Legal Action - Box Set (17 page)

*

              The next morning she slept late and Jude was already gone when she woke and wandered through the three story townhouse. It was a wonderful old house, narrow and deep, the front door opened right onto a sidewalk and then the street lay just beyond. Inside, the rooms lined up like dominos, eventually leading to a small back garden. His taste in furniture was too modern for her, but he’d used the occasional antique and amazing Neo-Impressionist art that added warmth to the high ceilinged rooms. She made herself a cup of tea and sat at the little chrome breakfast table looking out at a rain soaked park across the street. A grey, drizzly day in an unfamiliar city without Finn made her heartsick. She went in search of her cell phone and dialed his number over and over, it went straight to voice mail each time and she wondered how she could be so happy one day and so miserable the next.

              She was curled in bed wearing her nightgown and Finn’s zippered hoodie when Jude tapped on her door and she told him to come in. The grey September day had turned cold and he shivered as he walked to the fireplace and held a match to the logs.

              “Thank you,” she said, “goodnight.”

              “Charlotte,” he said, “don’t be sad, you’re about to get a phone call.”

              She looked up at him, so tall and lean with Finn’s face, and tears stung her eyes, “what?” she asked and wiped her nose on the sleeve of her sweater, she knew she was a mess but she didn’t care.

              He held out a cheap looking cell phone and she took it from him as it began to ring.

              “Finn?”

              “My love, are you alright? Is Jude being nice to you? Because I’ll kick his ass if he isn’t.”

              “Finn, when are you coming home? I’m not alright, not without you, please come home, please, please.”

              “Charlotte, listen to me, it’s going to take a bit longer than I thought to make sure Huang leaves us alone. I want you to go to Surrey with Jude, JP will meet you there and help set up the house. The embassy has your law license approved and JP will bring it to you, are you listening, my love?”

              “Yes. JP? JP’s coming here and you’re not? Finn what’s happening, where are you? I want to be wherever you are, tell me where you are, please!”

              “Shh, it’s alright, JP will make sure you’re settled and I’ll be home in a few days, don’t worry. I love you Charlotte, nothing will keep me from coming back to you. Do you hear me, my love? We have babies to make remember? I don’t care what else you do to the cottage, but find the perfect bed, a sturdy one that will stand up to our love.”

              The line went dead and she sat looking down at it.

              Finally, Jude took the cell phone from her and said, “He told me to destroy it, it’s a disposable. It came by messenger today,” he threw it into the flames as the fire roared to life. “Why don’t you get dressed, Charlotte, we’ll go get some dinner, I know you haven’t eaten all day. You don’t want my little brother to come home and be pissed off because I didn’t feed his wife do you?”

*

              Jude took the next day off and drove Charlotte to all the best shopping spots in and around London. They filled his Jaguar with treasures and arranged for larger pieces of furniture, mattresses and such to be delivered to the cottage. In the late afternoon they ducked into one last shop just as it was about to close and there she found
the bed
. It was heavy, white painted iron, and the ironwork on the head and foot boards curved and swirled to form an intricate pattern. It was expensive, but Jude charmed the shop owner into lowering the price and when they walked out arm and arm, Charlotte felt hopeful for the first time in days.

              “The bed is perfect,” she told Jude as they sat in a little shop eating fish and chips served on sheets of newspaper. “It’s a good sign, he’ll be back any day, I can’t wait to get to the cottage and turn it into a real home!”

              “You are truly in love with my little brother, aren’t you? I mean, it shows on your face and it’s quite amazing, I’m glad for him, that he finally found someone he loves enough to give up… his tendency to be a danger junkie,” Jude said, as they ate the hot, crispy fried fish.

              “Has he always been that way?” she asked, “In to risking his life at the drop of a hat, I mean. He’s so gentle and kind, he’d probably hate for me to describe him that way, but it’s true. Tell me why the two of you don’t care for each other?”

              “Well, that’s two questions. Perhaps the same circumstances are responsible for both. Classic story, our dad was a drunk, a
mean
drunk to be specific. He was a wife beater and Finn got in his way so he took a lot of the blows himself. The old man got worse as the years went by and since I was the eldest child I was already at the university when things took a bad turn. To be brutally honest, I buried my head in the sand where our father was concerned and I was selfish. I won a scholarship to pay for my under-graduate degree and then I was busy working my way through med school. I wasn’t around to save my mum or Finn from harm or help get them and my sisters away from him. Finn was seventeen when he’d finally had enough and gave our father such a beating he had to be hospitalized, before Dad was released, Mum, Finn and the girls packed up and moved to America. I took care of our father until he died of cirrhosis three years ago and although I’ve sent plane tickets to my mother to come for a visit, she won’t come back and I’ve never gone to see her or the girls. So I would imagine he chose his line of work because of his shitty start in life and he hates me because he thinks I chose the old man and abandoned the rest of them. Maybe he’s right, and maybe I deny myself a personal life out of guilt or who knows what other fucked up glitch of the psyche.”

              “Well, that’s a lot to ponder; it answers some questions on my end,” she said. “Jude, it’s never too late to make things right with the ones you love, you know. I lost my mother when I was still a girl and I’d give anything to have time with her again. It would take so little effort for you to fly to California to see your mother and sisters. I’ve met your mother; did you know she’s a teacher now? She moved to a new country with five kids and put herself through college while working several jobs and raising those kids, she’s amazing and determined, a lot like Finn.”

CHAPTER FOUR

              On Friday they made the hour long drive to Dovecote Cottage in the village of Haerdon in county Surrey. It had been nearly a week since Charlotte left Finn in Nice and now, driving through forests and valleys into the idyllic village that was to become her home, she began to cry. She couldn’t stop the tears that fell so fast that she was gulping for breath between sobs. Jude drove and tried to comfort her at the same time, and she only cried harder.

              “Stop!” she cried suddenly, “pull over, hurry, please!”

              Jude swerved to the edge of the narrow lane, and Charlotte stumbled out the door and vomited in the grass, retching over and over, even though her stomach was empty. He knelt beside her and held her hair back and felt helpless in the face of her sorrow. When she was still, he poured water from a drinking bottle onto some tissue and handed it to her, then helped her lie down in the back seat of the car.

              “Charlotte, I’m desperate to help you but I’m not very good with emotions, I’m afraid. I’ll stop at the chemist’s shop and get you a prescription for Valium and Finn will be home soon, please try to believe that, nothing will keep him away from you. How far is the cottage from here?”

              “Just down the road and to the left, and I don’t want pills,” she said, her voice was a raspy whisper.

              At Dovecote Cottage Jude parked and stepped out, Charlotte could hear him talking to someone, then the car door swung open and JP swept her into his arms, carrying her like a baby.

              “Shh, it’s alright Char, don’t cry, he’s coming home, I talked to him,” he told her as he laid her on the living room sofa.

              She looked at him, her face was wet with tears and her nose was runny, so he fished in his pocket for a crumpled up tissue and handed it to her.

              “Here, blow your nose, damn Char, you’re really a mess over that crazy Englishman, huh?”

              She wiped her face on the wad of old tissue then looked at him seriously, “a normal person would’ve offered me a handkerchief, really John Paul you’re such a slob.”

              They both laughed then and hugged and laughed some more, it had been far too long since they’d been together.

              “I guess you’re still the love of my life, even though you cheated on me with
the other man
. I brought supplies of course, gin
and
vodka; can I make you a martini?”

              “No, I was really sick back there on the side of the road, I probably need some crackers or something.”

              Jude was standing over her then and he held a little tray with tea and biscuits. He’d made some calls earlier in the week and hired a neighbor, Henrietta Alcott, to stock the kitchen and take deliveries of beds and furniture.

              Henrietta came bustling in from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a tea towel, she stopped short in front of Charlotte and said. “Oh dear, there’s a tin of Jacob’s cream crackers in the cupboard, I think she’ll fancy them. Will you fetch them for me please, Dr. Hale?”

              When Jude returned with the crackers, Henrietta was situated on an ottoman next to the sofa, she thanked him for the crackers and handed a few to Charlotte.

              “How far along are you dear?” she asked, and Jude and JP stood staring at Charlotte.

              “A few weeks, I think,” Charlotte said, and smiled as Henrietta hugged her like a mother would have done.

              There were hugs all around, with JP commenting that she and Finn were obviously sex-crazed perverts who hadn’t wasted any time. Jude said that he wasn’t much of an obstetrician having missed the signs completely, her crying and weariness and lack of appetite. Charlotte said, she too, had mistaken her symptoms for panic over Finn’s absence, which she felt was still partly to blame. Then she realized she hadn’t taken her birth control pills since she left California, so she’d picked up a half dozen home pregnancy tests the day before and they were all positive.

              “Well, no more martinis for you kid,” JP said, and they all laughed and toasted after everyone had a drink in hand. There was tea for Charlotte and martinis for the men and Henrietta, who removed her apron and sat with them as if she’d been their friend forever.

              “When will he be home?” Charlotte asked as the laughter faded, “JP, when?”

              “Late tonight or tomorrow, he’s alright, Char, he’ll get here as fast as he can, I promise.”

              “Okay,” she said, and her face seemed to brighten a bit. “Well, let me look around my little love nest then. Has the bed arrived? The bed has to be here when Finn gets home.”

              “Of course it does,” JP said, “that damned maniac Finn has corrupted our sweet Charlotte already!”

              “Maybe it’s the other way around, John Paul. I kept you in the dark about what Finn and I were up to back in law school and beyond, I believe I learned more in the bedroom of the little house we shared than you’d ever care to imagine.”

              Jude smiled at the shock on JP’s face and Henrietta who was a bit tipsy from the martini she’d finished, started telling a slightly shocking story about how much she missed having a man or two in her bed.

              “Seriously Char, you could’ve knocked me over with a feather when I found out about you and Finn,” JP said, “he’s a master at hiding things but who knew our girl Charlotte was a skilled covert operative?”

              “Well, now you do,” she said, and grinned, “let’s get my bags, I want to settle in.”

              They stayed up till the wee hours of the morning, arranging furniture and eating pasta Henrietta cooked. They finally settled into the slip covered chairs and sofa in the living room and Jude eventually drove Henrietta down the lane to her own house as she began to yawn. Charlotte looked at JP and then covered her face with her hands and slowly shook her head.

              “He’s not coming back, is he? We’ve all been rushing around, keeping busy, waiting for him to walk through that door and it isn’t going to happen.” She said, and her voice was desolate.

              “Char,” JP said, moving to her side and pulling her cheek against his, “I wouldn’t lie to you, no matter what, not even to make you happy cuz you’re knocked up. I had a message from him earlier; he’ll walk through that door any minute. So cheer up, okay? Go take a nice, hot bath and put on a… frilly, see-through, nightgown thing or whatever, but stop worrying.”

“A frilly see-through nightgown thing?” she said and began to laugh.             

              “Oh fuck, you know what I mean, stop laughing, damn it! The women I sleep with don’t wear panties, much less nighties or shit,” he said, blushing as Charlotte laughed hysterically.

              “Well, I have news for you buddy,” she said when she could finally catch her breath, “I don’t wear panties or nighties or shit either!”

*

              “There are two single beds in the upstairs guestroom,” she said, when Jude returned and she started toward her own room, “and there’s always the sofa if either of you needs more privacy. Pillows and towels are wherever Henrietta put them; you’ll just have to look around, goodnight boys.”

              The bed was a dream even though it took up most of the small room. She didn’t care, she loved it and she slipped between the smooth linen sheets and drew the down filled duvet up to her chin. She lay on her side and watched flames leap in the fireplace grate, one of the guys must have made a fire to warm the room while she was in the bath. She wasn’t used to the fierce cold that had taken hold at night, it felt more like January than October. Time had rushed by while she and Finn were lost in each other, now it was nearly Halloween, she thought, then it would be Thanksgiving which she didn’t know if they celebrated in England. She intended to cook a huge turkey dinner in her new kitchen, with all the Southern fixings to go with it. Pumpkin and pecan pies and sweet potatoes and cornbread… those were her last thoughts as she drifted to sleep.