Eye of the Storm (Hudson 3)

"I don't know," I said. "What happened? I can't remember much."

"After your aunt turned me away. I realized I had spotted your wheelchair in the hallway, behind her. It didn't come to me immediately. At first I actually believed what she had told me. I mean, the ramp was gone. It seemed to make some sense. I imagined you wanted to just run away from all this and knowing you. I thought you wouldn't call me because you didn't want me to stop you. I was planning on contacting your father in London and flying over there.

"Driving home, suddenly, the chair loomed in my mind and I thought how could you have been taken out and put on a plane without your wheelchair?

"I turned around and went back to the house. This time I didn't go to the front door. I went to the window of your room, our window as I liked to think of it." he said smiling. "and I pushed it up and crawled in. I could see your things were all still there in the drawers and closets, confirming that you hadn't left. Why was she lying to me? I wondered, but most of all, where were you? What had she done?

"I went through the bottom floor quietly. listening. At first I thought you might be locked in that office because I couldn't open the door. I tapped on it and listened and then decided I had better check the rest of the house first. It was puzzling that even she wasn't around downstairs,

"I tiptoed up the stairs and listened. I thought I heard you groan and then I charged into that bedroom and found you on the bathroom floor and your aunt in the tub."

"What happened to her?" I asked.

"She drowned, The police will be coming to ask you questions, but no one in his or her right mind would think you had anything to do with it. From the way I found you. I imagined she was helping you into a bath and probably fell, hitting her head. Is that right?"

"Yes. I didn't want a bath. I was afraid of her. Austin. She was so cruel to me and she was out of her mind half the time, talking to me as if I was my mother."

"Is that why you have all those scrapes and bruises? She beat you or something?"

"No. I tried to get away from the house, tried to get to the road so someone would take me to a phone. I was going to call you, but when I wheeled out. I discovered she had gotten the Grounds people to remove the ramp. I tried to get down to the road anyway and lost control of my chair. I crawled for hours and that's how I got all bruised. She found me and afterward when she was gone again. I climbed up the stairs to get to a phone there.

"Then, it really got bad. I've been very, very sick. Austin...

"I know. They've got control of your fever and the infection."

"I think there's something else going on beside another infection."

"What?"

"I think I'm pregnant" I said.

He stared for a moment and then his lips softened and his eves brightened.

"That's possible," he said. "We were a little too passionate and threw caution to the wind too many times."

"I'm afraid. Austin."

He nodded.

"I'll have the doctor check you," he said.

"We once discussed the possibility of someone in my condition getting pregnant. Austin. You told me about another client of yours "

"Yes."

"What are the dangers for me?" I asked.

"Let's talk to the doctor. I'm not really any sort of expert about it," he said.

"Should I have an abortion. Austin?" I asked. He studied me a moment.

"Let me start by telling you this. Rain. I'm goingto marry you no matter what you decide to do."

I smiled back at him.

"You're crazy,'" I said.

"Crazy in love." he replied.