Her Galahad (38 page)

Seeing she was emotionally frayed, he took the receiver from her, keeping the other hand gently caressing her in reassurance. "G'day, Rod. Go ahead with what Tess wants. Take a hefty commission for the Aboriginal Legal Service while you're at it. We don't want Beller's money. Just send us the papers and we'll sign them … yeah, I'll be a trustee if you want, but a silent one. We don't want recognition in this. I'm happy for you to be the other trustee. You're too honest to cheat people who need the money. I have to go, mate. Thanks. We'll talk later."

He lifted baby Megan in his arms, and put her in her cot. Then he returned to Tess on the sofa, taking her hands in his. "Mulgu, right now I'm so proud of you I could burst. I didn't think I could love you more than I did five minutes ago, but I do."

"I love you, too. More and more every day." She buried her face in his shoulder. "It made sense, to give his money to people who are going through what he did to us."

"You all right?"

She nodded, with a trembling smile. "Better than all right. I'm so relieved! Rod sent me a letter Cameron wrote from prison. I was terrified. I couldn't read it. I called Rod, and he told me Cameron died in a prison brawl … and all I could feel was glad!" She shuddered. "I've been so afraid he'd get out and come after us—but he's gone, Jirrah. He's out of our lives forever."

"And he left you everything?" No surprise there. Knowing Beller, he'd thought it a romantic way to make Tess remember him forever. He was also unsurprised by his wife's reaction. It was typical of Tess to give it away to people in need—and he was glad she chose to throw out everything Beller wanted to give her.

She nodded in answer to his question. "Seven million dollars, and the house in Mosman. No one can even contest it. He named Tessa McLaren, not his wife, as the beneficiary."

Jirrah shrugged. "No one we know would contest it any way. Keith will support our decision. So will my family."

Her face gentled. "Yes." Her father was too sick now to leave his home, but they visited him every month, taking the children. Keith had softened in his old age. The shock of discovering the truth about the man he'd picked for his daughter humbled him. Knowing Jirrah had saved her forced him to reevaluate his belief systems—at least where his son-in-law was concerned. As had Matt and Annie Oliveri, finally taking Tessa into their hearts as their daughter-in-law. Thanks in part to Tani, and also to Jirrah's cold promise that he'd always put his wife first—even before his family, if he had to. Now, after five years, they were a close-knit and loving family entity.

They only needed Duncan to finally come home from his long wandering to complete the unit … but where he was nobody knew. They occasionally received letters from around Australia; but he had yet to face them. His guilt was so deeply buried they couldn't assuage it with any amount of forgiveness.

"The kids are worried about you," he said as they burst through the door, Esther and Vincent huffing and puffing in their wake. But even in their fear, the kids came to Tess gently, not barreling into her as they did Jirrah. "Mummy, are you all right?" Michael asked, his little hand caressing her burgeoning belly as his father's had moments before.

Tess kissed the son who had become hers through her tender love for him. "I'm fine, baby. In fact—" she looked up at Jirrah "—I feel so happy I could burst!"

"Don't," Tani cried. "You'll hurt the baby!"

After the laughter stopped, Jirrah pulled Esther and Vincent aside and told them what happened. Then he asked aloud, "Can you mind the kids for us tonight? I'd like to take Tess to dinner. We've got a few things to celebrate." He touched his wife's face.

She gaped at him, understanding what he was trying to say. "You won the award?" she gasped.

"I got the news today." He grinned. "Looks like we're flying to London once the baby's born—all of us, if you'd like to come," he added to Vincent and Esther. "The gallery owner wants me to meet distributors for the U.S. and European markets. We can all have a holiday. We can swing by Alberta on the way home if you want, see Rachel and Bob and the family."

"Mum would love to see the kids again." She flew off the seat to throw her arms around him—and Beller's letter fluttered to the floor, unnoticed. "We'll all celebrate tonight. You guys get pizza, burgers, anything you want. Your daddy won the Richmond Award for the wildlife carving!"

"Can me and Michael eat in our new treehouse?" Tani's eyes lit with eagerness.

"Absolutely." Tess kissed Jirrah with knockout enthusiasm, the unopened letter crushed beneath her feet. She'd already forgotten Beller … again … and Jirrah would make sure it stayed that way.

That night, in the town's only restaurant, they celebrated in style … and later, in bed, they celebrated again. The loving was tender, showing their unborn child just how much their daddy cherished their mother.

He never let himself forget how he'd lost her once—how close he'd come to losing her twice. He never wanted to live any part of his life again without Tess in it, without letting her know, every day, just what she meant to him.

She lay with her head on his chest in the afterglow, idly toying with his skin. "Hmmm. Now
this
is what I call a real celebration, Galahad."

He chuckled. "You're going to persist with that ridiculous nickname for the rest of my life, aren't you?"

Tess didn't laugh. "I don't want to forget what you did for me. You saved me, in every possible way. You gave me life and love and happiness again. And my children."

He tipped her face up to his. "No more than any man would do for the woman he loves." He touched her nose, running his finger lovingly down its gently crooked slant. "Besides, I can't claim my motives were entirely unselfish, mulgu. I more than got my reward for any effort I put into our adventures."

"Me, too." She snuggled into him. "I never, never thought I could be this happy."

"You make us all happy. You're the heart and soul of the family. We all live to love you, to be with you."

"If I'm its heart, you're its protector," she teased, obviously wanting to shift the limelight. "My hero lives on. My gallant knight in dark armor."

"Just don't say all that romantic junk when we're in London," he groaned. "The art reps and buyers will think I'm a sap."

"You love it," she stated in total confidence. "If you didn't, you wouldn't try so hard to stay in the heroic mold."

"I don't do anything," he protested.

"Oh, yeah?" she mocked. "Let's see—he builds a house for people totally unrelated to him, to keep his wife and daughter happy. He builds another three houses for the family who turned their backs on us, forgiving them without question when they accept me into the family. He takes his wife and children to Canada for a late honeymoon even before the spring thaw, so she can meet her mother and know her heritage. He spends hours every day minding the baby his wife offered to foster. He creates world-famous works of beauty and inspiration, hut does it around his wife's working hours because he wants to help her out with school sports while she's pregnant. He helps cook and clean. He visits the father-in-law who watched him go to prison, and not only forgives him, but ends up his friend in the process. And to top it off, he even forgives his wife's brother, who
did
put him in prison, and would welcome him home if we only knew where he was."

"He'll come home, Tess. When he's ready."

The momentary touch of sadness left her eyes; she poked out her tongue at him. "See what I mean? No hero, huh, Galahad?"

"Hey, I can't help it if making my beloved wife happy is my top priority," he protested, with a grin. "I'm just an ordinary family man, doing the best I can."

"Far from ordinary, my love, my dark knight." She drew him down for another kiss. "Very far from ordinary."

* * * * *