The Perfect Happiness(126)

“I’ll take you to the hospital,” Letizia volunteered. “Someone has to stay with the children.”

“I’ll stay!” Candace put up her hand. “I’m not very good at childbirth. I don’t do pain.”

“Pain? For God’s sake get me to the hospital quick. If I’m too late for an epidural, I might die.” Kate began to stagger down the stairs.

“Where’s your overnight bag?” Scarlet asked, following after.

“It’s in my bedroom. Take the key from my bag and let yourself in. Thank God my waters didn’t break in the Chanel department at Selfridges.”

Letizia rushed Kate to the Portland Hospital, where she gave birth to a baby boy. Letizia was pale, having held Kate’s hand for the duration. “Now I know why husbands prefer to pace the corridor outside,” she said when Candace, Scarlet, and Angelica arrived armed with flowers and White Company bags of presents. “It’s a bloody battle scene!”

The girls crowded into the small room. Kate lay serenely in bed holding Hercules in her arms, the two looking like the Virgin and Child. They gathered around curiously and gazed into the small face, searching for Pete in the squashed pink features of the baby. “He looks like you,” said Candace, disappointed.

“He looks just like Pete,” Kate replied happily.

“No, I can’t see Pete in there. He’s totally you.”

“I’ve called him. He’s on his way.”

“What about Edmondo?”

“As Hercules is Pete’s, it’s only right that he gets to hold him first. A son. Imagine that! I’ve given Pete a son.”

“You sound like Anne Boleyn,” said Angelica. The door swung open.

“Ah, here’s King Henry,” said Candace, stepping aside.

Pete walked through them to gaze at his child as if they weren’t there. His face flushed with emotion. “A son!” he exclaimed proudly.

Kate handed him over. “Hercules,” she said.

“Hercules?” Pete wasn’t convinced.

“A suitably heroic name,” said Kate.

“The poor little thing hasn’t done anything yet,” Pete argued.

“Oh yes, he has,” said Candace under her breath, nudging Angelica. “I think now would be a good time to leave.”

“Do you think it is Pete’s?” Angelica asked Candace and Scarlet as they descended in the lift.

“Absolutely not,” Candace replied.

“Oh, I think it probably is,” said Scarlet.

“Doesn’t look anything like him.”

“But it doesn’t look like anyone else,” Scarlet reminded her.

“That’s because we don’t know what we’re looking for. Give it time. The truth always comes out in the end.”

The birth of Hercules changed nothing with respect to Kate and Pete’s divorce. The lawyers fought it out, and Edmondo distracted Kate with promises of palaces and parties and a lavish wedding on the beaches of Mauritius, which had always been her dream. A year went by. Angelica finished her book and handed it in. Claudia called as soon as she had read it to say that it was even better than The Silk Serpent. Olivier read the manuscript and took her out for dinner to celebrate, raising his glass to his gifted, beautiful wife, and Angelica realized that, with time and love, it was possible for emotional scars to heal. Life went on like a train that waits for no one; she couldn’t alter its course, but she could alter the way she chose to travel.

Then, one spring evening, as Angelica sat in the garden watching the blue tits fly in and out of the feeding cage that swung from the magnolia tree, Olivier came out with two glasses of wine, having just returned from work. The children were playing on the painted wooden playhouse, jumping off the roof, frightening the squirrels away from the bird food with their noisy chatter.

“You’re home early,” she said, pleased.

“I want to spend more time with my family.” He handed her the wine and a little blue book, the size of his hand.

“What’s this?”

“I was in Waterstone’s, buying a book on Roman emperors for Joe, when I saw a pile of these on the counter. The funny name and pretty cover caught my attention. When I read the title, I thought it was something you’d like.”

She stared at the words, her eyes misting with the sudden cascade of memories. “Thank you, darling,” she replied. “How thoughtful of you.”

“Daddy, watch me!” shouted Joe, swinging from the branch. Olivier went over to help him down.

Angelica gazed at the words emblazoned in gold on the front of the little blue book: