All The King's Horses: A Tale Of Eternal Love

by Downs, Alethea

  The floodgates opened, and tears fell swiftly and noisily.

  “I might be angry with you, Christy, but I can’t pretend I don’t care. We’ll see this thing through together.” He waited patiently while she pulled herself together. “Tell me how this thing is affecting you,” he said when she had calmed down enough to speak.

  “It’s called Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia or CML for short,” she explained. “It makes me very tired at times, and in its final stages it will spread to my organs.”

  “And there’s no cure?” he asked hopefully.

  “I haven’t responded as well as hoped to treatment, so unless someone comes up with a new cure in the next year or so then no, there’s no cure for me.”

  He folded his hands on the table in front of him. “I always promised myself I wouldn’t let myself go through this again after what happened with mum. But as fate would have it, here I am, about to go through the whole nine yards all over again.”

  “I wouldn’t blame you if you just walked away and never looked back,” Christy said, fearful that he would do just that. “I don’t think anyone would blame you.”

  “I might have been a failure at many things but I’m no coward,” he said firmly. “You and I will see this thing through together.”

  She hesitated just a moment, then plunged in. “If that is your decision then I have a proposition for you.”

  “A proposition?” he looked at her suspiciously. “What sort of proposition?”

  “My husband left me reasonably well off when he died. I’ve got enough money to buy the house I’m renting and have half a million left over.” She stopped to study his reaction.

  “Okay,” he said cautiously, “so what’s the proposition?”

  “Marry me,” she said quickly. “Marry me and we’ll buy the house and use the money that’s left over to pay off the mortgage on the Bonnie Lass.” She could see he was stunned. “I realize you’ll need time to think it over,” she continued, “but don’t take too long or the Bonnie Lass will be sold out from under you.”

  He stared at her as if she were mad. “I’m not going to marry you just to pay off my mortgage, I’m not that mercenary.”

  “Then don’t. Marry me for love and the Bonnie Lass will come with it.”

  “We haven’t known each other long enough to get married, Christy. What if we don’t get along?”

  “We already know that we do. Last night when we drove down to see the show it was like we’d known each other all our lives. We both know it’d work. And of course, there are certain benefits to marriage that appeal to a man.” She could tell by the sudden spark in his eye that he took her meaning. “I know what I want, Kent. The problem is I might not have a great deal of time left to find it. So for me it’s now or never.”

  “This has all come as a huge shock to me,” Kent confessed. He nodded at his hands. “I haven’t been able to stop those things shaking yet.” He drew in a breath. “It would be good to have the Bonnie Lass back and to be able to make a living from her again. And to live with a woman I truly love does appeal to me. But I always thought when it happened I would be doing the proposing, and it wouldn’t be to someone without terminal cancer.”

  “I realize that, and I sympathize. But I’m afraid it is what it is.”

  “What’s in this for you?”

  She collected her thoughts. “I would be with the man that I am desperately in love with, living out what’s left of my life in happiness rather than sorrow. I would also have you to look after me when my time draws near.”

  “It could work I guess,” he conceded.

  “There is one thing I would need from you though,” she said, sensing a breakthrough. “You would have to promise me that Daddy could live with us, he has no else but me, and I want him near.”

  “Jack wouldn’t be a problem.”

  “So is that a yes?”

  “I guess it is,” he answered. “But you had better love me like no other woman ever could, Christy Lane, because I’m laying my heart bare for you.”

  ♥

  “I think it’ll work well all round,” Jack said, when Christy told him the outcome. “It’s long since time you had a man in your life.”

  She had asked Kent not to tell Jack about her suicide attempt. He didn’t know about it and didn’t need to. It would only cause him unnecessary worry.

  Kent went to see his bank manager a few days later, stunning the fellow with a sizeable sum of money. The Bonnie Lass was his once more.

  They were married two weeks later. It was a small ceremony, just the two of them, Jack, a handful of Kent’s friends and three of Christy’s friends from Auckland.

  Her wedding night was all she hoped it would be, and two weeks in Rarotonga saw her in better health than she had been in years.

  When they returned to Paihia she settled into married life with a vigor that belied her true condition, but just beneath the surface the disease that she had been diagnosed with only a few short years ago was relentlessly gathering strength, and no amount of love in the world was going to be enough to stop it.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “I can’t believe what a great summer it’s been so far,” Kent confided in Jack and Christy at the breakfast table one morning. “Business has been phenomenal. I’ve taken in more money from charters this month alone than I took in from the last six months combined.” He smiled across the table at his wife. “I owe it all to you. If you hadn’t bailed me out when you did it’d be some other lucky fellow making a fortune from the Bonnie Lass.”

  “It was meant to be,” she said, “just like you and I were meant to be.”

  “I love you,” he said suddenly, and with an unusual degree of passion.

  “You couldn’t begin to comprehend how much I love you,” she responded.

  “Alright, that’s it,” Jack said, heaving himself up from the table. “If you two are going to get sickly sweet then I’m out of here.”He pushed his chair noisily under the table. “I think I’ll go down to the beach and watch the windsurfers for a while.”

  Kent waited until he heard the back door bang shut before he skirted the table and took his wife in his arms. “You just get more beautiful with each passing week.”

  “I hope you’ll never stop telling me that.”

  “Just keep looking that good and I never will.”

  “That’s a pretty tall order seeing as every week I’m seven days older.. All those days add up to a whole bunch of days eventually.”

  He was kissing her tenderly on her neck as she spoke.

  “Are you listening to what I’m saying?”

  He continued his assault on her neck.

  “Kent…you’re not listening are you?”

  “I’m listening,” he murmured. “Never stop telling you.” He was becoming just as passionate with his hands now.

  “Do you think that’s a good idea?” she asked. “Daddy might come back. You know how forgetful he is. He may have left something behind.”

  “Well he’ll get a nasty shock then won’t he,” Kent mumbled.

  “Darling, I don’t think this is the place for that,” she gently protested, as his hands became extra adventuress.

  “Let’s go to the bedroom then,” he suggested.

  “It’s only eight-thirty in the morning,” she reminded him.

  “But it’s Sunday, the day of rest, where better to rest than in bed?”

  “Only there wouldn’t be much resting going on would there.” She slapped his hand hard. “Come on, behave yourself.”

  “I don’t have to,” he whined, “you’re my wife.” He picked her up and headed for the bedroom.

  “Kent…what if Daddy comes back?” she said again, but without much conviction.

  ♥

  Kent opened one eye and looked at the clock. It had just gone midday. He had a charter at one-thirty. Rolling onto his side and propping himself up on one elbow he studied his sleeping wife. He couldn’t get over how breathtakingly beaut
iful she was. It wasn’t just her face either. She had such sensationally unblemished pale skin offset by that shock of auburn hair that cascaded gracefully down her back. That goodness the cancer hadn’t harmed that he thought as he took it in his hand and gently ran his fingers through it.

  She stirred slightly as he trailed kisses from her shoulder to the small of her back. How had he survived before she came into his life? He realized how empty he must have been without really knowing it. She was everything to him now, and he couldn’t imagine an existence without her.

  She opened her eyes at that moment and caught him hovering over her. “What are you doing?” she asked sleepily.

  “Admiring you.”

  “Well don’t go getting any more ideas, Buster; we’ve already wasted half the day.”

  “I don’t consider it to be a waste,” he said truthfully. “I could happily stay here all day with a woman as exquisite as you.”

  “Flatterer,” she glanced at the clock. “You have to get out there and make us some money.”

  He groaned as he rolled onto his back. “Don’t remind me.”

  She tucked herself under his arm and placed her palm on his well muscled chest. “I thought you loved your job?”

  “I do. But I don’t like being separated from you, and sometimes these charters can end up running through the night.”

  “I’ll still be here when you get back.”

  “And can I have an encore when I do?”

  She smiled up at him. “I think I can manage that for you.”

  “Right then,” he said, tossing the bed-sheets aside, “the sooner I get started the sooner I can get back to you.”

  ♥

  As he drove to the marina he thought how incredible it was that his life had been turned around in such a short space of time. It all pointed back to the morning he pulled Christy half dead from the sea. He gave an involuntary shudder as he thought what could have been. If he had been just thirty seconds later in walking along that stretch of footpath he wouldn’t have spotted her. If he had been on time but looking in a different direction he would have missed her, if she had been submerged at the moment his eyes roved over the spot she was in difficulty he would have missed her. She would have died on that late winter morning and he wouldn’t have been any the wiser. The name Christy lane would have meant nothing to him, but because he was there at that crucial moment the name Christy Lane meant everything.

  It somehow seemed wrong to be this happy. It was almost as if he should be feeling guilty for it. She was like a drug to him. The more of her he got the more of her he wanted. He would happily live forever if this was how he would feel every day.

  Yes, it was as if everything had suddenly dropped into his lap all at once. A house of his own, a mortgage free boat, and the most beautiful wife a man could ever dare dream for.

  Changing down a gear he gave some thought to his future as the car ground its way to the top of the winding hill. A few years making a good living on the boat and he would have saved up enough money to take Christy on an overseas trip. He wasn’t sure where yet, but anywhere she wanted to go would be okay by him, just as long as he was with her. Provided the cancer didn’t come back of course. There was always that possibility. She had inexplicably been in remission for the past few months but he didn’t think about what he would do if the cancer cells started showing up in her blood tests again. Life without her would be inconceivable, and even though he wasn’t normally a man to succumb to fear, where she was concerned he definitely felt his pulse quicken when thoughts of her dying crept into his head.

  The car crested the hill and began its descent to the marina. Blue skies and even bluer water beckoned to him at the bottom. It was going to be a glorious day out there on the water.

  Pulling into the parking lot he drifted into his usual spot and killed the engine. His clients were already waiting he could see four men clustered together on the jetty chatting amiably amongst themselves. “They must be keen,” he muttered to himself as he locked the car door, “they’re half an hour early.”

  He made his way over to the group. “Good morning, Gentlemen,” he said warmly. “I’m Kent London, your skipper for the day.”

  A tall distinguished man in his fifties stepped forward and shook Kent’s hand. “I’m Don,” he said, in his thick American accent. “This is Ted; the good-looking fellow over there is Simon…”

  Simon grasped Kent’s hand tightly. “I might be the good-looking one but he’s the one who gets all the women. He’s got the gift of the gab, which sadly, I don’t.” He grinned broadly. “By the way, the fellow behind me is Rich he’s the quiet one of the group.”

  Rich nodded in Kent’s direction.

  Kent scanned the little group. “I take it by your accents that you’re all from the United States?”

  “New York,” Simon said, “although Ted’s originally from Dallas.”

  “I hope you’re all ready for the time of your lives,” Kent said enthusiastically, “because from the reports I’ve been getting over the past few days the fish are practically jumping into the boat.”

  “That’s what we like to hear,” Don said, a hint of excitement taking charge of his vocal chords. “So lead the way, Pal.”

  As the boat slipped out into the bay the four American’s talked excitedly amongst themselves while Kent concentrated on navigating through the flotilla of boats in the marina. A whoop of joy went up when Kent was in the clear and gave the Bonnie Lass full throttle.

  He thought he might give them a little fishing time in the bay this morning just to give them a chance to get their sea legs before he took them out to the deeper water beyond the harbor entrance. That’s where the big fish were at the moment and that’s what these four guys had come for. If there was one thing that Kent London always prided himself on it was that no one left his boat dissatisfied. He would throw everything at it to give them the best experience he possibly could.

  He offered up a little prayer of thanks when he spotted them. It was possibly the same pod of dolphins that Christy had swum with. He was glad they were still visiting the bay. “Gentlemen,” he declared, cutting the Bonnie lass’s speed right back, “we have some visitors.”

  He always marveled how dolphins could turn full grown men into excited schoolboys, and this group of men was certainly no exception. Still, it was good for business. He had never known anyone to complain yet who had encountered dolphins along the way, even if they hadn’t caught a single fish.

  He watched them now as they draped their hands over the side of the boat and eagerly coaxed the dolphins to swim over. It brought back the lovely memory of that day Christy swam with the elegant creatures. He had fallen for her that day, pure and simple. She had looked magnificent as she laughed and cavorted with them, and it hadn’t taken too big a stretch of the imagination to picture her as a mermaid sent from the depths to win over his heart.

  He missed her already. He had left her just over an hour ago but he missed her already. He hadn’t felt this way about anyone before. Not even Jocelyn and he had definitely loved her. But as close as he had felt to Jocelyn his feelings for her hadn’t hit the same dizzying heights they had for Christy. Both fear and excitement jostled for supremacy in his heart when he thought of his wife. She owned him, and that frightened him because there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her now. There was no sacrifice he wouldn’t be prepared to make for her. He was completely under her spell.

  He waited until they had finished interacting with the dolphins before moving on. The Hole in the Rock, Urupukapuka Island, he gave them the usual sightseeing tour before heading out to deeper water to catch some fish.

  “Have you lived in the Bay of Islands long, Kent?” Don asked, after they had been anchored for half an hour or so.

  “All my life, actually, I don’t think I could live anywhere else now. The place just gets into your blood and ends up being a part of you.”

  “It’s not hard to see why. It certainly is o
ne of the more beautiful places I’ve travelled to. The scenery is out of this world.” He felt a couple of sharp tugs on his line and looked excitedly at Kent.

  “The fish have obviously arrived so it won’t be long now. Give it a few more minutes and you’ll be too busy reeling in fish to be enjoying the scenery.”

  “The guys and I don’t get to do this sort of thing very often,” Don confided. “It’s only because we were in Auckland for a conference on cancer research that we decided to travel up here. One of the Kiwi scientists we met recommended we do so.”

  Kent’s ears pricked up at the mention of cancer research. “So you’re all scientists working at the same research facility?”

  “Yes, we’re working on something relatively new. Hopefully it will cure a lot of cancers that don’t respond well to conventional treatment,”

  “I’m married to someone with cancer,” Kant said sadly.

  Don took his eyes off his fishing rod and looked at him sympathetically. “What type has she been diagnosed with?”

  “Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia.”

  “Ah, can be a difficult one to treat. But with the new drug we’re working on we may have something shortly that may just make CML a thing of the past.”

  “I hope it comes quick enough to save Christy,” Kent said hopefully.

  “If she was open to making herself available as a guinea-pig for our trials then maybe it will,” Don said thoughtfully. “Otherwise it’ll be another ten years before anything is released through the drug companies. Sadly, it’s a very slow process to get something from the conception stage through to a marketable product.”

  “You make it all sound so clinical.”

  “I’m afraid it is, Kent. I sincerely wish it were otherwise, but it is only the big drug companies who have the money to invest in new cancer drugs, and they’re not doing it for reasons of philanthropy.” He sighed deeply. “It’s all about money to them, making as large a return on their investment as they possibly can.”

  As Don’s line suddenly jerked tight cutting the conversation dead the boat erupted into a hive of activity. The struggle lasted ten minutes before a magnificent kingfish was landed flapping in the bottom of the boat.