The Hungry Heart Fulfilled (The Hunger of the Heart Series Book 3) (16 page)

 

 

She smiled with
sheer relief. “I
would be so grateful, Adrian.
But
is there any way of you not telling Dalton? He has work to do
at the fever
hospital, and if he knew, he would only want to come with me.”

 

 

“I won’t tell him,
I promise. I
will post the letter to John at once,
and speak to the railroad authorities about facilities for you
and the
child. And I
insist on paying for
it myself, as a present to you for all your hard work and
determination.

 

 

"But there is one
thing you are
going to have to decide about.
Are
you going to marry Dalton or not before you go? He’s done nothing
but talk to the Bishop
about the wedding
and baptism.”

 

 

She shook her head. “I'm not going to
marry him laying flat
on my back in a sick bed, and that's final. Now, if you don’t mind,
please bring
William to me for his
feeding, and start making those arrangements.”

 

 

Thus Emer laid her
plan for escape,
longing to be well, but committed to coping on her own, and
giving Dalton time
to pause and reflect on whether or not he really wished to
spend the rest of
his life in poverty with a cripple.

 

 

 

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

 

 

The next week
passed in relative
calm, with Dalton avoiding upsetting her until Emer grew
exasperated at him
treating her like she was made of eggshells.

 

 

He also talked
incessantly about
them getting married, until one day, when she was playing with
the baby,
dangling her mother’s set of carved rosary beads which William
loved just
beyond the grasp of his tiny fingers, Emer said, “Dalton, I
will of course let
our child be baptised, but I can’t marry you.”

 

 

“Impossible. We have to be
married, or else he won’t
be called Randall,” Dalton objected.

 

 

“What does that
matter, since the
important thing is that he should be accepted into the
Church?”

 

 

“I agree, he should
be accepted into
the Church, but we must be married. I’ll even get the Bishop to give
me religious
instruction, and tell me
how to go about converting to your faith, if that's your
objection,” Dalton
offered, seeing Emer playing with the rosary beads.

 

 

She shook her head.
“No, that isn’t
it. I just refuse to have you tie yourself down to a cripple,
that’s all. When
I can walk again, we will
wed. Besides,
it's too soon after
your last wedding date, your one with Madeleine Lyndon,
remember? We
don’t want to cause any more of a
scandal than we have already, now do we?”

 

 

Dalton swore
roundly at her
reminder.

 

 

Emer’s aqua eyes
glittered. “If
that’s your final word on the
subject, then we have nothing left to say to one another,” she
remarked dryly.

 

 

He quirked up one
corner of his
mouth wryly, and settled himself next to her on the edge of
the bed. “I do
apologise for the immoderate
language, my dear. But honestly, Emer, sometimes I think
you’re a stranger, do
you know that? I
have no idea
what’s going on in your head these days. So I just have one question
for you. Do you love me?”

 

 

“Yes, of course I
do, but...”

 

 

“No, Emer, if you
loved me,
really
loved me, there
would be no buts.
No doubts. I
have none,” Dalton
accused harshly.

 

 

Emer was stung by
his criticism, but
could see it was a ploy to get her to give in, and she was
determined not to
allow Dalton to run the risk of ruining his life for an
impossible dream.

 

 

“Sometimes love
isn’t enough,
Dalton.  There’s
duty, and
honour too. Remember
the poem ‘To
Althea?’ I’m
sorry, Dalton, but I
can’t marry you right now. Not after all that's happened
between us in the
past, and such an uncertain future due to my condition.”

 

 

“Well, you’ll have
to understand
then, if I refuse to understand or forgive you,” Dalton
growled, and slammed
out of the chamber, leaving Emer hugging the baby tightly to
her, and crying
over her fate as she tried for the hundredth time that day to
move her immobile
legs.

 

 

Thus another week
passed with an
uncomfortable truce between them, where Dalton sat and
discussed neutral
subjects, but never once brought up their marriage.

 

 

Occasionally Dalton
tried to slip in
a probing question, such as again asking her what had happened
to Cormac, so
that Emer felt she had to be ever on her guard against him,
even though she
longed to trust him, to let herself love him….

 

 

She was relieved
that her plans to
go south to Georgia were finally in place, and that Adrian was
using the
opportunity of an outbreak of cholera in Toronto to get Dalton
out of the way
for a few days so she could depart safely.

 

 

“Dalton’s going to
be furious when
he finds out you’ve gone,” Adrian warned as he helped her
organize the things
she planned to take with her into separate drawers in the
guest room so they
could be packed easily when the time came.

 

 

“I know, but I will
leave him a
letter explaining things, and I will come back as soon as I
can if I’m well.”

 

 

He held up a couple of nightrails. She nodded at one, shook her head
at the other.

 

 

“And what
if you aren’t
ever well?” Adrian asked quietly.

 

 

“Then the
separation will have to be
a test, to see if he really loves me enough to accept me as I
am. I know I
can’t live without him
forever, I love him so, but he has to be allowed time to
decide for himself
what sort of future he wants, with no pressure from either me
or the baby.”

 

 

“So long as his
father doesn’t
pressure him either, he should be fine."

 

 

"I hope so."

 

 

"I know so. I'm
looking forward
to dancing at your wedding. Just trust to love.”

 

 

Emer smiled softly.
“Then I want to
dance at my own wedding too, God willing.”

 

 

"Amen to that." He
held up
a pair of skirts, and they continued her preparations in
earnest.

 

 

Thus it came about
that one morning
in early June, Emer said a tearful farewell to Dalton as he
took his leave for
Toronto.

 

 

“I’ll be back as
soon as we’ve
contained the epidemic.
Take care
of yourself, my treasure, and my darling William for me.”

 

 

“I will. Good luck, and be careful,” Emer said as
she lay prone on
her pillows.

 

 

When he bent to say
farewell, she
finally gave free rein to her passions, and kissed him
ardently, so heatedly
that both had to break away at the intensity of the sensation.

 

 

“I’d better go now,
before I forget
all my good intentions and jump into that bed right on top of
you,” Dalton
panted.

 

 

Emer blushed. “Dalton, sush, Adrian will hear!”

 

 

“My dear, I don’t
care if all of
Canada hears! I
love you.” Dalton
grinned. He gave
her one last
powerful kiss on her lips and waved goodbye from the door.

 

 

“I love you,
Dalton, always,” Emer
called.

 

 

He flashed her a
grin that made him
look positively boyish, bringing her right back to the
wonderfully romantic
days that they had shared aboard the
Pegasus
.

 

 

But once again,
their destinies were
forcing them to journey onward alone. As she listened to his
footfalls
descending the stairs, she settled back against her pillows
sadly and wondered
with a pang when she would ever see him again.

 

 

 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

 

 

If Dalton and the
others hoped that
Frederick Randall would accept his son’s defection and love
affair with Emer
meekly, they were very much mistaken.

 

 

Only Emer remained
uneasy about his
ominous silence and lack of interference. She was not really
surprised when
Frederick struck like a rattlesnake.

 

 

In truth, he had
only been waiting
for an opportunity to get her out of her powerful friends’
protection. Once
his spy Gibson had told him that
Dalton had left town for Toronto, he knew it was his chance to
rid himself of
the meddlesome whore once and for all.

 

 

Frederick reasoned
that if he
couldn’t get Dalton out of Adrian’s house, he would have to
extricate Emer and
her brat somehow.

 

 

Frederick had held
the post of
magistrate in Quebec for some time, though he had seldom
bothered with carrying
out his duties in recent years, since they seemed to take away
valuable time
from his business.

 

 

But he had gone to
the chief
justice, and asked to be calendared again. The unsuspicious elderly
judge had
delightedly complied with
his request.

 

 

With the rumours
circulating about
the orphanage fire, and the willing help of the ingratiating
Pertwee, Frederick
saw his chance to rid himself of Emer forever.

 

 

Emer was just
finishing feeding the
baby when she heard a disturbance downstairs, and wondered who
had come to
call.

 

 

There was a loud
thumping on the
outer door, and then the elderly housekeeper was roughly
grabbed by two
constables, while another two constables marched up the stairs
with Frederick
at their head.

 

 

Emer gasped in
outrage and tried to
cover her naked breast as she saw Frederick storm into the
room.

 

 

Frederick ordered,
“That’s the
woman! Take
her!”

 

 

“We are arresting
you, Emer Nugent
Dillon, on charges of arson to the property of one Mr.
Frederick Randall, on
the 21st of June, 1847, and of arson in order to make a
fraudulent insurance
claim, with attempt to endanger the lives of innocent
children, on the night of
the 22nd of May of this year.
Please come with us.”

 

 

“Sirs, as you can
see, I've just had
a child, and am unable to get out of the bed,” Emer said as
she buttoned her
night gown and began pulling a few things together that were
within reach, to
stuff in the pillowcases, one for her and one for the baby.

 

 

“She’s lying,”
Frederick spat
impatiently.

 

 

“No, I’m not. A beam fell on me
in the fire, and I’ve
been crippled ever since,” Emer said with as much dignity as
she could muster
considering she was so scantily clad, and the baby had begun
to cry
hysterically at all the commotion.

 

 

“We’ll have to
carry her, then,” the
constable said, with no small degree of embarrassment, for
indeed, lying there
with the tiny infant, Emer certainly didn’t look like the
dangerous criminal
Frederick Randall had sworn her to be.

 

 

“At least let me
have some of my
things, a skirt to throw over this nightdress, and a blouse. My
black bag over
there has most of
what I need.”

 

 

“Be careful, she
might have a gun,”
Frederick bellowed.

 

 

“Here, you take the
thing out for me
then. One skirt,
one blouse, a
comb and a shawl,” Emer instructed.

 

 

As the constable
handed them to her,
she stuffed them into the case, and then put all of William’s
things into his
bag.

 

 

“What shall we do
with the child,
sir?” one of the constables asked.

 

 

“Take it with us,
of course.  We
can’t leave it with her, a
criminal. She is
unfit to look
after it. Not after what she did to that orphanage.”

 

 

“No, take me, but
leave the child
here!” Emer pleaded. 
“Leave
him with the housekeeper. I don’t want the child going to
prison with me.”

 

 

“It won’t be going
to prison with
you. It will be going to a decent family who will look after
it properly,”
Frederick claimed, though indeed he had a far different plan
in mind for the
innocent newborn babe.

 

 

“But before we go,
you’ll need to
write a farewell note to your friends, won’t you?” Frederick
asked in a
sinister tone.

 

 

“There’s one
already there, on the
table. You may
open it and read it
if you like,” Emer sighed.

 

 

The letter Emer had
written for
Dalton in preparation for her journey the following day to
Georgia simply read,

 

 

“Dearest Dalton,

 

 

I have decided to
go away for a time
to try to recover my health, and the use of my limbs. I am very
grateful for all you have
done, but do not think
you should be burdened with a crippled wife, and an infant son
at this time in
your life.

 

 

I think you have
already sacrificed
enough for me, and I refuse to lean on you as a crutch any
longer. I must
leave to find my own destiny,
and ask you not to come after me.

 

 

If I get better,
and feel I can
return, I shall, but please do not wait for me, for I fear you
might be sadly
disappointed. Above
all I wish you
to be happy. I know that though you will be hurt by my
leaving, that you will
understand my reasons, and wish me well in the future, as I do
you.”