The Hungry Heart Fulfilled (The Hunger of the Heart Series Book 3) Read online

  “Er, Garvan Dillon, where is he?” Emer heard him ask, and felt herself go crimson.

  “Who?” Myrtle asked.

  “Emer’s husband Garvan?” Dalton persisted.

  “Emer’s husband was called Oran, and he’s dead now,” Myrtle replied.

  Emer felt Dalton’s eyes resting upon her speculatively as she passed the jug of lemonade and tried to avoid his piercing golden gaze.

  After the sponge cake had been served, and the tea drunk, Emer prayed that Dalton would leave. But he seemed intent on lingering, and began to mingle with the children, taking Cathan aside to ask him about what had befallen him since they had last seen each other.

  Emer hadn’t confided in Cathan about the terrible things she had believed Dalton guilty of, and so the boy was clearly delighted to see his old friend from the Pegasus . He told him all about Grosse Ile, the tree house, and the orphanage before she could get a chance to warn him.

  “Emer and Joe were both dying of the fever, but the Bishop came one morning and rescued us. After staying in the palace for a few weeks until this house was ready, we came here,” Cathan explained dramatically.

  Dalton was moved nearly to tears by this information, and to recover his composure, he asked to see Saoirse, who was resting in the downstairs infants’ room.

  Cathan took him in to see her, and when they returned to the dining room, Cathan reminded his young nieces and nephews who the tall silver-haired stranger was.

  Then all four of them piled onto his lap, and searched through his pockets for his watch and various other items to play with.

  Emer watched in fascination as he cuddled and petted the children, who were obviously pleased to see them.

  Dalton had always been an enigmatic man, but this silver-haired stranger was a complete mystery to her, so kind in one moment, so ruthless the next. She felt as though her whole world had been turned upside down, and she had no idea what to do next.

  Dalton was finally freed from his chair by Myrtle, who reminded the frisky children gently that the afternoon social couldn’t begin until the room had been cleared.

  Dalton moved over to speak to Emer then, but Patrick Bradley, fearing trouble, called out, “Right, singing and dancing today. Let’s move the tables and get started. Emer, you’re first today. Give us a song.”

  “No really, I couldn’t,” Emer refused, flushing to the roots of her hair.

  “Of course you can. I won’t take no for an answer,” Patrick insisted as he took her hand gently from Dalton’s grasp and led her to the centre of the room.

  Emer sighed and agreed, if only make sure she avoided being to close to Dalton while he was in the house.

  She stood tall as everyone gathered around, and with a wink at Patrick, announced, “This is a song some of the lads taught me last week. You’ll guess which ones when you hear the title. I dedicate it to Patrick, who has just embarrassed me shamelessly, and to an old friend who has kindly come to visit our humble abode. The song is called, ‘The blacksmith.’

  There were various titters and giggles around the room, and then Emer sang in a clear voice,

  “A Blacksmith courted me

  I loved him dearly,

  He played upon his pipes

  Both neat and trimly

  With his hammer in his hand

  He strikes so steady

  He makes the sparks to fly

  Around the smithy

  I love to watch my love

  With his hammer swinging

  I love to hear it fall

  And the anvil ringing

  The note is loud and clear,

  The sparks are flying

  My love is handsome then,

  There’s no denying.

  Where is my lover gone

  With his cheeks like roses

  He’s gone across the seas

  Gathering primroses

  The sun doth shine too bright,

  It will burn his beauty

  I will go seek my love

  To do my duty.

  Strange news has come to town,

  Strange news is carried

  Sad news flies up and down

  My love is married

  I wish him well for he

  I love no longer

  And yet I love him still,

  My blacksmith lover.

  What’s the promise that you made me

  When you lay beside me

  You promised to marry me

  And not deny me

  It’s witness I have none

  But the Almighty

  And he will punish you

  For slighting of me.

  I look-ed in a glass

  My head I shake it

  To think I loved a lad

  Who was falsehearted

  I wish him well to do

  He does not hear me

  I shall not die for love

  He need not fear me."

  There was rapturous applause, and then Emer sat down next to the Bishop and Adrian.

  Dalton sat gloomily, feeling the song had been directed at him. He decided it was time to leave the jolly family scene, and be alone with his confused thoughts.

  “Thank you for a lovely meal, Mrs. Dillon, and for sharing your family with a lonely traveller for a short time. I can see that whatever you’ve done with your life, you’ve made the right decision, and I shall trouble you no longer.”

  “Thank you for calling, and I wish you luck with your new career. Myrtle here tells me you’ve been away training as a doctor, and graduated top of your class. Congratulations. I’m very pleased for you, and best wishes for your marriage on Thursday.”

  “Oh, yes, er, thank you,” Dalton replied, having forgot all about Madeleine despite it being only four days until the ceremony.

  “So nice to see you all again, especially Myrtle, who’s a veritable font of fascinating information.” He smiled grimly.

  Dalton took Emer’s hand to kiss it lingeringly, and then vanished.

  Emer sighed as she watched him leave, and wondered how she could feel so alone in the midst of four hundred people.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Myrtle leaned over to Emer as they sat adjacent to one another at the top table in the orphanage dining room watching the children take turns to entertain each other after Sunday dinner.

  “I’m sorry if I interfered,” she apologised to Emer once Dalton had gone. “But things looked pretty bad there between the two of you in the foyer when I walked in. Besides, I thought it would serve him right after the way he treated you to see that you’ve done well for yourself and can hold your head up in this town.”

  “Myrtle, you don’t understand, Dalton was beside himself seeing me again like this because he thought I was dead. It’s all been an awful mistake,” Emer said tremulously.

  Her friend gasped, then put her arm around her waist and led Emer from the room. “Come into the library, and tell me exactly what he said,” Myrtle urged.

  The Bishop retired from the dining hall as well, and followed the two women into the library, leaving Adrian and Joe to preside over the children’s festivities.

  Emer collapsed exhaustedly into a armchair, and revealed, “Dalton said that he had been told by his father that I was dead. When he saw me today, he was convinced I had not only married my former fiance Garvan, but was carrying his baby as well. He was very angry when Adrian came in and looked, well, at home. I think he believed that I was his mistress, or that this was some sort of house of ill-repute."

  "How shocking," Myrtle said with a shake of her head. "What could ever have given him that idea?"

  "I don't know. Then when he saw the children, well, he completely changed. He was angry, hurt, withdrawn, and certainly very confused. I can’t believe he's so altered, Myrtle. You've know him longer than I have. What's your opinion?"

  "I've never seen a man so changed," Myrtle admitted with her usual candor, shaking her dark head. "I would barely recognise him."

  E
mer nodded. "It's such a shock. I mean, I would hold him in high esteem no matter what he looked like, but I've never seen anything such as this. The grey hair, the black clothes, it’s like he’s aged twenty years. And though it may be my foolish heart whispering to me of love and hope, I can’t help thinking, well, praying really, that it’s because he was so upset at having lost me.”

  The Bishop sat silently listening to Emer’s explanation, and reminded her gently, “Now I know how hard it must be to see him again after all this time, but don’t let your heart rule your head in this matter. I absolved you of your sins when you came to me back in November because I was convinced you would not allow yourself to be led into temptation again by that man.

  "You can’t be certain whether he is innocent or not, and you're in an awkward position, my dear child. He is set to be married in four days’ time, and you are the head of a respectable children’s home. You must comport yourself in an unimpeachable manner if you wish to avoid damaging the children in your care.

  "In addition, there is the money you accepted from Frederick Randall, promising never to see Dalton again. Moreover, if Dalton is telling the truth, and his father really has deceived him, then it was likely that all those other misunderstandings between you after you separated on the Pegasus can be laid at Frederick’s door as well. Dalton may indeed be blameless, but would you really want to expose his father for a corrupt and unscrupulous liar?”

  Emer gazed into the fire, and then said quietly, “I don’t think he would ever forgive me, even if I were willing to tell him the whole truth. I have no real proof against Frederick Randall. It would be my word against his. There are the Jenkinses and Patrick as well, but the rest of the Pegasus crew seem to have disappeared from the face of the earth despite all we've done to look for them.

  "And you're right, Dalton is all set to be married, and I did promise to never see him again. So we shall just have to leave things as they are, and hope I don’t see him too often in the city.” She sighed heavily.

  Myrtle saw her friend’s resigned face, and declared, “Now think for a moment before you give up so easily. I do see the Bishop’s point, but Emer, you still love Dalton. Isn’t he worth fighting for? Surely you won’t let a vain, shallow witch like Madeleine Lyndon get him!”

  She stared at the other woman in confusion. “I can’t see what on earth I could do to change his mind or stop the wedding that wouldn’t leave him just as bitter towards me, as well as the rest of humanity, as he seems to be, judging from the way he looks at the minute. "And I don’t know Madeleine Lyndon, so I am no judge. He might have a very successful marriage to someone of his own class, with similar interests,” Emer tried to argue rationally, though inside she felt as though she were dying.

  “A marriage made in hell would be a more apt description,” Myrtle retorted.

  The Bishop shot her a startled look, but said nothing.

  “Myrtle, please, promise me you won’t try to interfere again,” Emer begged.

  “But if his father lied?” Myrtle persisted.

  “Then Dalton will find out eventually, without my having to expose his father’s nefarious practices myself. You’ve already told him I married Oran Dillon, not Garvan, so please be careful. Don’t let anything else slip out by accident.”

  “Why, what difference does that make?”

  Emer pressed her palms together to steady herself. “Dalton is no fool. He’ll eventually figure out I married Oran to protect the children, and he might even guess the child I’m carrying is his if we’re not careful. I’m not strong enough to go up against Dalton and his father. What if Frederick Randall makes good his threat to have me tried for arson and put in prison? Or worse still, tries to take his grandchild away from me, claiming I wouldn’t be a fit mother? Then I would not only lose my child, but my nieces and nephews, and probably the entire orphanage as well,” Emer predicted fearfully.

  “Frederick won’t move against you now, not when there is so much at stake," Myrtle said firmly. "If he wants the marriage to take place on Thursday, and thus gain controlling interest of the Lyndon ships, then he's going to have to see that nothing goes wrong between Dalton and Madeleine. He will have to keep the peace until after their honeymoon, until Dalton moves into the Lyndon offices. That will take time, especially if Dalton is as keen as he says he to go straight into his own medical practice."

  “Dalton will make a fortune in no time, with all the rich hypochondriacs in this town,” Emer said, quoting one of Adrian’s favourite complaints.

  The Bishop shook his head. “No, he's accepted a post at the fever hospital, unpaid as it turns out. Adrian told me he had just completed the paperwork on my behalf at the meeting he was at before he came here.”

  Emer stared the Bishop for a moment. “You see, he can’t be the monster he seemed if he is willing to do that.”

  “Emer, you said it yourself. It's your word against Frederick’s, and you have no real proof, do you?” the Bishop cautioned.

  “No letter, no bank drafts, no receipts.” Emer shook her head, but at these words the Bishop and Myrtle both looked at her and each other guiltily.

  Just then Sissy tapped at the door with a message for Emer, inviting her to a buffet supper at the home of the Hearsts, who had apparently been at the cathedral that morning, and wished to discuss her charity work with her.

  “Why, how marvellous. I’m going there as well," Myrtle said with a smile. "You can accompany me, Emer. Now, what shall you wear?”

  Emer rolled her eyes. “Myrtle, I always wear black in public, as well you know. I'm in mourning, for Heaven's sake, for my husband and my whole family. And as for going, look at me! I saw a more attractive and thinner walrus in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence!"

  Myrtle laughed despite herself, but shook her head. "Nonsense."

  "Besides, I should think after the scene Dalton put on in front of all those people this morning, I shan’t be able to look any of them in the eye without their wondering what sort of scandalous woman I am,” Emer said impatiently.

  The Bishop interceded before the two women began to quarrel. “Myrtle is right. You should go, Emer. The Hearsts are very powerful, and it's too good an opportunity to pass up. You have done nothing to be ashamed of except having naively fallen in love with the wrong man.”

  He paused for a moment and then said, “Now I want to put a serious question to you, and I require an honest answer, Emer.”

  “Very well, Bishop, you shall have one, then. What is the question?” Emer answered, her aqua eyes gazing at him candidly.

  “I wish to know what you decision would be under the following circumstances. Let us assume that it was all a mistake on Dalton’s part, and Frederick lied about everything, tricked you all, and you had ample proof. If Dalton came here right now and asked you to marry him, would you do it? Would you really be able to leave all this behind, the children, your friends, and accept him?”

  Emer sighed. She knew in her heart that the Bishop was right. She couldn’t have them both, and the children needed her.

  She shook her head. “I couldn’t tell him the truth, and destroy his faith in his father. Even if I remained silent about the bribe and everything else, how would Dalton feel when he discovered I had known all along? If I didn’t move against Frederick, he would still never accept me, nor would Quebec society when they found out I was the cause of him jilting Madeleine Lyndon, their darling.

  “And even if by some miracle, the way were clear for us to marry, Dalton wouldn’t want his wife to work. He would expect me to do a few charity fundraisers, and sit at home embroidering. No, this is the life I chose, and I can’t let the children down.”

  The older man nodded, satisfied. “Very well then, if that is your decision, then I trust you to put him off if he pesters you, and not tell him the truth, no matter how tempted you are,” the Bishop said firmly, though he could see how much Emer longed for the man whom she had every reason to think had wronged her.

  But there
was no sense in giving the child false hope, even were he certain it was the right thing for all parties if he decided he was willing to intercede on her behalf with Dalton and even Frederick if need be.

  “No temptation, Bishop, I assure you. Dalton’s gone now. He won’t be back. And even if he did ever come back, the children have to come first.”