'Well, your feelings are always right' It was a slight bone of contention that his intuitiveness was never wrong, whereas she could still make howlers at times, and she wrinkled her nose at him. She didn't really mind at all. To be close to him, to see him, live with him, love him, was all she could ask for and more. She was content to be wherever he was, and it was a good feeling.
'Aren't they just?' he said with the arrogant satisfaction that was such an integral part of him, before chuckling with amusement as she took a swing at his midriff.
'I'm so lucky, Annie.' Suddenly the amusement was gone and her Hudson, the Hudson that only she ever saw, was there in front of her, needing the reassurance of her presence in his life in a way that made her love him more than she could say. 'All the rest—the house, the cars, the boat, even the children—I could do without as long as I have you. You're all that matters.'
Talking of children… ' She winced as the pain she had been experiencing periodically for the last hour came more strongly. 'I think your daughter has decided it's time to be born.'
'What?'
Considering he had been down this road three times before he still wasn't very good at it, she thought mildly as her ruthlessly cool and intelligent lawyer husband turned to jelly in front of her eyes, sheer panic catapulting him to his feet.
'But it's not time—you've still three weeks to go.' He eyed her, horror-stricken, and she couldn't prevent a giggle from escaping her lips despite the power of the contraction.
'Perhaps you'd better tell the baby that,' she said with the sereneness he'd spoken of earlier, protesting only slightly when he whisked her up in his arms, shouting to their au pair—a stout, solid girl whom the children adored—to look after the boys as he turned and made for the house.
By the time they got to the hospital a few blocks away from their sumptuous home in the suburbs of Washington DC, the contractions were coming hot and strong, and Marianne was too preoccupied with her breathing exercises to care about anything else.
She was aware of Hudson shouting orders at everyone within earshot, and then later, once they were established in a little room of their own with the requisite doctor and nurse, of her unflappable husband flapping frantically, but all her energy and resources were concentrated on the new life inside her struggling to be born.
It was two hours later before their perfect little daughter was born, pushing her way into the world with a determination that was all Hudson, but looking amazingly like her beautiful mother. She was a small baby, but with a feminine delicacy rather than frailness, and had a shock of blonde hair that was positively luxuriant She didn't resemble her three dark little brothers at all.
Marianne let her head fall back against the pillows as Hudson took their daughter from the nurse and placed her in Marianne's arms.
'She's beautiful.' He had been moved at his sons' births, but this was the first time she had seen him cry. 'She is so beautiful, and she is the image of you,' he said with a shaky wonder that made Marianne's eyes misty too. 'Our daughter; we have a daughter. I… I can't believe it.'
'I thought you knew.' She smiled up at him through her tears of joy. 'You seemed very sure about her earlier if I remember.'
'But now she's here… ' He couldn't take his eyes off the sweet little face cocooned in the hospital blanket. 'She's real.' His gaze moved to Marianne's tired but glowing face. 'I love you, Mrs de Sance,' he said softly, and she knew, without knowing how she knew, that he was remembering his mother and his own wretched childhood, and how different they had made things for their own family. Each one treasured and loved. Each one wanted.
'I love you, so much.' Her heart was in her eyes.
Later, when Jane Marianne was lying in her bassinet by the side of the bed, Hudson drew Marianne close to him, the tightness of his embrace echoed in her own heart.
He was her sun, moon and stars, as she was his, and together they had defeated all the ghosts from the past. Michael and his colleagues, Hudson's mother and father—they were just memories now, and they had lost the power to sting and hurt. Everything that had made up their lives before they had met was shadowy and unreal, she reflected silently as Hudson held her close.
She was cherished, adored, and she knew she could face anything that might happen in the future with Hudson at her side. To wake up beside him in the morning, to feel his aims around bet at night in the tender afterglow of lovemaking—it was all she could ask from life and more.
She reached for his lips now, twisting against him as her mouth sought his in a kiss that was as fierce and hungry as ever. He was all she had ever wanted—all she could want Their life had begun when the wedding bells had stopped.