by Ella Brooke
There was a long pause, and then to her surprise, James laughed. “Smart girl,” he said. “Can’t get anything by you, can I?”
She almost gasped audibly. Was he really going to reveal everything to her right now? The world spun on its axis.
“James...”
“Look, I can’t come back to the house however much I want to. However, I’ll be back no later than six tonight, and then... then I think we need to talk.”
There was a pause, and Celia felt as if she lived and died in that moment. In that moment, she realized beyond a shadow of a doubt that she loved this man. It had crept up on her. Perhaps she had loved him since the first time they learned each other’s names, or perhaps it had happened slowly, as he learned to care for their daughter. Whatever it was, she loved him; no matter what secrets he held, and she could have wept.
“All right,” she said, “All right. Tonight then.”
“That’s my girl,” he said warmly. “Tonight.”
When he ended the call, it felt as if the phone had turned into a dead thing in her hand. She shifted Maisey to her other hip, looking around at the house as if with new eyes. Maisey whimpered a little at her mothers grasp, and Celia loosened her grip reluctantly.
“We’re going to be fine, sweetie,” she said. “I promise you, we’re going to be fine, okay, no matter what happens.”
As she walked out of the house, Celia wondered if she was talking to little Maisey or to herself.
***
James frowned briefly at the phone. He wondered if there was something wrong with Celia. Her words had been strangely stilted, but perhaps that was simply because she had the museum work on her mind. The trustees from the museum were more than happy with her work, and absently, he thought that he should make sure that she knew that.
Before he could do that, however, he had to get across town for his appointment. When his thoughts turned to the future, both the one that was close and the one that was far off, he felt happy. It was such a simple emotion, but he was not truly sure that it was one that he had experienced before. He had been delighted and victorious before. He had certainly felt pleasure before. However, it was only with Celia and with Maisey that he had learned to feel happy.A part of him wondered if it would last—if this was only some kind of early infatuation, but he didn’t think so. Part of it, he realized, was because he and Celia had already gone through time together and time apart. At this point, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he preferred together.
Now, if only Celia agreed with him.
Chapter Ten
The small park where the rendezvous was set was oddly beautiful. It was in one of the older parts of Dublin; hard to find if you weren’t used to the twisting and narrow streets. However, Celia had a fairly good head for directions, and she found her way there, her daughter carried easily in her sling.
I would love to bring James here for a picnic, Celia thought absently, and then with a wince, she realized that that might never happen. What she learned today might change the way she thought of James forever.
“What is going to happen to us?” Celia wondered, but Maisey was no help, gazing around her with bright eyes.
Celia was almost beginning to think that the woman wouldn’t show up, that all of this had been some sort of horrible joke. She couldn’t decide how she felt about that. At the moment, what she wanted more than she wanted anything was the truth.
I just want the truth, she repeated over and over to herself. It doesn’t matter what it is. No matter what it is, I will survive it, and I will protect Maisey. That is all that matters.
There was a bench where the woman had offered to meet them, and Celia sat down, cuddling Maisey close as much for her own comfort as for the baby’s. Maisey, for her part, seemed oddly subdued, and Celia wondered if she could pick up on some of her mother’s emotions.
That child could be Maisey’s brother or sister, she thought with a shiver. There was no doubt about it, the woman was heading right for them. Celia started to rise as the woman rolled up to them, but before she could do much more than that, the woman spoke.
“Sit back down on the bench. Don’t scream.”
It took Celia a few moments to truly understand what the words meant, but when she did, her eyes widened and she dropped back onto the bench. The admonition not to scream made sense when she realized that the woman had a gun pointed at her.
For a split second, Celia couldn’t believe that this was happening. They were in a park, in broad daylight. Then her mind chimed in that the park was an obscure one, the woman was holding the gun fairly closely and discreetly to her body, and who would suspect a mother of doing anything like this?
Celia’s eyes dropped down to the carriage. When she realized it was empty, fear reached up to choke her.
“Please no,” she whispered, and the woman shook her gun at her. When Celia looked at her, she could see that the woman did not look altogether stable, altogether sane. Maisey, either upset by the situation or by the hard grip that Celia had on her, started to cry.
“Shut up,” the woman said, her voice a strident whine. “For the love of God, shut up, and put the baby in the carriage. Hurry up!”
“No, you can’t, I won’t...” Celia said, aware that she was babbling but unable to stop herself.
“You think I won’t shoot you to make James love me? You think I won’t?” the woman raged. “Do it, do it right now! Or... or...”
The threat hung in the air and stifling a sob, Celia carefully placed Maisey down in the carriage. She moved as slowly as she could, hoping against hope that a miracle might occur, but then her daughter was out of her arms and in a baby carriage as a crazy woman kept her gun trained on Celia’s face.Celia couldn’t stop numb tears from gliding down her face, and she looked at the other woman beseechingly, silently pleading for her not to do this. The woman’s gun wavered, her eyes flickering back and forth.
“I would have given him a baby if he would have had me. I got your call, and I knew, I knew then what I had to do, but it didn’t work. This will, I know it will!”
In the woman’s ramblings was a startling revelation. Here was the proof that her calls had never reached James, and Celia’s jaw dropped. This was the woman who had fallen in love with James.
The woman looked down distractedly at Maisey who was still crying. She jostled the carriage briefly, making Celia cry out a little.
“God, stop crying,” she muttered. “Stop crying, I’ll take care of you, and then he’ll love me.” Celia made in involuntary instinctive move towards her child, but the woman stuck her gun in Celia’s face threateningly.
“Don’t you dare.”
“Please don’t, she’s my baby!”
Everything seemed to happen at once. A large blurred shape came from Celia’s left, the woman who was trying to kidnap her child was turning, and terrifyingly enough, a thunderous boom filled her ears. Celia cried out even though she knew she was not the one who had been shot, but more importantly, she was lunging for her baby as Maisey shrieked with fear. She had to get to her daughter, she had to protect her, and as the boom of the gun went off, she saw people rushing towards them from the shops, and she heard shouting.
It wasn’t until she lifted her head that she could see the extraordinary scene before her. The woman had sunk to her knees by the carriage, wailing and utterly spent. The gun was no longer in her hand. Instead it was in James’s, whose free hand gripped the woman’s wrist. As Celia watched in horror, red blood spilled down James’s arm.Celia felt frozen. She couldn’t go to him, she couldn’t let go of her baby, but she needed to make sure he was all right. Then the sirens came and there were two kind men in blue uniforms guiding her away.
***
Two hours later, a nurse came to see Celia in the waiting room.
“Please, can I see him now?” Celia asked for what felt like the hundredth time. This time, however, instead of frowning and telling her that the doctors had not permitted it yet, the nurs
e smiled.
“I’m here to take you and Maisey to the man himself,” she said. “Are you two holding on all right?”
“Surprisingly, just a little shaky,” Celia said with a slight wavering smile. “Neither of us were ever touched at all. I guess I’m just a little nerve-wracked, and as for Maisey, well, you can see for yourself.” After all the excitement of the day, Maisey had apparently decided that she needed a nap. Now she was resting in Celia’s arms, snuggled up as close to her mother as she could get. She slept the boneless and easy sleep of the very young, and as she sat and waited to speak with James, Celia envied her daughter’s easy slumber. If she could have drifted off until James was well enough to see them, she would have liked to do so. Instead, she had to sit and wait, her stomach tied up in tight knots.
“She’s a dear, isn’t she,” cooed the nurse. “You both must be very proud.”
“Very much so,” Celia said faintly, and she followed the nurse.
“There you both are, thank God,” said James, and Celia blinked with surprise. She supposed that she had expected James to be laid out, perhaps in a hospital gown, perhaps even on painkillers. Instead, he sat on the hospital bed, only his shirt and jacket off. He still wore a T-shirt, and the bandage that covered his bicep looked enormous, but beyond that, he looked very much himself.
“James?”
“Come here,” he said, and when she heard the desperation and fear in his voice, she went without question. The moment he could, James gathered them both into his arms, and she realized he was whispering their names over and over again.
“James, are you all right?”
He laughed a little shakily, never loosening his grip. “Yes, God yes, I am now. I bled for a bit, but it was a graze, nothing more. I’ve gotten worse simply falling down after a night out. But they wanted to keep you out while they stitched me up, and that I could not bear, I could not bear it at all.”Celia felt relief flood through her like a healing balm, and she collapsed against him. She checked herself just long enough to make sure that she was not on his injured arm, and then she burst into tears. Maisey woke up, and for a mercy did not join her mother. Instead she patted Celia’s arm in concern as James simply held her tight. It wasn’t until the tears slackened that James spoke again.
“Oh darling, please, you’re fine. You’re safe, we’e all safe.”
“No thanks to me,” she mumbled miserably. “Oh God, James, I am so sorry. I thought... She told me all sorts of horrible things, and I didn’t believe them exactly, but... but...”
“I can imagine what sort of horrible things she told you,” James said grimly. “That was Grace Allen, who I think I’ve mentioned before. She was my secretary who fancied herself in love with me. I thought she was only a confused girl, and I tried to deal with her gently, but... Well, she is going somewhere where she cannot hurt anyone again, and that is what matters.”
“I should have had more faith in you,” Celia said. “I know that now. I am so sorry I did not.” James was still for so long that she began to grow afraid again. Perhaps her lack of faith was enough to break them. She would deserve it.
“Darling, will you let me stand up for a moment? Here, hang on to little Maisey.” The loss of James’s heat and warmth felt terrible, and Celia hung on to her daughter as if she was the only scrap of comfort left in the world. In growing confusion, she saw James go to where his jacket was hung up on the wall, watched as he rifled through the pocket. She gasped a little when he winced at the unexpected angle to his arm, but he waved her back when she moved forward to help.
“Celia, if I were nearly as smart as the media presents me, I would have done this years ago. Hell, I should have done this about five minutes after we met. As it is, I am late, but never let it be said that I do not take action when I know I need to.”
No, he can’t be…
“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice soft and wild in her ears.
“Can’t you guess? And here I thought you were always the more clever of the two of us. Ah well, nothing wrong with tradition then, is there?”
He paused for a moment, and then he was holding a velvet box before him, offering it up to her with a smile. “Celia, when I met you two years ago, you took my breath away, and I am not sure that I have truly recovered from it yet. I nearly kidnapped you to Dublin, but since coming here, you have made my house feel like a real home. It is not something that I expected, but I find now that it is something I need.
“I know that I have missed out on Maisey’s first year, but perhaps if you will allow me, I will be there for all the years to come. I love you both with all of my heart, and I hope that perhaps it is enough to claim the love I know lives in yours.
“Celia, will you marry me?”
“Oh, yes, yes,” she murmured. “Yes, I love you, I will marry you, yes!” James was laughing with pleasure at her words, and she wondered if he was crying a little as well, but then he was pressing the box at her.
“Take it, you daft woman,” he said. “It’s for you!”
She had almost forgotten about the box. Now she drew back and flipped it open. When she saw what was inside, she gasped.The ring was gorgeous. It was a sparkling diamond in a scrolling setting, delicate and Victorian and perfect. The ring was beautiful, but so was the pendant nestled next to it. The pendant was tiny, barely larger than the size of Celia’s pinky nail, but it was another diamond set into a rose-gold heart.
“Is that for...”
“It’s for Maisey,” James said tenderly, standing up. “I love you both so, and I want us to be together for always.”With hands that she was certain trembled slightly, he put the ring on her finger, and then he held Maisey as Celia latched the necklace around her tiny neck.
“Together for always,” she murmured, and James pulled her close to him.
“A family.”
Epilogue
Two Years Later
“Stay close with us, love, don’t go wandering off.”
Celia smiled as James called a grumbling Maisey back from the sculpture, shaking her head. “Still think she’s easy to take care of?” she teased, and James grinned at her.
“She’s all the trouble I have ever wanted and more,” he said, and then he glanced down as Maisey tugged at his hand.
“Want you and Mama to see,” she said insistently, and amused, James and Celia allowed them to be dragged deeper into the museum.
This exhibit was the second that Celia had orchestrated for the museum in Dublin, and she was fiercely proud of it. It was all about expressions of love, and from the sculpture to the paintings to the found art to the weavings on the wall, it was all about the bonds that stretched between people and how they cared for one another. The sculptures sometimes reminded her of the sculptures that had been on display when she and James met, but though that sensuality still flowed between them like a mighty tide, there was more to them now.
Maisey determinedly dragged her parents through the gallery until they came to a large sculpture. It was carved from deep gray stone, the surface polished to a mirror sheen. From one enormous block rose up three figures, a male, a female and a small child between them. Their faces were smoothed curves, but there was something about the statue that seemed warm and comforting.
“They’re like us,” Maisey said with pleasure. “One, two, three, four...”
James laughed. “Darling, count again, there’s three of them and three of us.”
“No,” Maisey insisted. “One for you, two for Mama, three for me, and four for the baby.” There was indeed a slight curve to the female sculpture’s body. There was no similar curve to Celia’s belly. At least not yet, and her eyes widened as she looked at her daughter.
James was still laughing. “Sweetheart, no, Mama doesn’t... Wait. Celia?”“I think I am,” she said, almost shy. “At least... a little. I’m not sure yet. I was going to wait another two weeks to tell you.”
James was shaking his head. “I’m not sure I understand. Did yo
u tell Maisey...?”
“Not at all,” Celia said, wide eyed. “Not even a little...”
Maisey, having made her point, moved a short distance away to examine one of the interactive exhibits, a dense tangle of fiber and rubber. Celia sat down on one of the nearby benches, and James came to sit next to her, his arm over her shoulder.
“I love you,” he murmured, nuzzling her shoulder. “I love you so very much, and every day, you show me new ways to love you.”Celia laughed a little, dropping a gentle kiss on his cheek. Carefully, she took one of his hands and laid it on her belly.
“You can’t feel it there yet,” she said, “but soon, there’s going to be even more love for us.”
“Oh I can definitely feel it,” he whispered. “I love you so, Celia. I will feel it for the rest of my days and long after I die.” Celia relaxed into her husband’s body, and she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was right.
THE END
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Chapter One
Scarlett
When I got home, I slumped into my couch, irritated. The whole day had been wasted. What was the point of having a Master’s degree if I couldn’t do anything with it?
