Chapter 29 #2
“I will tell you one thing...” Florentia groaned as she slowly sat herself up, preparing to stand for the first time.
The color had returned to her skin fully.
The fullness was back in her cheeks. To Hudson’s eyes, she looked as beautiful as the first day he had seen her.
“I will not miss this bed. Personally, I cannot wait to never have to lie in it again.”
“Very presumptuous of you,” Hudson responded. He was holding her by the hand, there to help if she needed it, but willing to let her to most of the word as she had insisted.
She looked at him flatly. “Is it now?”
“I take it to mean you plan on sleeping on the floor?”
“Careful, now....” She raised an eyebrow at him. “I am the funny one here, remember. Personally, I do not know how I feel about this apparent humor you’ve somehow managed to develop. I suppose I have only myself to blame.”
“Ah, I see your meaning. You intend to move into my room. Is that it?”
“Would that be such a bad thing?”
Hudson could not hide his smile. “So long as you do not snore, I think I can manage.”
She laughed and shook her head, swinging her legs off the bed.
“And do not worry yourself, for I can see what really troubles you.” A decisive look.
“You think I am going to try and force children upon you. The game is up!” she pretended to cry out.
“This entire sickness was a ruse to make you feel bad for me.”
Hudson meant to laugh but his stomach twisted. Still, they had not spoken once of children, which had saved him having to tell her what the doctor had told them. A conversation which he knew they’d need to have eventually. Now, it seemed.
“I am only joking,” she assured him, seeing the look on his face and mistaking it. “I know how hard it was for you to tell me that you loved me. I do not expect you to change completely overnight.” A wink. “Perhaps two nights will do it.”
“Florentia...” He grimaced and looked at her painfully. “There is something we must speak of.”
“Can it wait? It has taken all my mental strength to get this far, and I fear what will happen if I do not see myself from this bed this instant.”
He shook his head as he squeezed her hand.
“The doctor...he told me that...” He tried to meet her eyes, the sickness rising in him.
“He told me that after what happened to you, the poison and the pennyroyal tea, he could not say for certain if you will be able to have children. There is still a chance,” he made sure to add quickly.
“But he thought it best that I know so that...” He squeezed her hand again. “So that we are prepared.”
“Oh...”
“But we will still try,” he assured her. “Do not think that we will not. I know what I once said, but that was the old me, a man who is dead as far as I am concerned. And for as long as it takes, we will try, and I just know…”
“Hudson...” She reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder. Surprisingly, she was not as saddened as he had expected her to be. In fact, she was smiling. “I know.”
“You...” He blinked. “You know?”
“I guessed,” she laughed softly. “I am not a fool, and I know how these things tend to work. No doubt, what your stepmother has done will complicate matters, and I pray that she had not ruined me completely.”
“She could never,” he assured her. “I love you no matter what and if it turns out that we cannot—”
“Then we will have each other,” she spoke over him, still smiling.
“I used to think that all I wanted was a child, as if that would bring my life meaning. And while I am certain that it would, if I have to settle instead for a husband who loves me as much as I know you do, then...” She exhaled and her smile grew.
“Then that won’t be such a bad trade, I think. ”
“Are you sure?” he said slowly, searching for the lie.
“No,” she said. “I am not. But for now, there is little I can do. So, how about I get out of this bed, we go for a walk, and we live the rest of this day as if it is our last. And then, when we wake tomorrow, we do the exact same?”
Hudson could not help himself, and without thinking, he swept in and kissed her on the lips.
Not their first kiss since she had started to heal, but easily their most passion filled.
He kissed her fully, breathing her in as if she was life, letting that life swell through his body and lift him from the floor.
How have I gotten this lucky? How is it possible that I deserve a woman like this?
“I love you,” he said as he pulled away.
“And I love you,” she said, her voice a whisper. “Now, let us free ourselves from this room.”
He laughed and pulled himself away. Still holding her by the hand, he watched closely as she took a deep breath and forced herself to her feet. Shaky at first, she soon found strength, and he felt comfortable to let her go—
“No, no,” she said, snatching his hand back. “Where do you think you are going?”
“Nowhere,” he assured her, holding on tight again.
“Good.” She winked. “You better not be.”
With that, they walked from the room together, taking strength in one another’s presence, in the love they both felt, in the happiness it brought them. The road to recovery would be long, Hudson knew, but he also knew that he would be there for all of it, content to never leave her side again.
What was more, while he did not understand it, while he was still struggling to reckon with how it was possible, he knew that his wife not only found strength in the love he had for her, but that which she felt for him.
In that way, they were one and the same, two bodies, a single beating heart, a marriage not of convenience, but one of love.
Happiness…it was not an emotion that Hudson was familiar with, but one he was excited to start getting used to. And for that, he had his wife to thank. Oh, how I love her. Today. Tomorrow. For the rest of my life.