Baby of Shame (19 page)

He felt them too. His hands cupped around her head and lifted it away, and he gazed down at her as the tears poured silently down her face.

‘Ah,
Rhianna
, don’t—don’t cry—please, please don’t cry!’

But she could not stop. The tears burned from her eyes, her throat convulsing, and she pressed her face against his shoulder as he wrapped his arms so tightly around her.

‘
Rhianna
—’

She could not hear him. The sobs were racking through her as her hands clutched at his bare, muscled shoulders. He was holding her against him, close and warm and protectively.

He smoothed her hair, her back, and then, when after a long, long time the tears finally died away, he went on holding her, looser now, but still within the circle of his arms.

‘I love you,’ he said to her, his voice quiet.
‘All my life.
The mother of my son, the treasure of my heart.’

She kissed him.
Softly and silently.

Then, softly and silently, she began to make love to the man she loved.

The gold Aegean dawn was breaking through the slats of the wooden shutters in her room.
Their
room, she thought with wonder.
Always now
their
room.
Wherever in the world they were.
For all their lives together.
Wonder filled her, and happiness, and peace and joy, and above all love.
Love that wound them both together, bound them both, each to the other.

She smoothed the curve of his head, tracing the taut line of his cheek. She was cradling him against her, his head pillowed on her breasts. She felt her love for him pour through her.

So long and bitter a journey they had made.

A journey she had not even known she was on.

A line of poetry came to her out of some unknown, unremembered recess.

Surprised by joy…

She felt wonder distil through her again.

I didn’t know. I didn’t know that I was falling in love with him. There was too much hatred, too much anger, too much distrust, too much fear.

But it was happening all along, secretly, in my heart, and I didn’t know.

But her heart had known.
Known better than she had.

Beneath her fingers his dark hair was like silk. In her arms his strong, powerful body lay like a child’s, asleep.

He gave me his child and now he has given himself to me.

And I will keep him safe in love for ever.

He did not stir. Not after so long a night of love. A night that had washed away, for ever, all that had come between them.
A night that had brought them together again for ever.

Someone was shaking her shoulder.

‘Mummy!
Wake up! Daddy is in the way. He’s in your bed and there isn’t any room for
me.’

The piping voice was rich with indignation.

Rhianna
stirred sluggishly as Alexis reached for their son.

‘There’s
always
room for you, Nicky.’

He made more space in the middle of the bed.

His son eyed him disapprovingly. ‘You haven’t got any jim-jams on.’

His father frowned.
‘Jim-jams?’

‘
Pyjamas
,’ mumbled
Rhianna
drowsily. She fumbled under her pillow for her nightdress and sleepily pulled it on.

‘What about Daddy?’ Nicky persisted. ‘And why is he here?’

‘Why are
you
here?’ countered his father. He glanced at his wristwatch and groaned at the early hour.

‘Need a cuddle,’ said Nicky. He clambered up into the bed and with great wriggling and squirming snuggled down between them. Alexis reached his arm across them both—his son and the woman he loved.

His son gave one more wriggle and then went still.

‘Mummy, Nicky, Daddy,’ he said, and went back to sleep.

Rhianna
felt for Alexis’s hand.

‘Happy families,’ she said.

He squeezed her fingers.

‘Happy families,’ he murmured.

Then they both went back to sleep.

To dream of each other and of their son, and the long, long years of happiness that were to come.

R
HIANNA
stood out on the balcony, gazing out over the lake. Overhead, a high Floridian moon sailed serenely.
At her side stood Alexis.
Inside their room, fast asleep, was their son, dreaming of the joys of the day…

‘I wanted to take you to the South Pacific,’ Alexis said ruefully.
‘Or at least the
Caribbean
.’

His eyes flickered around the lake, where the lights from other resort hotels glowed in the night.
Rhianna
turned to him, a smile on her face, love-light in her eyes.

‘I can’t think,’ she said softly, ‘of a better place to spend our honeymoon than in Orlando’s theme parks.’

She got a wry smile in return.

‘Well, I guess that’s a clear majority vote,’ her new husband said wryly. ‘I’ve never seen Nicky so ecstatic.
Or so speechless.’

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

‘Dear God,’ he said into her hair, ‘how can we be so happy?’

She felt tears prick in her eyes. They came freely all the time—tears of joy, of wonder, of gratitude.

‘I love you so much,’ she said.
‘So much, Alexis.
So much that I can’t believe it—not after all we went through.’

He smoothed her hair with gentle fingers.

‘But we came through,’ he said. ‘We came through. Nicky brought us back together.’

A cold shiver went down her spine.

‘I hated that social worker for what she did, and yet it’s thanks to her that we are here now.’ She gave a heavy breath. ‘I know with my brain that she was only doing what she had to do to protect a child she thought was in danger, but—’

He cradled her head, and gazed down into his eyes.

‘No more looking back, my darling—no more looking back. The past is gone.
For both of us.
Only the future remains.’

For one long, endless moment he went on gazing down at her, lovingly, cherishingly. Then, softly, very softly, he lowered his mouth to hers.

‘Tell me, my dear, beloved wife, do you think you are still jet-lagged?’ he asked, as he lifted his mouth away.

Rhianna
reached up and raised her mouth to his.

‘Hardly at all,’ she told him, and brushed her lips to his.

‘I’m so very glad to hear that,’ said Alexis, and kissed her again. ‘And do you think,’ he went on a moment later, winding his arms more closely around her, ‘that Nicky is very, very fast asleep?’

Moonlight gleamed in her eyes.

‘Oh, very fast asleep,’ she assured him.

‘Good,’ said Alexis. ‘In which case…’

He scooped her up in one supple, fluid movement. She gave half a smothered cry. Then he was sliding open the glass door to the room and taking her inside.

Outside, the Floridian moon shone on.

Inside, two people, whose journey to this point had been long and painful, found in each other’s arms the bliss, the
peace, that
only love could bring.