Dempsey swallowed hard. It was if his world had fallen apart. Harry had slept with someone else when she had been carrying his children! No, he corrected himself, she hadn't slept with another man, she had been forced to go to bed with someone else, that was a total different thing. Now he also understood why she was so afraid to make love to him. But what about that secret of hers, that she had told him and from which she had made him promise not to tell further? To nobody. Had that been one big lie? Or had she told him that to protect herself so that she wouldn't have to admit the truth?
Seeing what kind of impact his words had on the other man, Lord Winfield felt probably even worse.
"After Harry had told me everything, I called the police. They searched everywhere but they couldn't find a spore of Charles anymore. First we thought that he had hid himself somewhere around Winfield Hall, but he didn't. He just disappeared. Till now, we have no idea where he is. Harry doesn't want to talk about it anymore. But I can feel, she's blaming me for what happened to her. And I understand that. If I were her, I would have done the same. I hired Charles, I left her alone with him, but I never expected it would turn out this way. Once you warned me for him, I thought he had changed, but he hadn't. After your warning there was only one thing he was after now: revenge. Maybe you also understand now, why I didn't visit her in the hospital. And now at the rehabilitation centre either. It wouldn't have done her health any good if I had shown up in there. The only things I could do for her, was to phone the staff every day and ask about how she was doing, to pay the rent for that apartment of yours and to get her a private room in the hospital. But I believe, that last one wasn't such a good idea"
A little smile crept over Dempsey's face when he thought back at the conversation he and Harry had had about that room.
"She hated it" he admitted.
"I thought so" was all Lord Winfield said.
"Suppose I tried to contact Harry here back then. Would it be possible that Charles picked up the phone promising that he would pass my new phone number in New York to Harry, that he phoned O'Grady to tell him that Harry wasn't interested in me anymore, because she was with him now, but that in fact he had used it just to drive us apart so that the way laid open for him to do what he had in mind? Probably for a very long time already? It's just an idea. I wished I could remember if I made that phone call or not!"
"I never thought about that possibility. I think you must be a cop for that"
"Maybe" The more Dempsey thought about it, the more he got convinced. He only wished he could prove it.
"Did Charles leave all his belongings behind?"
"Most of them yes. Why?" But Lord Winfield got a feeling why he had asked that.
"I can show you his room if you want. Then you can search it yourself" he volunteered: "But I don't think you'll find in there what you are looking for. If he had been so smart to plan everything so carefully, why should he make such a big mistake then by leaving a note with your phone number on it behind?"
"Even the biggest criminals make mistakes" Dempsey answered.
"Well what are we waiting for then?"
"I don't want to do it without Harry. She has a right to know, perhaps even more than I do"
Lord Winfield smiled. When he had made that phone call to New York 10 weeks ago, he hadn't had the foggiest idea if he had done the right thing. Now he knew, he did and that he was glad that Harry had James back to stay by her side. He could only hope that one day Harry would forgive him that he had hired Charles.
"I'll see if I can find Harry. I guess she's upstairs by Sophia"
Dempsey saw the face of the old man turning in an even bigger smile.
"You two brought my granddaughter with you?"
"Yes we did. When was the last time you have seen her?"
"When she was 14 days old"
Lord Winfield avoided Dempsey's gaze, feeling real uncomfortable about the fact that it had been such a long time since he had hold his only grandchild.
"Come with me then"
Together the two men went upstairs.
"Harry?" Dempsey opened the door of the bedroom, but when he walked inside he discovered that the room was empty.
"Harry?" he repeated. This time pushing the door to Sophia's bedroom open, but all he saw inside was his daughter who looked up at him. No Harry.
"Where's Mummy Sweetie?"
But the girl didn't answer. Only stretched her arms out to him. She wanted to go out. In her opinion she had spend long enough in bed.
Dempsey lifted her up so she could sit on his arm.
"Look who I brought with me" he started, turning around to Lord Winfield who had followed him into Sophia's bedroom.
But the little girl buried her head against Dempsey's shoulder.
"She didn't recognise me anymore" Lord Winfield said sadly.
"It's Granddaddy"
"Oh please James, don't call me Granddad....I'm Freddie. Otherwise it seems to me I'm old and buried already"
"Old yes, buried no"
"I'm not old!"
Where had Dempsey seen and heard such an attitude before?????
"Alright. Freddy. Can you take care of her for awhile? I have to find Harry"
"Of course. Come on little girl. I'm sure Abbott will have something special for you in the kitchen!"
Dempsey handed Sophia over to Freddie. With great hesitation the little girl swept her arms around his neck. It was obvious that all these strange men who appeared lately in her life made her feel if she was just a piece of furniture that could be handed over from one person to another without taking any acknowledge of her feelings as a human being.
10 minutes later Dempsey found himself still searching for Harry. He had opened all the doors to the rooms upstairs in the meantime, yelled her name, but there was no sign of her. He had no luck downstairs either. And by the time he had reached the kitchen he was so worried that he smashed the kitchen door open without thinking at the consequences.
"I can't find her!" he yelled desperately to the man who was sitting at the kitchen table.
Immediately someone started to cry. Shit, he thought, he had done it again. For a second time he had made his little girl cry with his behaviour.
"I'm sorry Sweetie" he knelt down next to her, lifting his hand up to her face to wipe the tears away.
"Please don't cry" he whispered.
Deep down inside he wished he would be able to cry so easily. Harry seemed to do nothing else these days and now Sophia made a habit of it as well. He felt always so lousy in this kind of situations.
"I have searched the whole house, but she's nowhere. Where the hell can she be?"
"You're looking for Lady Harriet?"
Abbott asked, turning around.
"Yes, do you know where she is?"
"She went outside. Some time ago"
"Outside? Why?"
"Don't know. I didn't ask"
"Did she tell where she was going?"
"No"
Great. A whole area outside where she could be. But with only having her stick with her she couldn't be far away. Could she?
"I think that I know where she was going"
Lord Winfield interrupted Dempsey's thoughts.
"You do?" That would be a miracle.
Standing up from his chair, Lord Winfield walked over to the window and winked Dempsey to stay next to him. When he looked outside, he knew he had been right. Dempsey followed the man's gaze and to his surprise he saw a figure standing not far away from the house.
"What the hell is she doing out there?" Dempsey asked.
Lord Winfield didn't answer him immediately as if he was wondering himself what his daughter was doing there in the middle of nowhere.
"You will find out as soon as you get there" was all Lord Winfield answered.
With a puzzled look on his face, Dempsey turned around and left the kitchen. Unaware of the fact that two men standing behind the window of the kitchen followed him with their gazes, Dempsey went outside putting his jacket on, on his way down the stairs. What was this all about? Even more surprises? Too be honest, he had had enough of them today. Correction, he had had enough of them for the rest of his life!
Slowly he approached Harry who stood completely still. She was looking at something, but Dempsey couldn't figure out from that distance what it could be. The grass under his feet was still a little wet from yesterday's rain. He shivered, it was colder than he had expected. When he came near Harry, he saw that she was only wearing a blouse and trousers. No jack, no vest, nothing. When she got a cold, he already knew who got to be blamed for that. After opening a little gate, from which he even didn't know it had been there and looking around, he realised that he had reached a little grave yard. Reading some of the names on the graves, which all ended on the name 'Winfield' it was obvious that these graves belonged to Harry's dead family members. What the hell was she doing here on this hour of the day? Silently he came closer, trying not to scare her, because Dempsey had no idea if she had heard him coming or not. Till he stood next to her.
"What are you doing here?" he asked softly, taking his jacket from his shoulders and hanging it around hers.
"I had to" he heard her saying and without even looking at him, she searched for his hand, laid her hand in his and squeezed it firmly.
"Why?"
"Because it would be time"
"Time for what?"
"To see it and for you as well"
"See what?"
He only felt Harry's hand squeezing his even harder.
"This"
With her stick she pointed at something in front of her. Dempsey hadn't paid any attention to it so far. He had been more concerned about Harry than aware of the surrounding, but now he looked down. Before he realised it, he was forced to face the little blue grey stone that laid in front of them. But it wasn't exactly the stone that shocked him the most, is was more the inscription that was written on it 'James Alfred Makepeace' followed by the date of birth and the day he died. When Dempsey knelt down, he found another, smaller, inscription on the stone with the words 'Beloved son of James Dempsey and Harriet Makepeace, brother of Sophia Makepeace'
Still holding Harry's hand Dempsey stretched his hand out and softly stroked with his fingers over James's name. Tears welled up in his eyes when he looked up to Harry when his eyes met hers.
"It's perfect" was all he could come up with.
"No" Harry shrugged her shoulders.
"No?"
"No. It's not perfect"
"It seems to be perfect to me"
He saw her shiver.
"Will you please hold me?"
"Sure"
He wrapped his arms around her and hold her tight against his body with resting his chin on her shoulder.
"There's something wrong"
"Wrong?" He couldn't imagine that something was wrong. Where was she talking about?
"Yes" and with despair in her voice he heard her saying: "The names on the stone should have been 'James Alfred Dempsey' and 'Sophia Dempsey"
