“You nut,” was his reply. “I want to do it, so keep your blasted money, will you?” This inelegant and ungentle speech had her in quite a glow.
One fine August morning, Katherine went bouncing around the house, knocking on closed bedroom doors and calling gaily for everyone to wake up. She heard a groan from behind Jana’s door. Marian didn’t answer at all, and she opened the door to tell her that she most absolutely emphatically should get up, to which that lady’s only reaction was to hide her head underneath the pillow. Knocking on Luke’s door, she shouted to him to get up quickly and was rewarded with the sight of him pulling open his door very fast, surprising her with the unexpectedness of it.
His hair was rumpled and his body encased in his blue dressing gown, but his face was quite alert and his eyes clear. “What is the reason for all this racket?” was his mild enquiry.
She grinned at him impishly. “Come downstairs and find out!” she told him and whisked away before he could reply. Another knock at Jana’s door had her peeking around it and blinking sleepily.
“I don’t show my face before eight,” she said decisively and slowly smiled at Katherine’s obvious high spirits.
“You’ve got to come down this morning,” Katherine told her. “You just have to. Otherwise you’ll miss the whole thing.” She started to skip down the stairs, leaving Jana sufficiently intrigued to wrap her dressing gown about her and join Luke and Marian in the hall to follow after.
A marvelous sight greeted their eyes when they reached the kitchen. The table was set very prettily, with a few fresh flowers in a bouquet as the centerpiece, and the best china was laid out for four on a freshly ironed tablecloth. By each setting was a pretty bowl of freshly cut fruit. Coffee steaming in mugs was set with precision just to the right of the plates. A huge, covered platter was in the middle of the table with a jug of what turned out to be warm syrup and a pot of honey in attendance nearby. Orange juice was poured, and bacon was seen to be sizzling on the stove. There were three little wrapped packages by three plates.
“Oh my,” murmured Marian, overcome. She sank into a chair weakly and was told by Katherine that she would have to move since that was Jana’s place. To this statement, she started up and sat where she was directed.
“This is quite too much,” Jana said, looking about at the splendid sight with awe. “It’s so early—how early did you have to get up, to fix all this?”
Luke was regarding Katherine’s amused face thoughtfully, as he sat in the spot designated for him. She uncovered the platter to reveal golden-brown pancakes that smelt delicious, and the four helped themselves with a will. “What’s the occasion, love?” he asked curiously.
She wrinkled her nose at him. “Not now,” she admonished him through a mouthful of bacon. “Everyone can eat first, and then we’ll open presents!” She was the only one fully dressed, in faded jeans that had flour down the legs, and a sweater. Her hair was pulled back in a saucy ponytail, making her look like a teenager.
Jana, looking around, observed little packages wrapped and sitting by the animals’ cardboard bed, and pointed this fact out to the other two.
“This is nutty,” said Marian, shaking her frizzled head. “But I like it.” The pancakes were fluffy and light, quite perfect, and Katherine had the satisfaction of seeing all tuck into her surprise with flattering enthusiasm.
When everyone had at last finished their huge repast and sat back from their empty plates, she got up and removed the plates and filled up the cups again with fresh coffee. Then, sitting down and pouring cream into her own cup, she grinned delightedly at the three pairs of eyes that were regarding her, a question in Jana’s and Marian’s and a definite twinkle of amusement in Luke’s. “Open your presents!” she urged each. “Go on, I want to see you!”
With her urging, they each picked up the wrapped packages and started to unwrap them; Jana did so with a painstaking care as she picked delicately at each piece of tape, Marian with a ripping gusto, and Luke with several questioning, smiling glances at Katherine, who was seated opposite him. The unveiling of the gifts showed an exclusive French perfume spray for Jana, a new hardback book that she had known that Marian especially wanted, and a pewter unicorn statue for Luke. The two women exclaimed with delight over their gifts, but she was looking at Luke as he placed the delicately featured little statue with exquisite care on the table. His face held an odd expression, as if he was quite struck with it, and under cover of the two women’s chatter to each other, she asked him, “Do you know what the unicorn symbolizes?”
He watched her as if he couldn’t take his eyes away. “Tell me,” he said quietly.
Her eyes smiled at him. “It usually signifies purity, but it can also symbolize happiness, and that is what I mean this statue to say to you.”
He reached out a gentle finger, looking quite touched, and traced the slight point of the graceful horse’s horn down the neck to the curve of the back. “A gift of happiness,” he murmured, a strange, sweet smile on his softened face.
His eyes once again lifted to her, and they held an emotion that she suddenly dared not read for fear that she would misunderstand, and she dropped her own. She whispered, “Thank you, Luke, for everything you’ve done for me.”
Jana caught this last remark and asked her, “Is it a ‘thank you’ to all of us that you meant with these gifts?”
Her eyes turned to Jana’s and suddenly she was brimming over again with that slightly mischievous good spirit that had been evident earlier. “Oh, no,” she gurgled, wrapping her arms about herself with glee. Everyone blinked at each other in puzzlement, and she sang out suddenly, “Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me! Happy birthday, dear me-e…” and she ruined the whole song by pealing off into a fit of laughter at the looks of astonishment and dismay on everyone’s face.
After the first upshoot of his eyebrows, Luke appeared to be very amused, but Jana and Marian were quite horrified. “Why, this is terrible!” Jana gasped, looking at her with an expression of stupefaction.
Marian said sternly, “You should have had breakfast made for you, instead of you making breakfast for everyone else! And as for you buying presents for us—don’t you know, you mixed-up child, that you’re the one that’s supposed to get presents today?”
Katherine showed her a crestfallen face. “Don’t you like your present?” she asked in such piteous tones that Luke had to cover up his face.
At this reaction from her admonishment, Marian looked even more horrified. “Of course I do! But you still shouldn’t have done it, you know. Why, it’s ridiculous to think of it.”
“Oh then, by all means, let’s think of it!” she replied, abandoning her act and leaning back with a smile. “Just why do you think I did such a thing?”
The question had the two women sitting back too, with attitudes of confoundment. Luke looked from his sister to Marian, gauging their thoughts and smiling. “Well, you obviously see it as a special occasion,” said Jana, “which of course it is, but you didn’t react with any embarrassment or disclaimers like most people do on their birthdays.”
“Exactly.” She nodded in affirmation. She stood and waved away all helping hands as she stacked the last of the dishes from breakfast and carried them to the sink. “You see,” she threw over her shoulder, “I just wanted to share.”
Katherine had cause for a good deal of amusement during the day after Luke had left. Whenever she entered the room, Jana and Marian would fall silent and look like two pictures of innocence. Of course she knew what they were planning, and it quite delighted her to see their rather obvious conspiracy.
She was on the curb outside the hospital at the prescribed time after work and readily hopped into the Ferrari when Luke swept up. He spared her a quick flash of his teeth before shooting away from the curb and pulling into the thick stream of traffic. “Had a good day?” he asked her.
“No better than some, and a lot worse than others.” She laughed. “No, really, I had a pretty normal
day, considering.”
It wasn’t long before they pulled into the driveway. He stopped to let her out before putting the car away, and she paused for a minute with her hand on the door handle, looking at him mischievously. “Should I pretend to be surprised?” she asked him, which had his shoulders shaking.
“That might be a bit much,” he told her. “Just act gratified. That should work in any situation.”
She wrinkled her nose at him impudently and whisked out of the car to spring up the steps. As no one was near the front door, she was able to slip up to her room unnoticed and change out of her uniform in peace. However, when she got downstairs again, Marian cornered her in the hall and firmly shepherded her into the library and ordered her to stay there until otherwise notified. Since she had left her book resting on the side table by the couch and there was a thoughtfully placed glass of wine waiting on the coffee table, she complied and was soon joined by Luke. He was also out of his working suit and he reclined next to her on the couch with a shot of whiskey, which she eyed with distaste. He caught her look.
“What? Don’t tell me you have objections to my whiskey!” was his wicked response. She sipped her glass and raised a silent, inquisitive eyebrow. “The first time I saw you, you were tossing off a shot with the most admirable and experienced aplomb! I was most impressed, I must confess, to see you swallow it all in one go without choking! Not everyone can do that, didn’t you know? Are you going to tell me that it was all an act?”
“Every inch of it, my good man,” she replied. “I absolutely abhor whiskey. In fact, I’d never had a shot before that night. It was as detestable as I’d expected.”
“Good heavens!” he exclaimed, a delighted smile hovering on his firm lips. “And you took it like a trooper. Whatever possessed you to do such a thing?”
“My father,” she said gently, “hated to see me drink hard liquor at his parties. Bad for his image.”
“Provoking puss,” he said, sipping at his glass with evident enjoyment, at which she shuddered.
Jana stuck her head in the door, said, “Dinner,” and disappeared again. They looked at each other contemplatively.
“I believe,” she said with a show of dismay, “that it is about to start?” She stood with him and turned to the door.
“Take it,” he whispered wickedly, “like a trooper.” She decided to ignore this and sailed into the dining room.
She was not disappointed. The table was set very attractively, and beside one plate, there were three wrapped packages. This made her smile, but what really made her laugh was Marian’s disgusted comment, “You spoiled the whole thing, you know, when you did the same thing for breakfast!”
She sat down where the presents were and did a credible job of ignoring them as they ate her favorite meal of lamb shish kebabs with broccoli and cheese sauce, and crescent rolls. The meal was followed not by a cake, which she had half expected, but a laden plate of chocolate chip cookies with plenty of pecans, one of her more disastrous weaknesses. She moaned as she saw the huge plate presented to her. “I bet you made a double batch, too,” she uttered with such despair that everyone laughed. A previous batch, now consigned to history, had mysteriously been sampled at unknown times, and had disappeared at a record rate. Everyone had denied knowledge, except Katherine, who had been bright pink with guilt.
Despite her moan, she dug into the cookies with an enthusiasm that had Marian and Jana smiling at each other, and munched through several before turning to the presents with an air of eagerness that had Luke smiling. The first present she opened was from Jana, and it was wrapped in a pretty shade of pale blue. It turned out to be two delicately carved wooden hair combs that were dyed a deep burgundy. She exclaimed with delight over them; they were a perfect shade for her hair. Marian’s present to her was a pair of slim leather gloves. When she turned her grateful gaze to Marian, that lady said, “After all, it is August, and autumn is just around the bend, you know, and you don’t have a thing for the cold weather.”
She turned to her present from Luke last. She’d saved it, because she knew that no matter what he gave her, she would cherish it more than anything she received from anyone else. It was a very small box, wrapped plainly. In fact, it was so small that she knew it must be jewelry, and was suddenly afraid to open it and see what was inside. Her eyes lifted to him. He was, for a change, not smiling at all now, and his eyes seemed to hold some sort of message that she was not quite able to read. He seemed tense, but appeared to relax when her eyes silently questioned him, and he nodded for her to go ahead and open the package.
She tore off the paper, finding a little black velvet box and her hands inexplicably trembling. She stared down at its square shape for a long moment, and looked into Luke’s dark eyes. At this, he did smile faintly, and this gave her the courage to open the small box. What she saw made her turn so pale that Jana uttered an exclamation of alarm. Then, a lovely tide of color washed over her, and she raised huge, brimming eyes to stare in Luke’s direction and nod. His chair scraped, and she barely had enough time to put down the little box before she was caught up into his arms and held very tightly. The tears spilled over, and he tilted her face up to wipe away each one with a tender finger, murmuring softly. Then with an exquisite gentleness, he bent his head to hers, and Jana and Marian were forgotten.
Feeling overcome, Marian reached over to pick up the little box and peer into it. She turned the box to Jana. Nestled into the rich black velvet winked a marvelous blue solitaire diamond in yellow gold. The two ladies looked at each other and at the pair who were so close. Without a word, and by mutual consent, they rose from the table and tiptoed away.
After a time, Luke raised his head, and he looked down into her face. Her hair was tousled about her face from his caressing fingers, and her cheeks were quite flushed. Her eyes held a shimmery, rather unfocused glow, and her lips looked very kissed. She was, he told her, quite beautiful. “Are you sure?” he asked, tracing the edge of her lower lip with one finger. It trembled and she nodded silently, not trusting her voice to speech just yet. He reached behind him to pick up the box, extracting the ring from it and holding up her hand. He slipped it on her left ring finger. She was immeasurably surprised to find it fitted.
“How in the world did you manage that?” she asked him in astonishment. His smile was almost unbearably sweet.
“Marian knew your glove size from the rubber gloves you wear when you’re helping in the kitchen,” he told her. “That was how, she told me, that she was going to get your size for the leather gloves. I stole the trick from her, and hoped it would fit.” He looked deeply into her eyes, and very seriously. “I love you, Kate,” he said. “I love you so much. I think I did when you walked into the room at that party. It’s just that I didn’t realize until later.”
She put her hand up to his cheek. It was impossible, she thought dazedly, to feel any more happiness than this. It was impossible to feel any more love. “When did you first decide that you did love me?” she asked quietly. He turned his dark head and kissed her hand before replying.
“I think it really hit me the first day you were here, when you cried so, and I held you on my lap in the kitchen,” he said tenderly, touching her nose with his mouth lightly. “All I could think of was how much I’d give just to see you happy and smiling. My feelings were so intense and jolted me so hard, that when I went to work I was considerably shaken. I didn’t get a thing done all day, and all I could think about was getting home to see if you were all right. I did ring that day, but you were sleeping, and I asked Jana not to tell you I’d rung. You were so vulnerable! I wanted to protect you from ever being hurt again. I always want to see you smiling.” His lips came down on hers in a feathery kiss.
Her arms had slid up around his neck as he had talked, and she now responded to his kiss gladly, deepening it of her own accord. He broke it off with a wrench. “Ah, let’s talk, shall we?” he asked her, his voice sounding a little rough. She put her head down on his should
er, snuggled deep into his welcoming arms, and nodded happily. She was considerably surprised when he put her away from him. “No, Kate. You sit there, and I’ll sit right here. There, now why don’t you tell me when you first knew?”
She reached across the table and his hand instantly closed over hers, giving her a little thrill. “I can’t say for sure,” she murmured, her eyes going dreamy with remembrance. “All I can say is that one night you were sitting and reading, and I was rocking in the rocking chair, and I looked into your tired face and thought to myself, ‘I love him.’ It was as simple as that, and yet a very profound moment—oh, I can’t explain myself very well. I just knew one night, that’s all.”
He brought her hand to his lips. “That’s enough, my love. Believe me, that is quite enough.”
After talking for some time in low voices, they moved to the library to sit close together on the couch. She snuggled up to him, with her head on his shoulder and her body curved against his They did talk a little more, but mostly spent the time just being together. She fell asleep on his shoulder.
The sensation, she thought dreamily, was a familiar one. Where had she felt it before? Her eyes flew open: her head was on Luke’s shoulder, and he was carrying her up the stairs. “Mmm,” was her contented response as she buried her head into his warm neck. “But I really can walk up myself.”
“I know,” he whispered, tightening his arms. “But I want to carry you.” And so he did.
“But,” she protested sleepily, “I don’t want to go to bed yet, Luke. Let’s stay downstairs for a little longer.”
“It’s very late,” he said to her softly, as he deposited her just outside her door. “And even if you can sleep in the morning, I have an early appointment. Besides, everyone else is in bed. Jana popped in while you were asleep and told me she was going up some time ago.”
The Gift of Happiness Page 13