Reckless Encounter Page 16
“Smallpox?” Max shifted his hold on the wrapped picture hand and touched his fingers to his cheek. “I have no scars.”
“You never had smallpox. I asked the hospital to run an extra test on your blood samples. You don’t have the antibodies.” Elena stepped closer to Max. “Your mother must have made it up, to smuggle you out and give you a better life. She had cancer. She died the year after. I can only guess, but I assume that she was a single mother with no relatives who could have taken care of you, so you would have ended up in an orphanage anyway, and she decided you’d have a better chance in America.”
“But the letters,” Max said in a hoarse whisper. “I had letters from her, every birthday until I was eight.”
Elena bit her lip. “I hope you won’t hate me for this, but I borrowed the letters from that carved wooden box where you keep them and had them analyzed. They were all written with the same pen, on the same pad of notepaper. I expect she wrote them before she died, and asked someone to post them on a certain date every year. Five letters in five years. Perhaps that’s all she wrote, or the person with whom she left the letters didn’t mail the rest.”
“I’ve always wondered why she never tried to see me in those five years.” Max spoke slowly, appearing to search for the right words. “I’ve never admitted this, not even to myself, but I resented her for that. I couldn’t forgive her for going on with her life, and only remembering me on that one day every year.”
“She didn’t go on with her life without you,” Elena said softly. “She died.”
“This is her?” Max held up the flat parcel between his hands.
Elena nodded.
Max tore away the gold and crimson paper and the bubble wrap with a sudden urgency, tossing the shreds to the floor.
“Did you ever wonder why you fell in love with me so quickly, after having kept your distance from other women until the age of forty-two?” Elena asked. “Did you ever think there might be something that allowed me to touch your heart when others couldn’t?”
“No.” Max finished uncovering the picture and held it in front of him. “I always knew that one day I’d meet the right woman.” He fell into a silence, his eyes roaming the small square of canvas before him.
“I had it painted from a black and white photograph, but the artist assures me that the colors are accurate.” Elena moved to stand beside him, and together they stared at the picture of the fair-haired woman with a delicate oval face. “You must take after your father, with your dark coloring and heavy frame and rugged features.”
Max lowered the painting and turned toward her. “You look nothing like my mother, if that’s what you were implying.” He shook his head. “It’s not possible that you caught my attention because you reminded me of my mother.”
She held her breath, and then whispered the words. “Her name was Elena.”
Max stiffened beside her. With slow steps, he walked to the buffet along the wall and laid the painting on top. Then he walked back to her and cupped her face between her hands.
“It may have been the name that opened the door into my heart, but you walked through it all by yourself.” A smile eased his harsh features. “How could I not love a woman who was prepared to stand by me through my criminal rampage and visit me in prison?” He paused, lowered his voice. “And now you’ve given me the gift of erasing the bitterness I have felt all my life at my mother for abandoning me.”
Elena raised her hands and laid them against Max’s broad chest. “I wasn’t sure you wanted to know. I worried you’d be angry at me because I stuck my nose into something that wasn’t my business.”
“I’m not angry.” Max bent to brush a kiss on her lips. “Just curious. Why did you do it?”
Elena hesitated. “I wanted you to have a better sense of belonging, of being part of a family…because in a few months you’re going to have one of your own.”
He stared at her.
“I mean…perhaps this wasn’t the right way to tell you…” Elena fell silent.
“A child,” Max said hoarsely.
She nodded.
Max exploded into life. He strode back to the buffet and grabbed the portrait of his mother, clutching it under his arm. With his other arm, he pulled Elena close and crushed her against his chest.
“A family,” he murmured into her hair. “I’m going to have a family of my own.”
Elena watched Max blink. He was trying to keep the tears from welling up in his eyes, but they gathered anyway and brimmed over, running in shiny trails down his face.
“I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about becoming a father,” she told him.
His shoulders rocked against her as he drew long, slow breaths. “In the orphanage, that’s all I ever dreamed of, having a family that would never leave me, that I could always be part of.”
Elena reached up and touched his damp cheek with her fingertips. After she had moved into his house in San Francisco, she had made a point of telling him goodbye whenever she left, even if it was just to walk down the street for a newspaper. She would seek him out in his study, or wherever he was, and kiss him and hug him, and tell him when she would be back. Max had never said anything, and Elena had wondered if he had caught on to what she tried to do.
“I’ll never leave you,” she said as she wiped away his tears.
Max looked down at her. “I know,” he said softly.
THE END
About the Author
Books have always been Tatiana's passion and she used to make up stories in her head during sleepless nights and transatlantic flights. When she finally tried writing them down, she loved it so much she never wanted to do anything else.
When not hunched over her laptop working on her latest romantic adventure, Tatiana enjoys reading, gardening, and watching old westerns on television. She currently lives in the UK near the river Thames but dreams of moving to a sunnier climate.
You can read more about Tatiana on
tatianamarch.blogspot.co.uk
You can contact her on
Tatiana.March@yahoo.com
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Other books by Tatiana March
Contemporary Romance
Project Seduction
Trouble with the Law
Marriage Pact (Le PACS)
Learning to Forgive
Lies and Consequences
How Cat Got a Life
Reckless Encounter
Rugged
Sing That Song for Me
Ballet Shoes and Engine Grease
Trading Favors
Cosmic Forces
Woman Trap
Romantic Suspense
The Layton Prophecy
Angelheart
Secrets of the Past
The Final Chapter
Historical Romance
Saints and Sinners
Circle Star
Klondike Dreams
The Rustler’s Bride
Historical Romance from Harlequin Historical
The Virgin’s Debt
Submit to the Warrior
Surrender to the Knight
The Drifter’s Bride
His Mail-Order Bride
The Bride Lottery
From Runaway to Pregnant Bride
Reckless Encounter
Second Edition - Copyright 2017 by Tatiana March
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner to create a sense of authenticity. Any resemblance to actual ev
ents or persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is purely coincidental.