The Hungry Heart Fulfilled (The Hunger of the Heart Series Book 3) (40 page)

 

 

He gathered her to
him tightly.
“Terence it is, then, minx. Terence Randall. I think it would
have a nice ring
to it, though I’d be rather partial to a daughter with flaming
red hair, and
eyes the colour of a storm-tossed sea,” Dalton
asserted, before
kissing Emer on the
lips, and stroking her stomach gently.

 

 

His hands traveled
lower, and her
skirts began to lift. Emer caught her rosy lower lip between
her bottom teeth
to stop herself from crying out as Dalton began to pleasure
her with his hands,
and now began to kneel before her…

 

 

Dalton and Emer had
to pull away
from each other hastily when they heard a call of, “Ship
ahoy,” from the
harbour.

 

 

Dalton went up to
greet Patrick
Bradley while Emer remained below to hastily re-don her
underclothing, a fierce
blush heating her cheeks at the incredible passion she and her
lover shared.

 

 

Lover, soon to
be husband,
she reminded
herself, and hugged
the thought to her like a warm, sensual silken shawl.

 

 

It had taken almost
two years, but
she was determined that though their past had been full of
sorrow, their future
would be one of joy. Nothing would ever stand in the way of
their hopes and
dreams again.

 

 

After a short ride up the river in the
steam boat, which left
them on the south shore of the river for their convenience,
Dalton and Emer
elected to walk home in order to enjoy the bright June
sunshine and a few last
minutes alone together before they returned to the orphanage
to see all their
family and friends.

 

 

Marion ran out to
greet them quickly
when she saw them approaching the front door of the
square-built house which
had been built on the site of the old Clemenceau mansion, and
practically
shoved them into the parlour.

 

 

“We were looking
out for your
carriage, and yet all of a sudden here you are, Emer!” she
exclaimed loudly.

 

 

Emer thought Marion
was behaving
most oddly, and wondered why she seemed so reluctant to take
her around the new
house and around the farm to inspect the place.

 

 

After they had
greeted her effusively,
Sissy, Adrian and Patrick also all seemed to be looking at her
expectantly, and
she noticed a great number of appraising stares from her other
friends.

 

 

Even Cathan
couldn’t keep still or
look her straight in the eye when she asked him for news, and
did nothing but
chat about the children, and how much they had missed her, in
a rather forced
way.

 

 

She thought it odd
that they were
all in the house at the same time, but then concluded that
they had all been
waiting for her once they heard the news of her arrival back
in Quebec.

 

 

As wonderful as it
was to see them
all, Emer also noticed some gaps in her extended family.

 

 

Emer asked, “Have
there been any
letters from Joe and Myrtle?”

 

 

“No, no letters,”
Marion said
quickly, though everyone in the room seemed to exchange
glances.

 

 

“Now, Emer, when did you say you and
Dalton were going to get
married? We all
want to arrange a
special present for you,” Adrian asked suddenly.

 

 

She looked at him
in surprise, then
shook her head. “Don’t worry about presents, please. I have
everything I need right here.”
Emer smiled gently,
taking Dalton’s hand.

 

 

Dalton echoed her
sentiments
heartily as he kissed her on the cheek.

 

 

Emer saw one of the
children pop her
head around the door and wave.

 

 

Emer was covered in
confusion as the
Bishop suddenly exclaimed, “I say there’s no time like the
present.”

 

 

Before Emer or
Dalton could put up
much of an argument, they were led to the large dining room at
the back of the
house, where the children had all helped set out the tables
with food and drink
into two aisles.

 

 

The whole centre
aisle was covered
with an awning made of interwoven flowers, and at the top of
the aisle was
another table with a makeshift altar on it.

 

 

“We would have had
the wedding out
in the garden, only the weather seemed so unpredictable, we
thought we would
just leave all the windows and French doors open, and do the
whole thing in
here,” Marion explained when she saw Emer’s shocked
expression.

 

 

“It’s all lovely,
really, Marion,
but my dress, my hair....” Emer argued.

 

 

Adrian grinned.
“You two have waited
far too long, and who gives a fig about such nonsense, anyway. You
love each
other, and you don’t need
any fancy trappings to prove it.”

 

 

Dalton looked at
Emer’s confused
face, and reassured her, “I would marry you in your sailor’s
slops, my girl,
you know that. You
look lovely,
truly, and after all, it was the gown I picked for you for
Christmas, wasn’t
it? You’ve never
looked lovelier
than in black, and never so beautiful as you do now, my
precious darling. But
the choice is yours. If
you want to wait, I’ll understand.”

 

 

She looked up into
his golden eyes,
so full of love and longing, and made up her mind in an
instant.

 

 

“In that case,
Bishop, the only
thing to say is, where do you want me to stand?”

 

 

She beamed up at
Dalton’s relieved
expression. “I
love you,
Dalton. Adrian
is right, we’ve
waited long enough.”

 

 

While the Bishop
hurriedly issued
orders to two last-minute altar boys, and asked Dalton if they
had rings, Emer
tugged on Dalton’s watch chain, and reminded him of the
present she had given
him. “It isn’t a
wedding ring, I
know, but I promise as soon as I can buy one for you, I
shall.”

 

 

“Here, take my
ring, and may you
have more luck with it than I did,” a tall grey-haired matron
with a dignified
bearing suddenly offered.

 

 

Emer hugged
Dalton’s mother and
said, “Thank you, Mrs. Randall, I hope I shall too.”

 

 

“Call me Amanda, my
dear,
please. I
haven’t been Mrs.
Randall for years. And in any case, friends should call each
other by their
given names, don’t you think?
With
the way Dalton always talks about you, I feel I know you
already, my dearest
Emer.  I’m
sure we shall
become great friends now that you’re home to stay.”

 

 

Dalton’s mother
smiled, her whole
face lighting up to show what a lovely sunny young woman
Frederick had once
married many years ago and then savagely tried to destroy.

 

 

Emer saw a kindred
spirit standing
by her side, joining her hand with Dalton’s, and she nodded.

 

 

“Thank you, Amanda,
from the bottom
of my heart. I
can see now who
Dalton takes after.”

 

 

"Thank you,
Mother,"
Dalton said, his voice choking with emotion.

 

 

"All good fortune
and blessings
to you both, my dearest son." She kissed him on the cheek,
then stepped
back to join the throng of well-wishers flanking the altar.

 

 

“I’m ready,” the
Bishop announced
from the far end of the room.

 

 

“Wait, wait, before
we let the
Bishop perform the ceremony, we have a few more guests just
off the boat from
the West Indies, and from the Rockies,” Cathan declared
suddenly.

 

 

Cara and Reamann
came out of the
kitchen where they had been hiding, as did Brona and Michael,
with a beautiful
bouncing baby girl in their arms.

 

 

“What are you all
doing here?” Emer
gasped, before kissing the five of them in turn.

 

 

Brona smiled. “We
came in the hope
that you would be home soon, and we wanted to see this
fabulous place you’ve
told us so much about. This is baby Breda.”

 

 

Emer sniffed back a
tear as she
looked at the little girl who had been named after her own
dearly departed
mother, but she didn't want to spoil the day with sad tears.

 

 

“She's lovely,
congratulations, all
of you. Cara, Reamann, so good to see you. I’m so glad you’re
all here for my
wedding. Now, if
only Joe and
Myrtle could be here as well, the day would be perfect,
wouldn’t it?” Emer
laughed as Reamann spun her around in his arms.

 

 

“Ask and you shall
receive.” Cara
grinned broadly.

 

 

Suddenly there
before their eyes
stood Joe, and a bloomingly pregnant Myrtle.

 

 

“Oh, I’m so glad
you’re back, and
I’m so pleased for you! 
A
baby!” Emer exclaimed as she hugged and kissed them both.

 

 

“As we are for you
and Dalton, my
dear," Myrtle said with a beaming smile.

 

 

"
Beannacht libh,
a thaisce
," Joe said,
kissing her.
"Blessings to you both, Treasure."

 

 

Emer smiled across
at her husband to
be. "Now our day really is complete, Dalton."

 

 

He nodded, his
heart too full to
speak.  His
heart had
hungered for love and friendship, and he now stood surrounded
by both precious
gifts thanks to the incredible woman who was about to become
his in every way.

 

 

He recalled with a
pang that there
was only one thing missing that would make their lives
complete…

 

 

"I know you
couldn’t be with us
on our special day, but nothing could have kept us from
missing yours. However,
at the risk of stealing your
thunder, I have to berate you for your carelessness over your
property, Emer,”
Joe suddenly said in a serious tone.   “How many times have I
seen you
leaving your mother’s
rosary beads all over the place?”

 

 

Emer frowned for a
moment in utter
confusion.  “My
mother’s
rosary beads?”

 

 

“You need them if
you’re going to
get married,” Michael said, trying to sound scolding, though
he couldn’t
represses a broad smile.

 

 

“Why, the last time
I had mother’s
beads was when....” Emer paused as she recalled her son
playing with them.

 

 

“Well, here they
are back again,
along with the little scamp who was always taking them,” Joe
announced.

 

 

Before Emer could
grasp what he was
telling her, Myrtle, who had gone back into the kitchen for a
moment, placed
William in her arms.

 

 

He was a year old
now, but with the
same unmistakable resemblance to Dalton that he had had even
as an infant.

 

 

“But where, how?”
Emer wept as she
held the child close and he put his chubby arms around the
pretty lady
instinctively.

 

 

Dalton moved over
to embrace them
both, and then took Joe firmly by the hand before also hugging
the young man
tightly to his broad chest.

 

 

“Thank you. You
have no idea how
happy you’ve made us both,” Dalton whispered when he could
finally manage to
speak again.

 

 

“Much as Myrtle and
I would love to
take the credit for finding him, it was Brona and Michael,
actually. We
were all in Medicine Hat when she
spotted the child. He
looks so
much like Dalton, that there was no doubt in our minds that he
was
William.

 

 

"A woman with him
said his
mother had just died. She
revealed
that the poor woman, Mary, had lost her first child of the
fever on the way
over from Ireland, and had never really admitted to herself
that William wasn’t
her son,” Joe revealed.

 

 

“There were reward
posters
everywhere, but Mary didn’t want money for William," Myrtle
explained. "She
loved him
like her own child, and as it turns out, she couldn’t read
English or Irish
anyway. She
still had his baby
clothes, sewn by your own hands, Emer, with his name on his
bibs, and your
mother’s rosary beads. We
would
have written to tell you, but in the time it took to post the
letter we would
have already been here ourselves anyway.

 

 

“I wrote to Cara
and Reamann to see
if they could come, and Patrick apparently wrote to Marion via
the packet boat
to say you were on you way home and to get everything ready
for when you did,”
Joe said.

 

 

“Thank you all so
much.” Emer smiled
at her family and friends, and was terribly reluctant to let
her son go again,
until Adrian asked with mock impatience, “Well, what are we
waiting for? Let’s
have a wedding.”

 

 

“Plus a baptism!”
Dalton pointed
out. “We never
did get around to
it, only the wedding must be first so that this time he really
can be William
Randall.”

 

 

Brona and Michael
were selected as
Baby William’s godparents, and got ready to help in the
ceremony once Dalton
was safely wed to Emer.

 

 

Then Dalton went to
stand by the top
of the room with Adrian by his side as best man, while Joe
took Emer’s hand to
lead her down the aisle, and Myrtle, Cara and Brona carried
flowers as her
three matrons of honour.