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

by Downs, Alethea

  “No, of course not, but it does seem terribly unfair.”

  Kent laid Talitha against his shoulder and gently patted her back until she burped. “Try and concentrate on the positives rather than the negatives.”

  “Oh, Kent, I don’t need you preaching to me,” she snapped. “It’s tough enough missing out on feeding my daughter without you going on about things.”

  He felt a sudden stab of pain. She had never spoken to him like that before and it saddened him But Don had warned him one of the side effects of the drug would be irritability.

  “If you’re finished with her I’ll have my baby back,” she said curtly, her arms stretched out to take Talitha from him.

  “I might just take a walk,” Kent said, once he had handed her over. “Will you be okay?”

  “Of course I will.” The frostiness was still there. “I’m not an invalid, Kent.”

  Light rain was falling as Kent walked with rain hood over his head down the dreary New York sidewalk. The sky was as gloomy as his current mood. Christy was going through a torrid time at the moment. She had been trialing the drug for three weeks now, and FK14B as it was known was at least holding her cancer at bay. He was grateful for that. The mood swings were just part and parcel of the whole procedure. He knew that. But since the treatment had begun she had definitely become more distant from him, and he hated that. They had been so close before, especially right after Talitha had been born.

  He checked his watch. He would give Christy a couple of hours alone with Talitha. She needed this time with the baby so the two of them could keep up the bond that had developed.

  His thoughts strayed to what this whole business was costing. He hated counting the cost but he had to be practical. Renting an apartment, food, transport, none of it came cheap. He had spent most of his spare money on the trip to Britain. It was Jack who was bankrolling this venture. Poor Jack. His life savings gone in one fouls swoop. But Kent knew the old fellow wouldn’t care one hoot if it brought a cure for his only child.

  Bob Thomas was keeping the Bonnie Lass on the water, and Kent had insisted he pay him well to do it. He couldn’t expect him to do it for nothing for the three months they would be in the States, so money was going to be tight when they got back to New Zealand. He sidestepped a pile of dog poo on the pavement. Why couldn’t people clean up after their pets?

  It was ironic how the Bonnie Lass had taken such a back seat to everything else in his life this past year. She had once been his obsession. The sole reason he had strived so hard. But now he barely gave her a second thought. Christy and Talitha had become his whole world, and nothing else seemed to matter anymore.

  He felt sorry for Jack. His father-in-law had to spend three months separated from his only daughter and the grandchild he had come to adore. Talitha would have grown a great deal by the time they returned home, and Jack would have missed out on all of that. He smiled to himself as he remembered the difficulty Jack had in remembering the little girl’s name in the early days. It must have taken him all of two weeks before he finally got it right, and then it was only because he wrote it down on his forearm, referring to it every time he needed to remember his little angel’s name. He was certainly a card was Jack, forgetful, but with a heart of pure gold.

  It was even gloomier when he finally turned and headed back towards the apartment He had walked several blocks as he mulled things over. Walking had always helped him to clear his head and think a little straighter.

  “I could have done with you over an hour ago,” Christy growled, as he walked through the door. “Talitha’s been screaming her head off and just won’t stop.”

  “I’m sorry, Sweetheart, I thought you’d want some time alone with her.”

  “Not when she’s behaving like this I don’t. I’ve tried everything to shut her up but she just keeps at it.”

  Kent went into Talitha’s room and peered into the cot. The little girl stopped her racket and looked at him for a moment before starting up again.

  “Hey…hey,” Kent said, softly, “what’s all the noise about?”

  Talitha ignored him and carried right on bawling.

  “I wish you would do something,” Christy complained. “She’s given me a splitting headache.”

  “I’ll do what Mum used to do for me.” He pulled up a chair and sat down beside the cot. He cleared his throat and began to hum. Talitha stopped for a moment and stared at him. Then she started up again. Kent began to whistle this time, and Christy recognized the tune as Brahms Lullaby.

  Talitha’s screaming dropped to whimpering as she watched her Daddy perform. Then Kent began to croon. “Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall…Humpty Dumpty had a great fall…all the king’s horses and all the king’s men…couldn’t put Humpty together again.”

  Talitha’s eyes began to flicker as Kent ran through the nursery rhyme again, and he was so melodic that Christy fancied she could feel her eyelids begin to grow heavy as well. By the time he had run through it for the third time Talitha’s eyes were shut, and so Kent continued to hum for a few minutes until he was sure she was sound asleep.

  “I had no idea you had such a beautiful singing voice,” Christy said, after they had tiptoed out to the lounge. “I’ve never heard you sing before.”

  “If you thought that was good you should have heard my Mum. Nobody had a voice to compare with hers.”

  “You sounded so professional.” She looked at him in a way she done so for a long time. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a bitch to you. I just can’t seem to help it.”

  “It’s alright,” he assured her, “it’s just the drug doing it to you.”

  She smiled grimly. “That makes me sound like I’m a junky. I wish it didn’t make me so crabby.”

  “You’re under a lot of strain at the moment. But we both need to focus on the end result.” He held out her arms to her and she immediately melted into them, tears streaming unchecked down her pale cheeks.

  ♥

  “It’s good news I’m pleased to say.” Don was smiling from ear to ear as he sat opposite Kent and Christy in his cramped office. “The cancer cells are in retreat. FK14B is doing its job.”

  A little sob burst forth from Christy’s throat.

  “It’s okay to cry, Christy,” Don said gently. “It’s a normal reaction for most people who’ve just been told they’re going to live.”

  “So where to from here?” Kent asked hopefully.

  “We’ll keep Christy’s dosage at the current level for another three weeks, and if the cancer cells are still retreating we’ll be able to lower the dosage to maintenance levels.” He transferred his attention to Christy. “That means any side effects you’ve been experiencing should gradually disappear.”

  Kent cleared his throat. This happy piece of news was making him emotional. “Will the drug eventually cure her of the cancer all together?”

  “It’s too early to say. Early indications are that it will, but we’re not prepared to count our chickens just yet. We need more case studies before we can be so bold as to claim that.”

  “But it will stop the leukemia from spreading?”

  “This is off the record you understand,” Don said somberly, “but yes, I think we can say that it will.”

  Leaning back in his chair and drawing in a deep breath Kent then leisurely exhaled. It was the answer he had been hoping to hear for so long. His wife was not going to die. She was going to grow old beside him, and hold her grandchildren in her arms.

  He could the relief on Christy’s face too. She hadn’t smiled once the whole time she had been here but she didn’t need to. It was the sweet relief he knew she was feeling that was the overriding emotion now, and the one that would bring her the most pleasure.

  Talitha squirmed in her mother’s lap, and as Kent watched her he thanked God that his little girl would grow up with a mother to love her.

  “Will it mean I’ll be able to have another baby?” Christy asked, finally finding her voice.

 
; “It would be foolish to attempt to conceive before you’re off the drug.”

  “But I may never be off the drug,” Christy pointed out. “I want to give Kent a son.”

  Don looked to Kent for support.

  “Your life is much more important to me than having a son, Sweetheart,” Kent said tactfully. “Besides, what I think Don is trying to say is that if you get pregnant FK14B may harm the fetus.”

  She immediately looked to Don and he nodded his head. “You have a very high risk of either miscarriage or serious birth defects while on the drug.”

  “And if I wait until the drug has killed off all the cancer cells? Would it be safe for me to conceive then?”

  “Yes, I believe it would be, provided you had been off the drug for a few months.”

  She closed her eyes. “And how long do you think it will be before this drug has killed all the cancer?”

  “If it does actually kill everything, and I can’t guarantee that it will, then about eighteen months.”

  She opened her eyes and gave a slight nod of her head. “I guess I can wait that long.”

  “To make this whole business easier for you I think it would be best if we send you back to New Zealand when we lower the dosage.” Don looked from one to the other. “It’s not strictly following protocol but I think in your case I can get them to bend the rules. I’ll get in touch with your doctor and bring her up to spend on how to administer your treatment.”

  “That would be great, Don,” Kent said enthusiastically. “Three weeks, Honey,” he said to Christy. “We’ll be home in three weeks.”

  “Now the drug will cost quite a bit I’m afraid. There are certain protocols we have to go through to get it shipped to New Zealand etcetera, but it should work out less expensive than you living over here in the States for the next eighteen months. And of course, you can go back to work and earn a living again, Kent.”

  “Thanks, Don. We really appreciate everything you’ve done for us, and when you’re in New Zealand next please come and visit us.”

  “I’ll definitely do that, Kent.”

  “And of course, any time you want to do a spot of fishing I’ll take you out in the Bonnie Lass free of charge.”

  Don grinned. “Then I’ll definitely be coming back to New Zealand.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Christy held out her arms to Talitha. “Come on, Darling, come to Mummy.”

  Talitha left the protection of Kent’s legs and took three shaky steps towards Christy before falling over.

  “Oh, Kent, she’s almost walking.”

  “She’s come a long way since we came back from the States,” he said. “She’s doing well to walk at ten months old.”

  “You’re clever like your Daddy aren’t you,” Christy said, smiling adoringly at her baby.

  Talitha bounced up and down on her bottom at the mention of her Daddy.

  “She thinks the world of you.”

  “That’s because I sing to you, isn’t it, Pumpkin,” Kent said, scooping the little bundle up into his arms for a cuddle.

  “She loves that Humpty Dumpty song you sing to her.”

  “She’s rather fond of the ‘Man in the Moon’ too.”

  Christy looked at him. “I don’t think I know that one. How does it go?”

  Kent burst into song. “The man in the moon looked out of the moon and this is what he said…tis time that now I’m getting up all babies went to bed.”

  Talitha chuckled excitedly as she recognized the tune.

  “Of course I do a few actions with it to make it a little more exciting for her,” Kent admitted. “But that one and Humpty Dumpty do seem to be her favorites.”

  “You are a wonderful father, Kent,” Christy said sincerely. “I was right to choose you to be the father of my baby.”

  “But I’m not her father,” Kent said seriously.

  “What?” she looked at him as if he had gone mad.

  He grinned at her confusion. “Sir Wally is her father.”

  “Kent…” she couldn’t help grinning back at him, “”don’t you ever go telling her that, she’ll get confused.”

  “I can just see her on her first day at school,” Kent joked. “The teacher is asking her the names of her parents, and she answers, Christy and Sir Wally.” He chuckled. “You can just imagine the look on that teachers face.”

  “As soon as she can walk I’d like to teach her to swim,” Christy said thoughtfully. “I think it’s important seeing as we live by the sea.”

  “And we don’t want her swimming as badly as her mother does now, do we?” Kent answered with a wink in his wife’s direction.

  “Oh, Kent,” Christy put a hand to her cheek as the memory came back to her. “I’d almost forgotten about that.” She looked down at Talitha. “If you hadn’t stopped me from doing that stupid thing I would have missed out on all this.”

  “Yes, you would have, and so would I.”

  Her eyes flicked back to his. “That’s right, you would have too If only we thought of the consequences of our actions before we bowled blindly ahead and did them.”

  “It would certainly stop a whole lot of unhappiness that’s for sure.”

  “Thinking about that has made me feel quite grateful for what I’ve got,” Christy confessed. “We are so fortunate you and I. We’ve got a wonderful life together.”

  Kent held out his free arm for his wife to snuggle under, and as he held Talitha in the other he felt as contented as any man had a right to be. “Let’s make sure we keep it a wonderful life,” he murmured to his wife as he tenderly kissed her on the top of her head. “If not just for our sakes but for Talitha’s as well.”

  ♥

  “Christy…Christy… look at this.”

  Christy walked down to the water’s edge to where her father and Kent were teaching Talitha to swim.

  “She’s doing it on her own,” Jack said proudly. “My little princess is swimming.” He took his hands away from Talitha’s stomach and the little girl splashed the four yards through the water to the waiting arms of her father.

  Kent picked her up and gave her a wet cuddle.”You’re a clever little girl aren’t you?”

  Christy clapped her hands in delight. “She’s going to be very athletic. Seventeen months old and swimming already. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s surfing in another six months.”

  “Oh yes, you’re going to make your Daddy proud of you aren’t you?” Kent lifted her onto his shoulders and waded out of the sea to join his wife on the beach.

  “She’s a real water-baby that’s for sure,” Christy said, as she lifted Talitha off Kent’s shoulders and wrapped her in a warm towel. “Let’s take her for some ice cream.”

  “Did I hear someone mention ice cream?” Jack asked, as he trudged dripping wet across the sand towards them. “I’d love a boysenberry cone.”

  “Do you remember my friend Mark?” Kent asked, as they sat on the beach afterwards licking their ice creams.

  “The one who owned the tin shack you lived in before I rescued you from poverty?” She bit into her ice cream so he wouldn’t see her grinning.

  “Cheeky monkey. Yes, that’s him. He owns the farmlet that the shack was on. Anyway he told me if I want to get Talitha a pony we can graze it on his property.”

  “Isn’t she a little young for pony riding?”

  “Maybe at the moment, but in another year or so she’ll be big enough. I’d closely supervise her.” He tried to gauge her reaction out the corner of his eye. “So what do you think?”

  “If you can promise me you will keep her safe then I have no objection.”

  “I’ll watch her like a hawk,” he promised. “I’ll start looking around for a suitably quiet pony then.”

  Talitha had finished her ice cream and was helping Jack build a sandcastle.

  “He’s besotted with her,” Christy said, nodding in her father’s direction. “To him she can do no wrong.”

  “I hope he’s not going to s
poil her rotten,” Kent said. “I don’t want one of those ‘only children’ who make their parents lives a misery.”

  Christy looked at him as if he had gone mad. “Daddy spoil her? Kent, you’re the one we should be worried about. You spoil her every chance you get.”

  “What…me? I do not!”

  “Oh please!” Daddy’s going to buy you a bikie when you’re bigger. Daddy’s going to buy you a pony. Daddy’s going to buy you a convertible when you’re grown up. I think you’ve even chucked a trip to Disneyland into the mix on more than one occasion as well.”

  Kent looked at her indignantly. “I may have promised her a few things, but I don’t think I’ve promised more than most fathers’ do.”

  “Hah. I’ll agree most fathers’ would promise their kid a bike. A few might promise them a pony. But there ain’t too many who’d promise their little darlings a brand new convertible. You’re definitely digging your own grave there, Buster.”

  “I’m planning to buy the bike and pony and work my way up from there.” He looked a little offended. “She is the only child I’ll ever have you know.”

  She raised an eyebrow at him. “Have you forgotten I come off my treatment in three months time?”

  “No.” He looked puzzled. “What of it?”

  “That’s when you’re going to get me pregnant again, so Talitha isn’t going to be your only child.”

  “We need to discuss this second child business you’re so keen on,” he said quickly, “I’m not so sure it’s a good idea.”

  “If you’re not prepared to get me pregnant then I’ll get Sir Wally to do the job. He came through for me last time.”

  “It’s not a joking matter, Christy,” Kent said sternly. “I’m pretty sure it was having Talitha that made your cancer come back the way it did. That pregnancy weakened your immune system.”

  “That’s absolute nonsense, Kent! The cancer came back because I was merely in remission, not cured. It was just biding its time before it reappeared.”