The Hungry Heart Fulfilled (The Hunger of the Heart Series Book 3) (5 page)

 

 

“Dalton will make a
fortune in no
time, with all the rich hypochondriacs in this town,” Emer
said, quoting one of
Adrian’s favourite complaints.

 

 

The Bishop shook his head. “No, he's accepted a
post at the fever
hospital, unpaid as it turns out. Adrian told me he had just
completed the paperwork on
my behalf at the
meeting he was at before he came here.”

 

 

Emer stared the
Bishop for a
moment. “You see, he can’t be the monster he seemed if he is willing
to do that.”

 

 

“Emer, you said it
yourself. It's
your word against Frederick’s, and
you have no real proof, do you?” the Bishop cautioned.

 

 

“No letter, no bank
drafts, no
receipts.” Emer shook her head, but at these words the Bishop
and Myrtle both
looked at her and each other guiltily.

 

 

Just then Sissy
tapped at the door
with a message for Emer, inviting her to a buffet supper at
the home of the
Hearsts, who had apparently been at the cathedral that
morning, and wished to
discuss her charity work with her.

 

 

“Why, how
marvellous. I’m
going there as well," Myrtle
said with a smile. "You can accompany me, Emer. Now, what shall you
wear?”

 

 

Emer rolled her
eyes. “Myrtle, I
always wear black in public, as well you know. I'm in
mourning, for Heaven's
sake, for my husband and my whole family. And as for going,
look at me!  I
saw a more attractive and
thinner walrus in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence!"

 

 

Myrtle laughed
despite herself, but
shook her head. "Nonsense."

 

 

"Besides, I should
think after
the scene Dalton put on in front of all those people this
morning, I shan’t be
able to look any of them in the eye without their wondering
what sort of
scandalous woman I am,” Emer said impatiently.

 

 

The Bishop
interceded before the two
women began to quarrel.
“Myrtle is right. You should go, Emer. The
Hearsts are very powerful, and it's too good an opportunity to pass
up. You have done nothing to be ashamed of except having
naively fallen in
love with the wrong man.”

 

 

He paused for a
moment and then
said, “Now I want to put a serious question to you, and I
require an honest
answer, Emer.”

 

 

“Very well, Bishop,
you shall have
one, then. What
is the question?”
Emer answered, her aqua eyes gazing at him candidly.

 

 

“I wish to know
what you decision
would be under the following circumstances. Let us assume that it
was all a mistake
on Dalton’s part,
and Frederick lied about everything, tricked you all, and you
had ample proof.
If Dalton came here right now and asked you to marry him,
would you do it? Would
you really be able to leave all
this behind, the children, your friends, and accept him?”

 

 

Emer sighed. She knew in her
heart that the Bishop
was right. She
couldn’t have them
both, and the children needed her.

 

 

She shook her head.
“I couldn’t tell
him the truth, and destroy his faith in his father. Even if I
remained silent about the
bribe and everything
else, how would Dalton feel when he discovered I had known all
along? If I
didn’t move against Frederick, he
would still never accept me, nor would Quebec society when
they found out I was
the cause of him jilting Madeleine Lyndon, their darling.

 

 

“And even if by
some miracle, the
way were clear for us to marry, Dalton wouldn’t want his wife
to work. He
would expect me to do a few charity
fundraisers, and sit at home embroidering. No, this is the life I
chose, and I
can’t let the children
down.”

 

 

The older man
nodded, satisfied.
“Very well then, if that is your decision, then I trust you to
put him off if
he pesters you, and not tell him the truth, no matter how
tempted you are,” the
Bishop said firmly, though he could see how much Emer longed
for the man whom
she had every reason to think had wronged her.

 

 

But there was no
sense in giving the
child false hope, even were he certain it was the right thing
for all parties
if he decided he was willing to intercede on her behalf with
Dalton and even
Frederick if need be.

 

 

“No temptation,
Bishop, I assure
you. Dalton’s
gone now. He
won’t be back. And
even if he did ever come back, the
children have to come first.”

 

 

“But what about
love, and justice,
and morality? You're
letting the
wicked punish the innocent here, you and Dalton,” Myrtle
objected, hoping she
could secretly do something to help her friend and Dalton win
each other back.

 

 

“The children are
the innocent ones
in all of this. I
will not have
them harmed by Frederick Randall or Madeleine Lyndon or anyone
else, is that
clear?”

 

 

“Yes, Emer,” both
the Bishop and
Myrtle replied meekly, and
rose
from their chairs.

 

 

They left her alone
as they each
went home to consider how best to set their respective plans
of action into
motion without breaking their promise to Emer not to
interfere.

 

 

Emer sighed as they
left, and tried
once again to quash the memories which flooded her mind
despite all her
attempts to suppress them.

 

 

Emer felt Dalton kissing her,
while running his
hands up and down the hourglass of her body as though trying
to memorise every
inch of it.

 

 

Each caress
delighted, yet
brought her passion to an increasingly fevered pitch.

 

 

"Dalton, my
love, please,
now," she urged throatily.

 

 

"Good things
come to those who
wait, darling," he replied with a husky laugh, peaking her
breast with one
hand, while stroking her gently below until she could feel
herself blossoming,
her bedewed petals eagerly seeking the completion only his
love could provide.

 

 

She reached
for his own
proud stem and…

 

 

"Stop it, stop it," she muttered
aloud, as
she flung herself from the chair.

 

 

Pressing her hands together to stop
them from
trembling, she headed back to the dining room, and forced
herself to join in
the Sunday afternoon festivities, even though she felt as though
her heart had
been torn in two.

 

 

 

CHAPTER FIVE

 

 

When she assumed
she would never see
him again, Emer had definitely underestimated the depth of
Dalton’s feelings
for her.

 

 

He came to the
orphanage again early
the next morning, and when he was told that Emer was teaching,
asked Sissy for
a tour of the house. He went through every room and workroom,
marvelling at all
she had achieved.

 

 

When Emer came out
of class at
twelve to have dinner, Dalton was there waiting for her, and
she was forced to
endure another tense meal, with only mainly Irish-speaking Joe
by her side to
help get through the conversation.

 

 

She also narrowly
avoided Dalton
seeing the Jenkinses by dropping a bowl of potatoes
ostentatiously with one
hand, while she waved them out of sight with the other.

 

 

Dalton saw a man
and woman scurry
away out of the corner of his eye, and wondered why everyone
in the orphanage
either looked at him strangely, avoided him outright, or
seemed to have
something to hide.

 

 

Joe sat with a face
like stone, and
Patrick Bradley, normally jolly and outgoing, was as silent as
the grave,
shovelling food into his mouth mechanically with little
relish, before standing
and excusing himself with a short bow to Emer, and not even
waiting for her
reply before he was off.

 

 

Emer lived in
constant fear of
someone saying the wrong thing, and jumped every time Dalton
spoke to her. Finally
the meal was over, and Emer
said she had to go back to her classroom.

 

 

“Can’t you get Joe
or someone else
to mind the children for a few minutes? I really need to speak to
you.”

 

 

“We have nothing to
say to one
another, Mr. Randall. My
life and
duty are here now,” Emer said coolly, "and you're engaged to
be
married."

 

 

“I think we have
plenty to
say," he countered, earning a startled look from she and Joe.

 

 

She rose from her
chair, but Dalton
followed close behind. Too close. She could barely breathe, he
was so near, and
recalling her fantasy from the day before, she felt a hot
blush flood her
cheeks.

 

 

"For starters, Mrs.
Dillon, I
want to hear from your own lips what you've been doing since
August. I want
to know where your family are,
and why they died. I
want to know
how you came to this house, and began an orphanage.
  I need to know where you got the
money, and whether
there's any sort of place for me in your life now that I've
found you again,”
Dalton stated boldly.

 

 

“I’m sorry, Dalton,
but there can’t
be," she said over her shoulder as she made her way into the
corridor.

 

 

"This place takes
up all my
waking hours, and you're about to be married on Thursday.
We've both made our
choices, and our new loves and loyalties are incompatible. If you're
asking me
to choose between
you and this place, then you are unavailable, and at any rate,
I've already
made my choice.  The
children
need me,” Emer replied firmly.

 

 

“Why can’t you have
both, my love
and the orphanage?” Dalton demanded, halting her progress with
one hand on her
arm.

 

 

Emer shook him off
at once, her skin
scorching even though his touch had not exactly been
lover-like.

 

 

“It's pointless
even thinking in
that vein. We both know it's just a fantasy. Your father would never
accept me, and
the scandal of your
abandoning Madeleine on the eve of your wedding would ruin my
reputation,
damage this institution, and harm the children’s prospects."

 

 

"Nonsense. You
would be part of
my sphere of inflluence and—"

 

 

She shot him a
withering look.
Influence
indeed…
"As a respectable
widow, I can run
this place and find homes and jobs for all of my charges. But
as a predatory
hussy, we would be done for.”

 

 

“You are no such
thing!” Dalton
declared vehemently, so that everyone stopped in their
progress towards their
classrooms, and all eyes turned their way inquisitively.

 

 

Emer stiffened, and
she sought a
bolthole to flee from Dalton and get out of the sight of
everyone's
stares. She
hared to the right and
went in to check on the infants in the nursery, but left the
door open so that
anyone walking past could look in and see they were not alone.
And she was sure
that Joe would not be too far away to summon if she needed
more help.

 

 

“Please, Emer, you are
not
a hussy," he said
in a low tone when he was sure they were alone. "It was my mistake
for
allowing my father to browbeat me into accepting the engagement this
time."

 

 

"Oh please, you're
a grown man.
As if anyone could ever make you do anything you didn't wish!"

 

 

"Once I believed
you to be
dead, it didn’t seem to make much difference who I married,"
Dalton
argued, "and Father said Madeleine’s reputation had been
compromised. That
she would be an asset to my doctor's practice, and for helping
me raise funds
for all the charitable works I wish to engage in." He began to
pace up and
down in front of her as
she stood
by the children's cots.

 

 

"There has never
been anything
between she and I except a coldly calculated business
arrangement on the part
of our two fathers, I swear it by all I hold sacred.

 

 

"I know what it
looks like,
Emer but you have no idea the torment I’ve gone through,
missing you, wanting
you,” Dalton declared, lowering his voice further to a
seductive whisper.

 

 

Emer indeed had a
very good idea of
the pain he had experienced, if it was anything near as severe
as her own
anguish ever since they had separated on the
Pegasus.

 

 

But
she had given her word to the Bishop, and couldn’t afford to
give way to her
feelings at the expense of the children in her care.

 

 

She picked up one
of the infants to
feed it, and observed in what she hoped sounded like a
reasonable tone, “Just
think for a moment,
though Dalton.
What if your running into me had happened just a few days
later? You would
have already been
married. Then
you couldn’t simply
have told Madeleine it was all a mistake, and come back to me.

 

 

"If, as you say
Madeleine’s
reputation has been compromised, then you must do the right
thing by her. She
has the prior claim. Please
understand, I have a new life
now, with duties and responsibilities which we simply cannot
share."

 

 

She gathered the
babe close and put
the prepared bottle sitting in a pan of warm water in its
mouth. "I have
to go now, Dalton. My
class is
waiting. I wish
you well,
certainly, but there is nothing more to be said, and you
shouldn't come here
any more. We both know it’s best if we never see each other
again, let alone
like this.”