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Despite every effort to take the longest possible route, the drive back to the boarding house took no time at all on the empty streets of Poplar. Too soon, the green Austin eased quietly to a halt and Patrick turned off the engine. He turned to Shelagh. Neither of them made to get out, not quite ready for the night to end.

“I had a wonderful time tonight, Patrick,” Shelagh told him shyly.

His face relaxed into  a soft smile. Reaching for her hand, he answered, “I’m the one to say that, love. Tonight could have gone to the four winds, but you made it happen.”

He lifted her small hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her fingers. For so long, this had been all the physical affection he had shown her. Tonight, he thought, well, tonight had changed things.

He knew he shouldn’t be surprised. She was so brave. Changing her life so drastically must have been unbelievably difficult. Since that day on that misty road, he had learned more about her fierce honesty. She had demanded the complete truth from herself, when denial would have been the easier course.

How difficult it must have been for her to make that phone call to his surgery. Alone, on the brink of her new life, she reached out to him not knowing if he would be there to grasp her hand. Such courage could only come from a passionate heart. Shelagh loved him, and would love him completely.

The rising blush on her cheeks told him she understood exactly what he was thinking.

“I’d like to see you again.” Patrick’s eyes teased her, lightening the mood.

The blush turned to a sweet smile. “Patrick, of course you’ll see me. I’ll be at the hospital when you arrive tomorrow. We can’t abandon Timothy for two nights.”

“Abandon? The boy had Fred visit tonight, and Carson told me he’d be in again to have a go at beating Tim at chess. The imp beat me the other day, you know.”

“Yes, he told me. He was very pleased with himself, so I beat him at checkers just to deflate his head a bit.” They laughed. A haze grew on the windows, creating their own secluded, contented world.

Patrick watched as his thumb moved gently over her hand. “I meant what I said tonight, about us being a family. we may not be very orthodox at the moment, but the three of us belong together. We’re lucky.”

“Very lucky.” Shelagh paused. “Patrick, I think all of this has been a sort of test…No, not a test, exactly, but a trial of sorts. After I returned from the sanatorium, we all barely knew each other, not in any real life way. I knew that didn’t matter, we’d learn what we needed to know.”

Shelagh breathed deeply. “I don’t believe God sends us trials as punishment, it’s simply the way life is. Sometimes bad things happen. The true trial is within ourselves. We decide how we will handle our pain.

“When Timothy was taken to the hospital, I was too afraid to take the role I knew I should. But you were there, and Timothy, and I loved you so much I had to find a way to understand my new place as a wife and mother.” She looked up then.

Patrick’s eyes widened in understanding. The journey they had started that autumn day was far from over, he realized. Shelagh came out of the mist not a fully formed identity, but a butterfly still in the midst of its metamorphosis: a person discovering many parts to herself. She was right. This time had been a gift to them.

Patrick squeezed her hand. “You have, Shelagh. I can’t imagine you loving Tim any more fiercely if he had been your own. You’ve held us together, my love. We’re a family because of you. And this last month, we’ve become true partners, working together to help our son. But we have to be more than that. We need more time like tonight.”

With his free hand, he caressed her smooth cheek. “Building a family is hard work. Love is hard work.”

Her eyes shifted from his.  “Yes, it is. And there’s still so much I don’t know. You’ll have to be patient with me, dearest. I know about the…the biology, of course. But after so many years of reining in that side of me…” Her voice faded.

Patrick understood without her saying more. Would it always be like this he wondered? They seemed to understand so many unspoken things.

She was right. They needed a bit of time. In the coming weeks, he would give her time to learn the truth of her own appeal.

“We’ll be alright, Shelagh. Of that, I am completely certain.”

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