“Thank God you’re home now!” Sister Xavier said with fervor, as they headed for the garage to get the car. Both nuns had ascertained immediately that she looked happy and well, and she seemed to have more self-assurance after living on her own for two years. She had grown up. They thought she was even more beautiful than ever. “We got our girl back,” she said to Sister Thomas with a sigh of relief as she started the car.
She told them all about her recent trip around Europe on the drive from the airport.
“I’ve always wanted to go to Madrid,” Sister Xavier said dreamily, as they drove along the freeway.
“I went to a bullfight with my husband once,” Sister Tommy said. “It was awful. He loved it. The poor bull. I almost threw up.” All three of them laughed, and they were at St. Dominic’s an hour later, and all of the nuns were waiting for her. It was a true homecoming. She hugged Mother MaryMeg first and lingered in her arms for a long moment.
“We were going to come over to kidnap you if you didn’t come back this time,” the superior teased her. “Welcome home, Alex.”
“Thank you, Mother,” she said, feeling at peace, and then went upstairs to her room, which had been kept intact for her. It was hers, and had been waiting, with her little blue lamb lamp from her childhood on the desk.
“How’s Brigid…Regina?” she asked Sister Xavier before she left her.
“Ready to pop.” She laughed. “She dropped by to see us a month ago. The poor thing can hardly walk, but she looks great and so happy.” They didn’t know what sex the baby was and were waiting to see at the birth, but were hoping for a boy. “She promised to call the minute it’s born.” Alex already knew that her husband and one of his sisters were going to be at the delivery, which all sounded scary to Alex. It was a subject she knew nothing about, and didn’t want to. Until she had to, one day, if she ever did. Sometimes she thought she’d stay single forever, and just be a writer and nothing else, neither a mother nor a wife. She wouldn’t have minded. And she thought Brigid was very brave.
She settled into her room that night, unpacked her bags, and put her papers on her desk, and in a way it was very odd. It was as though she had never left. She went downstairs for breakfast with the nuns the next morning, and she told Mother Mary Margaret about the possible movie offer after the others left.
“I haven’t heard back from Rose about it, so maybe it will never happen. I think movie deals are like that, they fall apart more than they get made.”
“How could you be on the set, though, and not have them figure out who you are?”
“I don’t know. I’m worried about it too, but Rose thinks we could make it work, with me pretending to be Mr. Green’s assistant. It’s a little crazy.” But so was her life, writing bestsellers under a pseudonym and pretending to be a man. It didn’t get crazier than that.
“That’s very exciting, Alex,” she said proudly. Her career just kept growing. “So you’d be leaving us again,” she added wistfully.
“Only for a few months.” She wanted to go back to London one day. She had liked it, the people, the city, the culture, the history, the British humor and manners.
Mother MaryMeg rushed off to her office then, and Alex called Brigid, as she had promised. Brigid invited her to their apartment for lunch. She said she was too fat to move or go anywhere. Her due date was two days away, and she had taught her classes right till the end. School was out now and she was on maternity leave till January.
Alex couldn’t believe the size of her when she saw her. “Oh my God, you’re huge,” she said, grinning, and Brigid looked down in dismay at the enormous lump the size of a beach ball.
“I think it’s mostly chocolate cake,” she confessed, “and cheesecake…maybe pecan pie and cupcakes…” she said after she hugged Alex, thrilled to see her. “I missed you so much!”
“Me too,” Alex said, feeling as though she had reclaimed a sister. She had brought a little white knit outfit from Paris for the baby, with embroidered white rosebuds on it, which Brigid held up in delight. It was the prettiest thing she’d ever seen. Her face had gotten fuller too, but she looked blissful, and they talked all afternoon about what Alex had done in London for the past year since the wedding, her trips, Fiona, and a modified, less racy version of her relationship with Ivan, even though Brigid was married now. Alex thought she didn’t need to know all of it, but Brigid could guess. When Alex left, Brigid waddled out to the car Alex had borrowed from the convent.
“I’ll call from the hospital when I go in,” she promised, and thanked her again for the little French outfit for the baby. “I hope it’s soon. Like tonight.” She laughed. “I can’t even eat anymore. I can hardly breathe, and I have heartburn all night.” It sounded awful to Alex, but Brigid had her fondest wish and looked ecstatic. Alex reported the visit to the nuns at dinner. They couldn’t wait for the baby to be born, like a houseful of doting aunts. And as soon as they got up from the table, Brigid called.
“I’m in labor!” she told Mother MaryMeg victoriously. She had gotten to the hospital twenty minutes before and reported that she was two centimeters dilated, which the superior knew wasn’t impressive. She had a long way to go before she’d have her baby in her arms.
“We’ll all be praying for you,” the superior said in a loving tone. “It’ll be over before you know it. Try to get a little rest now.”
“I feel great!” she said, on an adrenaline high.
“Rest anyway,” she told her, and reported to the others that Sister Regina was in labor. Everyone was excited at the news.
Alex called Bert and they made a lunch date for two days later. He had editing to give her on the new book. She didn’t tell him about the movie, because she was beginning to think it wouldn’t happen anyway.
—
There was no word from Brigid at breakfast the next morning, which didn’t seem to concern anyone, much to Alex’s surprise. “Should we be worried?” she asked the mother superior.
“Not at all.” She smiled at her gently. “She went into labor about seven o’clock last night. I’d have been amazed if it had been born by now. It’ll probably be sometime late this afternoon, or maybe tonight.”
“Tonight? How long does it take?” She had never thought about it before and didn’t know. She had no female relatives and lived with a houseful of nuns, and no one she knew had ever had a baby.
“For a first baby, average would be about twenty-four or thirty-six hours. And she was in the very early stages of labor when she called us. That barely counts. I’m sure she’s hard at work by now.”
She had guessed accurately, and when the superior called the hospital from her office to check on her, the labor and delivery nurse at the desk told her that Brigid Dylan was in full-on labor now, and at five, which the superior, who was also a nurse, knew meant she had hours to go. Many hours. Hard ones. Especially with a baby that size.
“How’s it going?” she asked with concern. Brigid was still one of hers, in her heart, even now that she was married.
“About how you’d expect, with a first baby, and a big one, at thirty-seven,” the nurse told her honestly when she had identified herself. “Maybe tonight,” or a C-section, they both knew, if it took too long, but she wasn’t there yet, and the nurse said she wasn’t even ready to push. It was going to be a while.
Alex stuck her head in the door at two o’clock to ask if there was any news, and Mother MaryMeg shook her head and smiled. “I’m sure she’s fine.” The nuns had made bets after breakfast and one of them had said midnight, which made Alex wince. Most of them who were nurses had guessed between eight and ten o’clock that night. Alex felt sick thinking about it for her, and wondered if Brigid had known what she was in for.
They had just finished dinner at eight o’clock when Patrick called them at Brigid’s request. He called the nuns right after he called his parents. Mother MaryMeg came back to tell them. “Brigid has her baby. It’s a boy. Ten pounds, two ounces, forceps delivery. He wa
s born at seven forty-one. Mother and son are fine.” The superior beamed at them, and one of the nuns at their table commented that that wasn’t bad at all. Twenty-five hours for a first labor was shorter than it could have been, especially with a big baby. Alex wondered if Brigid would agree. She couldn’t even imagine it. Twenty-five hours of labor. It sounded like a nightmare to her.
“I won! I won!” one of the older nuns at a back table called out, and Alex felt like she was at a bingo game. “I said seven forty-five.” The other nuns cheered and Alex asked Mother MaryMeg a question.
“What’s a forceps delivery?”
“Kind of like a big clamp to help get the baby out, if the baby is big. Like we use in the kitchen.”
“Oh God. I’m never having children,” Alex said and meant it.
“You’ll be surprised. She’ll forget all about it by tomorrow with the baby in her arms.”
“I hope so,” Alex said with feeling, while the older nun collected her winnings from the others at her table. They had each bet a quarter and she’d won more than six dollars. “When can we visit her?”
“I’d give her till tomorrow. She’s going to be worn out tonight, and busy with the baby, even if it wasn’t a long labor.” Alex still couldn’t get over the fact that twenty-five hours was considered speedy.
She went to see Brigid the next day at the hospital at lunchtime. She had dark circles under her eyes, and was sitting at an awkward angle as the nurse showed her how to nurse the baby, and she broke into a broad smile when she saw Alex. The baby was sound asleep in her arms and wasn’t interested in nursing. Brigid said Patrick had just gone home to get some sleep, they’d been up all night admiring the baby. He had a face like a rosebud when Alex looked at him, and she kissed her friend. The nurse took the baby from her then, put him in a little bassinet, and wheeled him off to the nursery for a while.
“How was it?” Alex asked as she sat down in the chair next to Brigid’s bed.
“Awful, worse than anything I could ever have imagined. I thought I was going to die when he came out. But worth every minute of it. I would do it again in a heartbeat.”
“You’re insane,” Alex told her and Brigid laughed.
“Isn’t he beautiful? He looks just like Pat.” Alex couldn’t see it and thought he looked like a baby, but he was very pretty, and very big.
“Sister Ignatius won six dollars thanks to you last night.” They both laughed at that. “Six twenty-five actually. They had a pool on what time he’d be born. I was worried sick about you.”
“It went fine,” Brigid said, looking serene. “It was just really bad for the last four or five hours.”
“I’m having my tubes tied immediately,” Alex said, wincing, and they talked quietly for a while. She was happy for her friend. She had everything she wanted now.
“I guess I won’t be writing for another twenty years or so,” Brigid said sheepishly. “I don’t have your dedication or your talent. I wanted to write a book but I guess it will never happen.”
“You’re a mom now, you get a pass.” She kissed Brigid as they brought the baby back and put him in his mother’s arms. He was crying loudly and wanted to be fed. She was trying to figure out how to do it as Alex left the room and went back to the convent, feeling happy for her.
A group of the nuns went to see her that night. They had knitted little sweaters for the baby, and booties and babies’ caps, and reported that she looked great and the baby was gorgeous. Alex was still stunned by the mystery of it. But Brigid had her baby. They named him Steven Michael. And Alex and all the nuns wished him well, and his parents.
Alex had lunch with Bert the next day. They ate sandwiches she’d brought, and he showed her the editing he’d done and the changes he wanted her to make. He suggested she add details to the crime scene that would be even more vivid, and make the perpetrator of the crime even harder to guess. He was a hard taskmaster but she trusted him completely and he was usually right, so she followed his advice. She was going to start working on it that night.
She wanted to see Brigid again, but she had already gone home that day, thirty-six hours after the baby’s birth, and when Alex called her it sounded like chaos in her apartment, with Pat’s siblings, his parents, and their friends visiting. Brigid was exhausted and Alex didn’t want to add to it. She had her hands full.
—
Rose had left a message for Alex that afternoon at the convent office. When she got back from Bert’s, Alex called her.
“They want to buy it and they’ll pay a good price. And they agreed to our conditions for Mr. Green. They’ll pay to rent a house for him, and for his assistant to be the go-between. That would be you, Alex.” She listed the names of the stars who would be in it, and Alex couldn’t speak for a minute. “They want you and Mr. Green there on August twenty-fifth for preproduction meetings. So? What do you think?” Rose was very pleased.
“I think I’m going to faint,” Alex said as she sat down in a chair in Mother MaryMeg’s office. She was alone there.
“Please don’t. They’re sending the contracts over tomorrow. I’ll email them to you. You’ve got a movie, Alex. This is a big deal, especially with that director and that cast.” Alex was her youngest client, and one of the most successful at the moment. Rose was impressed too, and excited for her. She had never seen a career take off at lightning speed as hers had. But she worked so hard, she deserved it.
“Thank you,” Alex said, and they hung up, and she was still looking shell-shocked when Mother MaryMeg walked in a minute later.
“Is something wrong?”
“I got the movie. Darkness is going to be a movie.” She listed the cast for her. The superior was stunned too.
“Goodness.” She broke into a slow smile. “Brigid has a baby, you have a movie. What’s next? Things are booming around here.” She gave Alex a big hug, and they announced it at dinner. She had time to do the editing on her latest book before she left, and at the end of August, she was going to Hollywood. She still couldn’t believe it. She lay in her bed that night thinking about it, wondering what she had ever done to be so lucky. Bert had been thrilled too when she called him.
Alexander Green was the best thing that had ever happened to her. As far as the world knew, Alexander Green was the bestselling author, but Alex was the woman behind him in the shadows, making magic. It made her laugh to think that, in a way, she was the Wizard of Oz.
Chapter 15
As she always did, Alex turned in the editing she had to do on her book ahead of time, and it was complete before she had to leave for Hollywood, and Bert loved it. She went to say goodbye to him before she left. They wouldn’t be working together for a while, because she had no time to start another book. She would have her hands full with the movie. Her publisher knew it too, but she was ahead of schedule with her work.
She went to say goodbye to Brigid too. Steven was not quite three months old, but appeared twice that, he was so huge. She had just finished nursing him when Alex arrived, and he was sound asleep and seemed drunk in his mother’s arms. Brigid was loving every minute of being with him.
“He looks like he should be wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase,” Alex teased her. “When is he going to get a job? He’ll probably be roller-skating by the time I get back from L.A.” The movie was due to wrap in January, or possibly late December, and then she had to stay for six or eight weeks of postproduction. She was expecting to be gone for about six months.
“And I’ll be an elephant again by the time you see me,” Brigid said happily, as Alex looked puzzled. Brigid hadn’t lost much of the baby weight yet, and still seemed four or five months pregnant. But she’d had no time to exercise, taking care of a newborn, and he was colicky and cried a lot. And she wasn’t dieting because nursing made her so hungry.
“Why is that?” Alex asked. “You’ll lose the weight by then, Brig, don’t worry.”
“Not exactly.” There was a long pause as Alex stared at her, waiting for an
explanation. “We had a little slip a few weeks ago, I always thought nursing was effective birth control, but it turns out…uh…actually, I’m three weeks pregnant. We just found out yesterday.” She looked both mortified and delighted. It was admittedly sloppy, and would stretch their budget incredibly. She and Pat were trying to figure it out.
“Are you kidding?” Alex stared at her. “You’re having another one? Already? You just had him.”
“Irish twins,” Brigid said, faintly embarrassed. It was hard to explain to Alex, at her age, how desperately she wanted a family before it was too late, even if it meant they’d be broke and dirt poor for the next five or ten years, or longer, which was likely to be the case. But Pat wanted a family too. He was thrilled about the second baby, and didn’t mind how fast it had happened. “I know it must sound crazy to you. If I were younger, I’d wait, but we’re playing beat the clock here.”
“How many do you want?” Alex was incredulous.
“Three or four, if we can manage it financially. His parents said they’d help us. It’ll make for some lean years for a while, but it’s worth it.”
“You’re crazy but I love you,” Alex said, grinning at her. “But I guess this is why you left the convent.”
“Yes, it is,” Brigid said, smiling broadly.
“You’re not afraid to go through it again? It sounded awful.”
“It wasn’t that bad, really,” she said easily, as Alex shook her head.
“Mother MaryMeg said you’d say that. It must be amnesia. Twenty-five hours of labor?”
“But look what I got out of it,” she said, pointing to the sleeping baby, who lay in her arms like an angel. She was more than willing to go through it again.
“And Pat’s okay with it?”
“It’s what we both want. I think we were careless on purpose.”
“Congratulations then,” Alex said, and hugged her.
“We want you to be Steven’s godmother. We’ll wait to christen him till you get back.” Alex was touched, and they hugged warmly when she left. She still couldn’t believe they were having another one so soon. She told the nuns about it at dinner, because Brigid said she could, when she had asked if it was a secret.
The Right Time Page 19