Jewels (27 page)

The boy was still breathless as he told William what he had said, and William thanked him and gave him ten francs, and then he went back upstairs to tell Sarah.

“I just got a message from David,” he started vaguely, walking slowly around the room, trying to see everything so he could take the memories with him. “He … uh … Bertie’s sending a boat for us tomorrow.”

“Here?” She looked confused. She had been dozing while he went out to send the cable.

“Hardly.” He smiled as he sat down beside her on the bed. They were a hundred and fifty miles from the shore, here in La Marolle. “To Le Havre. He wants me to meet him in Paris by eight o’clock tomorrow morning. I suppose Wallis will be going with us.” And then he looked at his wife again, with a worried frown. “I don’t suppose you feel strong enough to come with us.” He knew she didn’t, but at least he had to ask her, for his own peace of mind, although he knew that she could start hemorrhaging again if they moved her too soon. And she had already lost so much blood when she had the baby. She was still very pale, and very weak. It would be a month before she was strong enough to go anywhere, let alone drive to Paris or take a boat trip to England. She shook her head in answer to his question. “I don’t like leaving you here.”

“France is our ally. No harm will come to us here.” She smiled gently at him. She didn’t want him to leave, but she didn’t mind staying. This was their home now. “We’ll be fine. Will you be able to come back soon?”

“I don’t know. I’ll get a message to you as soon as I can. I have to report to the War Office in London, and then find out what they want to do with me. I’ll try to get back here as quickly as I can. And when you feel well enough, you should come home,” he said almost sternly.

“This is home,” she whispered as she looked at him. “I don’t want to leave. Phillip and I will be safe here.”

“I know. But I’d feel better about it if you were at Whitfield.” The prospect of that depressed her. She was fond of his mother, and it was a pretty place, but the Château de la Meuze had become home to them, and they had worked so hard to make it what they wanted that now she didn’t want to leave it. There was still a lot of work to do, but she could do some of it herself when she felt strong again, while they waited for him to come from England. “We’ll see,” he said vaguely, and went to pack a bag to take with him the next morning.

Neither of them slept that night, and even the baby cried more than he had the day before. Her milk wasn’t plentiful enough yet for the enormous child, and she was nervous and worried. She saw William get up at five, when he thought she was finally asleep, and she spoke softly in the darkened room as she watched him.

“I don’t want you to go,” she said sadly, and he came to stand beside her and touched her hand and her face, wishing he didn’t have to.

“I don’t want to go either. Hopefully, it’ll all be over soon, and we can get on with our life again.” She nodded, hoping he was right, and trying not to think of the poor people in Poland.

He was shaved and dressed half an hour later, and stood beside the bed again, and this time she stood up beside him. Her head reeled for a moment as she did, and he put a strong arm around her. “I don’t want you to come downstairs, you might hurt yourself trying to get back up.” She was still very wobbly and she might faint and hit her head, but she was too weak to even try and she knew it.

“I love you… Please take care of yourself … William … be careful … I love you….” There were tears in her eyes and in his, too, as he smiled and helped her back into bed.

“I promise … you be careful too … and take good care of Lord Phillip.”

She smiled at her son. He was such a beautiful little boy. He had big blue eyes and blond curls, and William said that he looked just like photographs of his father.

He kissed her as hard as he dared, and then he tucked her tightly into bed and kissed her again, as he touched the long silky hair cascading over her shoulders. “Get strong again…. I’ll be back soon. … I love you … so much. …” He was grateful again that she was alive, and then he strode across the room, and looked at her one last time from the doorway. “I love you,” he said softly, as she cried, and then he was gone.

“I love you….” She called out to him, as she could hear him on the stairs. “William! … I love you! …”

“… I love you too! …” The echo came back to her, and then she heard the enormous front door bang. And a moment later she heard his car start. She got out of bed again just in time to see his car disappear around the bend toward the entrance to the château, as tears fell down her cheeks onto her nightgown. She lay in bed crying, thinking of him for a long time, and then Phillip wanted to be nursed and finally Emanuelle came again. But now, she was going to move in with them. She was going to stay and help Madame la Duchesse with the baby. It was a wonderful opportunity for her, and she was already filled with admiration for Sarah, and crazy about the baby she had helped deliver. But she was never overly familiar. She was unusually poised for a girl her age, and an invaluable help to Sarah.

The days seemed endless to Sarah after William left, and it was weeks before she even began to get her strength back. By October, when Phillip was a month old, she got a call from the Duchess of Windsor to tell her that they were back in Paris. They had seen William just before they left London, and he looked fine. He was attached to the RAF, and he was stationed north of London. The Duke of Windsor had been sent back to Paris as a major general, with the Military Mission to the French Command. But mostly it meant they were doing a lot of entertaining, which suited them both to perfection. She congratulated Sarah again on the birth of her son, and told her to come up to Paris and visit them when she felt a little stronger. William had told them what a hard time she’d had, and Wallis urged her not to overdo it.

But Sarah was already moving around the house again, keeping an eye on things, and making small repairs. She had gotten a woman from the hotel to help her clean, and Emanuelle was helping her take care of the baby. He seemed huge to her and he had gained three more pounds in four weeks. He was absolutely enormous.

Emanuelle’s brother, Henri, was helping Sarah by doing errands, but most of the men and boys who had worked for them had already disappeared and gone into the army. There was no one left to work on the château, except old men and very young boys. Even the sixteen and seventeen year olds had tried to lie their way into the army, and were gone. Suddenly, it seemed like a nation of women and children

Sarah had heard from William several times by then. His letters had gotten through, and he had called once. He said nothing much had happened yet, and he hoped to get a little time to visit her in November.

She had also heard from her parents, and they were desperate for her to come home, and bring the baby. The
Aquitania
had made a crossing to New York just after war was declared, despite everyone else’s fears, but she had still been too weak to move then, so they hadn’t suggested it to her. But three more ships came over to England from New York after that, the
Manhattan
, the
Washington
, and
The President Roosevelt
, to take Americans home to safety. But just as she insisted to William that she was safe where she was, she wrote the same thing in letters to her parents, but she still hadn’t convinced them.

They were terrified of her remaining in France for the war, but she knew how absurd that was. Life around the Château de la Meuze was quieter than it had ever been before, and the region was completely peaceful.

By November, she felt like her old self again. She went for long walks, and often carried Phillip with her. She worked in the garden, and on her beloved
boiseries
, and she even did some heavier work down at the stables whenever Henri had time to help her. His parents had lost all their male employees at the hotel and he helped out there as well He was a nice little boy, very engaging, and very willing to help her. And he loved living at the château, as did Emanuelle. Sarah no longer needed Emanuelle’s help at night, but she moved into the cottage and came up to the château to work in the morning.

It was late November, one afternoon, as she walked home from the woods, singing to Phillip as she carried him in a sling Emanuelle had made her. He was almost asleep as she reached the front door of the château with a sigh, and stepped inside, and then she screamed as she saw him. It was William, standing there in his uniform, looking more handsome than ever. She rushed into his arms, and he held her, trying not to squash the baby. She quickly took off the sling and set him down gently. He had been startled by her scream and he was beginning to cry, but all she could think of now was William as he held her.

“I’ve missed you so…” Her words were muffled by his chest, and he held her so tightly, he almost hurt her.

“God, I’ve missed you too.” He pulled away from her then to see her. “You look wonderful again.” Thinner, but strong and well, and very healthy. “How beautiful you are,” he said, looking as though he wanted to devour her, and she laughed as she kissed him.

Emanuelle had heard them talking. She’d seen the duke when he arrived, and now she came to take the baby. He would want feeding soon, but at least she could free them from him for a little while, so Sarah could spend some time with her husband. They went upstairs hand in hand, talking and laughing, as she asked him a thousand questions about where he was going, where he had been, and where they would send him after advanced training. He had flown in the RAF before and had only needed an update on the new equipment. He was careful not to tell her what he knew. That they were sending him to Bomber Command, to fly Blenheim bombers. He didn’t want to worry her, and he made light of all of it. But he did tell her how seriously people were taking the war in England.

“They’re taking it seriously here too,” she explained. “There’s no one left except Henri and his friends and a bunch of old men, who are too weak to work. I’ve been doing everything myself, with Emanuelle and Henri. But I’ve almost finished the stables. Wait till you see them!” He had wanted half of them set up for the horses they would buy, and a few he wanted to bring over from England, and the rest of it was set up in small rooms for their staff, and bunks for some of the hands they might hire on a temporary basis. It was an excellent system, and the way they’d done it there was room for about forty or fifty men, and at least as many horses.

“It sounds like you don’t need me here at all.” He pretended to sound miffed. “Perhaps I should stay in England.”

“Don’t you dare!” She reached up and kissed him again, and as they entered their bedroom, he spun her around and kissed her so hard that she knew exactly how much he’d missed her.

He locked the door behind them and looked at her adoringly, as she began unbuttoning the jacket of his uniform, and he pulled off her heavy sweater. It was one of his own, and he tossed it halfway across the room as he looked at the full breasts and the waist that was so small again. It was difficult to believe she had ever had a baby.

“Sarah… you’re so beautiful…” He was almost speechless, and almost out of control. He had never wanted her as much, even on their first night together. They almost didn’t make it to the bed, but as they lay together there, they found each other quickly and well, and their longings exploded almost instantly as they gave in to their hunger.

“I’ve missed you so much …” she confessed. It had been so lonely without him.

“Not half as much as I’ve missed you,” he confided.

“How long can you stay?”

He hesitated, it seemed so little to him now, and at first it had seemed such a gift. “Three days. It’s not much, but it’ll have to do. I’m hoping to get back again around Christmas.” That was only a month away, and at least it would give her something to look forward to when he left. But right now, she couldn’t bear to think of him leaving.

They lay together on the bed for a long time, and then they heard Emanuelle with the baby outside their room, and Sarah put on a dressing gown and went to get him.

She brought Phillip back into the room, loudly demanding his dinner. And William smiled at him as he watched him eat hungrily, choking on the milk he was so anxious for, and making all kinds of funny little noises.

“His table manners are appalling, aren’t they?” William grinned.

“We’ll have to work on that,” Sarah said, switching him to the other breast. “He’s a terrible little pig. He wants to eat all the time.”

“It looks to me like he does. He’s three times the size he was when he was born, and I thought he was enormous then.”

“So did I,” Sarah said ruefully, and then William thought of something he had never thought of before, and he looked at her gently.

“Do you want me to be careful?” She shook her head as she smiled at him. She wanted to have lots more of his babies.

“Of course not, but I don’t think we need to worry about that yet anyway. I don’t think I can get pregnant while I’m nursing.”

“Then all the more fun,” he teased. They spent the next three days as they had their honeymoon, in bed most of the time. And in between times, she took him around the property to show him what she’d done in his absence. She had worked on a number of things, and he was very impressed when he saw the stables.

“You really are quite remarkable!” he praised. “I couldn’t have done this myself, certainly not without help from anyone. I don’t know how you did it!” She had spent many, many nights, hammering and sawing and pounding nails well after midnight, with little Phillip in a cradle next to her, bundled up in his blankets.

“I had nothing else to do.” She smiled. “With you gone, there isn’t much to do here.”

William glanced at his son with a rueful smile. “Wait till he starts getting into things. I have a feeling you’ll be kept extremely busy.”

“And what about you?” she asked sadly, as they walked back toward the château. Their three days had already passed, and he was leaving her in the morning. “When will you be home again? How does it look out in the big, bad world?”