No Greater Love (43 page)

They stopped walking and he looked down at her again. Her face was shining up at him in the moonlight, her eyes blue as steel, and her skin stark white in sharp
contrast to the dark hair. “What about you, Edwina? When do you get yours? They all have their lives, they’re almost gone and you haven’t even noticed. Do you know when I realized Helen was gone? The day she married George. All of a sudden, I stood there and handed her over to him. I built an empire for her, and suddenly she was gone. But do you know what else I found out that day, while you were fussing over her, and straightening her veil … the veil you would have worn, if your fiancé hadn’t gone down with your parents … I discovered that I built the empire for myself, too, and there is no one to share it with now. After all these years, and all this work, and all that love I poured out on Helen, and her mother before her … suddenly, I’m alone. Sure, there will be grandchildren one day, and Helen is still around, but it’s not the same. There is no one to hold my hand, to be there for me, no one to care about me … and no one I care about, except my only daughter. I watched you that day,” he said gently, as he took her hand in his much larger one, his face close to hers, and she saw what she’d liked in him right from the beginning. The gentleness, the strength, the kindness, and wisdom. He was the kind of person her father had been, someone you could laugh with and talk to, someone you instinctively loved. He was natural and real, and for a moment she almost thought she loved him. And as she struggled with the thought, he smiled at her. “Do you know what I want? I want to be there for you, to hold your hand, to hold you when you cry and laugh with you when you’re having fun. I want to be there for you, Edwina. And I’d like you to be there for me when I need you. We have a right to that, you and I.” He smiled at her almost sadly then.
“And
we’ve never had it.”

She was silent for a long time, not sure what to say to him. He wasn’t Patrick or Charles, he wasn’t young, but
neither was she, and she knew that in an odd way she loved him. He was the man she had wanted for years and never really known it. A man she could care for and respect, and love. A man she could spend the rest of her life with. And then suddenly, for an instant, she understood something else. She knew she would stand beside him through anything, in thick and thin, for better or worse until … and so it had been with her mother. She had gone down with Bert, because there had been no greater love … no greater love than she’d had for him … or than Edwina had had for their children … or than she and Sam would have one day for each other, or perhaps even their children.

Edwina knew suddenly that one day they would have the same kind of love her parents had had. The kind of love you build, and you cherish, and you take good care of. The kind of love you live for … and are even willing to die for. Theirs was a quiet thing, but she sensed that beneath the bond that had already formed was the solid rock you could build a life on.

“I don’t know what to say …” She smiled up at him, almost shyly. She had never thought of anything like that with him. She had only thought of him as Helen’s father … but then she remembered how she had turned to him when Alexis had disappeared, how he had been there, and how she had known that if she really needed him, she could call him. He was her friend before he was anything else, and she liked that about him. The truth was, she liked everything about him. “What do you suppose Helen would think?” … and George … and the others … but she suspected they’d be pleased, just as he did.

“I think she’d think I was damn lucky, and so would I.” He held her hand tightly in his own. “Edwina … don’t say anything if it’s too soon. I just want to know if it’s possible for you, or if you think I’m crazy.” He
looked at her hesitantly, almost like a boy, and she laughed as she was suddenly reminded of the children.

“I think we’re both crazy, Sam, but I think I like it.” She moved closer to him, and he smiled, and then he turned, pulled her close, and held her tight as he kissed her.