Contrite & Convicted

An Unthinkable Fate Part II

An Unthinkable Fate Part II

FOUR YEARS AGO

Lawrence Bane sat in the room, patiently waiting. It was difficult, for as you see he was not a calm man. The sweat on his brown hair dripped onto the wooden floors below him. His foot tapped rhythmically with the bench he occupied. He was stressed. He was worried.

He wondered in his head; What was taking so long?

His heart was the only thing he could hear in his ears. His chest dipped and raised with every deep breath that filled his lungs. His eyes stung from sweat that dripped down his forehead.

His body was dreadfully tired but his mind was keeping him awake with adrenaline. The doctor's assistant kept coming from the room that occupied his wife and child, grabbing cloth, warm water, and blankets. Each time she opened the door he saw the look of pity she gave him.

His heart beat faster at the idea that one of the times she would walk out the door–would be with troubling news...or worse...terrible news.

His mind had already plagued him with several versions of how this would go for him. Fatherless, widowed? He dared not think like that too long. Once it's in your mind there is not a spark for happiness.

He thought back to last year, when he returned from Scotland with a nasty cold. That's all it was–his wife took such great care of him, pregnant and all. Not a murmur, complaint or foul looks were given to him about his incessant needs when ill.

So when it passed as if nothing but a cough he thought nothing of it.....

He could hear an evil laugh now in his mind, knowing what he knew now. His poor wife caught the sickness after the birth of their beautiful baby girl. Both sick for a few weeks and then healed by God's hand.

So how did it come back? How did they catch Scarlet Fever?! He tried not to clench his hands but it was impossible. The crescent mooned scars still there, waiting to be reopened with the force he had.

"They never got better sir." the doctor whispered to him weeks ago.

"They never will get better. The fever takes few at first....it's the weakness that kills ya." was the second thing the doctor mentioned when he brought them back.

Bane broke every glass china his wife had when he returned home after leaving them in the hospital wing. How could he recover so well yet they so poor?

"Viscount Bane it'---" he didn't leave the nurse with many words before he burst into the room where his angels lay. How right he was, for there as soon as he entered...he saw the cold lifeless body of his wife and daughter, a sight he would never soon forget.

PRESENT TIME

Kate sat in the gardens, reading to herself and taking in the true beauty of London. It would never equal the beauty of India, the warmth of the sun, the colors and flora. She would always miss India, but this was where her life was now.

Engaged to a man she hardly knew, in love with a man she always wanted.

What a wonderful life...she wondered. So imagine her surprise when the somber, lighthearted voice of Lawrence Bane broke her stillness.

"It's a lovely spot. It reminds me of the gardens in the home I once owned." He stopped to admire a rose, then a tree with hanging leaves, a Willow she thought she heard Lady Danbury say once.