The Cowgirl Who Loved Horses, Queens of Montana Bonus Book

by Vanessa Bartal

  Chapter 31

  Marcus didn’t leave the hospital. His father brought him clothes and toiletries when he visited daily. And every day he implored Marcus to let his mother visit.

  “She won’t eat, she can’t sleep. It’s killing her to know what she did. I’m telling you, if you let her visit I think it might help. Please,” he added.

  It was the please that did it. His father was a proud man who usually didn’t ask for anything.

  “All right,” Marcus agreed. “But if she says one negative word about Cecily or the baby I can’t promise I’ll be able to control myself.”

  His father nodded. He looks old, Marcus thought. Mathew’s death, his mother’s decline, and then Cecily’s fall had taken their toll on him. That thought alone was enough to extend grace to his mother. He didn’t want his father to suffer any more than he already had.

  When she arrived he hardly recognized her. Gone was the hard, angry look she’d had lately, only to be replaced by confusion and fear. At first she had no idea who he was, but when she saw Cecily lying in the bed she came to and started to weep.

  “Oh,” she said, over and over again. “Oh, what have I done? What have I done?”

  He swallowed down a lump. His mother had harmed his wife, but the woman before him wasn’t really his mother. His mother was a gentle creature who would never hurt anyone. Mental illness wasn’t her fault. He touched her shoulder and she jumped. “Do you want to see your grandson?”

  She blinked at him in confusion. “I don’t know,” she said uncertainly.

  “I think you’ll like him,” he said. He left to retrieve his baby, and couldn’t help but smile as he presented him to his mother. Her face lit up and she actually smiled.

  “Mom, meet Mathew Joaquin Diaz Blake Henshaw.” He chuckled as she puzzled over all the names. He never would have given in to Cecily’s bizarre name requests if she had been conscious--a fact which she would no doubt lord over him for all their lives.

  “Mathew,” his mother murmured, and then it was as if something within her snapped and she burst into violent tears. Marcus wondered if he should take the baby from her, but before he could his father cradled both her and the baby to him and held them securely in his grasp. In the end he was forced to turn away from the tender scene because it was too emotional, and because it made him desperate for Cecily.

  His parents wept and rocked baby Mathew for a long time, but when it was over his mother had a new light in her eyes. There was clarity and some of her old familiar softness.

  After that she was there as much as he was. She cuddled Mathew and insisted on feeding him whenever Marcus declined. Briefly he worried that she might lose her grip on reality again and think Mathew was hers, but his fears were dispelled when he saw her point to Cecily and tell Mathew it was his mommy.

  Slowly Cecily was weaned off the drugs keeping her in a coma. The breathing tube came out and she seemed much more comfortable. When she finally opened her eyes Marcus had just stepped out of the room to take Mathew back to the nursery. But Lydia was there.

  Cecily winced, and the action brought tears to Lydia’s eyes.

  “It’s all right,” she said gently. “I won’t hurt you. Do you know who you are?”

  “Cecily Henshaw.”

  Lydia smiled because she had used her married name, despite the fact she was a newlywed. “Do you know who I am?”

  “You’re Marcus’s mother,” she said warily. There was something different about Lydia, but Cecily was too dazed to puzzle it together.

  “Do you know what happened to you?”

  Cecily tried to nod and then winced. She touched her hand to her throat. It hurt to talk, too. “I fell off a ladder.” She closed her eyes.

  “Yes,” Lydia said. “You fell off a ladder and almost died because of me. Because I made you.” Her voice broke on a sob. “Oh, Cecily, I’m so sorry. Can you ever forgive me? I behaved abominably.”

  “Why?” Cecily croaked. She opened her eyes.

  “I was mad because my baby was taken away, and you came into the picture at the right time for me to be angry. I know it’s not rational. I knew it at the time, but I couldn’t control myself. I didn’t want to say or do all those horrible things to you, but it was like I couldn’t stop and in some weird way it made the pain a little bit better.”

  “Do you hate me?” Cecily asked. “Do you really disapprove of me for Marcus?”

  “Oh, no,” Lydia said. Her tone was so sincere that Cecily felt hope for the first time in her marriage. “I always thought you were a pretty girl, and I always admired your spirit. I’ll admit your marriage took me by surprise and maybe in the beginning I did disapprove because of the age difference and because I thought you were flighty and immature.”

  “I was,” Cecily said.

  Lydia smiled. “Maybe when you were a little girl, but you’ve grown into a delightful woman. I couldn’t think of a better partner for Marcus. And you’re a good cook, too. When you get better I hope you’ll make some more of those tapas. I almost ordered some off the internet because I’ve been craving them since I had them at your house.”

  Cecily laughed and it hurt.

  “I’m sorry,” Lydia said again. “I won’t ever get over what I’ve done to you, what I almost did to you.”

  “I will,” Cecily said. “You were ill. I forgive you.”

  Lydia started to cry, and so did Cecily, but at that moment Marcus entered and her face became radiant.

  “Marcus,” she breathed. He was next to her and kissing her before she could finish saying his name.

  “I’ll make myself scarce,” Lydia said. She paused in the doorway to smile at the picture they made, and then she went to the nursery to see Mathew.

  “Don’t ever, ever, ever scare me like that again. I’m burning all ladders on the property and you’re grounded until you’re thirty.”

  She laughed and delighted in his reproof. “Where’s Mathew? You don’t know what sort of torture it was to hear him cry and not be able to hold him.”

  “You could hear him?” Marcus asked, a bit of awe in his voice.

  “I could hear everything when I was awake, I just couldn’t communicate. Now go, go get our son, please, and hurry.”

  He went to do her bidding, thinking he had never enjoyed being ordered around more than he did at this moment.

  The next day when Cecily was sitting up feeding Mathew, a light knock sounded on the door.

  “Come in,” Cecily called.

  Libby and Dobbie entered, holding their new baby daughter. They named her Celia after Libby’s mother.

  “Is it all right if we have that play date now?” Libby asked.

  Cecily laughed. “Perfect timing.”

  Libby laughed, too. “We had to bring Celia for her checkup, so we thought we would say hello. Meet your neighbor, Celia.” She held up her little daughter next to Mathew.

  “She’s bigger than him,” Dobbie commented.

  “He was early,” Libby said. “Give him time. He’ll overtake her soon.” She smiled mischievously at Cecily. “Wouldn’t it be great if they got married someday?”

  “Oh, no you don’t,” Marcus said as he entered the room. “Don’t start that, Libby Dobbins.”

  “Amen,” Dobbie said. “Let them make their own choices, especially about who they want to marry.” He pinched Libby’s waist.

  “Of course we will,” Cecily said. “We’ll just arrange it so they want to marry each other.”

  Libby gave her an approving smile while the two husbands groaned. Despite their joking, none of them could have predicted that almost twenty years to the day later Mathew Henshaw would in fact marry Celia Dobbins. But that’s exactly what happened.

 

 
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