Her Galahad

by Melissa James

  A sudden evil grin on Beller's face warned him even before Jirrah saw the shadow behind him. "Duncan, get this piece of dirt off me. I'll take it—"

  But the fist Jirrah tensed for landed in Beller's surprised face. He fell back, gaping. "Duncan?" he gasped.

  Duncan kneeled over his longtime close friend and partner, his face twisted in fury. "I might be going down—and I made sure you are, too—but you won't take my sister down anymore!" Duncan knocked Beller out with a quick, hard punch, and plucked the gun from Beller's slack hand. He looked briefly at Jirrah. "You take that end. I'll hold his arms."

  Exhausted, half reeling with the shock, Jirrah worked with his brother-in-law in silence.

  "Duncan?"

  Both men looked up. Tessa, holding a shaking Tani on her hip, walked toward her brother, a rock in her hand—presumably to hit Beller with—and her face filled with anguished hope.

  Duncan gave his sister a wry, slanted smile, lopsided like her own. "After the police let me go—after they showed me what Cam had been up to—I went to the hospital he put you in, and finally asked the right questions." The smile faded; his eyes closed tight. "Oh, God, I'm sorry, Tessa. What I did to you out of blind devotion to him—and hate. You were right. I hated your husband because he's like our mother, like the man she ran off with. I had to believe you'd be happier with the life I wanted for you. I closed my eyes to the truth. I don't expect you to forgive me, but I had to stop him hurting you again if I could."

  Tess bit her lip over a gentle smile. "You called me Tessa." She didn't have to say any more.

  Duncan Earldon's wary eyes met those of his real brother-in-law, with weary expectation; but Jirrah only grinned. "Nice TKO, mate. Thanks for coming when you did. I was just about out."

  "Better late than never." Duncan gave that tight, wry smile again. Then he looked up at Tani. "So this is my niece," he said softly. "Hi, Tani. I'm your Uncle Duncan."

  Tani didn't answer; she was still shaking, her teary eyes wide, her thumb half in her mouth in self-comfort.

  Duncan's gaze swiveled to Tess. "After the trial, I'll be gone for a while. I need to reinvent myself, think about what I'm going to do with the rest of my life."

  "Going walkabout, eh?" Jirrah laughed. "Maybe you got more of the blood in you than you know, Duncan Earldon."

  Duncan bit out a laugh. "Yeah, maybe. Maybe it's time I found out who I really am."

  "M-Miss Honey, I think I'm gonna puke…"

  Tess gathered a shaking Tani even closer, both arms around her, kissing her daughter in loving reassurance. "It's all over now, sweetheart. We would never have let that naughty man hurt you, baby. Never."

  Vincent and Esther, frozen by the back verandah, ran to Tani, snatching her from Tessa's arms, petting her, soothing her until her hiccupping sobs fell quiet. Tess stood beside them, touching Tani's face. Wanting, needing to be a part of that circle of love, to comfort his daughter, Jirrah struggled to his feet.

  "Stand still. You're bleeding," Tess gasped. She turned to him, and quickly pressed down on his arm.

  "I'll be fine, Tess," he protested, loving her fuss, her care. "Just a flesh wound." Even if it hurt like hell.

  "It could get infected. Tani, could you get a clean cloth? We need to fix Jirrah's arm."

  "Yes, Miss Honey." Tani, still shaking with shock, struggled from Esther's arms and bolted for the house. Vincent and Esther followed her.

  "Don't worry, Tess. I'm fine," he assured her, wondering if she even realized Beller lay doggo beneath them—and that Duncan was keeping a foot on his old friend's chest, just in case.

  The sirens finally stopped. Within seconds, two uniformed policemen ran around the house. "Is everyone all right?"

  Jirrah turned to them, ignoring Tess's anxious murmurs to hold still. "This man's Cameron Beller. There's an APR on him. He's wanted by the City of Sydney Police on about fifteen charges."

  "We know." The policemen hauled a groaning Beller up. "A Keith Earldon QC called half an hour ago, saying we'd find this man here, armed and threatening his daughter and granddaughter."

  Tess, still holding his wound together, looked at Duncan, then up at him, her face filled with a dawning of hope so lovely, so delicate and agonizing it cut him to his core.

  The police handcuffed a semiconscious Beller and had to half drag, half carry him to their car out front. "Can you come to Lynch Hill to make statements?" one of them returned to ask.

  Jirrah grinned. "Only if you want extra paperwork. You'll find there's already enough on Beller for six to ten years inside. We've got a bit of cleaning up to do. If you still want us after you've talked to the Sydney cops, you know where we are."

  The policeman shook his head. "This was attempted abduction and attempted murder, among other charges, sir. We can't leave it. Can you come in soon?"

  Jirrah nodded. "Sure. About an hour?"

  "Earlier, if you can. Thanks." The policeman walked away.

  Tani ran back with a towel, torn in strips. "Is this good, Miss Honey? Will it help my other daddy?" she panted, anxiously gazing up to Jirrah.

  His heart melted, looking at the little face so like his, with the loving heart just like Tess. A permanent bond between them … and a beautiful girl all on her own. "I'm fine, Tani." He ruffled her tangled mop of curls with his free hand. Tani took it, holding it between hers.

  Tess lowered her face a moment too late; for he'd seen the tears swimming in her eyes, the flash of pain streak across her features. "Take this and push against the bridge of your nose, but let the blood run out," she murmured. "Just apply pressure."

  He did as he was told, and waited.

  "My family helped me. Dad called Tani his grandchild," she murmured, soft and husky, with a little quivering catch in her voice. "They even helped get Cameron arrested to save me."

  "Yeah," he replied, feeling only gladness. Tess deserved this happiness from her family. "Maybe they're changing. Maybe even Duncan here might get to like me one day." He gave a mock-challenging look at his brother-in-law, who was dusting off his high-tech running shoes.

  "Maybe," Duncan shot back, the anguished guilt in his face at Tessa's words changing to a slow grin. "Don't hold your breath."

  Tessa pushed his shirt from the wound, fussing with the strips of toweling, looking only at his arm. "So you have your life back, everything you wanted, without putting my family in prison." She looked up briefly, seeing Tani clinging to his free hand with lingering pain in her eyes. "Thank you—David."

  She was right. He could take his name back now. He'd disabled the men who'd taken his life from him. He'd cleared his name, found his daughter, taken control. He could be David again now.

  Except that he wasn't David anymore.

  It wasn't David who stood up to fight the mighty Earldon-Beller Goliath. It wasn't David who'd taken on the world and won. David was the boy who suffered in silence. David Oliveri, the boy he'd been, died two and a half years ago, and Jirrah McLaren, the man he'd become, had taken his place.

  He threw away the towel, and Tani grabbed his hand again. "Jirrah's fine," he replied gruffly. "I'm kind of used to it now." He looked at her lowered head, the heavy fall of hair she used so often to hide her pain from him. "You can have the life you want now, too. You're free to fly, Tess."

  She shrugged. "Free from everything but being a fool." She looked up for another too brief moment before turning away.

  Treasuring the feel of Tani's little hands in his, he still wished for nothing more at that moment than to touch Tess, to hold her and kiss her pain away. "Say it, Tess," he said softly. "Let it out."

  "You risked your life for me," she muttered in a low voice. "You should have taken Tani and run. I'm not worth it. I've never caused you anything but grief."

  Ah, God, how he loved this woman … and how she punished herself, blamed herself for the twists of fate that tore them apart. "The pain always came from somewhere else. You've given me far more joy than pain. And you gave me our daughter. You're wo
rth any risk to me. I love you, Tess. That's all there is to say."

  She finished binding the wound, doubling the end over in a makeshift pressure bandage. Then she took a few steps toward the tree, fiddling with the bark with her fingers, her lovely, slanted face in shadow. "Did you mean what you said to Cameron? About loving someone as they are, not how you want them to be?"

  She couldn't even look at him. He could taste her fear on his tongue. Oh, God, give me the strength to accept my future. Help me to give Tess this final healing. Since she couldn't see him nod, he replied, "Yes, mulgu. I meant every word."

  She stared at the tree as if it alone held all the answers to life. "Can you live with me, knowing I likely can't give you any more children?" She lifted a hand as he started to speak. "Think carefully before you answer. If you say yes, I'd never let you go … and it's a lifetime without the family you want."

  But he had no doubt, for last night, two visions had entered his dreaming mind, over and over.

  Belinda big with his son, the pain always in her eyes because he didn't love her. Living the rest of his life without Tess in it.

  "Then we'll just have to love the two we have all the more, won't we?" She stared at him. "Don't forget my son, Kalkara—Michael. We can go get him from Leslie's, now that Beller's gone." He watched her bite hard on a trembling lip; he could feel her resistance, all her barriers, come crashing slowly down. "Would it bother you, bringing up Belinda's son?" he asked softly.

  "No—oh, no." She shook her head. "But you want six or seven kids. With me, two is all you'll ever have."

  Slowly he moved forward, bringing Tani with him, who by some minor miracle had remained silent—most probably she was already planning their family life, the adorable little imp. "Yeah, I'd have liked four or five more kids. But I realized something last night—I'd rather have two kids with you as my wife than seven with any other woman. Living with Belinda taught me that."

  Tears spilled down her face. "You don't know what you're saying. This is a lifetime, Jirrah—a life without babies," she whispered, trembling all over. "You have to be sure—very sure."

  "I am. I don't want those kids without you. I hurt Belinda over and over because I had nothing to give except faithfulness. No woman ever replaced you for me, and none ever will—because you're not just in my heart, Tess, you are my heart. You always have been, and you always will be." He stood before her, holding out a hand entwined with Tani's, hoping like hell it would be enough—that love was enough. "Will you take us, Tess?" he asked softly. "Will you take us for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, however we come or wherever we live, for the rest of our lives?"

  Tani piped up, looking up at Tess with anxious love. "Please, Mummy-Miss-Honey. Please take us!"

  With a little cry Tess scooped Tani up, holding her close; and with another swift movement, she nestled in his arms, where she belonged—where he needed her to be, forever. "I love you," she whispered, kissing both of them all over their faces. "I love you, I love you, I love you so much."

  Holding his girls close, he murmured huskily, "Um, just to get things straight, it's not just Tani you're talking to, is it? I am included in that?"

  She laughed and cried and held him as if she'd never let him go. "You betcha, McLaren. You've done it now. You're mine for life. I'll never let you out of my sight again."

  "There's nowhere else I'll ever want to be." With a self-mocking smile, he pulled the chain over his head. "You know me and my stupid symbolic gestures." She watched him, her eyes alight with love, as he pulled the rings off the chain, placing hers back on her left hand. "That's never coming off again."

  "Till death us do part." She slipped his ring back on his finger, kissing it tenderly. "I never stopped loving you, not for a minute of the past six years," she whispered. "But I couldn't tell you, or let myself think about it. I couldn't stand it if you'd stayed with me out of duty or pity, once I told you the truth. I had to give you a way out. If I made you believe I didn't love you—if I didn't even acknowledge it to myself—it would be easier for you to leave." Her eyes searched his. "Be very sure, Jirrah. It's a lifetime without those other kids."

  The anguish twisted his guts again—maybe it always would. But having Tess's love was more than worth the cost. "No duty. No pity. I love you, Tess. I always will." His lips met hers in a sweet, timeless kiss. Faith and trust and love—and finally forever. Till death did them part, and maybe beyond.

  A question broke their loving kiss. "So where'd the other man go, the one who hit the naughty man?"

  It was only then they noticed Duncan was nowhere in sight. Tessa's eyes met his. "I guess he's gone to find himself."

  "He'll be gone a long time," he said quietly. "I think he's been through more than we know … but he must've had a hell of an epiphany to be the man we saw hit Beller today."

  Tess nodded, her eyes filled with joy and peace. "I hope he finds what he's looking for."

  Tani, losing interest in a man she didn't know, asked eagerly, "Hey, anyways, so're you guys married again now?"

  Jirrah smiled down at the daughter he thought he'd never know. "Yeah, I guess we are, kiddo."

  "And you're gonna live in a house together till you get old, like Gwamma and Gwampa?"

  He grinned and nodded. "Yup."

  "Me, too?"

  Jirrah looked swiftly at Esther and Vincent. "Well, I reckon we need to talk to your grandma and grandpa about that."

  Tani gaped in alarm. "Do I hafta leave my gwamma and gwampa?"

  As one they turned to face Tani's grandparents. Vincent and Esther had moved away from them, standing together at the base of the back stairs. They held hands tightly, watching Tani's obvious rapport with her parents, their faces filled with painful sorrow. "It looks like you already won," Vincent muttered bitterly.

  Tani flew to him, kissing her grandparents. "I love you, Gwampa! I don't wanna leave you and Gwamma!"

  Esther kissed her with trembling lips. "But you want your mummy and daddy, Tani. You can't live with all of us."

  "Why not?" Tani cried, tears streaming down her little face. "Why can't we all live together like Jarred's fambily? Why?"

  Vincent's eyes burned into Tessa's, then Jirrah's, in open challenge. "You take her from us, and we'll all pay the price—including Tani. She'll hate you for it one day."

  Silent tears streamed down Tessa's face.

  Jirrah nodded curtly. "True—but the same applies to both of you." He looked Esther and Vincent straight in the eyes. "We don't want to take her from you—but we've been cheated of our daughter the past five years. We want to be a part of her life. If you want to stay here, we can move here, too, live right nearby, so Tani can have us all."

  "Yes!" Tani cried, dancing around the yard. "Oh, cool!"

  Jirrah went on. "Or if you'd like to move closer to town, I could buy a few acres—say, ten or twenty—and build houses on it, one for you, one for us. I also need a studio separate from the house, and a place for my family when they come to visit." He watched their reactions. "I could build you a house of your own, right next door, where you'd always have Tani with you. We could become one family. Would you consider that—for Tani's sake?"

  "We—we don't have any family left—all we h-have is Tani," Esther quavered, fat tears rolling down her cheeks.

  Tess smiled, with all her generous heart. "Well, since I already love you both, maybe we can try Jirrah's idea? We have two kids who need grandparents, who'd love to have a resident grandma and grandpa—and Tani won't have to decide who she wants to live with, because she'll be with all of us, all the time. And she won't be subjected to legal arguments or court cases."

  Vincent's mouth worked, his eyes hard; but then he caught sight of Tani capering up her tree house, and slowly, he nodded.

  "Thank you, Vincent," Tessa whispered. "If you'd consider it, I'd love to have parents as loving as you are." She smiled up at Tani, giving Esther and Vincent time to think. "You already got one wish, swee
tie. You're a big sister. We're going to Sydney to get your baby brother Michael from Aunt Leslie's—that's Daddy's sister—so he can live with us."

  As Tani whooped, she looked at the Joneses, tense and silent. "There's two grandchildren who need you. I already love you. Please think it over. Please."

  Vincent whispered a few words to his wife. Esther nodded; then he came to them under the shade of the enormous old gum tree. "This place is too much for us now—you know that, Tessa. We can barely keep it up anymore, and, if we're honest with ourselves, we've known for some time we're not well enough to bring up Tani on our own. If—if you'd build us that house, we'd do our best to be good grandparents—to both your kids."

  Jirrah and Tessa turned to Esther, who nodded and smiled through her tears. "We knew your grandfather, boy. That's enough for us to know you're a good man. And Tessa, you're already good for Tani. If—if you mean it—we'd be proud to join your family."

  "Oh, we mean it all right," Jirrah replied gently. "I reckon we'll need you as much as you need us."

  Tess turned to look at him; and, in her eyes, he saw the one expression he'd craved to see since the first day he'd seen her in Lynch Hill.

  Joy.

  The brave wild swan flew high, pure bliss on wings. She'd found her forever, and she was flying joyfully toward it. To him, and the life they would make together.

  "Mulgu," he murmured huskily, reaching for her. With a little cry Tess threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

  Tani yelled from the tree: "I think they're gonna start kissin' again. Yuk."

  "I think you're right," Esther agreed with a little wise smile. "And I reckon they'll be doing more of it in the future."

  "Reckon she's right," Jirrah murmured, grinning; then Tess's lips met his, and no more words were necessary.