The Hungry Heart Fulfilled (The Hunger of the Heart Series Book 3) (14 page)

 

 

She grimaced. “Very
kind of you, I’m
sure. But now
you’ve fallen out
with your father and her over me, and I have a feeling they're
not going to be
so forgiving,” Emer observed, her teeth gnawing at her bottom
lip anxiously as
all Myrtle had just told her weighed heavily on her mind.

 

 

Dalton shook his
head, and stroked
back his son's thick dark shock of hair. “I don’t care any
more about either of
them, or what anyone says about our love. I’ve broken with my father
over the way he's acted
towards you. I've
moved out of his mansion, and Adrian had been kind enough to
let me move in
here, and even share his consulting rooms downstairs.

 

 

"As for the
Lyndons, they may
choose to move against my father overtly as business rivals,
but that can
hardly harm me now. I
have some
money of my own, you know, and am now completely independent
of the Randall
Shipping Company. 
Let them
do as they like,” Dalton informed her.

 

 

“I see,” Emer sighed.

 

 

He stroked back a
vibrant curl from
her cheek tenderly. “I love you, Emer. Nothing has ever changed that
in the past, nor will I
allow anything to
damage our love in the future. I may not have as much to offer
as I might have
done last summer, but what I have is yours.”

 

 

“It's kind of you
to say so, but I
can’t expect you to be tied to a cripple for the rest of your
life,” Emer said
curtly.

 

 

"You stop talking
like that
this instant, do you hear me!” Dalton reprimanded her sternly.
He gripped her
hand and kissed it.

 

 

“I love you, Emer,
and walking or
not, you're the only woman I've
ever
cared about or could
ever care about.   After
everything I've seen you
endure, how could I do anything less than admire, respect, and
love you with my
whole heart.

 

 

"And now that
you're the mother
of my child, I love you even more than before, if such a thing
is possible. I
look at you sitting there feeding him so tenderly, and know
that this is what
was meant to be. Why we were brought together on the
Pegasus
,
and why we can
never be kept apart again.

 

 

"It's because we're
so much a
part of each other that I can scarcely breathe if I'm not with
you, my love. So
I will
not
allow
you to be noble and renounce me. Nor will I listen to such
pessimistic talk about
your condition, darling.

 

 

“You’ll get well, and we’ll be happy,
do you hear
me, Emer? As soon
as the Bishop
comes back, I want him to marry us and baptise the baby. Then we
shall start
making plans for what we're going to do with the rest of our
lives, taking it
one day at a time.”

 

 

Emer nodded
silently, and saw that
the baby was replete, and had fallen asleep.

 

 

“Could you help put
him in his cot
again,” Emer requested, stroking his petal soft cheek with one
finger, almost
as if she couldn't believe her eyes. "I'm feeling rather
sleepy now."

 

 

“All right. We’ll go now, and
look in on you again
in a little while, won’t we, sweet William,” Dalton cooed at
the child. He laid
him in the wheeled bassinet, and began to tuck him in
tenderly.

 

 

Despite her woes,
Emer smiled
softly.

 

 

“I can see I’m
going to have to keep
a tight rein on his daddy to stop him from becoming a
completely spoilt
monster.”

 

 

“Well, he’s already
so much like me,
I’m afraid it's a serious danger anyway, even leaving aside
the fact that he is
the most incredible thing that’s ever happened in my life,
except for you, of
course,” Dalton breathed, as he bent to kiss Emer on the lips.

 

 

“Yes, I must say
that is completely
unfair. I had
hoped he might at
least have my hair or eyes, but look, he's raven-headed just
like you, and his
eyes are already turning pale gold. Plus, look at the way he waves
his fist about shows his
sheer
arrogance,” Emer laughed.

 

 

“Our next one will
be like you, I’m
sure of it,” Dalton murmured against her ear seductively.

 

 

“Dalton, really,”
Emer blushed at
his words, and the erotic things he was doing to her with his
tongue and lips.

 

 

“Don’t worry, my
love, tempting
though you are, I'm your doctor too, and you're under orders
to have complete
rest. And much
as I would love another
child straight away, my dear, it's both physically impossible
at the moment, as
well as practically.

 

 

"You must do your
best to get
well, and we will have to wait until you're able to walk again
before you ever
undertake resuming our former lovemaking, let along anything
so arduous as
another pregnancy.

 

 

"Besides, I want to
have you
and William to myself for a while before we start expanding
the family any
further. And no,
I’m not
forgetting about Saoirse and the others, Emer, but you know
what a selfish
devil I am. Joe
and Myrtle are
looking after the children together, and well, I think we’re
going to have
another wedding in the family.”

 

 

“Really? How wonderful,” Emer said
enthusiastically, giving Dalton
the first genuine smile he had seen in a long time.

 

 

“Don’t tell them I
told you. I
think they were waiting for the right
time, and wanted to surprise you.”

 

 

“Well, they have,
though now that I
think about it, they're perfect for each other. His quiet
seriousness balances out her
streak of wildness,
and when it comes to the orphanage, they're both even more
dedicated than
myself.”

 

 

He caressed the baby's belly,
bringing up a good
solid belch which caused them to both laugh in delight.

 

 

Then he said, “No
one could be more
dedicated than you, my love.
But I
have been thinking, with this new development, the fire and
your injury, I
mean, would you be willing to hand over the orphanage to them,
and work with me
and Adrian instead, as a nurse or perhaps even a doctor?”
Dalton asked softly.

 

 

Emer stared at
Dalton in stunned
surprise.

 

 

“It was actually
Adrian’s
idea," he said quickly, "though as soon as he suggested it, I
kicked
myself for being such a fool as to not have thought of it
myself. You're
young, intelligent, and know more
about fevers than most doctors practising for years. And whatever
you don’t already know,
Adrian and I could
teach you.”

 

 

“Oh, Dalton, it
sounds wonderful
really, but this is all too sudden. I can’t even be sure I will ever
walk again,” Emer
sighed, stroking
Dalton’s face lovingly, but conscious all the while of the
disasters their love
affair had already caused.

 

 

“I know, I know, so
we will say no
more about it for the present. But if Joe and Myrtle are to
get married, then
by all means help them with the orphanage if you wish, but let
them start
running it for themselves more and more too.”

 

 

Emer nodded, and
felt her eyelids
droop. “I will,
and thank you. But
we can talk about all this later. I feel Adrian's medicine at
last, so I think
I should sleep now.”

 

 

He nodded. “I’ll
leave you then, my
love. Call if
you need anything,
and sweet dreams.”

 

 

Dalton stooped to
kiss her lovingly
on the lips, and wheeled the child out of the room as
reverently as if it were
the most precious gift he had ever received.

 

 

She smiled softly.
It certainly was
for her, but at what cost….

 

 

 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

 

 

The following
morning brought a
sunny, bright summery day, but Emer’s mood was bleak as she
waited for her
expected visitor.

 

 

She had slept
fitfully, and was
tormented by the fear that she would never walk again. But
even more terrifying
was what her enemies could do to her and her friends as she
lay helpless, if
she didn't forestall them in some way.

 

 

So after forcing
herself to eat
heartily, she insisted on washing and changing into fresh
linens. With the help
of Adrian's servants, she also had the whole bedroom cleaned
before she settled
back into bed again.

 

 

Then she sat
waiting for her
visitor.

 

 

Madeleine was
ushered in promptly at
ten o’clock, and Emer was at least pleased to see that she had
the good grace
to look abashed at what she had done.

 

 

“Please sit down,
Miss Lyndon. I
shall call you Madeleine, if I may, for the sake of
convenience. I
will come straight to the point. The orphanage was burnt to the
ground
several evenings ago, and only by the mercy of God was no one
injured."

 

 

"Yes, I had heard
about it.
Dalton told me," she lied.

 

 

"You did more than
hear, and
not from Dalton, for he hasn't left my side since he rescued
me from the
burning building, and he has never confided in you."

 

 

Her eyes narrowed
to furious
slits. "I don't
know what you
mean. Dalton and I—"

 

 

"Please don't play
me for a
fool. You mean
nothing to Dalton,
and never did. As for what I mean, spare me the innocent act.
Your distinctive
reticule was found in the back of the house where the fire
started, and four
different people saw you there as well, dressed in a dark
cloak and a pink
gown.

 

 

"The police
constables are
asking questions, and I myself would have no compunction about
turning you in
after what you tried to do were it not for the disgrace it
would bring to your
parents and Dalton due to him having been so closely
associated with you
recently.”

 

 

Madeleine hissed,
“I’m only sorry
you didn’t all die, homeless, wretched urchins! And you, you hussy,
trying to steal my
husband from me!” She
rose to her feet and headed for the door, but Emer's next
words halted her
flight.

 

 

“You aren’t married
to him yet, nor
I think will you ever be. Dalton broke off your engagement,
did he not?"

 

 

"Yes,
but—"

 

 

"At the end of the
day, I believe
Dalton is a decent, honest man, who will marry the woman he
loves, not the
woman his father wishes him to take as a piece of property in
a business
merger.”

 

 

She spun around in
the doorway to
glared at her. “He may not take me, but he will certainly
never marry you! His
father would cut him off without a
penny.”

 

 

“Frederick Randall
already
has
cut Dalton off, if
you must know.”

 

 

Madeleine’s face
fell abruptly.

 

 

Emer gave a snort of contempt. “I thought you might
find that Dalton’s
attractions diminished quite rapidly after hearing the news. I love
Dalton, so it
makes no
difference to me what his father does. Poverty is no novelty to me,
I can assure you.

 

 

“But no, I doubt he
would be acting
wisely if Dalton married me, not after everything we’ve been
through. In
addition, I love him too much to
expect him to give up everything for me.

 

 

"No, you are
welcome to him,
Madeleine, if you can try to win him and if he will take you,
on the condition
that you make sure you never give him cause to regret his
choice. Adrian
Lovell has also told me all
about your indiscretions, and I would not have Dalton become
the laughingstock
of the town over your infidelities."

 

 

The other woman's
eyes narrowed even
further, but she said nothing.

 

 

“In return for my
silence on all
these matters, you must also promise the orphanage a
charitable donation of
fifty thousand dollars to make up for all the harm you've done
to those
innocent children, and then the matter is at an end.

 

 

"But if you ever
try to harm me
or my family or friends again, we will all come forward,
scandal or no, and
tell the whole world what you've done,” Emer stated calmly.

 

 

“Very well, I shall
accept your
offer.” Madeleine frowned, but reached in her bag and wrote a
cheque for the
full amount without even blinking.

 

 

“One last point,”
Emer said, as
Madeleine was about to leave.
“You
don’t simply hate me, you hate the poor. I wonder if it could be
because of your childhood. The Bishop was
boasting to me, quite
confidentially of course, about how well you had turned out,
one of the
Catholic orphanage’s greatest success stories."

 

 

She looked as
though she had been
slapped. "He had no right—"

 

 

Emer lay back
against the crisp
white pillowcases with a satisfied smile. Her guess based on
all she had heard
and seen had been correct after all.

 

 

"You resented me
for helping
those children because as a child you felt abandoned and
neglected, and
believed no one ever wanted to help you when you were placed
in the
institution. But
now you have
everything, two loving parents with wealth and position. You could
have done
something to make
up for all you suffered. But no, you wanted the children who
reminded you of
what you once were to be wiped out.