With Every Breath (39 page)

“I had the strangest conversation with Princess this afternoon.” He cocked his head at the outlandish comment, but Kate kept her gaze fastened on the starlit sky. “That dog has
limitations in her understanding of how the universe operates,” she continued. “The workings of the cosmos. I’m willing to accept that I share a similar limitation.”

“Coming from you, that’s quite a concession.”

Her little foot reached out to kick him, but when she rolled onto her side to look at him, her face glowed. “I don’t understand what God has planned for either of us, but I know it’s pointless to keep worrying about it. I think your life is going to unfold exactly as God intends. I think you are at the beginning of a grand, monumental quest, and God sees the bigger picture, even if I can’t. I’m willing to trust what I cannot see, even if it’s frightening and uncertain. I’m ready to accept that.”

His breath caught. Was she saying what he hoped? Her countenance shone with happiness, and he wanted to lunge across the space between them and haul her into his arms. Instead, he reached out to touch her cheek, soft and velvety as a rose petal.

“You have no idea how badly I’ve wanted to hear you say that,” he said in an aching voice.

“Your fingers are shaking.”

He gave a little laugh. “You’ve had me quaking since we were thirteen years old. Come on. Let me walk you home.”

He could tell she was disappointed, but if they lingered any longer he was liable to spoil things. He wanted to ask her to marry him, but other plans were already laid, and too many people had helped him along the way for him to lose his head now.

* * * *

Kate loitered too long with Trevor on the rooftop. It was almost midnight before they arrived at her doorstep, and she was late for work the next morning. Everyone in the office stared at her as she scurried to her desk.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, sliding into her chair and pulling a stack of papers toward her. It didn’t take long before Roger Moreno sidled up to her desk.

“I was hoping you would proofread a brief for me.” He seemed unusually nervous. Dots of perspiration broke out on his forehead, and he shifted his weight from foot to foot. “It’s a very important brief.”

Irene started giggling. It was impossible to know why Mr. Moreno was so anxious, but Irene’s giggles weren’t helpful. Kate sent her a glare across the office, and the girl went back to feeding an envelope into her typewriter.

“What’s the topic?” Kate asked, holding her hand out for the pages.

“I’m afraid it’s contract law,” Mr. Moreno said, and Kate winced.

“Don’t worry, it’s a short one. Just a single page,” he assured her before doubling over in a fit of coughing. It seemed like a few of the other lawyers in the office were snickering at him. She felt sympathy for Mr. Moreno. Obviously he’d been struggling with his work, but it wasn’t right for his colleagues to laugh at him.

“I’ll get to work on it right away,” she said.

He gave her a wide smile. “Thank you, Mrs. Livingston.”

He went back to his desk, but how strange that he kept staring at her. In fact, it seemed everyone was staring at her. Was it because she was late this morning? She set the paper on her desk and started reading, trying to wade through the dense legal language.

When a party of superior intellect consorts
with a lesser party (in this case, someone weak in
trigonometry, albeit superior in statistics, spelling, and chemistry) certain necessary
obligations must ensue.

Her jaw dropped open.

What on earth was she reading? Her head shot up, and she looked over to Mr. Moreno, who grinned at her from across the office. So did Irene. So were all the other clerks and even Justice Bauman, who stood in the open doorway of his private office.

She swallowed hard, looking back at the document, jumping to the end of the legal blather.

Pursuant to the first party’s hopeless love for
the second party, it is only fitting that a marriage
should result. The court orders Dr. Trevor McDonough Kendall to
make all necessary and proper arrangements to secure Katherine Livingston’s consent in holy and legal matrimony.

It was signed by all nine justices of the Supreme Court.

Her eyes drifted closed. “Trevor McDonough,” she muttered under her breath.

She looked up to see Trevor standing behind Justice Bauman, looking dangerously tall and handsome with that stern expression on his face—the same expression he always wore when he was nervous.

Kate rose, bracing her trembling hands against the surface of her desk. “Am I going to need a lawyer to draft a response?”

“Not unless you’re going to be difficult about it.” His voice was flat.

Irene started giggling, and Trevor shot her a poisonous look. “You said she would think it was funny!”

It was kind of funny, even though it was awkward with all these people staring at them. Trevor took quite a risk by proposing in such a public fashion. His face was pale beneath his tan, and it was hard to watch him fidget like this, but before she could put him out of his misery he sweetened the offer.

“We can continue having dinner at your mother’s table at least twice a week,” he said. “I’ll find a new job for you at the hospital if you want. And I won’t fuss if you want to bring
flowers. I should have thought of that originally; I just don’t have an irrational feminine streak in me.” His voice got tighter like it always did when he was frustrated. “I even asked for your parents’ blessing. Do you know what that was like for me? Your mother is the nosiest woman on the planet. She wanted to know my income! My desire for children. For pity’s sake, she wanted to know why I wash my hands before and after meals.”

“I’ve always wondered too,” Irene piped in.

Trevor looked like he was about to burst with frustration. “It’s just a habit, okay?” He turned his attention back to Kate. “Anyway, your mother said you would be an idiot if you didn’t marry me.” There was a little wiggling of his lips as he tried not to smile.

“She did?” Maude Norton had come a long way in learning to accept Trevor. The woman who’d wanted to boil Trevor in oil the day he eked out a victory over her precious daughter in a school contest now accepted that Trevor made Kate happy merely by walking into a room. Still, there was no doubt their lives would all be easier if she had her mother’s blessing.

“An idiot?” Kate pressed.

“A ‘howling idiot’ was the term she used. And I’d hate for you to be sullied in your mother’s eyes.”

Trevor was the best friend she ever had, even if she once thought of him as “the horrible Trevor McDonough.” He had plagued, challenged, and inspired her. He’d traveled the world and collected more experiences than she could ever dream of. He had so much to teach her, and she wanted every drop of it. Trevor didn’t know the first thing about marriage or intimacy, one area where she really did know a lot more than him.

She dropped the legal brief and raced across the room. Before he could brace himself, she threw her arms around him and slammed into him with the full force of her body. She dragged
his face down and planted a kiss on his mouth that threatened to incinerate the Capitol.

She pulled away and said, “Are you really brave enough to take me on?”

“I really am.” His smile was confident.

“Do I get to keep the dog?”

“You do.”

Her smile was so wide her face hurt. “Then I’ll marry you. Gladly. Joyously. With no regrets and no fear.”

The office burst into cheers.

Epilogue

E
IGHT
Y
EARS
L
ATER
N
EW
Y
EAR
’
S
E
VE
—1899

K
ate glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner of the grand drawing room. It was still five minutes before the bells would chime and signal the new year. Most of the McDonough clan was gathered in the palatial home where Trevor’s father lived in the wilds of Scotland. A roaring fire crackled in the cavernous fireplace dominating one side of the great room, but the vaulted ceiling still made it chilly. Kate drew a tartan plaid tighter around her shoulders. This was the last time she was going to let Trevor drag her to Scotland in December until his father finally installed a decent heating system in this oversized castle.

It was still a lovely sight. Candles glowed from dozens of candelabras, and the air was scented with pine boughs and mulled cider. Before her, the dining table groaned under the weight of roasted goose, mincemeat pies, oysters, pastries, ginger cake, and plum pudding. Trevor’s father worked at twisting the cork off a champagne bottle while a butler set out crystal flutes.

She glanced over at the fireplace, where Trevor’s young brothers were sprawled on the floor before the fire. They were giddy with ginger cake and excitement as the midnight hour drew near.

Trevor’s stepmother had been dutifully producing a slew of McDonough offspring, and he now had four little brothers who idolized him. As an only child, Trevor always longed for siblings, and now he insisted on regular visits to Scotland so he wouldn’t be a stranger to his brothers. Every time they arrived, the boys came barreling out of the house and tackled Trevor with all the might in their sturdy little bodies. Trevor would obligingly roll onto the grass as they climbed all over him and proclaimed victory in toppling their American brother. The McDonough sense of competition flowed strongly in the veins of those boys. All Trevor had to do was ask who was the strongest of the group to carry the bags in, and he was greeted with a chorus of “Me, me, me!” as each of the boys struggled to prove their strength.

Relations with Trevor’s father had improved too. Trevor accepted that while his father had an inbred weakness for amassing a staggering fortune, he wasn’t a bad man at heart, and Trevor accepted responsibility for needlessly prolonging their rift. Now that the elder McDonough had his legitimate male heir, he gladly welcomed Kate into the family despite her working-class roots.

The annual trips to Scotland weren’t only about visits to the family. Trevor always called on the medical laboratories in Edinburgh, where research proceeded at an astounding pace. Scientists were experimenting with mold and fungus in an effort to cure diseases, which Kate thought was insane. She spent too many years battling mold in the boardinghouse washrooms to view it as anything other than a menace, but Trevor thought the research fascinating, and it wasn’t the first time he’d put his faith in an unconventional theory. After all, no one was laughing at his suggestion of a sunlight cure anymore.

No quick and easy cure for tuberculosis was on the horizon, but Trevor’s regimen was beginning to show real promise, and the patients who came to them now had a slim hope for a cure.
Their survival rate was now twenty percent and rivaled those of the expensive mountain sanitariums. Trevor credited it to the sunlight. If it proved true, it would be a boon for working-class patients all over the world, as anyone could afford sunlight. Trevor had mended ties with the young doctor Michael Wells, who proved to be a dedicated physician capable of covering for him at the clinic during Trevor’s annual trips to Scotland.

She glanced across the table at Trevor, whose head was tilted to listen to his stepmother chatter about their plans to install a new heating system in the house next year. He nodded while listening with one ear, but Kate followed his gaze to see that most of his attention was fixed on their two children slumbering on a bearskin rug on the far side of the room. Carl was six, Amy only four, and they appeared to be the only sensible people in the room by curling up in the warmest spot to sleep.

She rose to her feet and caught Trevor’s attention. “Shall we wake the little ones? It’s almost time.”

Trevor came around the table to walk her over to the children. Before she could reach down and jostle them awake, he stopped her. He had a misty, faraway look as he gazed down at their children.

“I’ll never tire of watching them sleep,” he murmured.

She gave thanks to God every day for giving her the courage to marry Trevor. His health continued to hold strong, and now they had two beautiful children to complete their family. She still said an extra prayer every Monday when he tested himself for a recurrence of tuberculosis. She couldn’t be certain what the future held for them, but they had built a beautiful life together, and she would carry on no matter what happened. Even if Trevor crossed over before her, she would never truly be alone, for the Lord promised He would be with her always, even to the end of the world.

Trevor handed Amy to her, then leaned over to shake Carl awake. They carried the children to the space before the grandfather clock, where everyone gathered to await the stroke of midnight. Dozens of servants poured in to join in the festivities. Glasses of champagne and cider were circulated, and people held their breath to listen to the ticking of the big grandfather clock.

Kate watched as the heavy brass pendulum ticked away the final seconds of the nineteenth century. Soon the anticipation became too much, and everyone started counting down the final moments.

“Three, two, one . . . Happy New Year!” The bells began chiming, and there were kisses, hugs, and glasses raised in celebration.

Trevor leaned over to kiss her cheek. “Welcome to the twentieth century, love.”

Amy was confused by all the excitement and reached out for Trevor to hold her. Kate passed her over. “I still don’t understand what all this means,” Amy said, rubbing sleep from her eyes.