Losing Control (12 page)

She walked straight to Taury and
Fawn, nodded her hello.

“You look beautiful, Mother,” he said
in a tired voice. “But then you always do.”

“Thank you, dearest. I admire your
choice in costume, Ms. Hamilton; the scarlet woman, indeed.”

“I’m glad you like it. Yours suits
you well, too. Reminds me of Marie Antoinette, though I should think she was
quite a bit younger than you when she dressed that well.”

“Hum, beauty is ageless, or haven’t
you heard?”

A man in a tuxedo stepped forward;
judging by his used car salesman smile Fawn assumed he was a politician.

“Good Evening, Mrs. Trahern. Could I
offer you your first dance of the night?”

“Of course, Senator Blanchett; I’d be
honored. See you two later, I’m sure. Oh, and Ms. Hamilton, I think I have a
surprise for you, lurking about somewhere.”

She sauntered off with the senator,
leaving Fawn puzzled and Taury furious.

“What did she mean by that?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care. I’m
sick of the way she talks trash to you. Though I do love how you throw it right
back at her. I want to go up to your bedroom now.”

“Oh, not even one dance? I’ve never
danced at a ball before.”

“All right, maybe just one.”

He bowed again then set his arm about
her waist and took her right hand in his left. They swayed to the music;
everything and everyone around them became a blur of colors and shapes. Fawn
sighed as he clung to her, chest to chest. He was watching her cleavage rise
and fall. She could just imagine the delights that awaited her once he got her
back upstairs.

Then it hit her – that damned pain.
She stopped dancing, huddled over in a vain attempt to quench it.

“Fawn, are you okay? Should I take
you to the hospital?”

“No, no, it’ll pass. Let me sit down
somewhere quiet.”

He nodded, helped her away from the
staring crowd, and into
Elizabeth
’s study.

THIRTEEN

Taury eased Fawn down into a wing
chair and knelt beside her.

“I knew I should’ve called another
doctor. We can’t let this go on. What if it’s something really serious? I don’t
want to lose you…”

His voice trailed off; tears welled
in the blue eyes. He tore the mask off, tossed it in the floor. Fawn removed
her mask, placed a comforting hand on his cheek.

“I was a fool to wait this long. But
I just couldn’t face being in a doctor’s office again.”

“Sit back and rest. I’ll call 911.”

He hurried to the desk, picked up a
phone. Fawn tried to relax the breath she’d been holding. The pain was ten
times worse than before, and she could feel something hot running over her
inner thighs. She discreetly lifted the gown, saw blood trailing down her
ankles and into her shiny red heels.

“A period?” she thought. “That’s
what’s causing this pain?” But she knew in her heart that it was more. She had
felt this kind of desperate, imminent loss in the past.

“Hurry, Taury,” she pleaded.

The study door opened; to her shock
two very familiar forms came through – her parents! They were dressed in
regular evening clothes, and wore no masks. Both seemed terribly somber.

“Mom? What are you … oh, are you the
surprise Mrs. Trahern was talking about?”

“I suppose we must be. We were amazed
when she called and personally asked us to come up here.”

Taury slammed the phone down. “I
can’t believe they put me on hold! Did you say my mother asked you here?”

“Yes,” her father answered. He looked
odd to Fawn, not his usual, assured self. Some mystery was gnawing at him,
wounding his pride.

“Your mother wants us to take Fawn
home, to
San Diego
.”

“That’s ridiculous, Mom. I’m not a
child to be taken home. Who does she think she is?”

“She’s someone powerful, who can ruin
a man’s life, I should think,” Kent Brennan said. Fawn stared at him.

“Are you talking to me now, Dad?”

“Yes, Fawn, I am. And I want to ask
you to come with us now, with no more questions.”

The door opened again; this time the
Queen entered. She looked from one person to the next, trying to size up the
situation.

“Well, here you all are! A nice,
happy little reunion, hum?”

“Mother, I don’t know what the hell
you’re planning, but I can’t deal with it right now! Fawn is in pain.”
Something caught his eye; he glanced down at her feet, saw the blood pooling
under her shoes. “Oh my God! Why didn’t you say something? I’ve got to get you
out of here, now!”

He grabbed her up, started out of the
study.

“Wait!”
Elizabeth
calmly ordered. “Take her out the
side door. You’ll gather less attention if you go through the courtyard to the
back drive. The Bentley is parked there.”

“Fine.
Are the keys in it?”

“Greg is behind the wheel. I told him
to have it ready in case…”

“In case the Brennans needed a
getaway car for their kidnapping? You’re a piece of work, Mother!”

June stepped forward to open the
French doors. She and Kent followed Taury out.

“Hold on now, baby, just hold on!” he
whispered as he carried her over a narrow stone courtyard lined with hedges. It
was dimly lit; Taury missed a step. Kent leaned forward, caught them both.

“What’s wrong with her?” June asked
in a shrill, unfamiliar voice.

“I don’t know. She’s been having pain
for awhile, but she said it was nothing to worry about. I should’ve forced her
to see a doctor, but I knew what she’d been through with that prize fool of a
husband you two found for her. I guess I didn’t want her to suffer through all
that again. Hold that gate back, would you?”

Kent
stepped ahead, swung open the gate
to the driveway.

“We’d like to ride along with you to
the hospital.”

“Sure, if you keep out of the way!”

Taury was so strong. Fawn could see
the determination in his eyes. He gave her a will to fight, to keep from
passing out. But the pain threatened to tear her in half. She covered her mouth
to quell an agonized scream.

“Taury, I’m afraid!” she cried.

“Hang on, I’ve got you! You’ll be
okay!”

She watched her father’s face as they
rushed by him. He seemed so old suddenly, and weak. She looked over Taury’s
shoulder at her mother; was awed to see tears staining her cheeks. Did she love
her, after all?

The pain was unbearable. Fawn
struggled to suppress it but it was no use; the blood was draining out of her,
taking all her strength. She tried to stay awake but her body only wanted to
sleep, to black out the pain.

“Taury!” she sobbed. “I can’t fight
it! I can’t…”

She went limp in his arms. He paused,
made sure she was breathing then slid her onto the back seat and climbed in to
prop her head on his chest. Kent and June crowded in on the front seat with
Greg.

“Where to, Mr. Trahern?”

“
Cambridge
… it’s the closest!”

“Will do!”

Greg jumped the Bentley out onto the
street like a horse from a starting gate.

Fawn drifted back into consciousness,
everything she heard was amplified, distorted. Taury’s heart beat like thunder
in her ear. She glanced up into the blue eyes, he kissed her damp forehead. Her
mother’s whispers echoed round the car. “Oh,
Kent
, if anything should happen to her
I’d never forgive myself!” To which her father muttered, “We must have faith,
June.”

Faith, from someone who’d never once
uttered anything akin to a prayer in the twenty two years she’d known him. Nor
a please or a thank you, either, as far as she could recall. Why must people
wait until the unthinkable is on the verge of happening before they show some
ounce of humanity?

She focused on Taury’s face. He was
calm on the exterior but a growing fear shadowed his gaze. They’d become so
close these past few weeks. Not only sexually, but the conversations they’d had
and the emotions and beliefs they’d shared. He was so deep in her fiber now she
could not imagine being without him and she knew it must be the same for him.

“I love you, Fawn,” he breathed in
her ear. “Don’t leave me. Don’t ever leave me.”

“What was it you told me? I can’t
promise I won’t leave you, but I can promise I’ll always come back? Believe
that, darling.”

The pain swallowed her, took her away
into a dark, cold dream where the sun feared to shine and the night went on
endlessly. She caught glimpses of scenes and sounds – people in white coats
with blood on their tight gloves, bright ugly rectangular lights glaring at her
from pale ceilings, Taury’s beautiful face offering a sad but hopeful smile;
machines clicking and clocks ticking, her mother’s crying and Taury’s sweet
voice softly whispering her name.

Ages later, or so it seemed, when
Fawn woke, she was in a large, comfortable bed in a crisp white hospital room.
It must have been long past morning but the curtains were still drawn. She felt
woozy, wanted to sit up but couldn’t. There were tubes all over her.

Her abdomen was sore. She began to
cry.

“Hey, calm down! I’m here;
everything’s all right!”

She glanced over towards the window.
Taury was lying on two chairs pulled together to make a cot. He still wore the
costume from the ball, though he had shed everything but the white shirt and
gray pants.

He rose quickly, came to her; pressed
warm lips against hers while his hands gently wiped away the tears.

“No more crying, Fawn. You’ve passed
the worst of it now!”

“What happened to me? I thought I’d
died!”

“No, no, you’re fine. But brace
yourself for a hard fact…”

She hesitated, though she felt she
already knew what he was about to say.

“Tell me the truth…”

“You had an ectopic pregnancy, and it
ruptured. They were afraid for awhile that the bleeding wouldn’t stop. They
said I might lose you. I told them I wouldn’t, that you promised to come back.
Then the doctors finally found a way to stop the bleeding and fixed you up.”

“I was really pregnant?”

“Yeah, I guess so, though they said a
pregnancy like that can’t go to term. They figured it happened because you were
so messed up inside from all the in vitro stuff.”

The realization that she had just
lost Taury’s child caused the tears to flow like rivers from the corners of her
swollen eyes.

“Don’t cry, Fawn. It was meant to
be.”

“What kind of cruel God would do this
to me again? And this time it was yours! I would’ve loved that baby so much!”

“I thought you didn’t want to share
me with anyone?”

“That’s different, Taury. I wouldn’t
have excluded it from our love, like Connie and Beau did with my mom. I would
have cherished your baby. Do you think we could try again? Did they say we
could?”

A shadow crossed his face; she knew
the answer.

“Oh, God, they did a hysterectomy! I
could feel that something wasn’t right inside me the moment I woke up!”

“There was no other option. You were
hemorrhaging. It was the only way to save you!”

“But, don’t you see? I’m not a woman
anymore!”

She began to sob violently.

“Hush, darling.” Taury lifted the
sheets and her hospital gown. He bent down, kissed her bandaged abdomen.

“Being able to produce a baby doesn’t
make you a woman! It’s being kind and considerate and loving. And you’re all
those things, and more!”

He replaced the gown and sheets then
eased himself into the bed, careful not to disturb any tubes or IVs. He turned
on his side and kissed her cheek.

“You’re upset, and tired, and
wounded, too. Once that passes you’ll see how lucky you are just to be alive. I
know I feel blessed to be able to look into your eyes again!”