Chapter Thirty-one
Revelations
Once Kate heard about the trouble in
Annabelle’s marriage, Kate decided it was time to speak to Heath, alone.
Kate was rugged up in her usual riding gear
and had the car keys in her hand, making a rattling noise which woke her
sleeping husband. She’d woken up early and told Edmund that she was going for a
walk.
‘At six in the morning, darling?’ he asked
sleepily. ‘Should you really be going out in your condition? The air is like
ice outside.’
‘Of course,’ Kate said. ‘I have the car. I
intend to walk the easy path. It’s my new regime,’ she said, sarcastically.
‘Besides, exercise is good for the baby. Now go back to sleep…darling,’ she
added as an afterthought.
Kate pulled on her overcoat and looked into
the mirror. At eighteen, when Kate had married Edmund, she’d felt older than
her years. Now she was barely twenty-one and she had never told Heath why she
had married Edmund so quickly; never told Heath why the pictures hadn’t been
splashed all over the papers; why the marriage hadn’t been announced. He
probably guessed and didn’t care. There were so many mistakes that had been
made and more than enough time to put them right, even if somebody got hurt in
the process. They were meant to be together and that was that. She had telephoned
him, asked him to meet her.
When Heath arrived at the glass house, having
pulled up in one of his sleek sports cars, Kate knew she had to gauge his
behaviour.
She moved to touch him but he pulled away
and turned his face. Kate wondered if he had already fed that morning on
Magenta or… if his tastes had become more refined and… diverse. Kate would have
offered her blood to him there and then if she’d felt it would fix the
situation between them and not harm the baby.
‘Why did you want to meet me here Kate?’
Heath asked in a weary tone. Heath noticed her messed up hair.
‘Look at you. You’ve just got out of Hunt’s
bed. I never thought I’d see the day…’
‘Heath…he’s my husband…If it makes you feel
any better, we have separate bedrooms.’
Heath’s eyes combed her face, her body, her
round belly hidden under the coat. Kate must
have thought he was really stupid.
‘Why do you need to talk to me when you’ve
got him?’
‘I needed to see you again.’
Kate touched his hand, and all the emotions
were like before. She could not deny this passion and Kate wondered if Heath
felt the same.
If he did, he didn’t show it.
‘I’m asking you not to…hurt Annabelle.
She’s been a good sister-in-law to me, a good friend to us both.’
‘Oh, this is rich, sticking up for the
other woman. What do you call this then? I’m sure if she knew we were meeting
in secret she’d be thrilled,’ Heath added sarcastically. Then he moved towards
Kate. At first, it seemed like he was going to kiss her. Instead, he was
distracted by the baby’s heart beat and placed his hands over his ears.
‘Having a baby…makes it impossible for me to
leave now. It does not mean I love you less.’
Heath looked at her, ‘And you brought me
here to tell me that? As if I didn’t already know? How could you Kate? You
should have waited for me. I just wanted proof that Harrison had lied, and then
nothing would have kept me away from you.’
‘I…I know,’ Kate said, weeping.
He
was so angry he moved to shove her, but thought better of it, though she didn’t
resist his touch or step back. Instead he moved in close, swayed almost as if
he was going to kiss her. Kate moved towards him at the same time.
‘Now, we meet as equals, Mrs Hunt,’ Heath
said. ‘Now you get to be the jealous one.’
That was the problem. Heath had all but
ignored her since the night after the dinner party. The closeness of her, the nearness of her
almost touch, was enough to set him off. His mouth watered, his teeth
sharpened. Kate stumbled and moved to sit down.
‘A fine mess we have made of our lives,’
she whispered. She looked at Heath and realized her love for him was like the air
that surrounded them, ever-changing but eternal, always. Her love for Heath
transcended time and space and even themselves. She couldn’t believe it had
been so fragile, that she had been foolish enough to believe it would survive
betrayal. Now Heath was married to another and gone forever.
Kate moved to stand up but sat down again,
quickly.
‘Are you alright?’ Heath asked, suddenly
spooked.
‘Yes, I’m…I’m just upset, that is all.
Please, Heath, don’t go, please come. Put your arms around me one last time.
I…I would give up Hunt if only you’d ask me to.’
And it was then, that Heath realized he’d
finally gotten to her.
Now was his chance.
‘You must be kidding,’ Heath said. ‘Do you
really think I’d want you now? About to give birth to another man’s child…’
‘I wish it were your child,’ Kate said.
‘Well, it isn’t,’ Heath said, ‘and I don’t
want you,’ he lied.
Kate withdrew her hand.
‘Please don’t be like that.’
‘It
was you, Kate, with all of your stupid airs and graces, the minute you were
poisoned by the Hunts, you came to believe yourself one of them, better than
the rest of us, better than me with my eternal…curse. I longed for immortality
once but only to share it with you.
‘Share it with me now…’
‘You’d have to be joking. You’re not
thinking straight in your…condition. You are so selfish you can’t even put your
child first.’
‘Not now…later, after the baby is born.’
‘Forget it. No matter how miserable you
are, you belong to him now…’
‘Never...’
‘And I have made another choice…’
‘I don’t believe you.’
‘Oh, I could never lie to you and tell you
I love Annabelle. I don’t even like her, though I’ve tried hard enough. But
hating you, Kate…is almost as good as loving you and how I have wished for this
moment, to see you as you really are…empty and alone but for your selfish
choices.’
‘It was not selfish, Heath. I couldn’t
find you.’
‘You should have looked harder.’
‘I did. But I was lied to…Harrison
convinced me you no longer lived.’
‘Well, he was wrong and he’s always
plotted against us. You were foolish to believe him in the first place.’ Heath
said, the morning’s gorge from the blood bank fresh in his veins. He felt
empowered. There was strength in such a lack of desire.
‘It was your fault too,’ Kate said, ‘for
leaving me, for doubting us.’
Heath remained silent. ‘Harrison swore we
were…blood relations…’
Kate looked shocked.
‘But it is not true. Here,’ Heath said, he
unfolded a paper from his pocket. ‘There is no connection. I also spoke to
my…mother. It appears my biological father disappeared one night after drinking…
the blood of others. He has not been sighted since. Heath pulled out his original
birth certificate, written in Spanish. The date was clear.
‘I’m a year older than I thought.’
‘Oh Heath, what have we done?’
‘If I did wrong, we both did wrong and now
you are paying for it. Revenge is sweet.’
‘Really? Greta used to say revenge is a
dish best served cold.’
‘Well, she always had a cliché at the
ready.’
Both the lovers were spent in their
argument.
‘Please…Heath… Don’t do anything you will
regret.’
‘Like what? Like leaving Annabelle? No,
Annabelle will go of her own accord just like all the women in this family. I’m
surprised it has taken her this long to work out that I only married her to
hurt you and get my hands on The Grange.’
‘I don’t believe that. Annabelle loves
you. She won’t go anywhere unless you force her to.’
‘She’s left me once already. You really
think you can control all our lives Kate? I despise you for marrying Hunt. I
despise you for not believing in me enough to wait.’
‘I… never stopped believing in you. I
never stopped loving you. I wanted to do what was best for… Katarina.’
‘And yet you married another.’
‘I was told you’d gone forever!’
‘Mmm… a convenient excuse. How could you
ever be with another man?’ Heath spat.
‘Like I said, he’s my husband.’
‘I was your husband.’
‘I know, but we were so young, I thought
you’d changed your mind, abandoned me...’
‘Stop, stop crying. This is not the Kate
I wish to see.’
‘It is the one you created. I have never
stopped loving you…will never stop loving you Heath,’ Kate said as she stood up,
‘but I think this argument is going nowhere... Edmund…’
‘Ah yes, the wonderful Hunt…’
‘Don’t…be jealous. He has never taken your
place.’
‘That’s exactly what he has done,’ Heath
laughed bitterly.
‘When I first saw you, Heath, I loved
you. It is almost as if we are the one soul and that doesn’t change, no matter
what. After the baby is born I want to be with you, forever.’
Kate stood in the open doorway of the
glass house as the wind began to howl and swept up her hair. ‘I can see there
is no point in continuing to discuss this until then…’
‘You sound just like him…’
‘And you have become so much worse, swindling
Harrison out of his own fortune…marrying my sister-in-law to hurt me…’
‘Your brother was a vicious drunk and a
liar. He deserved it. Besides, it wasn’t a difficult thing to accomplish…and
Annabelle knew what she was getting herself into.’
‘And making his child your own…’
‘Hinton needed a home after he
was…abandoned by his own father…’
‘A home? You sent him to boarding
school…’
‘From where he shall return once he
is…educated…’
‘Educated enough to run wild like you
and I did? I could never bear to let my child be that far away from me… And as
for Annabelle, I’ve seen the scars on her wrist where you bit her…’
‘She asked me to…she thinks blood sucking
is…more of a kink and less of a need.’
Kate
shook her head. ‘I can see we’re getting nowhere with this conversation.’
‘Everything that went wrong Kate, we did
to each other. If you had just waited…if you had just believed in me like you
promised you would…we said we’d never abandon one another…’
‘You
abandoned me…’
‘I never stopped loving you…’
‘…Until now.’
‘You married another…’
‘So did you.’
Heath shook his head, ‘To make you pay…’
‘I must go…’
‘Yes,’ Heath said, ‘your husband must miss
you.’
‘I see you are determined to stay with
Annabelle and ruin all our lives.’
Heath raised an eyebrow angrily, ‘She is
my wife.’
‘Just don’t hurt her,’ Kate said as she
walked away. She did not wish to tell him the full truth about their child
tonight. It had been a mistake to call him. Heath was left in the dark once again;
his vow of revenge seemed hollow and pointless.
