Katherine nodded.
“Oh, Damien, please don’t cry. I’m all right. Really, I’m fine. Come over tonight and we’ll talk. Yes, around seven will be fine. Wes!”
I turned to look back, my stomach a mass of knots.
“The address?”
I grabbed a pad of paper and hastily scribbled it down for her.
“We all make mistakes,” I heard her say just before I rushed out.
One thing I knew for certain, I didn’t want to be one of hers.
Chapter Ten
“Would you like some tea? Wes and I were just going to have some.”
“I’d love some,” Julia answered.
“Grant didn’t come in?” I asked.
“He had some errands to run. Wow!” Julia walked to the center of the room then stepped back and studied the series of large still lifes that hung on the east wall. “Dupont, Clark, Baronkopf.”
“Show off,” Katherine teased.
“You have some beautiful pieces. Do you paint?” Julia asked me.
“No. I’m afraid that’s one talent of my father’s that I didn’t inherit.”
“Cups?”
“Over there, love.”
Katherine lifted a cup and saucer out of the cabinet. When I turned back to Julia, she dropped it. The fine bone china shattered on impact, sending shards across the marble floor. Katherine crouched down and immediately began to gather up the broken pieces.
“Ouch!” One of the shards sliced open her fingertip. She stood up, then swayed.
“Kate!” Julia called out in alarm.
I managed to catch her and ease her into a chair.
“All right?”
“I think so, I just felt dizzy all of a sudden.”
Julia sat down next to her. “Could the dizziness have to do with the head trauma? Should we be worried?”
“I don’t think so,” I assured her.
“Is this the first time it’s happened, sweetie?”
“There was one other time, at the hospital. I’m fine, Mom.” Katherine turned to me and asked, “It’s normal, right? Nothing to be alarmed about?”
“How’s the noggin?”
Katherine knocked on the side of her head. “Fine.”
“How many fingers am I holding up?”
She rolled her eyes. “Three.”
“You can see them clearly?”
“Clear as a bell.”
“Any pain in your abdominal area?”
“Why would she have pain in her… You’re pregnant?”
Katherine swallowed, then nodded.
“And the baby is Damien’s?”
“Yes.”
“He knows?”
“No, I just found out myself. I asked you over so I could tell you. Damien’s going to come over tonight.”
“Oh, sweetheart.”
“I can’t see myself making a life with him, Mom.”
Suddenly I felt like an intruder. “I’ll leave you two to chat. Leave the mess. I’ll clean it up later.”
“You don’t have to leave.” Katherine reached for my hand then she turned back to face Julia. “I’m going to have this baby.”
“Kate, have you really thought this through?” asked Julia, worry etched on her face.
“I’m trying to take this one step at a time.”
“You are not taking this one step at a time.” She shook her head. “I’m worried, Katherine. You two barely know one another. I was already afraid you’ve been rushing things with Wes. Now you’re talking about having a baby?”
“Julia—”
“Don’t get me wrong, Wes. I like you. Really, I do. And, I can see the passion between the two of you. I’m not so old that I can’t remember what it’s like, to feel a strong sexual attraction to someone.”
Katherine blushed and let go of my hand.
“It can be intoxicating. It can tempt us into doing things we wouldn’t normally do.”
“I’m terribly sorry. Please, excuse the interruption.”
It was Charles.
“It’s quite all right, Charles,” I assured him, feeling a bit grateful for it. “The water’s boiled. How about we have the tea?”
“Allow me, sir.” Charles walked over to the kettle and took over preparations.
“Charles! This is my mother, Julia Lawson,” introduced Katherine.
“The pleasure is all mine, madam.” Noticing the shattered cup on the floor Charles quickly retrieved the broom from the pantry. “Shall I serve in the living room?”
“We thought we’d just sit here. You can join us,” suggested Katherine.
“That’s not how it works, Miss Lawson, but thank you. How many will there be for dinner this evening?” Charles dumped the broken shards into the dustbin.
“Julia, can you stay?”
“George is expecting me back for dinner.”
“Just the two of us.”
The telephone rang and Charles answered it. “Atherton residence.” After listening for a moment he turned to me. “It’s your service, a Mr. William Carlton is on the line. Seems there’s a bit of an emergency.”
“Thanks for coming.” Will opened the door and waved me inside. “I don’t want to leave her alone for long,” he explained.
We climbed the stairs quickly.
“Tell me again what happened?”
“Everything seemed fine. We were watching a movie. Halfway through we took a break and I ran downstairs to make some popcorn. When I returned Jennifer was lying in the tub, still clothed. The water was as cold as ice. She’s completely non-responsive. I had to physically pull her out.”
“Where is she now?”
“In bed.”
The first thing I noticed upon walking into the bedroom was that the bed was empty. The covers were on the floor.
“Shit! Help me!” Will ran toward the bathroom. I entered a split second later. Jennifer was back in the tub, floating face up in the water, her lips slightly parted and almost blue from the cold. The palms of her hands were upturned, her eyes completely vacant.
I knelt in front of the tub. “Thought you said you’d removed the wet gown?”
Will reached for his sister.
“Hold on,” I told him. “Slow down.”
He took a deep breath and rubbed his hand over his face.
“I did. I had removed it. I left it in the sink. She must have put it back on. She’s hypothermic. We’ve got to get her out of there.”
“Jennifer? Look at me!” I commanded.
No response.
“I’ve never seen her like this!” Panic was creeping into Will’s voice.
I reached in and lifted Jennifer’s hand out of the cold water. Once her arm was held straight, at a ninety-degree angle to the surface of the water, I let go. Her arm slowly and fluidly returned to its prior position.
“Lay a towel out on the floor,” I suggested. “Then we’ll fish her out.”
Will grabbed a long bath towel and laid it out in front of the tub.
“Her presentation is inconsistent. Her movements are still fluid. You saw how easily I repositioned her. She obviously climbed out of bed, put her wet gown back on and climbed in here.” I stood up and reached for her feet.
Will hooked his arms under Jennifer’s shoulders and together we lifted her out of the tub and onto the towel.
“Let’s get this off of her.” I moved her into a sitting position and lowered the straps of her gown. “Then we’ll get her into bed. We need to get her body temperature back up.”
Will raised Jennifer’s hips so that I could remove the gown. Then he carried her, still unresponsive, to the bed.
“Now what?” asked Will. He picked the covers up off of the floor and arranged them over Jennifer.
“She’s been eating and drinking today?” I rubbed my injured shoulder. The lift had taken a toll.
“Yes. She was perfectly fine earlier. I’ve never seen her like this, I tell you. Never,” insisted Will. “Did you re-injure yo
ur shoulder?”
“It’s all right.” I sat down next to Jennifer, then picked up one of her hands, placing it between mine. “Jennifer, I want you to look at me. Can you do that? Look at me.”
I watched as ever so slowly her eyes tracked over until they met mine. “That’s it, stay with me now.”
“She was so cold,” whispered Jennifer, “so cold and wet. Don’t be afraid of her, she only wants to help.”
“Help with what?” asked Will.
“Help to save the baby.” Jennifer rolled onto her side. “She doesn’t understand. I have to make her understand. I’m so tired, so very tired.”
“Just rest, love.” Will pulled the blanket up, tucking it in around his sister. “Just sleep. It’ll be all right. We’ll figure this out. Dr. Atherton is here to help.”
“Actually,” whispered Jennifer before succumbing to sleep, “I believe we’re still supposed to be helping him.”
“Thanks for staying. I’m sorry I was gone longer than expected.” Charles was sitting at the kitchen table, polishing a large silver tray. “Want a beer?”
“I work for you now. We shouldn’t be drinking beer together.”
I ignored him and pulled two from the fridge. “Is that mine?”
“Yes, and you’ve really let it go! You should let me do more. Look at the tarnish on this?” Charles held up the tray. “It’s disgraceful!”
“I should be ashamed. Catch.” I tossed him the beer. “I’m sure that there’s a special place in Hell for people like me, an especially nasty corner where they keep all of us that fail to polish the silver.”
“You don’t have to polish the silver.” He opened the bottle and took a long swallow. “Sara Chase’s assistant called. She hasn’t received your response for the Black and White Ball. It’s tomorrow night.”
“Bugger! I forgot all about it.”
“No worries. I responded for you and a guest. I imagine Miss Lawson will enjoy it. She’ll need a dress, though; there wasn’t anything appropriate in her luggage. I’ll select something suitable and bring it ’round tomorrow. And I’ll retrieve the car from storage. It’s been a while. I hope it’s still in working order.”
“I have a car, Charles. I can drive us.”
“Nonsense, this way you can enjoy the champagne. I’ll pick you up at eight o’clock.”
“Where’s Katherine?”
“Sleeping.”
“Sleeping?” I turned toward the kitchen clock. “Hasn’t it just gone half past eight?”
“She was probably tired after all of the crying.” Charles began to peel the label off of the bottle.
My stomach clenched and a sense of dread washed over me. “What happened?”
“Damien happened.”
“Shit! I completely forgot. I’m an idiot!”
“Well, fortunately for you, he’s an even bigger tosser. I may have overstepped a bit, but in your absence I had to use my best judgment.”
“What did you do?”
“Showed him out the door, in a manner of speaking.”
“Come on, let’s have it.”
“He was yelling at her, Wes. He called her a whore, then I heard a slap, and she cried out. I was concerned for her safety so I interrupted them.”
“He hit her? He hit her and you just showed him to the door? What’s the matter with you?”
“I didn’t just show him to the door, I also quite possibly broke his nose. I probably should have said that I grabbed his head and shoved it into the door before opening it and letting him out. I think I might have done that twice actually.”
“What did Katherine say during all of this?”
“Nothing. She was shaking like a leaf and on the verge of crying but she choked it back. After he left she merely said goodnight and walked upstairs. She puts up a strong front, that one. The blood cleaned up quite nicely though. So no worries on that front.”
“I’m not worried about the soddin’ paint and floors. I’m worried about Katherine.”
“I went to check on her just a few minutes before you came in. Seems she finally cried herself to sleep. I could hear her through the door. Didn’t want to disturb her. I’m sorry I lost my temper, but if you would have been here—”
“I’d no doubt have done the very same thing.” I tossed my empty bottle in the rubbish, walked over to the door and as I pushed through it I said, “I’m glad you were here. Goodnight, Charles.”
Chapter Eleven
The sun was bright. In the two days since Katherine had been released from the hospital it had vacillated between rain and clear blue skies.
We drove in companionable silence. Katherine was sitting quietly in the passenger’s seat, staring out the window. She was dressed casually in a pair of jeans that she topped with a simple pink sweater and matching knitted cap. She wore her hair down so it loosely framed her face, accentuating her natural beauty.
We stopped at the light and she turned to look at me. “What?”
“You’re bloody gorgeous, you know that?”
She brushed off the compliment. “I have holes in my head.”
“That pout is going to be my undoing.” I leaned toward her and licked her bottom lip with the tip of my tongue before lightly nibbling on it. And then I kissed her. I couldn’t help myself. It was a soulful kiss, deep and full, slow and sensual, full of promise.
The car stalled as my foot came off the clutch, ending the kiss abruptly.
“Bugger!”
Katherine erupted in laughter.
“You think that’s funny, do you?” I quickly restarted the engine, then eased it back into gear.
Katherine nodded. “God, it feels good to laugh!” She placed her hand over her stomach.
I waited until the laughter died down. Then I asked her the question that had been on my mind all morning. “Did you tell him?”
“No.” She looked away. “I just couldn’t get the words out, could hardly get any words out. I need to though. I will. It just…didn’t go well.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“How much do you charge?”
“For you? No charge.” I pulled off to the side of the road.
Katherine sighed. “Wes, what are we doing?”
“What do you mean?”
“Is this a date? Are we dating?”
“Do you want to date?”
“You can’t answer my question with a question. It’s against the rules.”
“There are rules now? I think I missed the part where we voted to have rules.”
“So much in my life seems up in the air, uncertain. Maybe my mother’s right. Maybe we’re rushing things.”
I swallowed. “What does your heart tell you?”
“What does your heart tell you?”
“Okay. How’s this? I think what we have is the beginning of a relationship, maybe the relationship. The one I’ve been waiting for.” I paused and took a deep breath before taking her hand in mine and holding it over my heart. “Since I’ve met you I feel different. I feel more alive.”
“Really?”
“Really. Just thinking about kissing you? Well, it makes my heart beat faster. I don’t know exactly how this is going to turn out any more than you do. But I so want to find out. Don’t you?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“But?” I turned off the car’s engine and opened the door. Katherine stepped out and walked around to meet me.
“When I tell Damien, he’s going to try even harder to get me to go back to him. He’s going to pull out all the stops. It’s going to make this, us, hard.”
“That’s all right. Let it get hard. Anything worth having—”
“I’m going to be having another man’s baby, Wes. Can you really handle that? Are you sure you even want to?”
“I’m a right stubborn bastard. I think I inherited the trait from my dad. Never much cared about what other people thought. When I see something I want, I go after it, I fight for it, and I generally win.
Honestly, love, from the moment I laid eyes on you—”
“You didn’t know I was a package deal.”
“I know now.”
“What’s in the trunk?” Katherine peered over my shoulder as I opened the boot.
“Just these.” I held up a bouquet of white roses.
Smiling flirtatiously she stepped forward, ever so slightly batting her eyelashes and feigning a Southern accent. “Why, sir, are those for me?”
“Sorry to disappoint. That’s where we’re going.” I pointed across the street. “I come to pay a visit every two weeks. Mum loved flowers.”
“Would you prefer I wait in the car?”
I linked my arm with hers and escorted her across the street toward the large stone church. “Don’t be silly. My parents would love to meet you.”
“This is Highgate?” she asked as we approached the iron gate.
“You’ve been here before?”
“No, but I’ve seen pictures.”
The grounds of the cemetery were green and lush with vegetation. I reached for Katherine’s hand.
“There are some very famous people buried within these walls.” I gestured toward a particular grave. “There’s one of my very favorite stories.”
“Tell me.”
“Mrs. Elisabeth Rossetti, or as she was better known, Elisabeth Eleanor Siddall. She was a famous model.”
I dusted off the top of a nearby headstone, and sat down.
“It says she died in 1862. She was still quite young.”
“She was only nineteen when Walter Deverall, the artist, discovered her. He spotted her through the window of the hat shop where she was working. She captivated him completely.”
“Sounds like you might have a thing for her yourself?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know? Anyway, you’ve probably heard this all before.”
Katherine shook her head. “No, go on.”
“Deverall was part of a secret group of young artists called the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. They were rebels of a sort. They took exception to what the Royal Academy thought was art. They painted what they wanted.”
“And what was that?”
“They all wanted to paint her. Deverall, Sir John Everett Millais, Wesley Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.”
The Sacrifice: Forbidden, Book 1 Page 8