Page 15 of Prognosis So Done

CHAPTER SIX - 1200 HOURS

Harriet sat oppositeGill in the lounge area. He had pulled his hat off and was running a hand back and forth through his rumpled hair as he had an animated discussion in French with his father. He was sitting on the edge of the chair cushion, bent forward at the waist, his elbows on his knees, his head bowed. She was sitting in a similar fashion, their knees almost touching.

He looked awful.

She’d never seen him look his age before, but right at this moment he looked every one of his forty years. His forehead was creased with concern and he looked pale and haggard, like he’d been operating for twenty-four hours straight.

She fought a battle over touching him and lost. The sensible side of her, which had been trying to step back, resisted, but the emotional side caved in. He was still her husband and even if he wasn’t - which was soon to be the case - he was a significant part of her life and had just received bad news.

The urge to comfort him was strong.

Harriet placed her hand on his knee and he glanced at her as he continued his conversation, giving her a grim smile. He stopped worrying his hair and covered her hand with his, stroking her fingers, curling his into hers, linking them together, his thumb brushing back and forth across her knuckles.

He replaced the phone a minute later and sat there quietly for a beat or two before saying, ‘They’re very worried about him.’

‘Oh, Gill, I’m so sorry,’ she whispered.

‘He’s eighty-eight. I guess we keep forgetting that. He’s always been so larger than life.’

She nodded because suddenly she felt too emotional to speak. Tears pricked at Harriet’s eyes as she imagined Henri - big, strong Henri - lying helpless in a hospital bed. She wanted to say, he’ll be OK but she couldn’t when she wasn’t sure if Henri would pull through this at all.

Things didn’t look good.

‘Harry,’ he whispered, his probing gaze easily clocking the shine of tears in her eyes.

His voice conveyed the same kind of devastation she felt and she wanted to put her arms around him so badly. They may be breaking up but she hadn’t stopped loving or caring about him.

Giving in to her gut feeling, Harriet’s knees hit the floor and she pushed herself between his legs as her arms slid around his waist and she hugged him for all she was worth.

And he hugged her back.

It felt so good, being like this. Everything seemed right with the world from this perspective. It didn’t matter that outside these walls a stupid civil war raged or that his grandfather was probably going to die or that he didn’t want babies.

Wrapped up in his embrace, everything was OK for now.

But, it couldn’t last forever and eventually Harriet eased away, leaning back onto her haunches. ‘At least it happened today,’ she said, searching for something positive.

She knew that, despite his deep affection and loyalty towards his grandfather, Gill would have been very uncomfortable leaving them mid-mission. It was part of that humanitarian streak and work ethic his grandfather had instilled in him.

‘Everything is already arranged for your departure tomorrow. Or are you leaving immediately?’

‘No. There’s only today to get through. I may as well see the mission out. It probably couldn’t be arranged much before tomorrow anyway.’

Harriet swallowed before she said what she was about to say. It was a possibility she didn’t want to think about but it had to be said. ‘What if he...?’

‘Dies before I get home?’

She nodded. ‘Yeah.’

‘By the sound of it, that’s a distinct possibility. But, given how far from home we are, there’s not much I can do about it.’

It was a gloomy statement. Of course, Henri was going to die eventually. He was an old man but the vitality of the Remy patriarch had lulled them all into a false sense of security.

Harriet absently ran her hands along Gill’s thighs. She’d barely seen him for a year but two months back in his life and his bed and she’d slipped easily into old intimacies. What was the expression — old habits died hard?

‘Do you remember the first time I met Henri?’ she asked.

He smiled at the memory. ‘Of course. You were an instant hit.’

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