Craving Beauty(25)

"Brian lives in an orphanage that we have a connection to," Marc   continued, voice low and deep. If Hira hadn't known him, she'd have   thought him utterly calm. But because she did know him, she could see   the worry weighing down his heart. "And he's almost as bad as Becky.   They need to be together."



There was no hesitation. "Anything. Do anything," Mrs. Keller said. "If   you have to take her away to live with Brian, you can even do that.  Just  save my baby." Her husband nodded. "Please, just save her.  Please."



Hira felt tears prick her eyes. There was no question in her mind that   these people loved their child. Looking at Marc, she knew he understood   that, too. While she sat with the Kellers, he left the hospital. When  he  returned, Brian's thin arms were wrapped trustingly around his neck,   that small body cradled in a protective embrace.



The Kellers took one look at that sweet face and love whispered across their expressions.



"They look so alike," Mrs. Keller whispered. "He's a bit healthier than her. Someone's managed to make

him eat."



"I'll give you recipes for some things he likes," Hira offered.



"Me?" The woman's smile trembled. "You'll let us keep them both?"



"It's my husband's decision, but he loves Brian. He won't do anything to   harm him." Her faith in the goodness of the man she'd married was   absolute.



Marc walked straight into the hospital room. He emerged moments later   without Brian. "He crawled into the bed, took her hand and started   telling her to wake up."



Mr. and Mrs. Keller went to look through the glass partition into the   room, unwilling to disturb the reunited twins, but clearly needing to be   nearby.



Once they were out of earshot, Hira found herself in the odd position of   having to comfort her aloof husband. He'd sat down on one of the   plastic chairs, his strong body in a defeated posture, while she was   standing.



"It's all right, husband." Hesitantly she dared to touch his bent head in a light caress. "You got to Becky in time."

You saved two children's hearts, she thought, emotion choking her throat.



Marc didn't shrug off her hand but stared ahead at the white hospital   wall in front of them, "She's in critical condition," His voice was   flat, without emotion.



Biting her lip, Hira moved to stand right beside him, her hand on his   shoulder. "But she's alive. That's what you must concentrate on. In my   land, the old healers believe that the spirits of the injured can hear   the prayers of the living. We must call out and bring her home."



Marc raised his head. "Do you truly believe that?"



"With all my heart and soul."



To her surprise, he wrapped one arm around her body and laid his head   against her stomach. "Brian will die with her if she doesn't wake." His   acceptance of her care shook all of her beliefs about their union       .



"He believes she'll live." Hira stroked his head, praying both for the   children and for Marc. Her husband was a good man. He didn't deserve   such suffering.                       
       
           



       



"He's a child."



"Perhaps that is so. But he has a connection with her that we can't   doubt after seeing them. There are those who say twins are not two   people but two pieces of the same soul. If that's true, we must double   the strength of our prayers." The warm weight of him leaning against her   gave her the strength to be his hope. For once someone needed her for   more than her face and body.



Her husband didn't say another word but neither did his face settle into   those fatalistic lines again. When he walked off to get them coffee,  he  touched her cheek in a fleeting caress that she couldn't understand  but  felt the power of. Her American husband was no ordinary man.



To everyone's shock, Becky regained consciousness two hours later. The   Kellers were incoherent with joy, and Mrs. Keller was cuddling Brian as   if she'd never let him go. Though it hurt Hira, she saw that the little   boy felt at home in her arms, as if he knew how much they loved Becky   and would love him, too.



'They belong to the Kellers," she said to Marc, when they got home that night.



His face was tight. "Yes. Tomorrow, I'll begin the process that'll ease their adoption of him. I'm going for

a walk."



"In the dark?" Worry for him sparked inside of her.



Without answering, he grabbed his jacket from the hall closet. Desperate, she reached in and pulled out hers,

too.



"Where the hell are you going?" he growled at her. She'd never seen him   look more forbidding. But she knew he'd never needed her more than he   did at this moment. "For a walk."



He moved closer. "I want to be alone."



She knew he was deliberately crowding her with his body, trying to   intimidate her. But he'd done too good a job of demonstrating that he'd   protect her to his last breath. "Okay. I'll walk in the other   direction."



"Don't be a fool. You'll fall into the bayou and give some lucky gator   his dinner. It's dangerous out there." He grabbed her jacket and threw   it back into the closet.



She put her hands on her hips. "Husband, if you leave now, you have no way of stopping me from leaving."



His jaw squared. "You'll stay put."



"You really think I'll obey?"



His eyes were suddenly bleak. "I need to..."



She pushed his own jacket out of his hands and took his face between her   palms. "You need to stay at home and let your wife share your pain.   It's my pain, too."



Her every heartbeat reverberated with his sense of loss. Marc wasn't a   man who loved easily, but he loved Brian, of that there was no question   in her mind. And now he was being asked to give up one of the precious   pieces of his soul.



For a moment she thought he'd walk away, unable to accept the tenderness   she offered. Then his arms slipped around her body, and he held her so   tight she could barely breathe. Uncaring, she wrapped her arms around   him and silently promised that they'd get through this together. They   weren't alone anymore, either of them.



Somehow the hurt boy from the bayou and the lonely beauty from the   desert had become a unit, a pair, a single beating heart. Her dependence   on him should've scared her, yet all she felt was the dawning of a  hope  so exquisitely powerful she was humbled by it.





Only seven days later Marc stood beside Hira in front of the hospital   and watched the Kellers drive off with both Brian and Becky, after   having been granted temporary guardianship of Brian. Even the   bureaucrats had seen that the children needed to be together. His heart   felt as if it were being ripped out of him, but he smiled. Not for   anything would he spoil the children's joy.



After they were gone, he turned to Hira and pulled her into an embrace.   As he'd known she would, she began to stroke his back. Despite the pain   he could feel in her, she was trying to comfort him. Her generosity of   spirit kept throwing him, systematically destroying all his old ideas   about beautiful women and their icy hearts.



"Home," he whispered, his voice husky with pain.



She nodded against his chest.





However, home wasn't the haven he'd expected it to be. Hira disappeared   while he was parking the car. Angry at her for teaching him to need her   and then not being there when he needed her so desperately, he began  to  head out to the bayou. It had always held welcome for him.



That was when he heard the muffled sobs coming from the small formal   sitting room they used for guests, the one place his wife knew he   avoided, much preferring the relaxed parts of the house. The heart he'd   protected for so long seemed to shudder at the hurt in her ragged  tears.



Taking a deep breath, he turned the knob and entered. It took him a   moment to find her. She was sitting curled up against one corner, her   arms around her knees, her heavy fall of hair a curtain. She'd come to   cry in private.                       
       
           



       

Perhaps, he thought, it would be better to leave her to her grief.   Something in him rebelled against that course of action. This was his   wife in distress. He could never leave her, just like she hadn11 let him   walk away that night after they'd come home from the hospital.  Decision  made, he strode over to sit down beside her, tugging her into  the vee  of his legs before she could stop him.