Secondly, she had twice called him back from his rendezvous with death. It had been Dinah’s voice which had reminded him that he had unfinished business on earth and must return to complete it.
Hendrick had said to him only that morning, ‘That wife of yours is a treasure, Jake, and treasures need guarding. I never thought that you would marry a woman who is your equal in every way, and she so young. If you ever hurt her, I shall be after you with a shotgun, so be sure to do your duty by her!’
Well, he would do that and more. He would give her the unstinting love which he had never thought to give any woman.
Dinah was coming over to him now, love and compassion written on her serene face. She was saying solemnly, ‘Are you well enough, Cobie, to stay awake until I have finished speaking?’
‘Depends upon what you wish to tell me,’ he said naughtily.
Yes, he was rapidly turning back into himself, Dinah noted joyfully.
‘Well, it’s something I think that you would like to hear. Are you listening?’
He opened one wicked eye. ‘Always to you, Dinah.’
‘Very well. Here it is, then. We are going to have a baby! There!’
‘We are? When? Oh, Dinah, I’ve been careless. You’re so young. It will be too much for you!’
‘That it will not. Now behave yourself and lie still. What do you want, a boy or a girl, or would you prefer twins?’
An echo reverberated in his head.
‘That’s odd, Dinah. I could have sworn that you told me we were having a baby before—and that you mentioned twins. Did you?’
Dinah stared at him. She remembered telling him of the baby when everyone thought that he was dying, when his breathing was shortening, and the mask of death, as the nurse had said, was settling on his face. He must have heard her, after all, and that was the moment when he had changed, when his eyes had opened, and he had known her.
‘When you were unconscious I told you. And you’re at your old tricks again, Cobie, answering a question with a question. Now I know you’re going to recover!’
He looked up at her, smiling. ‘Will you still be so bossy when I am well again? Let me boss you a little. Come and sit by me and hold my hand. I’ve missed you so, my darling. Where would I be without you? Were it not for you, I know that I would never have survived at all.’
‘Oh, that’s nonsense,’ she said airily, but she did as he asked her, lifting his hand to her lips.
‘No, Dinah!’ he said, and his voice was strong and urgent again, the voice of the living, vibrant Cobie.
‘There is something I must tell you, something I should have told you before. I love you, Dinah, I love you dearly. I think that I have loved you ever since that first afternoon at Moorings when you walked into the library, but my own wicked selfishness prevented me from admitting it.’
There was more which he wanted to say, but not now. His lack of strength was stopping him, and he had no desire to put too great a burden on her after she had been so brave.
He knew that he would always retain his questing spirit, but because of his love for her and the coming child—children, he hoped—he would never again walk on such a high tightrope of danger as he had done since meeting Lizzie Steele. He would owe a duty to them, and to her.
They must come before any crusade he might embark on, particularly now that he knew that Lizzie’s shade might rest in peace with her death avenged by Hendrick Van Deusen—who had never met her.
He saw the blazing love for him on Dinah’s face when he had finished telling her how much he loved her.
‘Oh, my darling,’ she said earnestly, kissing him on his warm cheek, ‘I never thought to hear you say that. I never thought to be so blessed.’
In his delirium he had told her of his love, but she had feared that he might not live to tell her so. Her heart was so full of joy that she thought that it might burst.
The daisy she had plucked at Moorings had told true.
He loves me.
She knew him as she had never hoped to do, all the complexities of him, and that his love for her was as powerful as her love for him.
Cobie opened his eyes again, and said drowsily, ‘My mother has told me how devotedly you nursed me. You must be tired, my love, and you have the baby to think of now. You must get some rest yourself.’
‘Oh,’ Dinah said, ‘my best rest is with you,’ and, still holding his hand, quietly and gently, as she did everything, she fell asleep, for him to follow her. The Dollar Prince with his arms around his beloved Princess, having reached haven at last.
And the magician’s best trick of all was the child his dear wife was carrying.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-2981-5
PRINCE OF SECRETS
Copyright © 2001 by Paula Marshall
First North American publication 2006
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Prince of Secrets Page 27