PART FOUR
Chapter Twenty-Two
The breeze was cool and there was heavy mist in the air, very fitting for the mood. Night was starting to fall. Angel walked toward the terminal and immediately a man dressed as a chauffeur greeted him. "Mr. Lockwood, come with me please." They drove in a very old, but well kept car, the driver saying nothing. The ride took a little over an hour, but when they arrived at their destination it felt too soon to Angel. A little while ago he could not wait to see Susan, but now as her murderer ... if she knew she must hate him with the passion that she had loved him.
The chauffeur opened the door for Angel and handed him a key. "The cottage is for you and your wife, Sir. Madam will probably be in the shed with the lambs." The driver gestured toward a small thatched roof building a little way behind the cottage. "Please be careful, Sir. She too, has just seen what you have, and she is not carrying well." The driver bowed slightly as he returned to the car. "We will talk again," then he drove away.
Angel carried his bags to the door of the small house and set them on the step. He took the toy lamb out of the bag and tucked it under his arm. He smelled the cool, fresh air that carried the scent of flowering trees. As much as he wanted to run to her he wanted to run away. Silently he followed the path to the shed. The door was open and he saw Susan sitting on a hay bale wearing the herringbone coat he knew so well. She was crying into the neck of a very young lamb she was holding. Two others lay at her feet, but one stood up and trotted over to Angel and bleated a welcome. Susan looked up to see where the lamb was going when she suddenly realized a man was standing in the doorway. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and looked again. She set the lamb down and walked over to him. The look of sorrow and pain in her eyes was so obvious that he just took her and held her, saying nothing.
"How can you ever forgive me, Angel?"
"My God, Susy, forgive you? How can you forgive me, when I ended your life in such a terrible way?"
"Because of me you walk the earth for an eternity. What did we do that was so wrong?"
Susan pushed the lambs back into the small shed and closed the door. Angel gave her the stuffed toy, "It made me think of you."
Susan couldn't say anything; she just held it close to herself and looked at him with moist eyes. He put his arm around her and walked along the path to the cottage. Neither knew what to say so they just stayed quiet, just being together. She took his coat and hung it behind the door, then removed her own.
Angel smiled at the very old fashioned smock like dress she wore, "Your dress looks like it matches this old cottage." But then he realized how thin she looked, her face and her arms, and she looked very pale. "This place has not been kind to you, Susy."
"It is not the place, Angel, it is the circumstance. The people have been very kind here." She took him by his hand, "You look tired, let's go to bed and we can talk in the morning." Angel agreed, it was very hard for them both to know how to accept this, but they did know how they would feel in each other's arms.
"Don't shower too long. The plumbing is old and the water will go cold." Susan said through the bathroom door. The cottage was cool and she was up to her neck under the feather duvet when Angel climbed into the small bed beside her. They cuddled close together in the dark.
"It is so good to feel you beside me again," Angel said, but the person beside him didn't seem to fit quite as well as before, and it worried him a little.
She ran her fingers lightly over his chest, "Angel, I have something I should tell you."
"What is it, Lamb?"
"How would you feel about having a child?"
"I told you before, a vampire can not father a child."
"No, but a man can, and you were a man with me five months ago." She took his hand and placed it on her rounding belly. Suddenly the truth to their past life was realized, the reason they had to flee and why Charles and Sol were so angry. Elizabeth had been pregnant with Alexander's child. The life that they had lived had in a way been repeated.
In the darkness Susan had no idea what Angel's reaction was. They just lay together in silence, although his hand gently moved over the bulge, almost as if he couldn't believe what he felt.
Finally Susan asked, "How do you feel about it, Angel? Please say it is all right." Again there was silence for a moment.
"For two hundred and fifty years it is something that I've never even considered. I never let myself even think it was possible." Almost as if confirming the condition a tiny ripple of motion was felt against his hand. "I think it is wonderful, love." He leaned over Susy and kissed her, very gently at first, but then it seemed that the last five months and more then two centuries of memories were pushed aside and the lovers they were came back.
As Angel lifted himself on to his elbow, Susy felt the cross lying on her chest from around his neck. She remembered the envelope she received that morning, hand delivered, containing a videotape and the heart that joined the cross. All the note said was, "To complete the chain." Susy sat up in the bed and reached over him to the night table where she had left the heart. Earlier that day she had slept holding it, hoping it had some way of bringing back his love. After seeing the tape of their deaths, she was scared Angel would blame her for his curse. I want to complete the chain," she said as she unhooked it and added the heart over the cross. Then she lay down with her head on his chest and her hand resting over the pendant, which lay over his heart.
"Did you see our other life, Angel?"
"It was on the television on the flight to London."
"You said the cross was for our faith in God and each other, and the heart, our love for each other, surrounding all."
"I guess I did."
"I love you, Angel, forever."
Almost unnoticeable at first Angel's chest started to rise and fall and then the beat of his heart. At first about once a minute then slowly it went to two, then four, until it beat a strong, healthy beat a second. They lay together, very quietly, as life came back into his body. How disappointed he had been when he woke after they had taken Susy away, to have his love and his life taken away from him again. He was cautious this time, but overjoyed.
Susan whispered, "They are giving you back to me."
They lay together enjoying a peace and calm that in two hundred and fifty years had never been theirs.