The Hungry Heart Fulfilled (The Hunger of the Heart Series Book 3) (13 page)

 

 

Emer looked up a
short time later as
Dalton popped his head around the door with their infant son
cradled in his
arms.

 

 

She felt her heart
surge at the
sight of the two of them together, and would have beckoned him
to come in, but
Myrtle said urgently, “Emer, I know you're not well yet, but
there is a matter
that requires immediate attention. Is it possible to be alone with
you for a moment?”

 

 

“I want to see
Dalton and the baby,
but you look worried.” Emer
smiled
weakly. “Dalton
would you mind terribly
if Myrtle spoke to me for a minute alone?”

 

 

Dalton kissed her forehead, and murmured,
“I don't mind. So
long as you know that you and I are going to have a private
conversation as
soon as you're up to it.” He gently laid the slumbering infant
down next to her
on the bed.

 

 

Emer could see his
eyes golden eyes
glowing with what she felt certain could only be love for his
son. "Thank
you."

 

 

"Thank you. Now
that I have you
back and we share this beautiful boy in addition to everything
else we've faced
together, well, though the road has been hard for us both,
thanks to you both,
my happiness is complete."

 

 

"I'm glad."

 

 

"I just want you to
feel the
same."

 

 

She smiled up at
him wanly, and
shook her head. "Perhaps one day, but so much has happened
and—"

 

 

"I understand. Rest
now, and
enjoy him while you talk to Myrtle." He strode towards the
door, and she
sadly watched him leave.

 

 

She glanced down at
her son, a
perfect miniature of his father that made her heart turn over.

 

 

Once the door was
shut, she turned
her gaze to her friend’s
worried face. “Well, Myrtle, what on earth is so important
that it can't wait
for me to even talk to the father of my child?”

 

 

“I don’t like to be
the bearer of
bad news, but the authorities are investigating the fire," her
friend said
in a hurried whisper.

 

 

"Investigating?"
Emer
repeated blankly.

 

 

"If we can’t come
up with a
satisfactory explanation, you'll be blamed for negligence with
regard to the
orphanage and all the children in your charge. Everyone could have
been killed. If the
wind had been
blowing, the whole property, and even the farms nearby could
have gone up like
a bonfire.”

 

 

She stared at her
friend as though
she were speaking a foreign language. “What is it you’re
trying to tell me,
Myrtle?”

 

 

Her friend sighed
heavily, then
said, “It’s just that Adrian, Charlie and Sissy all saw her,
and Mrs. Jenkins
as well. That’s
why I went looking
and found these at the back of the house, along with three
emptied oil
lanterns, which Patrick swears he had just filled that
morning.”

 

 

“Saw who? Found
what?” Emer said in
confusion.

 

 

Then she looked at
the box of safety
matches, and the distinctive beaded reticule she had admired
so much when
Madeleine had first left it behind, slightly scorched, but
still intact.

 

 

A quick perusal of
its contents, a
cheque book, and several monogrammed handkerchiefs and fan
with the initials
‘M.A.L’ left her in no doubt of the owner’s identity.

 

 

Emer gasped. If she
hadn’t already
been laying down, she probably would have fainted.

 

 

“It’s unthinkable,”
she finally managed
to whisper. “Could she hate me so much? And those poor
children…”

 

 

“That’s not the
point," Myrtle
said with a shake of her head. "The point is she should be
made to
pay. It’s only
because Dalton is
still officially affianced to her that I have said nothing to the
constables, but they're
going to have to know
soon. Otherwise, you might be prosecuted, and you've done
nothing wrong.”

 

 

“You will say
nothing to anyone
about what you all know at the minute, will you? I want you to send
a letter to the lady
in question
immediately, requesting the pleasure of a visit. If the
authorities press you,
you can say you thought Adrian saw a drunken vagrant wandering
around, though
God forgive me for telling the lie,” Emer said as she crossed
herself.

 

 

“All right, Emer, I
shall do it for
your sake, but I think the woman should get what she deserves. She's
a monster!
Those poor babes. What
on earth could have possessed her?"

 

 

"Envy, fear, who
knows."

 

 

"But to harm
innocent children
because she hates you? It's monstrous."

 

 

"I know, I know. At
the same
time, though, if Dalton wants to marry her—"

 

 

"He loves you,
Emer. Anyone can
see that."

 

 

"He's had a strange
way of
showing it."

 

 

"And if you ask me,
it's about
time you sorted things out with hime once and for all. And
high time that you
stopped protecting Dalton from the harsh unpleasantries of
life. Just tell him
the truth about Madeleine Lyndon and his father. Or, if you don’t
want to, because you fear he will blame you, then
let Adrian and I
tell him,” Myrtle insisted.

 

 

“There was no harm
done apart from
the house being gone and we can rebuild that. Say nothing, Myrtle,
either of you.”

 

 

"No harm? You could
all have
been killed!" her friend exploded.

 

 

"But we weren't!"

 

 

"And you're
injured, and the
baby could have died—"

 

 

"We survived, all
of us. Please
control yourself." Emer gave her brown-eyed friend a pointed
look.
"You will say nothing for the present, do you hear me?"

 

 

Myrtle stuck out
her chin
mutinously. “All
right, I will
keep what I know to myself for a little while longer. But if
either of them
tries to harm you again, I'm telling the constables and Dalton
everything I
know, whether you like it or not,” Myrtle threatened as she
flung the door
wide, and stormed out to carry Emer’s message to Madeleine
Lyndon.

 

 

Dalton’s startled
expression at
Myrtle’s assertion that she would tell him everything caused
Emer to groan, and
turn her head away.

 

 

“I’m sorry, Emer, I
didn’t want to
eavesdrop, only I thought you might need some of his things,
and I was
wondering if you wanted to have a try at feeding him
yourself?” Dalton asked
quietly.

 

 

She could see him
looking at her
curiously, but recognising that she wasn’t yet ready to
confide in him
regarding any of her secrets, he didn't ask her to clarify
Myrtle's words.

 

 

“I’ll try, but
perhaps I won’t have
enough milk,” Emer worried, unbuttoning the front of her
nightdress.

 

 

It was then that
Emer got the worst
shock of the day, for when she moved to sit up, she suddenly
realised that she
had no sensation in
the lower half
of her body.

 

 

“My legs, I can’t
feel my
legs!” Emer
exclaimed, wide-eyed
with fear, as she threw back the covers and desperately tried
to wiggle her
toes.

 

 

“Adrian! Adrian!”
Dalton shouted, as
he gathered up the baby to put it safely back in the wheeled
bassinet he had
brought, and then wrapped his arms around Emer, trying to
subdue her hysterical
weeping.

 

 

“What is it? What’s happened?”
Adrian asked as he
raced into the room.

 

 

“She can’t feel her
legs, move her
toes or anything,” Dalton informed the other doctor as Emer
continued to
whimper.

 

 

The mild-mannered
doctor nodded. “I
was afraid of that when we awakened her during the last moment
of labour. It
was apparent to me then that she had
no sensation in her lower limbs. She couldn’t even feel the baby
coming."

 

 

"What on earth are
you
saying?" Dalton demanded.

 

 

"I'm sorry, Dalton,
I should
have said something at the time, but you’d both been through
so much, and in
any case, Emer needed her rest.
She didn’t need to be fretted about something that I
hoped would reverse
itself in time.”

 

 

“You
knew
? How?”

 

 

“That beam that came crashing down on
her hit her
hard. She is lucky she wasn’t killed, but there was a great deal
of swelling on
the spine afterwards. I had no way of knowing how much internal
damage has been
done. I kept her
sedated for the
past three days, hoping Emer would get a chance to lie still and
recover, but
it seems now I may have been overly optimistic,” Adrian sighed.
“Am I going to be
like this
forever?” she wept.

 

 

“I won’t lie to
you, Emer. I have no
way of knowing. It
could be a few
weeks, or months before you recover any feeling, or it may be
never. But you
need to rest, and must take a positive attitude. You have a
wonderful son, and you and
Dalton have found each
other again. You're lucky to be alive, and all the children
need you. Now,
here, let's turn you over to have
a look at you, and then perhaps I might get a better idea of
what we're up
against.”

 

 

Dalton and Adrian
examined Emer with
meticulous care, and Adrian suggested various cures for
paralysis, including
hot baths, seaweed treatments and massage of the back and
legs, as well as
certain medicines for reducing the swelling.

 

 

“But we can’t do
anything until
we're certain our interference might not be doing more harm
than good to the
traumatised area,” Adrian stated firmly.

 

 

“So in the
meantime, I advise
complete rest apart from seeing the baby and Dalton, and any
other visitors you
think you might be up to. I also wish to keep you sedated so
that you don’t lay
awake at night fretting.
Do you
agree with my diagnosis, Dr. Randall?”

 

 

“Er, yes, Dr.
Lovell, I do.  
Come on, now, sweetheart,
let’s see if we can’t give baby some supper, and then you can
have something to
eat as well.”

 

 

“How can you talk
about food at a
time like this?” Emer snapped, cuffing the tears from her
cheeks.

 

 

“Doctor’s orders. You are to keep up
your strength,”
Adrian retorted.

 

 

Dalton shot him a
grateful look.

 

 

“I’m going to send
to the orphanage
for Sissy to come here to look after you and the baby, and for
your family to
come and visit,” Adrian said, pouring out some water and
dissolving a powder
into it, before passing the glass to her.

 

 

“I don’t want
anyone to see me like
this!” Emer insisted.

 

 

“All right, we will
leave the visit
for a few days, but I shall send for Sissy all the same,”
Adrian replied.

 

 

After waiting until
she had drunk
every drop of the medicine, he told them he would see them
later, and took his
leave.

 

 

Emer sat staring at
the closed door,
thunderstruck at what had befallen her.

 

 

Dalton said
nothing, but gently
opened the front of Emer’s nightdress, and rested the baby’s
cheek against her
soft flesh.

 

 

Emer let out an
exclamation of
delighted surprise as the baby began to greedily feed,
smacking its lips with
unalloyed pleasure.

 

 

“Lucky little
fellow,” Dalton said
with a grin, his eyes gazing into Emer’s as though he were
about to look into
her very soul.

 

 

“At least I can
feel that,” Emer
said softly as they watched the suckling infant in
fascination.

 

 

“I warn you,
though, he has an
insatiable appetite, just like his father,” Dalton teased.

 

 

Emer blushed at the
double entendre,
and said quietly, “I know you're only trying to cheer me up,
Dalton, but I
think if you don’t mind, I would rather be alone for a while.
All of this, the
fire, the baby, it’s all been too much to take in.”

 

 

“I understand, my
love. I just
wish you would let me in, tell
me how you feel, and what it is you're so afraid of.”

 

 

Emer blinked back
the tears, and
replied, “Nothing, I’m fine.
I
just want to be alone with my son for a while.”

 

 

“Emer, I’ve seen
you like this
before, remember, after your brothers in law and Fred got
washed
overboard. Don’t
shut me out, or
try to fob me of with meaningless platitudes. I love you!”

 

 

“And what of
Madeleine Lyndon?” she
said accusingly.

 

 

“I wrote to her as
soon as I knew
you were safe. I told her I needed to break it off with her,
and that to save
face, I would allow her to tell everyone she changed her mind
about me. I could
have left her standing at the altar today, but I've tried to
play fair to
everyone concerned.

 

 

"I give you my
word, you have
no cause to ever be jealous. She and I have never been
intimate in any sense.
Not the physical, and certainly not the emotional. She's not a
woman one could
ever confide in. And
as for
sharing and caring, she doesn't even know the meaning of those
words. I've only
ever loved one woman in my
life, Emer, and that's you.”