Back in Her Husband's Arms

by Susanne Hampton

  ‘It was meant to be a surprise. Bonny didn’t want anyone to know she was walking or talking again until the boys’ christening party. My mother and father still think she needs a frame to walk and a board to spell the words, and so do Stu’s parents. Bonny thought she’d surprise both sets of grandparents by walking into church and singing the hymns.’

  ‘That’s wonderful,’ Sara told her friend as she finished wiping the last of the sticky mess from Henry’s chubby little fingers. He gurgled and gave a toothless grin that immediately brought a smile to Sara.

  ‘Good,’ Stu’s deep voice called through the wire screen door. ‘It’s cleaned up. We can get something to eat.’

  Dana shook her head as she looked over at Sara. ‘Isn’t it amazing what impeccable timing men have? It always saves them from the worst scrapes.’

  Sara couldn’t agree more. After Stu and Tom brought in the bags, putting Sara’s in the spare room and leaving Tom’s by the door to be taken out later to the guesthouse, the four of them ate lunch with the boys safely placed in a nearby playpen. Dana had prepared open sandwiches, with Sara’s help.

  ‘Savour the ones with egg filling,’ Stu mumbled cheerily with a mouthful of sandwich. ‘Thomasina’s laying about one a week, and that’s only in a good week!’

  They all laughed. They cleaned up and put the boys to sleep before the four of them went out to find Bonny and Adrian. The air smelt good and fresh but the sky was almost covered with ominous-looking clouds. Although a downpour was a while off, the breeze was quite cold and the ground was still heavy from recent rainfall. Sara had worn jeans and a hand-knitted jumper on the car trip so she needed only to grab her scarf, throw her waterproof jacket over the top and slip into some knee-length rubber boots that Dana gave her.

  Before they left the farmhouse, Tom took his bag to the guesthouse, not far from the main house, and changed into similar country clothing.

  After a few minutes of walking they had reached the small shearing shed near the riding track.

  ‘Uncle Tom, Uncle Tom!’ came the excited cry. ‘Look at me!’

  Sara spun round to see Bonny, all grown up and sitting high in the saddle with her brown riding hat firmly in place, her curly auburn hair tied in long plaits and a yellow raincoat buttoned up against the breeze. Sara felt pure joy as she watched Bonny parade around them on her chestnut coloured pony.

  Stu coughed to clear his throat. ‘Excuse me, missy. We have another guest.’

  Bonny peered down in Sara’s direction and pulled Sheba’s reins to a halt. ‘Aunty Sara?’

  ‘Yes, it’s me, Bonny. I’m sorry I’ve been away so long. Too long.’ Sara’s throat was choked by emotion. ‘It’s...it’s so good to see you up there. I can hardly believe it.’

  Bonny’s pretty face was aglow as she began a slow canter around the foursome. ‘I’m walking into church tomorrow. Did Mummy tell you?’

  Sara nodded. ‘She certainly did, Bonny, and I know it’s a secret so I won’t say a word to anyone.’

  ‘Adrian,’ Stu called to the young man who followed closely behind Bonny on a glistening black mare, ‘I’d like you to meet a friend of ours.’

  Sara watched as he carefully turned the cantering horse and rode over to her.

  ‘Sara, I’d like you to meet Adrian Gorden. Adrian, this is Sara Fielding.’

  ‘Pleased to meet you, Sara,’ the boy said politely, but his eyes didn’t stray from Bonny for too long. Before Sara had a chance to respond, Sheba moved her head suddenly and Adrian instantly cantered back over to Bonny.

  ‘We’d better head back as there’s lots to do before tomorrow,’ Dana told them. ‘And that includes you, Bonny. You’ve got some more physio and then a hot bath. You can spend the afternoon inside with the boys.’

  ‘What size boys are we talking about, darling?’ Stu asked light-heartedly. ‘Have Tom and I been grounded too?’

  Dana laughed as she gently reached for Sheba’s reins and turned the pony in the direction of the farmhouse. ‘No. I guess you two can have the afternoon off. But don’t forget you’ve got lots to do this evening and first thing in the morning.’

  Stu saluted his wife and then bent down and kissed her. Sara looked away. The love they shared was almost palpable and it made her feel a little uncomfortable. It used not to, all those years ago, but back then circumstances had been different. That had been when she and Tom had also shared those tender moments and so much more.

  ‘Okay, Tom, looks like we’ve got a few hours free. How about a trip into town and a pint with some of the locals?’

  * * *

  Sara spent the afternoon chatting with Bonny and helping with preparations for the next day’s festivities. Dana’s parents would be arriving the day of the christening but spending the night. Stu’s family wouldn’t stay at all because they only lived in the next town.

  Sara’s room was already prepared but she helped Dana ready another guest room, putting fresh sheets on the queen-sized bed. This would be for Dana’s parents.

  Sara offered to go out and prepare Tom’s bed in the guesthouse by herself, leaving Dana free to begin another. It was a small, self-contained unit with its own kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. Dana gave her fresh flowers to put on the table and extra blankets for the bed. It was an odd feeling and she had butterflies in her stomach as she made the bed Tom would be lying in that night. She had to push the feelings away as she tucked in the last blanket corner.

  ‘It’s lucky you have such a big place to hold us all,’ she said, when she finally came back into the kitchen, where Dana was busily decorating the christening cake. It was a fruit cake in the shape of two booties and iced in the palest powder blue.

  * * *

  The afternoon raced by. Sara was happy to follow Dana’s instructions and roll the three dozen chocolate-dipped lamingtons in coconut, blend the cream cheese and salmon for the dip and carefully fold the huge pile of blue and white serviettes. Bonny joined in and helped with the serviettes after her bath. They had decided, with all the party preparations, to leave the physiotherapy until her father returned home.

  ‘How many guests are you expecting, Dana?’

  Dana had her head in the fridge looking for the carrots to grate into the coleslaw. ‘We’ve planned on sixty,’ she said, as she stood up and crossed back to the sink with the bunch of carrots in her hand. As Sara watched Dana cut off the leafy, green tops and discard them into the bin, she couldn’t help but wonder if one day she would be knee deep in preparing a family function for her own children.

  * * *

  The men came home around six o’clock, just in time for dinner. After the delicious meal of roast pork and vegetables, Tom chose to spend some quiet time with Bonny while the others finished their bread-and-butter pudding. He had excused himself before dessert and headed off to play a board game with the excited little girl in the family room.

  Sara noticed how much he loved spending time with Bonny and how his self-imposed sentence would rob him of the opportunity to do the same with his own child. But that was his choice, she reminded herself, although it made her sad to think she could do nothing to change it. She couldn’t find a way to get through to him and make him see that he was denying himself something so precious.

  ‘It’s not like Tom to refuse dessert,’ Dana commented as she stacked the emptied bowls. ‘He usually eats like a Mallee bull.’

  ‘That’s okay. If he doesn’t come back for it, I’m happy to eat his tonight. This country air is giving me an appetite,’ Sara said, helping Dana to clear the table.

  * * *

  The two women made quick work of cleaning up the dinner dishes, while Stu gave the boys a bottle each and Tom remained out of sight with Bonny. They could all hear the laughter coming from the other room as Tom and Bonny played card game after card game.

  ‘I think we s
hould all play cards tonight. What about bridge or poker?’ Dana suggested, as Stu took the two drained bottles away from Henry and Phillip.

  ‘Sounds like a great idea to me,’ Stu replied. ‘I’ll just change my little men here, and then get the children up to bed. Give me ten minutes and then I will clean the lot of you up in a game of poker. Bridge is for sissies.’

  Sara smiled. ‘Poker it is.’

  * * *

  They were about forty minutes into poker when Stu felt a headache coming on and thought he might call it a night. Dana said she thought she might head to bed early as well, since it was going to be a big day tomorrow.

  ‘Why don’t you two head back into town and get a drink or something? I mean, you are welcome to stay here and watch television, but we are a bit boring in our old age and tend to settle down quite early.’

  ‘We may just do that. What do you think, Sara? Up for a big night on the town?’

  Sara was a little tired but thought it might be fun to head into town and see what the locals were up to.

  ‘Sure, why not?’ she replied.

  ‘Then that’s settled. You will see us later,’ Tom announced, as he stood up and slipped his warm jacket on.

  Stu reached into his pocket, pulled out his keys and tossed them across the room. ‘Take the four-wheel drive. It’s safer on the roads out here at night than that antique toy car you drive, not to mention a lot warmer.’

  Tom caught the keys and nodded in agreement. Sara went quickly to her room and grabbed a warm coat and scarf.

  ‘I’ll drive,’ she said with a smile, as she took the keys from Tom’s hand and headed outside. The air was freezing as they climbed into the huge four-wheel drive. It took only moments to realise she wouldn’t be driving anywhere.

  ‘Change of mind, you can drive after all,’ she told Tom, and then climbed out of the car. With a puzzled expression Tom stepped out of his side, walked around to the driver’s door and climbed in. They both shut their doors at the same time.

  ‘Of course,’ he said, with laughter in his voice. ‘You can’t drive anything with a manual gearbox!’

  Sara nodded sheepishly.

  ‘You know, Sara, it has always amazed me how you can perform complex surgical procedures but can’t co-ordinate your feet and hands to use a clutch and gearstick!’ He chuckled to himself and Sara rolled her eyes as they took off down the dirt road, the headlights on high beam.

  It didn’t take long before they pulled up outside the Royal Hotel.

  ‘Someone told me this was the subject of a Drysdale painting. Is that right?’ Sara asked as they quickly made their way to the entrance. It was so cold. There was no breeze but it was like standing inside a cold room and it was chilling them both to the bone.

  ‘I don’t know, to be honest, but I’m sure Stu would. You can ask him in the morning,’ Tom said, as he held the hotel door open for Sara. He added, ‘Not sure about you but I think I would prefer a hot chocolate to a wine tonight.’

  Sara nodded in agreement as she blew warm air on her hands and crossed to a table near the fire.

  They both enjoyed a warm drink and a light-hearted chat about Stu and Dana and their wonderful property and how amazing Bonny’s progress was, considering her injuries.

  Sara suddenly realised that she had forgotten to take the spare key Dana had placed in her room, and it was only when Tom looked at his watch that they saw how late it was.

  As they pulled back into the driveway ten minutes later, they saw that the main house lights were turned off.

  ‘Looks like they’ve locked you out,’ he said.

  ‘I don’t want to wake them, that wouldn’t be fair.’

  ‘There’s nothing for you to do but spend the night in the guesthouse with me.’

  * * *

  Sara swallowed nervously as Tom unlocked the guesthouse and she followed him inside. It was lovely and warm and Sara guessed the either Dana or Stu had put on the heater for Tom before they went to bed. He turned on the lamps and she could see into the bedroom. She had made the bed earlier in the day, thinking that Tom would be lying between the sheets. That had been hard enough to think about.

  She’d never dreamt that she would be lying in the same bed. Or that they would fall asleep together and she would wake in the morning to find his gorgeous face on the pillow next to hers.

  Her stomach began tying itself in small knots as Tom removed his coat and slipped his heavy shoes off. When he undid his shirt and told her he was taking a shower, the knots turned to churning and her heart started to pound. She didn’t know where to look as he casually dropped his shirt on the chair and slipped his belt from his jeans.

  She quickly reached for a book, any book on the coffee table, as his trousers hit the ground and he disappeared in to the small bathroom. She knew there was nowhere in there to place his clothes but removing them in front of her was far too unsettling. Sara put the book back down on the table, completely unaware of what was even on the cover. Her mind was spinning as she went into the bedroom and turned down the bed. She was waiting for Tom to finish his shower when she heard him call out.

  ‘Sara, take my pyjama top to stay warm in bed tonight. I’ll wear the bottoms. You’ll find it in my overnight bag. And there’s a spare toothbrush in there as well.’

  Sara felt uncomfortable searching in his belongings but decided if she got the top while he was in the shower then she could change without him seeing her naked. She unzipped the bag and found the top and the toothbrush. Hastily, she slipped off her winter clothes and put on his warm pyjama top. Then she put the pyjama pants on the end of the bed for Tom.

  ‘You can come in and brush your teeth, you know. There’s a shower curtain.’

  Sara wished she hadn’t heard. ‘I can wait,’ she called back.

  ‘You know I take for ever,’ he called over the sound of the running water. ‘You could be in bed in five minutes if you can ignore my singing while you floss.’

  Sara cringed with the thought. Not at his singing but of him standing naked behind the shower curtain only inches from her. Tentatively, and with an enormous amount of trepidation, Sara opened the door and stepped inside the steam-filled room. Her bare feet crossed the tiles to the sink.

  ‘Almost like old times,’ came Tom’s voice from behind the curtain.

  ‘Almost,’ she muttered, as she squeezed some toothpaste on her brush and bent forward over the basin, beginning to brush her teeth. It was the most disconcerting tooth-brushing experience she could recall.

  The curtain suddenly moved back, revealing Tom’s head and very naked upper torso. ‘Sorry, I couldn’t hear you.’

  Sara instinctively closed her eyes. Tight. She didn’t want to see what she knew was in front of her. The vision of her naked and extremely handsome soon-to-be-ex-husband was not something she could easily, if ever, forget.

  She pointed her hand at her toothbrush already in her mouth, hoping he would understand that she couldn’t talk. He did and the curtain was pulled back again.

  Sara breathed a sigh of relief and finished brushing and flossing in record time. She left the bathroom, calling out goodnight before she closed the door on her way out.

  Snug in her oversized nightwear, she climbed into bed. She pulled the blankets up to her chin and tried to push any thoughts of the last time she’d shared a bed with Tom from her mind. She closed her eyes and prayed she would fall asleep quickly. But that didn’t happen. Tom stepped from the bathroom with his towel hung low. She didn’t want to look at him but she did. In the soft light creeping from under the bathroom door she watched his perfectly sculpted body cross the room to where his overnight bag lay.

  ‘Your pyjama pants are on the end of the bed,’ she whispered softly, and again she closed her eyes very quickly and very tightly before he dropped his towel.

 
; She heard Tom thank her before he turned off the heater and the light and slipped into bed.

  ‘Goodnight, Sara.’

  She felt his weight on the other side of the bed and the fresh scent of soap as she lay so close to the man she knew she still loved.

  She was so confused that it felt so right, so good and so comforting to be sharing Tom’s bed. She didn’t want to feel that way. She may not have any intention of acting on it, but there was no denying she felt at home and safe in a strange bed because Tom was in it with her.

  ‘Goodnight, Tom.’

  * * *

  It was about two in the morning when she woke up, feeling a little hungry. There were some cookies that she had spied earlier in the kitchen so she made her way out there quietly. Without making too much noise, she heated some milk on the stove and sat at the small kitchen table, dipping her cookies into the cup. Then she made her way back to the bedroom. The moonlight was shining though the gaps in the curtains, faintly illuminating the room. She noticed he had kicked his covers off. Without thinking too much about it, she instinctively moved to cover him.

  Gently she pulled the covers up and over his bare back. He had sacrificed the warmth of his top for her. The room was now cold and she suspected his back would be icy to touch. A bittersweet smile tugged at her mouth as she remembered back to when they had been married and how she would always have to cover him during the night. His shoulders would be so cold to touch but he would be sleeping peacefully, perhaps in the knowledge that she would keep him warm.

  He gave a deep throaty moan and startled her. She reeled back on tiptoe, holding her breath. His thick lashes flickered and he scratched his head.

  Sara’s pulse was racing. What would she say to him if he woke to find her leaning over him?

  Thankfully she didn’t have to find a hasty excuse. He didn’t wake up. He just rolled over, tossing the blankets aside and uncovering himself again. Her breathing became steady but quite loud. For a moment she stood in silence, trying not to make a sound in case she woke him. Sara didn’t dare to try covering him again. Instead, she crept back to her side of the bed.