I...”

  “That’s great then,” he cuts her off abruptly. “You look like you’ve had a tiring day so perhaps now is not the best time,” he tells her and causes Shenna’s spine to straighten reflexively. “Would tomorrow suit?”

  Noticing that Neirin is looking up at her expectantly, Shenna nods and smiles down at her son, “Would you like that?”

  “I think so,” he tells her cautiously, and she realises that he is being mindful of her feelings.

  Brightening her smile to show him that all is well, Shenna turns her attention back to Ryan Tempest. “That sounds like a yes to me,” Shenna agrees. “What time would you want us?”

  Ryan has to drag his thoughts out of the gutter, for some reason he finds himself having to do that every time he looks at this woman.

  “How would mid-morning suit?”

  “About ten’ish?” Shenna suggests and smiles stiffly at his nod of agreement. “We’ll see you tomorrow then, Mr Tempest.”

  Ryan watches as she moves past him and enters the cottage. The boy is older than his years – he narrows his eyes still seeing the boy’s eager anticipation of learning about something new.

  Is it a natural instinct or one that his mother has instilled in him?

  The following day Ryan sees for himself how eager Neirin is to learn and how readily he absorbs information. After showing both Shenna and Neirin around the site, pointing out the plans for the dig and the visitors centre, he introduces Neirin to Sadie, one of his volunteer students.

  “Would you mind a little helper for a while,” Ryan asks the young woman. “I want to show Mrs Williams the visitors centre you and Roz worked so h
ard on.”

  “Sure thing,” Sadie smiles brightly at Neirin and waves him over, “come and have a go.”

  Ryan watches as Sadie shows the boy a roll of tools that she is using to carefully remove the soil to find anything that might be hidden beneath it. When he is happy that they are both getting along, Ryan turns to Shenna and says, “Shall we,” and waves a hand to indicate the smaller port-a-cabin.

  As soon as she walks in the door Shenna is impressed. She reads the posters and the maps that the girls have put up then inspects the showcases that hold the shards of pottery and other items found in the area. Then Shenna moves over to a display of items from other dig sites with explanations of what the items are and how they would have been used.

  “I’m seriously impressed,” Shenna turns a beaming smile on Ryan then turns full circle to take it all in again. “Your students obviously put a lot of effort into this…I could give some really interesting lessons in here then show the children the work you’re all doing outside,” she tells him with renewed enthusiasm. “I’d keep them at a safe distance,” she assures him, “but it would be nice if either yourself or one of the students could answer any questions they might have about the dig process – just a couple of minutes or so?”

  Ryan finds himself caught up in her enthusiasm. “I don’t see why not – the girls were all for the visitors centre and I’m sure they would be happy to answer any questions.” His smile is warm and sincere, his curiosity about Shenna growing by the minute.

  You just don’t look or sound like the kind of woman that complains unnecessarily or is rude or abusive – maybe Felicity misunderstood.

  When they go back outside both of them watch as Neirin, his face a picture of concentration, very carefully scrapes away layers of soil alongside Sadie.

  “Your son is very accomplished,” Ryan observes not taking his eyes from the small boys actions. “Most children I know wouldn’t have the patience or indeed the ability to be so attentively careful.”

  “He is a joy,” Shenna smiles over at her son, her pride and her heart worn openly on her sleeve. “I count my blessings every day – he’s the very best part of me and the image of his dad.”

  Ryan looks sideways to see her expression and isn’t surprised to see the love in it. What does surprise him is the twist in his gut, and the admiration he feels for this single mother who appears to be coping wonderfully with the role.

  “Do you mind if I ask what happened to your husband?” he asks quietly.

  “Cancer happened,” she tells Ryan without turning to look at him. “We were trying to start a family a year before I got pregnant with Neirin – we’d just started to get tested for possible fertility problems when the cancer was found.”

  “I’m sorry,” Ryan tells her sincerely, “that must have been hard on you both.”

  “I found out I was pregnant on the day he died,” Shenna’s voice is distant with remembering, “and give thanks every day that I did – at least I could give him that one small pleasure.”

  Swallowing down on his natural response, Ryan fears Shenna might take it as pity and take offence. Instead he focuses on Neirin – a real credit to his mother.

  “You’ve done a fine job with the boy,” he tells her as they both watch his total preoccupation with the task in hand. “Neirin has obviously benefitted from being home tutored by an experienced teacher, who just so happens to be his mum.”

  “I’m sure there are those who would say I was merely selfish,” she smiles to herself, “and truth be told, they’d be right.”

  Neirin’s head jerks up and he turns to Sadie – she moves closer and helps him to remove a shard of pottery from the dirt.

  “Wow, your first find,” Sadie tells him as they very carefully hold it up to examine it closer. Noticing Ryan Tempest and Shenna standing nearby, Sadie holds up the shard to them, “Neirin has found a good piece of pottery – I’ll mark the spot and continue searching for the rest,” she grins happily

  Moving closer, Ryan is pleased to see that the pottery is of the type they are looking for. “Well done, Neirin - if the find is verified as authentic it will be the dig’s very first discovery,” he tells the boy and watches his grin spread with the excitement of his success. “Sadie will clean this up and catalogue it – then you can add it to the display in the visitors centre with Neirin’s name as finder,” he tells the young woman crouched at Neirin’s side.

  “Beginner’s luck,” Sadie nudges Neirin playfully. “Come with me and I’ll show you how to clean this up.”

  Before leaving Sadie puts a marker in the ground to facilitate the search for more shards to match Neirin’s.

  “How about a coffee?” Ryan asks Shenna when they are left alone.

  “That would be nice,” she agrees and they both walk over to his office.

  “Well, this looks cosy,” Felicity’s catty remark precedes her entrance into the port-a-cabin.

  Frowning at Felicity’s very different tone to the one she used to apologise for the noise nuisance, Shenna can only wonder what her problem is.

  Turning back to Shenna, Ryan says, “I believe you have already met my site coordinator, Felicity Mayfield,” he introduces. “And, of course, you have already met Mrs Williams,” Ryan narrows his eyes suspiciously at Felicity.

  “As I told you,” Felicity rounds on him, “not that you seem to care.” Before anyone can say anything else she flounces out of the office and across to the port-a-cabin she shares with the other two women.

  Shenna stands, looking after the other woman with wide astonished eyes. “That is who I’m meant to have abused?” she asks in a voice thick with disbelief.

  Turning back to Shenna, Ryan can see the truth of the matter – in fact, he’s had his doubts all along he realises.

  “I’m sorry, Felicity has always had a penchant for drama and twisting the truth to suit herself.” Having said as much he realises now that it’s true. There have been so many times in the past when a member of the team has become upset enough to walk out, and Felicity was never far away.

  Maybe it’s come time for a parting of the ways. Perhaps, at the end of this dig, I’ll just make sure that our paths no longer cross.

  When Shenna meets up with her friends Gail and Juliette the next day she tells them about the peculiar incident.

  “It was bad enough being woken up at six-thirty in the morning after a very late night of marking and lesson planning – but to then be accused of abusing a member of the dig team was ludicrous and infuriating,” Shenna frowns over her mug of tea.

  “What did you say – was Neirin with you at the time?” Juliette asks while getting out a packet of ginger biscuits.

  “No, thankfully!” Shenna helps herself to a couple of biscuits from the packet that Juliette is holding out to her. “Thanks – at first I was too stunned to say anything but once my brain woke up I was just furious. That’s when I marched over to his office and gave him what for.”

  Gail laughs, “Go Shenna!”

  “But I thought he was encouraging you to get involved with the dig – didn’t you say that he was actually being nice to you?” Juliette really doesn’t understand where the incident has arisen from.

  “He was,” Shenna replies. “I think that’s why I was so stunned when he came to the cottage – it was so out of the blue.”

  “Do you think this Felicity woman lied to him?” Gail frowns quizzically across the breakfast table at Shenna.

  “I think that’s quite possible.” It’s Shenna’s turn to frown as she considers Ryan Tempest’s reaction to Felicity’s sudden appearance and her attitude. “I also think he knows that she lied – or at least, suspects as much.” He didn’t say that out loud but his expression said it all!

  Both of her friends raise their eyebrows at this suggestion.

  “But, why would he accuse you if he doesn’t even believe her?” Gail is really confused now.

  Shaking her head, Shenna explains. “No, I think he really did believe
her at that time, but when she stormed into the port-a-cabin yesterday it was like she’d been found out and knew it – though she didn’t admit to anything – just flounced out.”

  “You know,” Gail studies her mug of tea, “it sounds like she’s jealous.”

  Choking on the tea she has just sipped, Shenna coughs and splutters while Juliette smacks her smartly on her back.

  “Where did that come from?” Shenna asks when she is finally able to speak.

  “I told you before that I’d heard they have an on off relationship,” Gail reminds her. “What if she wants it to be back on but he isn’t cooperating – she might see you as a rival.”

  Was that it? No...it can’t be. It just doesn’t make sense!

  “Not a chance,” Shenna disagrees firmly. “Felicity is beautiful, has a terrific figure and has his occupation in common – they’re made for each other.”

  “Hmm, I think she might agree,” Juliette finally joins her friends at the breakfast table with her mug of tea after clearing their lunch dishes away. “After all, we don’t know if it was him or her that has made it an on again off again affair – perhaps this time he said enough is enough and means it?”

  Nodding enthusiastically, Gail agrees. “And this time he might just be interested in someone else!” Looking over at Juliette they give each other a knowing nod.

  “You two are incorrigible,” Shenna gapes at their outrageous conclusion. “I know you’ve tried to fit me up before with ‘friends’ of your husbands’, but this is plain nuts – he hasn’t shown the slightest interest and I’d tell him where to go if he did!”

  What a pair of matchmakers! And it’s not like he’s ever said anything or even looked at me funny – they’re just wishful thinking.

  But her heart has kicked into high gear and her breathing is giving her problems. No. Not a chance.

  *****

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  Other books by Susan Elle