Heartwishes (43 page)
Authors: Jude Deveraux
Tags: #Fantasy Fiction, #General, #Romance, #Fantasy, #Historical, #Fiction, #Love Stories
I had no idea that when I made that wish, Julian was already dead.
The next day, when Winnie was told that Julian’s body had been found, she was stoic. She didn’t cry. Only those of us who loved her knew the pain that was inside her.
The tears were all shed by his stepmother. I never believed that Julian’s fall from the roof was an accident. When his odious stepmother cried so hard she had to be helped into the church at the funeral, I sneered at her tears. I told Aunt Cay that I thought the woman had murdered Julian.
Aunt Cay said nothing to that but I think she agreed with me. We left England soon after that, and on the voyage home, Winnie found out that she was carrying Julian’s child. That was when her tears came—tears of joy and happiness.
To me, Winnie’s news was proof of the truth of the Heartwishes Stone. It had done its best to fulfill the wish, but I have always wondered if Julian would have lived if only I’d made my wish sooner.
I didn’t tell Winnie of the wish, for she would have scoffed at it and told me how babies were made. Besides, I didn’t want to take away from her happiness.
She wanted to run and tell Aunt Cay and Uncle Alex right away. As we ran through the ship to their cabin, I was afraid of the wrath of the older folks, but there was none. There were no lectures about the sin of fornication. In fact, they looked at each other with twinkling eyes, as though they knew about youthful passion.
Still, I worried about Winnie’s parents’ reaction. She agreed to let Uncle Alex talk to them first. Whatever he said worked because there was only happiness surrounding Winnie’s news. Her parents arranged that the church records would say the boy, named Patrick Julian Aldredge, was born to her brother and his wife. Legitimacy would keep the child from being ridiculed.
Winnie used her inheritance from her grandparents to build a lovely little house out of town beside a lake, and there she
raised her child. She was never officially certified as a doctor, but she learned enough from her father and grandfather that she had a thriving practice.
Young Patrick grew up to be as handsome as his father and became the town’s doctor.
As for Winnie, she never got over her loss of the man she loved; she never married. Aunt Cay carved a little portrait of Julian and put it above the fireplace in the house that Winnie built for herself and Julian’s son. Uncle Alex figured out an ingenious way to make a code to open the picture. Behind it we hid the Heartwishes Stone, and I hope its secret is never found out. As it turned out, I did not need any magical wishes to find a man who would love me and who I could love in return. My life has been good. However, I do not mean to be maudlin, but even after all these many years, I miss Winnie every day of my life.
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