by Lena West
The night, mild for April, was perfect.
Perfect for dying.
Distant street lights aided a yellow quarter moon in providing a fitful, shadowy light. Waves thundered and sucked hungrily at the wicked, jagged rocks below the cliffs. Rocks which Hugh Blake fancifully imagined had acquired a taste for blood and despair and were ravening for more.
His.
If so, tonight they'd be disappointed. His lips curled in a fierce, defiant grimace, distorting his strong, craggy face as he rolled the bottle of pills in his pocket.
He’d be dying tonight, only not splattered all over the rocks. He'd chosen a tidier option. Kinder too, for those who'd have to deal with the aftermath.
The pills were out of his pocket now and he studied the label, reciting the dosage warning from memory in the darkness. Not that he’d be abiding by those instructions tonight.
The last of the late-night visitors to the park had departed a good half hour ago. It would be humiliating, as well as defeating his purpose, to be discovered before he'd achieved his goal. So he'd waited.
Patiently.
Until no-one was left to intervene.
Hugh concentrated his heart and mind on Mary and Andrew whom he'd soon be joining. Five interminable years of waiting were almost over, and their family reunion couldn't come soon enough for him.
But he wouldn't be making a hash of his plans tonight through rash, last-minute impatience. He'd bide his time a little longer to be sure of success.
His Mary. His beloved Mary who'd been the only woman in his life, the only woman he'd ever wanted in his life. His wife through thirty-three years of marriage, was waiting; and he longed to be with her again.
And Andy. Their baby boy who'd grown to be a man. The child he and Mary had, for so long, despaired of having, and who had finally been granted to them.
Hugh could feel the triumphant weight of that miraculous infant in his arms still.
Tonight, the three of them would come together again, for all time.
When the doctor he'd come to Sydney to consult confirmed for him that he had cancer and would be dead before the end of the year, he'd dreamed up this scheme. Why should he have to endure an agonising death when he could circumvent fate and die in his own time?
Why should he have to wait any longer to rejoin his wife and son? He had no other family. No reason to hang on till the bitter end.
Tears of grievous loss, tears of joyous anticipation, blurred his vision. Scudding clouds briefly obscured the moon, casting him into deep shadow on his bench under the trees. Hugh blinked the moisture away, and gasped.
Hand on his runaway heart he stumbled to his feet, then as suddenly fell back onto the seat, tremors racking his whole body. The pill bottle, unopened still and temporarily forgotten, fell to the dusty ground as he stared in fear and joy at the vision confronting him.
They'd come for him, as eagerly impatient as himself!
Hugh attempted to rise, to go to them.
His Mary and his boy who stood before him, pale and luminous in the shifting moonlight. The unexpected pressure of a ghostly hand pushed him back onto the bench, although neither of his two stern-visaged loved ones had moved an inch.
Hugh's heart pounded painfully in his chest.
An icy chill raised the hairs on the back of his neck.
His sudden fear dissolved in the reviving warmth of a wash of love that flowed over him all at once.
“Not this way, Hugh my darling. Tonight is not your time.”
Mary's voice, not heard, but felt through every fibre of his being, echoed in Hugh's mind.
“This sin will lose you to us for eternity.”
Andrew's dire warning vibrating in his bones, Hugh reached despairing hands towards the spirits of his wife and son.
“We'll come for you soon. Be strong. Wait for us.”
Beatific smiles lit both ghostly faces, beaming a strengthening warmth and joy into Hugh's lonely heart. Fresh, cleansing tears flowed silently from his eyes as his hands dropped to his knees.
Turning from him, his Mary's spirit gazed down the hill towards the road, drawing Hugh's eyes in that same direction.
A slim, blonde girl trudged wearily into view. Stopping, she peered vacantly about, then taking in her surroundings, uttered a small heart-rending cry and dashed up the path in front of Hugh towards the viewing point above the cliffs.
The jumping off point.
“Save them Hugh! For me.”
His Mary's urgent words were an order, not a request, and had Hugh instantly rushing to intercept the girl even as Andy spoke the last word.
“Help them both Dad. Keep them both safe.”
Then both apparitions dissolved into the air leaving only a weeping girl teetering on the edge of the cliff above Sydney's infamous Gap.
And the man rushing to pull her back from the brink.
***
Dizzy, Emily felt herself sway as if the rocks below were drawing her down; urging her on. Her feet edged forward an inch.
One more step and there'd be no turning back, whether she wanted to or not.
And as suddenly as that she knew she couldn't do it.
Clutching her stomach with protective hands, she forced herself to step back from the edge. She was carrying a baby, down there in her still flat stomach under her hands. A precious baby!
For the first time the baby was vividly real to her and a wondrous, loving warmth flooded her heart. She wouldn't be alone any more. She was going to be a mother!
Joy was overtaken by fierce determination.
She was going to be a mother who protected her child from all harm.
A mother who nurtured her child.
A mother who loved her child.
A mother who damned her baby's father to the fires of Hell for callously demanding she “… get rid of the bastard before it ruins both our lives.”
As if the selfish traitor cared twopence about her! He had no thought for anyone other than himself.
Her eyes closed as if to shut out her pain and shame. Luke had lied to her from the beginning, playing on her loneliness and vulnerability while pretending a love as false as his black heart. She knew him now for the out and out scoundrel he was.
He'd burn in Hell. But she'd have her baby.
Hers!
Never in her lifetime would that poor excuse for a man be allowed any part of the precious burden she carried.
Opening her eyes again, Emily saw she still stood precariously balanced on the lip of the jump-off, and hastily shuffled back, bumping into the solid body of a man she hadn't seen approach. A man whose hand closed around her arm, solicitously drawing her further away from danger. Her thin scream was cut off abruptly when she realised his intent was benign.
“Now miss, come away from there. You don't want to be doing that.”
His voice was kind. Comforting.
Her mind in turmoil, Emily permitted him to lead her to the bench beneath the trees, well away from the dangerous cliff. Although he was a stranger, she sensed no threat. He was just a nice, fatherly bloke who thought he was rescuing her, even though she'd already come to her senses seconds before he intervened.
He fussed gently, offering her his handkerchief to dry the tears streaking her cheeks.
So kind, she thought. This chance met Good Samaritan was so kind.
After the cruelty and shocks of this dreadful day his kindness overturned her heart. Emily burst into a storm of weeping. He carefully turned her into his shoulder, patting her back until her tears slowed to a hiccup and she drew back.
“Here, drink this, Missy. It'll warm you up.” He poured tea from his thermos into each of its two cups and pressed one into her hand.
“I'm Hugh Blake,” he said, studying her as he spoke.
“I'm sorry for your trouble and would like to help you sort it out. You know, sometimes it's easier to tell the difficult stuff to a stranger, so why don't you use me as a sounding board.”
He smil
ed, inviting her confidences.
Emily sniffed back a stray tear and stared into the gentle, lined face gazing so openly into hers. She didn't know why, but she instinctively trusted this man. And he was right; talking to a stranger would be easier. Besides, telling him her sordid little tale might help her get her options straight in her own mind at the same time.
Mind made up, she put down her tea to hold her hand out to him.
“I'm Emily Anderson, and I'm the biggest fool on God's green Earth Mr Blake. You can probably guess most of it, but the short version is that I got taken in by a smooth talking villain who got me drunk one day and seduced me. I thought he loved me. Thought we were going to be married.”
She applied the handkerchief again.
Mopping at her cheeks, she mustered up the courage to finish her story.
“Only I thought wrong, didn't I? I ended up pregnant, came to tell him tonight, thinking he'd be happy to do the right thing. Turns out love was a polite euphemism for lust and he's already got a wife and children.”
Her voice broke and it took some time to get the next few words out, but her rescuer waited patiently.
“He sh… sh… shoved some money in my hand and t… t… told me to get lost and g… get r… rid of it.”
Her lips tightened, recalling what he'd told her when she naively asked what he meant. He'd told her in pretty explicit terms she should find one of those illegal back-street abortionists she'd heard dark whispers about and pay him to rid her of their baby. Horrified and heart broken, she had run off into the night.
“I felt pretty shocked and scared and just wandered aimlessly round the streets trying to sort myself out, getting more and more confused and frightened until I ended up almost jumping off The Gap.”
A shudder ran through her body and nausea roiled in her stomach.
How cliched can you get? she asked herself. Never in a million years would she have imagined herself in such a situation. She couldn’t imagine what her parents would have said. But that was part of the problem, wasn’t it?
Her parents were no longer with her. No longer able to protect her.
“I don't know what I'm going to do now Mr Blake,” she said, turning back to her rescuer, “but one thing I'm sure of. The Gap's not the answer. It's a baby inside me and I'm going to do right by it. Somehow.”
Her voice, brittle but controlled throughout the bald recitation of facts, broke on the last word and she began sobbing again, quietly and hopelessly. It was 1956, and family provided the only help a young, unwed mother could hope for if she wanted to keep her baby.
Emily had no family. No way of supporting herself if she kept her baby. No-one to save her from being forced to give her baby up for adoption.
“Now, now Missy. Emily. It's not the end of the world. People have babies every day. Dry those tears and let's see how I can help. There's bound to be something I can do, even if it's only seeing you to your home.”
“You're very kind, Mr Blake, but I don't have a home any longer. My parents died in an accident back before Christmas. I live in a student hostel on the other side of the city; and I'm way past my curfew.”
She sniffed back another bout of tears, thinking that the broken curfew was yet one more thing to cause her grief, insignificant though it was.
“It's not your problem, Mr Blake. None of it is. In a few days when I've had time to get my head around it all I'll work something out.”
A brave attempt at a smile stretched Emily's trembling lips into a pitiful grimace, wrenching at Hugh's heart.
Bearing in mind his recent divine command to help this girl and her child, Hugh decided to stick to her like a burr in a fleece until he figured out the best kind of help to offer. He’d been given a mission to carry out before he succumbed to the cancer eating away at his gut. There and then, he vowed to succeed in it.
With this in mind, he overrode Emily’s protests and took her back with him to his hotel, a short walk away as opposed to the long taxi ride to the suburb where she lived. Once there, he installed her in a room of her own, phoned the matron of her hostel with a story of old family friends visiting the Big Smoke, and extracted a promise from Emily to have breakfast with him in the morning.
Then, he assured her, after a good night's sleep, they'd put their heads together and come up with a fine solution to her problems. Too exhausted to put up more than a token protest, Emily acquiesced.
Hugh Blake's gentle care felt almost like having her beloved father back again.
Continued…….
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Emily’s Baby
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About the Author
Born in tropical North Queensland, Lena loves living close to the sea, although she moved frequently during her early years, living everywhere from large cities to isolated farms. Her most recent home has a deck overlooking the ocean, which is her favourite room in the house, for reading, writing, art, craft or even birdwatching, when the local birds come to visit.
After working as a primary school teacher in both her native Queensland, and later in New South Wales where she met her own romantic hero, she took a very early retirement to travel Australia with him, in a motorhome. This idyllic lifestyle lasted several years, during which time she indulged in the creation of story plots and their settings, culminating in her taking steps to fulfil her lifelong ambition to write.
Storytelling came naturally - she had been making up stories for her own entertainment all her life, but it wasn’t until she began traveling that she had time to write down some of her favourites. Marrying Alan Morgan, is the first in a series of rural romances set in the fictional town of Oxley Crossing.
It is followed by Saving Jonathon Armitage, with several more in the series to follow. She also writes standalone contemporary romances and Australian historical romances.
She has an addiction to happily-ever-afters, in both her reading and her own stories, so the romance genre was a natural fit, and the variety of places she has lived have all added to the settings in which she brings love to life.
You can find Lena on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/LenaWestAuthor/
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Other Books by
Lena West
Standalone Contemporary Romances
Loving Fenella
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B3RLS98/
Bronwyn’s Family (Coming soon)
Forgotten (Coming soon)
Contemporary Series
Love in Oxley Crossing Series
Marrying Alan Morgan
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774V1L25/
Saving Jonathon Armitage
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0788GCQJQ
Finding Mr Wright
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C98B7PJ
Electing Robert Whitman (Coming 2018)
Redeeming Josh Marten (Coming soon)
The Making of Joey Lambert (Coming Soon)
The Wyldeflower Series
(6 books, coming soon)
Historical Romances
Unto Death
Emily’s Baby (Coming soon)
Home is the Heart (Coming soon)
Blue Streak (Coming soon)
Love and War (Coming soon
Connect with Lena!
Be the first to know about it when Lena’s next book is released!
Sign up to Lena’s newsletter at
www.lenawestauthor.com
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