Chapter 12 #2
Holding her hair in one hand, he wrapped the other around her waist and waited until she emptied her stomach. When she was done, she leaned back against his chest weakly.
"I thought I was done with this."
"So, did I. Was it--" he firmed his lips and felt the guilty eating away at him. "Last night I was very rough. I should have left you alone."
"That's nonsense and you know it." She closed her eyes and was content just to stay in his arms.
"Let's get you up and get some tea in you. It could be the bad weather we're facing. Captain Sturgess said we should be out of it in the next hour."
She nodded, gripping his hands as he helped her to her feet.
"Some plain soup will do."
He led her to the sink so she could rinse her mouth out before taking her back to lie down. Reaching for the phone, he dialed the kitchen and made his request.
"I'll tell them you won't be able to make dinner."
"No." She shook her head. "It's the last night on the ship and I would like to say goodbye to your family."
"Leanne--"
She gripped his hand. "I promise to rest and get some more sleep. I'll be fine."
He eyed her steadily for a minute as if trying to ascertain it for himself. "All right. I'm still going to have Dr. Henderson check your vitals."
"That I will agree to."
*****
"Thank you my sister." The woman sent her a grateful smile as Violet placed the tray on the table in front of her. "You've been such a treasure, I have no idea what I would do without your help."
"That's what we're put on this earth for."
Madeline ignored the prissy preachy tone of voice and ventured a smile. "I was thinking, now that I'm feeling better, you can think about returning home."
Violet's brow creased. "I have no idea that I've become a burden to you. The church sent me to take care of you and that's what I'm doing."
"No." Madeline reached for her hand quickly, removing it when the woman shrunk back. "That's not what I meant." Putting the cup of tea down, she picked up the magazine she had been perusing and opened it to the front page. "You missed your daughter's wedding."
Violet had already seen the bold photos on the internet and the excited captions glorifying her daughter's sin.
The magazine cover had a full blown color photo of the couple.
The man had his arms wrapped around her daughter's swollen belly and she was brazenly staring up at him and smiling as if she had done a good deed.
It was a disgrace what this world delights in.
"I chose to miss it." She told Madeline coldly.
"That's too bad." She put the cup down slowly with the intention of making her point. "I lost my son." She added sadly. "He married someone I did not approve of and when he refused to give her up, I cut him out of my life.
They moved to Alaska and I never heard from them again, until I was informed that he had died in a fishing accident. It was just a courtesy call from his wife. I never get to tell him how sorry I am. How foolish I was.
Now I'm trying to have a relationship with my grandson and it's not happening." She rose slowly, her movements unsteady. "Don't be foolish. Make amends with your daughter before it's too late."
She stood where she was after the woman left. Sinking into the chair behind her, she reached for her phone and started to scroll through the photos and read the captions. A cruise ship had taken the family to several Caribbean islands before stopping in Jamaica for the fantasy wedding on the beach.
There were several photos of the couple and in each of them, he was gazing down at her as if she was only person in the world. She never had that, Violet thought bitterly. She never had a man look at her that way. She had been in love with her husband, but he had never wanted marriage.
A child had made that a necessity. One she had come to resent as soon as she felt its presence. Her daughter had been the reason her husband turned away from her. He had stated unequivocally that they were on a mission for the Lord and nothing or no one should deviate from that.
A child had made her lose her focus and Jerry had never forgiven her for that lapse. He had laid the blame solely at her feet. It didn't matter that he had been the one to plant the seed. He had told her beforehand that there could be no children.
"Just the two of us on a mission for the Lord."
And she had spoiled it by getting pregnant. Her daughter had been the cause for all her heartbreak. She didn't blame her husband for seeking the comfort in another woman's arms. He had been driven to do so.
Or so she told herself for years. Gazing down at her phone, she scrolled through and stared at the photos. They looked very happy, didn't they? And she was not. Violet admitted to herself that for all her dedication and commitment to God, she was desperately unhappy.
Sucking in a shaky breath, she rose unsteadily and went in the direction of her room.
*****
"I'll make sure she stays in bed." Christos informed the doctors grimly as they got ready to leave. It had been a week since they returned from the wedding cruise. Seven days during which she had fooled herself into thinking she was past the worse.
Then it all came at once. The swollen ankles, the nausea and the acute discomfort. She was unable to sleep, unable to find a comfortable position and the heartburn made it feels like someone had lit a fire inside her chest.
And she was miserable. She had sniped and snapped at her mother in law and sisters in law for no apparent reason and was a nightmare to be around.
"I'll walk you out." Barely giving his wife a glance, he led the doctors through the bedroom and down the stairs.
"Don't be too hard on her." Dr. Henderson broke the silence as they made their way down. "It's getting down to the last few weeks, and the babies are getting bigger."
"Are you sure they're all right?" He stopped them at the door.
"Their heartbeats are strong. The girl is not striving as well as the boys, but she's holding her own."
He laid a hand on her arm. "You'd tell me if there's anything to worry about, wouldn't you?"
"Of course. Dr. Friedmann and I are monitoring your wife's progress and there will be a nurse coming in every two days to make sure everything is all right."
"Thank you." He opened the door to let them out, closing it behind them. And stood there leaning on it for a few minutes. He was mostly working from home now and had stopped traveling.
It was safe to say that the honeymoon was decidedly over. She was getting on everyone's nerves, and he suspected she was chafing at the inactivity. She wasn't allowed to decorate the nursery, because of her swollen feet. He had hired a team of decorators to do the job.
The only thing she was allowed to do was to make suggestions and instruct them on what she wanted them to do.
Straightening, he headed to the kitchen where Ms. Bailey was preparing lunch.
"I made some soup for the missus." The woman told him.
"That should go down well."
"I also baked soda bread." She added with a smile. "Your mother's recipe. I'll cut her a slice to go with the soup. It's mostly vegetables."
"Thanks Ms. Bailey. Just take it upstairs when you're finished."
He found her pacing the floor, one hand on her belly.
"I had to pee." She snapped, rounding on him as soon as he entered the room. "And since I have no intention of further humiliating myself by wetting the bed, I had to get up."
He held up his hands as if warding off an attack.
"Mrs. Bailey made soup and soda bread."
"I'm not hungry."
"You just had toast and some tea for breakfast." He was going to be patient, even if it killed him. "You need nourishment."
She turned to look at the full-length mirror that had become her enemy. She was fat, everything about her looked swollen. Even her face. And she could not see her toes.
She had tried polishing them just yesterday and gave up in despair.
"I look like a blimp."
"You're beautiful."
She glanced at him in the mirror. "Keep trying to convince yourself that it's true. I'm sure you're chafing to go out, be with someone who's thin and sociable."
"I prefer to be with someone who's fat and ungracious. I'm weird like that." Taking her arm, he turned her around. "You need to stop this. You're stressing yourself out and that's not good for the babies."
"The babies." She slapped a hand on her rounded belly. "That's all you care about. I'm just the vessel carrying your precious cargo and nothing more."
His control snapped. His fingers bit into her shoulders as he shook her roughly. "Damn you! I've been bending over backwards to accommodate you, to make sure you want for nothing. I've shown you over and over that you are my world.
What the hell more do you want from me?"
"Some consideration and some space. Just go away and leave me alone."
For a minute the awful silence stretched out as they glared at each other.
"All right." He bit out. Stepping back, he struggled to calm himself. "All right. I'm going out for a while. Ms. Bailey will call if anything's amiss. I'll give you your space and take some for myself.
You've been a bitch since we returned. I know you're going through a lot, but I don't deserve to be treated this way."
He left her standing in the middle of the room, tears burning the back of her eyes.