For The Sake Of His Child

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ON THE day of Joey’s ‘switch-on’ Carson drove them to the hospital. Joey sat in the back of the car with Gina, attending while she silently explained that today he would see, not a doctor, but a hearing specialist called an aurologist and a speech therapist. By the time they entered the building he had the air of someone who understood that serious business was afoot.

Gina had feared that the exterior attachment and the process of switching on and testing the sound might be distressing to a child. But Joey was so eager to get on that he took it all in his stride. At last the aurologist had finished.

‘Now,’ he said, standing back, ‘let’s see what happens.’

Nothing.

Joey looked around him in bewilderment, as if asking what was supposed to happen next. Gina closed her eyes, praying hard. Carson’s face was deathly pale. He turned away and went to the window behind his son. When he looked back Joey was sitting with his head bent, as though crushed by defeat.

‘My God!’ he said, distraught. ‘Oh, my God!’

Joey swung around sharply to look at his father.

‘Carson,’ Gina said through tears of joy. ‘He heard you!’

‘Did you?’ Carson flung himself on his knees beside Joey. ‘Did you hear me?’

‘He can’t understand,’ Gina protested. ‘He’s not used to the sounds of the words.’

Carson took Joey’s face between his hands, looking at him steadily. ‘Joey,’ he said. ‘Joey.’

‘Aaaah-’ the child said. And suddenly, a light came into his face. He had heard his own voice.

‘Joey,’ Carson repeated, hardly daring to believe the miracle

‘Aaaah!’ Joey repeated the sound, his astonishment and delight wonderful to see. ‘Aaaahh!’ he yelled jubilantly, while everyone in the room smiled and covered their ears.

‘He did it,’ Carson said in triumph. ‘He can hear!’

The aurologist was smiling but cautious. ‘Now the real work begins,’ he said. ‘The mapping is going to take time.’

‘Mapping?’ Carson echoed.

‘Programming the device so that Joey gets the best results. The levels and the tuning vary from person to person. You’ll need to bring him back every week, then every two weeks, then every month, every two months, three months, six, then once a year. And each time we’ll adjust the sound, building on his experience.’

He and Joey set to work, testing noises, constantly adjusting until they found the level where Joey was comfortable.

After a while Gina looked around and realised that Carson was missing. She slipped out into the corridor and found him there, standing, leaning against the wall, his eyes closed. He looked almost more like a man crushed by misfortune than one who’d seen the dawn of hope, but she knew him now, and understood the violence of the emotion that racked him.

She went to his side and touched him. At once his arms went tightly about her, and they stood together in the quiet corridor while his shoulders heaved with sobs.

Gina made Joey’s birthday cake herself and lovingly adorned it with eight candles.

She put the finishing touches to it early in the morning before Joey was up. Carson too came down early and found her in the kitchen. She was carefully adjusting the last candle, and he slipped his arms around her from behind, kissing the back of her neck in a way that distracted her and sent the candle toppling to the floor.

‘Now look what you’ve done,’ she told him severely.

‘You’ve got plenty more candles. You can spare me a moment, can’t you?’

She emerged from his arms a few minutes later, breathless and somewhat dishevelled.

‘No more waiting,’ he said. ‘I want to tell Joey about us today. We can be married by the end of next month. Say yes.’

‘Yes,’ she said happily. To be his wife in a few weeks. What more could she ask?

The sound of footsteps alerted them. Gina hastily whisked the cake out of sight, and a moment later Joey burst in gleefully. After that it was a pandemonium of laughter and presents.

The three of them spent the day in the park. It was the merriest birthday Joey had ever known. The world was a wonderland of new sounds. Some of them confused him, and he couldn’t cope with too many at once. But he was learning all the time.

In the late afternoon they returned home and Gina set up the table for tea. The cake was a triumphant success as she carried it in with the candles alight.

‘Blow!’ she said.

Joey took a huge breath and blew all eight candles out at once, while the other two clapped. When they had all eaten a slice Carson gave her a questioning look, which she answered with a nod. The child looked from one to the other.

‘Joey,’ Carson said, ‘you know how important Gina has become to us?’ Joey nodded. ‘Well, what would you say if-?’

He was interrupted by a sharp rap on the window behind them. Outside was a beautiful young woman with blonde hair, knocking with one hand and waving with the other. Through the net curtains Gina couldn’t see her clearly at first.

But then she did. And, with horror, she recognised her.

Angelica Duvaine.

Suddenly everything seemed to be in slow motion: Carson, following her appalled gaze, growing tense and still; Joey, his eyes riveted on the window, his mouth silently forming the word ‘Mummy’.

Carson rose like a man in a dream. He seemed to find it hard to move. Gina was watching his face, but all it contained was disbelief.

Joey was the first to come to life. He jumped to his feet and raced to the door, pulling it open to throw himself into the wide open arms of the woman. Carson seemed to recover the power of movement and went after him. Gina followed and was just in time to see Angelica put her arms about him, kissing him lingeringly on the mouth, while Joey bounced with excitement, and a dozen photographers snapped away eagerly.

Angelica Duvaine had brought the press with her.

‘Damn you, get out of here!’ Carson roared at them.

‘Don’t be angry, darling,’ Angelica cooed in a seductive voice. ‘I just had to share our happiness with the world.’

She turned from him quickly and hugged Joey again, the picture of motherly delight, but with her face always carefully turned towards the cameras.

A man wielding a microphone pushed forward. ‘Do you have a statement for us, Miss Duvaine?’

‘Only that this is the happiest day of my life. All my sadness is over-’

‘Get in the house,’ Carson said in a savage under-voice.

‘I have to be going now,’ she told the journalist. ‘I need to be alone with my family-I’m sure you understand-’

She managed to tuck one hand in Carson’s arm and use the other to draw Joey against her, and the three of them went into the house. Gina backed away to let them in, and she could feel the other woman’s eyes flickering coldly over her, not missing a thing.

But she didn’t waste words on Gina. As soon as the door was closed she forestalled Carson’s explosion by dropping to her knees and embracing Joey with cooing sounds of delight. The child clung to his mother in a way that said everything about his loneliness and sense of abandonment.

Gina watched, realising that she had been fooling herself. She’d got as close to Joey as she could, and he’d become fond of her, but it was all as nothing the moment his real mother returned.

And Carson? Would it be the same with him? Would he forget her now that the woman he’d once loved so terribly had come back?

She was dizzy was the suddenness with which the world had turned around. One moment Carson had been announcing their engagement; the next, Angelica was there in their midst, reclaiming him and their son with terrifying confidence.

‘Oh, it’s so good to be home!’ she cried dramatically.

‘You still have a key, I seem to recall,’ Carson said in a biting voice. ‘You could simply have walked in.’

‘Oh, that wouldn’t have been nearly so effective, darling.’

‘No, it wouldn’t have got us all out there where the press could see us, would it?’ he snapped.

‘Well, you must admit, they were lovely shots.’

‘How dare you do such a thing to Joey?’

‘Joey didn’t mind, did you, darling?’

The child was trying to cope with a host of unfamiliar noises. He made a sound that Gina understood but which caused his mother to look down at him with a frown.

‘What?’ she asked, a tad sharply.

‘He said “Mummy”,’ Gina told her quietly.

Angelica straightened, and looked Gina up and down with deep, deep blue eyes. Her beautiful mouth twitched as though she’d seen something funny. And Gina, who until then had thought herself smartly dressed, knew that she was a little brown mouse after all.

‘I don’t believe we’ve been introduced,’ Angelica cooed.

‘My name is Gina Tennison,’ she said, pulling herself together. ‘I’m here because I can help Joey.’

Before Gina could stop her the film star enveloped her in a scented embrace.

‘Then you’re my friend,’ she said in accents of passionate sincerity. ‘Anyone who helps my dear little son is my friend, as I am hers.’

‘You ought to know, Brenda,’ Carson broke in harshly, ‘that Gina is a great deal more than-’

‘Carson.’ Gina stopped him in a voice that was half a plea, half a warning. ‘Not now.’

Angelica’s narrowed eyes flickered between them. She wasn’t an intelligent woman, but she had a stiletto-sharp instinct where her own interests were concerned. Carson’s words had been revealing, but the way Gina felt free to interrupt him, and the familiarity of that, ‘Not now,’ alerted her far more.

She kept her smile in place to say, ‘Tell me about yourself. You’re some kind of speech therapist?’

‘No, I’m a lawyer. But I’m deaf.’

‘Oh, really? You must be wonderful at lip-reading. I thought you could hear.’

‘I can hear, because I have a cochlear implant, just like Joey. But I’m still deaf, just as he is.’

Angelica gave a trill of disbelieving laughter. ‘Nonsense. Joey isn’t deaf any more. He’s been cured.’

‘There is no cure,’ Gina said firmly. ‘Joey is as deaf as he ever was. With time and a lot of work he’ll pass as what you call “normal”.’ For the life of her, she couldn’t have kept a tinge of contempt out of the last four words. ‘But he’ll still be deaf.’

‘Really?’ Angelica said frostily. ‘That’s not quite what I-well, never mind. I’m sure we’ll all manage somehow.’

‘We?’ Carson asked ominously.

‘Well, we are a family, darling,’ Angelica said sweetly. ‘You, me and our little son. And family reunions are happy occasions.’

Carson’s face was pale. ‘What the devil brought you back here, Brenda?’

She winced. ‘I do wish you wouldn’t use that name. It’s not me.’

‘I said, what brought you back here? Why this sudden display of maternal concern?’

Angelica shrugged, beautifully. ‘Well, my dear, it’s expected, especially if- Oh, hell! Some stupid cow from Movie Enquirer picked up a hint and thought she’d make trouble for me.’

‘They’ve found out, haven’t they?’ Carson said savagely. ‘Someone in that self-centred little hell-hole you live in has heard about Joey and is asking awkward questions-like how could the beautiful Angelica Duvaine desert a sick child? And suddenly you don’t look so good.’

Angelica shrugged again. ‘Put it how you like. I’m here now and there’s nothing you can do about it.’

‘Can’t I? I could have you out of that door so fast-’

‘Oh, I don’t think Joey would like that,’ she replied, turning her wide eyes on him. ‘Would you?’

Carson was speechless. It was Gina who answered.

‘No,’ she said. ‘Joey wouldn’t like that at all.’

Carson wheeled on her. ‘Can’t you see the game she’s playing?’

‘Of course I can see it. But you have to go along with it, at least for the moment.’

‘He’ll go along with it for as long as it suits me,’ Angelica snapped at her. ‘Now, if you wouldn’t mind leaving us, I need to have a long, private talk with my husband.’

‘I’m no husband of yours,’ Carson said. ‘Our marriage was over long ago.’

‘Not according to the law. There are papers that make it very clear that we are still husband and wife for the next few days, at least.’

‘After which our divorce will become final,’ Carson said firmly.

‘Why don’t we talk about that later? I just want to enjoy my little boy’s birthday.’

She had come with a mountain of presents, which she unloaded onto the child, apparently oblivious of the fact that her presence was enough to make him happy. Joey exclaimed over the parcels and tried, haltingly, to thank her. The few words he could manage came out distorted, and Gina had to interpret for him, while Brenda’s smile grew more frayed.

But she persevered, covering Joey with kisses at regular intervals. The child looked up, beaming first at his mother, then at his father. To him, this was the longed-for family reunion.

Gina turned away from that sight. Her heart was heavy.

The house was very quiet and dark. Gina had undressed for bed, but although she lay down for a while she didn’t expect to sleep, and soon rose again.

A glance into Joey’s room showed her that he was asleep. Brenda had made a great performance of putting him to bed, and if there was anything missing in her attitude he didn’t seem to notice.

Perhaps, Gina thought, the actress still had some genuine, motherly feeling for him. For Joey’s sake, she would have been glad to believe it.

Gina had slipped away to her room without trying to talk to Carson. Now she wondered where he was. In his bedroom, presumably. And Angelica? Where was she?

She’d forgotten to bring a glass of water upstairs as she normally did. Pulling on her dressing gown, she slipped out into the corridor and headed down the stairs to the kitchen.

There was a faint light in the hall downstairs, coming from beyond an open door. As Gina reached the bottom step she froze, realising that she’d been mistaken. Angelica and Carson weren’t in his bedroom at all. Through the door to the front room she could see them, in each other’s arms.

At first everything was a confused jumble-two bodies pressed together-two mouths locked-Angelica half naked in a seductive diaphanous creation-hands embracing, caressing, inciting to passion-

Then Gina’s head cleared and she saw that Carson’s arms were by his sides. It was Angelica’s hands that writhed, sliding over his head, his shoulders, vainly trying to rekindle desire. The man stood motionless, coldly waiting for her to be finished.

Eventually Angelica drew back, her lovely mouth curved in laughing disbelief.

‘Don’t be so stuffy, darling. You and I always had the hots for each other, and some things simply don’t die. I’ve thought of you a lot recently-’

Carson didn’t move and he didn’t speak.

‘Oh, sweetie, are you trying to punish me? Playing hard to get? Well, that might even be rather fun. Remember how we used to-?’

‘Shut up and get out, Brenda.’ Carson’s voice was like ice as he pushed her away from him. ‘And don’t try to touch me again or I’ll make you very sorry.’

‘You’re afraid,’ she jeered. ‘You know you can’t resist me.’

‘I think I’ve just proved that I can. No, it’s simpler than that. You make my skin crawl. All I can think of is the rottenness inside you.’

‘I see. It’s Miss Goody Two-Shoes now, is it?’

‘I’m going to marry Gina, yes. And we’ll have a real marriage, which is more than you and I ever had.’

‘Oh, you’re so smug and sure of yourself. That was always what I couldn’t stand about you. Well, don’t make any plans for an early marriage. It doesn’t suit me to be divorced just yet. It wouldn’t go well with the reconciliation story I’ve given the press.

‘But one day-who knows? Be nice to me, and in the end I’ll probably be nice to you. In the meantime, we can always-’

She slipped a silk-clad arm about his neck again and tried to fasten her mouth on his, but Carson moved fast, fending her off with a gesture so vigorous that it sent her reeling back to land sprawling in an undignified heap on the sofa.

‘You son of a bitch!’ she shrieked. ‘In Hollywood they queue up to sleep with me. I’ve had-’ She began to reel off a string of names.

But she was talking to air. Carson had walked out of the room.

Gina saw him coming and backed up the stairs. He found her at the top, leaning against the wall, almost dizzy from what she’d witnessed.

‘How much of that did you see?’ Carson asked her.

‘I saw her trying to kiss you-’

‘Then you also saw me reject her. I couldn’t sleep with her if she was the last woman on earth. She makes me ill. Don’t tell me you doubted that?’ He looked more closely and saw her eyes shining with tears. ‘What a fool you are, my darling!’ he said gently. ‘Did you really think she could get me back to her bed?’

‘I wondered,’ she said huskily.

‘Well, now you know better.’

A movement from below made him draw her away to his room. When they were inside he locked the door and put his hands on her shoulders, looking into her face by the pale light coming through the window.

‘You really believed that of me?’ he asked. ‘We’re to be married soon, and you thought I’d take another woman to my bed?’

‘Brenda isn’t just another woman. I’ve heard you talk about her, like an obsession that would haunt you for ever.’

‘Maybe she was, once. A sick obsession. But sickness can be healed. I’m a different man now, whole and sane because you came to me with your generosity, your courage and your laughter. I’d forgotten about laughter until I met you with your crazy little car. I’d forgotten about love until I held you in my arms.’

He drew her closer. ‘Now, this is all I want. Let that woman do her damnedest! She won’t part us.’

‘But, Carson, don’t you realise that-?’

‘Forget her,’ he said against her mouth.

With a sinking heart Gina realised that Carson hadn’t discerned the bleak truth that faced them. Angelica had already done her damnedest, and it was enough to make their life together impossible.

But the feel of his lips was wonderful, creating heat and passion, so that the sad thoughts faded. There would be a lifetime for them later. Just now she would surrender to her love, and lay up for herself memories to cherish like treasure in the cold, lonely time ahead: the time that she had seen, and he hadn’t.

Slowly, almost reverently, he drew off her nightdress, revealing the whole of her slim, pale body.

‘Do you know how long-and how badly-I’ve wanted you?’ he murmured.

Gina shook her head. ‘I only wish I did.’

‘Then let me show you.’

He pulled off his own clothes, kicked them impatiently aside, and drew her nakedness against his own. The first touch was like fire for them both. His kiss was deep and intense, taking possession of her. She leaned against him, glad to yield to her desire, eager to belong to him totally in the flesh as she did in spirit.

She felt his body along the length of her own, pressing her close, and she held him, running her hands over his long, muscular back, down the length of his spine to the lean, powerful hips and thighs. Tremors went through him at the touch of her fingers, gentle at first, then inciting him as she grew in confidence.

His tension grew as he sensed her caresses asking for his love, and he lifted her, carrying her the short distance to his big bed, and laying her down tenderly. He didn’t rush her, but contemplated every line and curve of her beauty before dropping his head to lay between her breasts.

She had known nothing like the sensation of his lips loving and teasing her nipples while she took long, ecstatic breaths. She couldn’t have said where love ended and desire began. For this man alone, they were one and the same.

She had feared Carson’s passion was dead, but now she saw his fierce, growing urgency, and knew that what Angelica Duvaine had striven in vain to rouse was hers for the asking.

When he came over her she was ready, sweet and welcoming, offering him all she had. The feel of him inside her was wonderful. She was right to have claimed this moment, perhaps all she would ever know of love. She held him to her passionately, seeking to imprint every detail of his body on her memory.

The smooth back under her hands would be with her always, as would the breadth of his shoulders, and the heat of his skin against hers. But what would live with her longest was the memory of being one with him, of being his utterly and completely in a union of body, soul and heart.

She held him closer, whispering his name, nothing held back, no defences. All his. His in every way. When the moment came she tried vainly to hold onto it, and wept as it slipped away. For other lovers there was the promise of next time, but not for her.

Carson kissed her face until her tears had dried, smiling at her in the moonlight.

‘Now you belong to me for ever,’ he said.

‘Yes,’ she said huskily. ‘I’ll always belong to you, wherever I am, wherever you are.’

‘What are you talking about? We’re not going to be apart. We’re going to be married.’

‘But we can’t be married,’ she said despairingly. ‘My darling, haven’t you understood that I have to go away and leave you, and that we may never see each other again?’