Ellida
Page 41
He’d made a vague movement over the room, “There are enough Langaer here to bewitch all of Sicily. Don’t worry, Astrid, we’ll take care of everything: the orchestra, audience, theatre personnel, conductor—”
“No! Non il conduttore!” Professor Colonna exclaimed, gesticulating with his arms. “Il maestro is our man.”
“Okay, then. We won’t mess with the conductor,” Ahmed said, laughing. “We don’t want him to forget who he is.”
“What about Lottie Fontaine and her grandson?” Astrid whispered.
“They know about us, sweetheart,” her uncle answered. “David is a half-blaidd.”
“What about Amelia, then? What will she remember? Jack?”
“Frau Brecht will be left with the most beautiful memories of the best performance in her life,” Jack said. “She’ll end her career with dignity and fame she couldn’t have dreamt of, adored and celebrated again, and with plenty of money. She’ll watch herself on the stage, completely convinced it is she who’s singing.”
“She’ll be in the audience?”
“Yes, looking slightly different. That’s the easiest way.”
“Come, Astrid, you probably want to see your dress for tonight,” Peyton said. “I chose it. I hope you’ll like it.” She took Astrid’s hand and towed her toward the change room. “Rowena, let’s help Astrid prepare.”
“I WAS good, wasn’t I?” Astrid asked dreamily, nestling in Jack’s lap. She could feel him hard and strong behind her back.
“You were the best Queen of the Night the world has ever heard, baby,” Jack whispered, kissing the soft, silky skin behind her ear. “You put the entire theater under a spell with your voice.”
THE APPLAUSE after O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn, the first Queen of the Night aria, had lasted more than ten minutes.
Getting ready for her next entrance, Astrid watched the audience from her place behind the stage. The theater was full to the last seat. The box tier seats had been reserved for her family and friends.
Astrid’s eyes traveled lovingly over the first several rows. Jack was sitting in the middle of the first row, with Rosie in his lap. She had no problem recognizing her mother and started bouncing up and down when Astrid entered the stage, but Jack had whispered something in her ear and she quietly settled in his arms.
Her mother and Ahmed, and James and Betty, sat to each side of Jack and Rosie. She saw Ella dab her eyes with a Kleenex and Arnaldur’s look of amazement. Beside them sat Anwen and Robert, both smiling. Ingmar blew her a kiss; Peyton’s eyes sparkled with tears; Tristan winked at her and Livia looked very proud. Henry watched her with his round, green eyes wide open.
She smiled happily. Her husband, her daughter, her family and friends. Her entire world was here with her this night.
She stepped out and the stage light illuminated her.
The orchestra played the first measures of Der Hölle Rache kocht in Meinem Herzen, the second Queen of the Night aria.
Astrid took a deep breath and, once again, a divine, magnificent sound flew out of her throat. One more time, her brilliant, powerful, crystal-clear voice enveloped the entire theater in pure magic…
After thirty minutes of standing ovations and a dozen curtain calls, Astrid had bowed to the audience for the last time, and, looking at her husband and daughter from under her lashes, mouthed,
“I love you.”
“We love you, too,” Jack whispered back.
THE ROOM was bathed in the golden light of the gentle autumn sun. Astrid rolled over and faced her husband. “Jack, remind me why we stopped using condoms a while ago?”
“Hmmm, let’s see. We are lazy. We are married. Therefore, we have the right to be a bit irresponsible. We like it bare… You’re breastfeeding Rosie, so that’s a sort of protection—”
“That’s the most unreliable protection of all.”
“We used condoms before, and you got pregnant nonetheless.” He lifted himself on his elbow and looked at his wife. “What are you trying to tell me, Miss Spock?”
She giggled and, taking his big, warm hand in hers, guided it to her abdomen. “So there are the consequences for being lazy, irresponsible and liking it bare.”
“Consequences? You mean…” Jack stuttered, his eyes gold and shiny with a rush of emotions.
“You knocked me up, gorgeous, for the second time in less than a year and a half!”
“I did?”
“The night we came here, I think. Or maybe the morning after, I can’t say precisely. It would be too early for me to know, but not for Louise. She told me. ”
“Yes! I’m going to be a father again!” Jack fist’s punched the air in triumphant excitement, pure male pride written all over his face. With a swift movement he pulled Astrid on his chest and rolled her until she was firmly tucked under him. “We’re getting a son this time, you’ll see.”
Astrid shook her head and smiled. She didn’t even bother to explain to Jack that the pulsating grain she carried inside her wasn’t more than a few growing cells no bigger than the head of a pin. After all, he’d been so sure about Rosie, and now, when she thought about the tiny life in her uterus, she suddenly saw threads of dancing light, blue, and green.
“You know what, Jack Canagan?” she murmured, “you might be right.”
Hands and legs entwined, lips touched, and soon they didn’t know where one ended and the other one began.
THERE WOULD be always roadblocks lying ahead, Astrid contemplated later, as she listened to Jack’s heart gradually slowing down to perfectly match her own heartbeat. They had been granted a long life purposely: to make it better for themselves as well as for others. There would surely be more challenges to face, more problems to solve, new battles, big and small, to fight and win.
“Life throws you a curve when you’re least expecting it,” Jack liked to say. Well, when you were an Ellida and Einhamir, the twists and turns of life were part of your job description. They had both accepted that when they’d met, knowing they were up to the challenge.
At this moment, however, nothing else mattered except the precious, wonderful, timeless slice of life here and now. Through the open window, a gentle September breeze carried the sound of waves rolling over the pebbled beach and Rosie’s delighted shrieks.
Astrid pressed herself firmly against the solid body beside her.
With every cell of her body, every thought in her mind, every emotion in her soul, with her lips over Jack’s skin and his arms around her, Astrid felt life’s bliss secured in the present.
About the Author
Not unlike her characters, J.F. Kaufmann leads a double life: by day she is an employee in a public library, mother of two teenage boys, a friend, a colleague and the Queen of her kitchen. When the moon rises however, she shifts into her other self, as Queen of the Night, and reigns in the magical world of Langaer.
Born and raised in a tiny, fairylike country far, far away, J. F. Kaufmann made Calgary her home twenty years ago.
Table of Contents
Preface
Epilogue
About the Author