Vanished

“And you?” he asked gently, as he looked at her. “You're all right? No more headaches?”

She smiled in answer. She hadn't had one since the trial. For the first time in years, she felt totally healthy. It was as though she had survived some terrible test, and having come through it the ghosts had finally been laid to rest, and she was much stronger. “I'm fine.” She wanted to thank him for his kindness during the trial, but she wasn't quite sure how to do it, and she tried not to notice how handsome he looked in white slacks, a blazer, and red tie, but he was a good-looking man, and she blushed as she turned away to straighten a book on the table.

“Marielle …” He knew it would have to come from him. But he didn't want her to leave town before he had spoken to her. “I …I'd like to call you when you're in Vermont …” She looked at him with wide eyes, surprised by what he had said, and suddenly wondering if he was representing Malcolm. But he saw the look in her eyes and he gently touched her hand to reassure her. “I'm not sure I'm making myself clear …I'm making a terrible botch of this.” He suddenly looked embarrassed and boyish, and they both felt like two children. “It's been a long time since I've done anything like this.” It had been a long time since he'd met anyone even remotely like her. She reminded him so much of his late wife. And yet, she was also very different. Marielle had more integrity than any woman he'd ever known, more strength, more fortitude, possibly more kindness. And she hadn't been very lucky in the last ten years. When she came back from Vermont, he was hoping to change that. “Will you have a phone in Vermont?” He was still stumbling around, trying to talk to her about the future, and suddenly Marielle laughed. She thought she understood, but it was difficult to believe it. He had always been so businesslike, so cool, and yet beneath the serious air ran powerful emotions.

“I think we'll have a party line.”

“Good. Then well give your neighbors a thrill,” he laughed. “I'll try to think up some really juicy news to tell you when I call you.” But there had already been enough of that, they both knew, for the past several months. She was hoping that life would be ordinary now, and she looked at him with interest as they chatted about her new life in the country. She was only going to be there for a few months, until Malcolm's trial. And then she would have to come back and find an apartment for herself and Teddy. Haverford was leaving them the next day, when they left for their adventure in Vermont. And when they came back, life was going to be very different, but she didn't regret it.

“Would it be too soon if …” He ventured on, feeling more awkward than a schoolboy, “… if when you got back, I …we …” He almost groaned as he looked at her, he couldn't believe this was as difficult as it was. He had been thinking of her for weeks, in ways he hadn't thought of anyone in years, and he had never thought anything would ever come of it, and now he was finding it impossible to tell her. He finally took a deep breath, took her hand in his own with an earnest expression. “Marielle …you're an extraordinary woman. I'd like very much to get to know you.” There. He had finally said it, and he felt relief sweep over him. Even if she told him she never wanted to see him again, at least she knew to some small extent how much he liked her. “I've admired you since the first moment I saw you.”

She blushed again, feeling oddly vulnerable and very young, and when she looked at him, he saw something in her eyes that almost made him feel that he was melting.

“It's amazing to think that from so much pain …from such a terrible thing … so many good things have happened.” She was very gentle as she spoke, and very grateful for the blessings she had received. And as she looked at Tom, wanting to say so many things, there was a sound at the door of the library, and her greatest blessing appeared in blue pajamas.

“What are you doing here?” she said as she grinned, and Teddy bounded into the room with a look of mischief.

“I couldn't sleep without you.” He climbed up on her lap, and looked at Tom with interest.

“Yes, you could. You were snoring when I left.”

“No, I wasn't,” he denied it, and Marielle introduced Tom to Teddy, without explaining how she knew him. “I was faking,” he announced. But he yawned happily as he said it, and leaned possessively against his mother.

“I hear you're going to Vermont,” Tom said easily. He loved children, and after all they'd been through over him, more particularly this one.

“Yeah,” Teddy said proudly, “and we're going to have cows and horses and chickens. And Mommy says I'm going to ride a pony.”