Page 33 of The Duke's Surprise Heir

All of the above, she thought as she pulled a bowl of soup towards her. “Oh, this smells amazing!” she gasped as she dunked the warm bread into the soup. “Delicious!” she sighed as she took a bite.

While eating, she clicked through several other flights. Now that she knew what to look for, she found three other flights that matched the same pattern. Whatever had been in the cargo hold was probably gone by now, but at least she had a pattern for the future.

The soup felt good, but seeing the admiration in Edward’s eyes had felt even better. Macie felt on top of the world.

She finished off the soup and two slices of the warm bread, savoring both. Then she stood up and went to find Kyle, needing a snuggle from her favorite little man. And she wouldn’t mind a conversation with Edward.

“There, that’s a good boy!” Ms. Kealy was saying as she laid Kyle down into his bassinet.

“He’s sleeping?” Macie whispered.

“Aye!” the housekeeper whispered back, gazing fondly down at the little boy. “Such a wonder, babies are.”

“I agree,” Macie replied, smiling at her son. She now knew that she should have gotten out of the house more often over the past few months. She should have found support, made friends with the other mothers in her neighborhood. Just being away from him for a few hours made all the difference in the way she felt towards her tiny son. It wasn’t nearly as overwhelming to have some help. Macie had felt like she had to do everything on her own. Now, she knew better.

“You okay?” Edward asked, his hands gripping each arm.

Macie looked up at him over her shoulder, smiling her happiness. “I’m good,” she replied. “Really good!”

He grinned back at her. “The sun has finally come out. Would you like to go for a walk?”

Macie looked down at Kyle. “Can we take him with us? I feel like I’ve been away from him too much over the past few days.”

“Of course. We can put him into that bundle thing that Ms. Kealy brought.”

Five minutes later, Kyle, still sleeping, was bundled up and they were outside, the sun shining down on their upturned faced. “This feels so good!” she told him. Then she smiled at Edward as he looked down at Kyle, wrapped up in the scarf-like holder. “Thank you for suggesting this.”

“My pleasure,” he replied. “Let’s say hello to Sanford and the other horses. I haven’t brought Kyle down to see them today and I know that Sanford loves to smell Kyle.”

“Too bad Kyle won’t be awake for the sniffing,” she teased.

Edward chuckled, shaking his head. “Wait until you see these two together. It’s like they’ve bonded into some sort of sniffing-tickling partnership. My previously tough as nails horse has gone all soft and gooey over Kyle. The beast loves it when Kyle reaches out to tickle his nose. As soon as Kyle stops tickling, Sanford sniffs him again, and the whole love-fest starts all over again.”

She laughed, shaking her hair. “I can’t wait to see that.”

“Where are your parents?” Edward asked.

Macie thought about her parents, about the fights and the tears. “My mother passed away several years ago,” she explained. “And I haven’t spoken to my father in…I can’t even remember the last time I spoke to my dad.”

“How old were you when he left?”

“Seven. My parents had been in a huge fight the night before. All I heard from my bedroom was my mother screaming at him to stop whoring around, as she put it, and that she wanted another baby. My father screamed back that he couldn’t stand the thought of touching my mother, much less bringing another life into this world for her to abuse.”

There was a long silence and Edward peered down at her, patting Kyle’s bottom soothingly. “Were you?” Edward asked.

She looked up at him, squinting into the bright sunshine.

“Abused? Did your mother abuse you in any way?”

Macie thought about it, reaching out to tickle Kyle’s foot as it dangled near Edward’s waist. “I don’t think so. If you include neglect as abuse, then yes. But it wasn’t intentional abuse. My mother worked hard. We had chickens, a few cows, and about a dozen goats at the time. My father left most of the farm chores to my mother. He said that he worked in a hot factory for twelve hour shifts, so he didn’t think that he should have to work the farm too.”

“Your mother didn’t work outside of the farm?”

Macie laughed. “Yes, she did. She worked at the local grocery store. During the day, she was a cashier. But she also picked up as many night shifts as she could. She’d stock the shelves with a group of about five or six others. It gave her enough money to…” Macie squinted as if remembering. “I don’t know why she needed the extra money. Now that I think about it, she might have picked up additional shifts just so that she could avoid being alone with me at night.” She looked at the woods on the other side of the path. “My father worked the noon to midnight shift at the local manufacturing factory, then would go out drinking with his friends afterward.” She sighed.

“That sounds like you were alone a lot of the time.”

“I was, but I didn’t know there was anything wrong with that. It was just life, I thought.” She grimaced at the memories.

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