The Billionaire's Secrets (27 page)

Chloe blushed, realising that safe sex and birth control had never even entered her mind. It wasn’t like her to be so irresponsible.

“Don’t worry, I’m completely safe, and unless you don’t want children...”

“No, of course not.
I’d love to have your children,” she said with utter sincerity. Then she laughed. “How many would you lik
e, Mr. Byrne?
Six, ten, twelve?
You know how much I love
children
, and t
here are certainly enough rooms in this place.”

“How about we start with one?
” he said.

“That’s okay too,” sh
e said. She touched her flat st
omach and wondered if at that very moment a child was beginning to form in her womb. She hoped so. She pictured them as a family in a year or so. Lying on the bed, baby
or babies
– did
n’t twins run in families? -
at
her breast,
Gaelan
beside her,
Sophia
playing happily with her cat. She felt so utterly happy and blessed. Never in her wildest fantasies did she imagine her life could have taken such a fairy
-
tale turn. Schoolteacher from the city meets
billionaire
in the castle. Not that it mattered to her that
Gaelan
was rich. She would marry him no matter what he did.
Farmer, shopkeeper, shoe salesman.
The last one made her smile again.
Gaelan
as a shoe salesman was pretty absurd. It was like imagining Mr.
Rochester in Charlotte Bronte’s
Jane Eyre
selling shoes.

“Another smile.
What for this time?”

Chloe didn’t think she could explain what that smile was about. “Just happy,” she said.

“Me too,” he said as he began to trace a finger along the curve of her cheek, exploring the hollow of her throat. "I was wondering if you’d like to go back to teaching after we’re married. I’m sure you’ll want to be more than just Mrs.
Gaelan
Byrne.”

She looked at him, and he hurried on. “You don’t have to teach. You can do whatever you like.”

“It’s not that,” she said. “I was just wondering how I would teach
Sophia
too.”

“Maybe it’s time to send
Sophia
to a school with other children,” he said thoughtfully.

Chloe approved. “I think that would make
Sophia
very happy. You never know, maybe I could get a job at the same school.” She smiled at him mischievously. “That is, when the twins are old enough.”

He laughed
.
This,
Gaelan
Byrne
, he thought
as he kissed her deeply
,
is all you could ever want
.

Chapter 8

May
brought
sunshine. More,
Gaelan
said, than Newfoundlanders were used to - spring usually too
k its own sweet time coming to
The Rock
. Off the headland, icebergs shone in the sunlight, dazzling mountains of icy blue, jutting out of the open water. Gulls dove at the water's surface in search of food, and the air was fresh and salty. The ice pans that had clogged the water only a few weeks before were now a memory, and a boat could be seen chugging through the white-tipped waves.

"Horses d
ancing on the bay,"
Gaelan
said
seemingly out of the blue.

"Pardon?" she said, scanning the water and wondering what he could possibly be referring to.

"Horses dancing on the bay.
It's a Newfoundland expression for whitecaps. Windy uses it all the time."

"I like it," Chloe said
as she watched the waves roll in. "Why don't you have a Newfoundland accent like Windy? Even
Sophia
has a bit of one."

"Boarding school," he admitted. "Bowen and I spent most of the year at school. First in
Montreal, though Bowen went to Toronto. Then I went to university in Boston
, and he headed to New York to act
.
I was
only home for the holidays
, Bowen even less
."

"
I can’t believe we
might
have
been in Boston at the same time!
Though I did grow up o
n
Cape Cod
.
Did you like it? Being away at school so much?"

He looked at her
,
and Chloe could see a flash of sadness in his eyes. "It was pretty lonely - I wouldn't send any child of mine to one," he said with conviction.

Despite the sun, it was still far from warm, and Chloe turned up the collar of her coat against the wind.

"Getting cold?"
Gaelan
asked,
his voice full of concern. He took off one of his gloves and felt her cheek before
unwrapping
the woo
l scarf from his neck and placing
it around her own. "Is that better?" he asked, taking her into his arms.

"Perfect," she answered as she settled into the warm circle of his arms. Her back to him, she rested her head against his chest. "This has to be the most beautiful view in the world."

"I'm glad you agree,"
Gaelan
said. "There are those who find it too wild for their liking..." His voice trailed off
,
and Chloe knew he was thinking of Colleen. She reassured him that she was as much in love with Widow's Cliff as he was. 

"Did you know," he said, "that Leif
Eiriksson
discovered Newfoundland five hundred years before Columbus ever set foot in America? He called it Vineland the Good, and there were Viking settlements here for centuries. There's one near here - it's quite a tourist attraction. If you like, I'll take you there someday."

"I woul
d
like that," she said. She had bought a history of Newfoundland in
Puffin's Cove on the day she’
d met Bowen. It was
fascinating, and she was anxio
us to see more of the province
and
the places she had read about with their quaint names like Blow Me Down,
Twillingate
, and Placentia Bay.

Beside them on the ground was an empty wire cage. Earlier that morning,
they’
d gone to the vet in Puffin's Cove and picked up the bald eagle that she and
Sophia
had rescued on the cliff. The vet had said the bird was finally well enough to be released, and
Sophia
had insisted on being the one to set it free. Chloe felt it
was
an important moment, not just for
Sophia
, but for them all.
A shared experience that united them as a family.
Gaelan
had brought out his camera to record the event and promised to hang one of the photos in his office.

On the trip from the vet
, the bird had sat patiently in its cage and regarded them without fear.
Sophia
said it was because the bird remembered them and knew they had saved him. She spoke to the bird, advising him in a reassuring and confidential tone to stay away from bad men with guns.

They opened the cage on the headland between the house and the cliff. The bird did not fly away immediately. Instead, it perched on the edge of the cage unhurriedly, taking in its new surroundings. It looked healthy and strong, its feathers sleek and shiny, the proud black eyes peering out of its hood of white feathers clear and alert. It was hard to imagine this bird had once been on the brink of death. Careful not to make any sudden moves,
Gaelan
took several pictures. The bird stood so still, Chloe could have sworn it was posing for the camera. Then at last, it spread all five feet of its great wings, hesitantly at first as if testing them, before finally lifting off and flying toward the ocean.

Sophia
waved and called goodbye over and over as the bird circled higher and higher above them. And the bird seemed to say goodbye too, its shrill cry carrying on the wind.

When the bird was only a black speck against the sky,
Gaelan
continued to snap pictures, but now it was
Sophia
he was trying to capture on film. Framed by her wind-tossed blond curls, her expression was one of poignancy. Chloe guessed that while she was delighted to see the eagle healthy again, she felt at the same time a sense of loss as the bird flew aw
ay from them. Chloe felt it too
and said a silent prayer for the bird's safety.

Sophia
was soon look
ing for another distraction and inspired by the wind
went into the house and came back with materials to make a kite. She tied a string to the handles of a plastic gr
ocery bag, and as she ran along
the bag filled with air and billowed out behind her. She was obviously delighted with her creation, and Chloe marvelled how a child with all the toys she could ever want could be happy with something so simple.