"Really my Da?" he asked, and his brow crinkled. He leaned over from his seat on Anne's hip to look at me more closely.
He did not believe me, and there was only one way I could prove it beyond all doubt, not only to him, but to everyone else, including the dubious M'sieu Hussenot. It was a thing I hated to do, but I steeled myself, and removed the mask, in front of more people than had seen me at once since my days in Persia.
My son's reaction was as immediate as it was unexpected. He threw himself at me, and it was all that I could do to catch him before he hit the floor. He got a stranglehold around my neck, and then he gave me a big smacking kiss on the cheek.
As I struggled to get a better hold on him, he drew back and looked at me with such radiant joy and delight on his face—just because he was looking at me. He loved me immediately, without reservation…
I was on the verge of tears again. He was so solid, so real in my arms—for some reason, he had no shirt on, and his skin was damp and faintly sticky with sweat. "Da!" he said, happily.
"Yes." I answered. Anne's reaction to my face had hitherto (for all of twelve hours) been the best and most positive of my life, but his reaction put hers in the shade.
"You've come home to us?" he asked.
"Yes." I repeated.
"I think this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life," said an unfamiliar voice. I looked over at a blond girl in a waitress' uniform, who was almost bouncing in her seat. She was smiling, but she, too, looked like she might cry.
I took a swift glance around the room. Never before in my life had I been the focus of so much good will. Everyone in the kitchen—absolutely everyone—was beaming at us, at me holding my son in my arms. It was headier than wine.
"Is you going to stay, Da? Please say you're going to stay."
"Yes, I'm going to stay," I said, after a glance at Anne. I had seen the expression on her face before, I knew it well. Artists had depicted such a look on the faces of angels given the task of bestowing good tidings on the world.
"He's staying, dearheart. I'm in hopes as you'll remember you made your Mam chase you down to make you come and meet your Da."
The word 'Da' alone made him smile even wider, and he tightened his grip on my neck. "You didn't say as it was going to be my Da!" he protested. "Put me down, put me down!" he commanded me. I did, reluctantly.
As soon as his feet were on the floor, he seized my hand and started tugging on it. "Come with me! You got to come see where we live! Come see my room! Come, Da, you got to see—!" He was surprisingly strong for such a small creature.
I looked to Anne again. "All in good time, love," she told him. "He ought to see the rest of the inn first, and then we come back around to home again. I can leave things here for a space—that is, is them sandwiches get made while I'm gone."
"I can help." offered the blonde girl.
"Thank you, Andrea." Anne said, and took off her apron. "Well, what are you waiting for? Do you think you can go walking round the inn with no shirt on? Go on, now!"
"Yes, Mam!" My son dropped my hand and dashed up the stairs.
Anne turned to me. "Did you tell M'sieu Hussenot?" she asked me, as I bent and retrieved my mask.
"Yes, I did." I said, as Madame Hussenot looked at her spouse and mouthed the words, 'Tell you what?' Anne had provided me with the deed to the inn last night, in case proof should be needed that I was not only her husband, but that I had every right to take up residence.
"Yes," echoed Monsieur Hussenot, "Would you like to me to accompany you, sir? Or would you prefer to spend the time with just your family?"
I liked how that sounded. "I think I would prefer it if my family were to show me around. No offense to you, of course."
"None taken." He spread his hands wide. Madame Hussenot looked as if she would burst with curiosity.
The boy came crashing down the stairs, wearing a blue and white shirt that was at least two sizes too big for him. "It still don't fit, Mam."
"It's nice and new, though, and it'll do. Let's go and show your Da around, now."
"Come on, Da!" He took my hand again, and we went out the door. As it closed behind us, I heard M'sieu Hussenot begin, "Berthe, my dear, it so happens that the inn's owner and our cook's hus—" I could guess the rest of the sentence.
"Madame?" I asked Anne, offering her my arm.
"Thank you." She smiled and slipped hers through mine. We stepped off the stoop and into the morning.
"This is our kitchen yard, of course." Anne began.
"Mam!" whispered the boy urgently. "Tell him—!"
"I will, love. Every morning, it's our lad what rakes the gravel so all's neat and tidy. Let's us go round the other side to the main house…"
It was very good to walk with them through the little rose garden, which was in the first flush of spring bloom, the boy's hand in mine, and Anne on my arm. I could have spent all day there, but Anne said, "We ought to be getting in out of the sun. I've come out without my hat, and if I stays in the sun, I get freckles on top of freckles."
"Is that bad?" I asked.
"Well—it isn't lady-like."
"But it is very Anne-like. Besides," I ventured. "they aren't freckles."
"No? What be they, then?" she asked, smiling up at me.
"Spice. Somebody sprinkled ground cinnamon all over your face."
She gave an enchanting gurgle of laughter; the boy looked up at us—at his parents—and he laughed, too, clapping his hands together with glee to see us so happy.
So we went indoors, which was equally pleasing. I had only seen the foyer when I had called on M'sieu Hussenot earlier, and now I got to see the rest. First came the big common dining room, with saffron painted walls and red and white checkered tablecloths.
Two waitresses were readying the room as we entered; they looked up as Anne was telling me, "We can seat upward of a hundred folk in here at once."
"Good morning, Madame." said one of the girls. Her fellow waitress repeated the greeting.
"Hallo, Daphne, Josette. This here is—."
Our son broke in. "He's my Da, see?" he said, with obvious pride. "He's come home to us."
"—M'sieu Touchet." Anne finished.
"Pleased to meet you, M'sieu." said the girl I thought was Daphne. She curtseyed.
"Likewise," I said.
"I'm very happy for you all." said the other.
"We're just showing him round the inn, so I'll say good morning to you, and see you nearer to lunch." Anne explained, as we went on.
"Why are you so quiet?" I asked my boy, as we went back out into the hall.
"I don't hardly never get to be in this part of the inn." he whispered back to me.
"That's cause our lad's job is to help me out around the kitchen. I couldn't do without him." said Anne.
Next came a formal dining room, with elegant ivory walls and deep red curtains. "This is our posh dining room," Anne indicated, with a sweeping gesture. "We can't fit but forty in here, without it being a terrible crush. The food here isn't no different nor what you get next door, except that I makes two fancier main courses, and we charges more, besides—What is it, love?"
The boy was tugging on her skirt. "Tell him how I helps you."
"Right—It's our lad what makes the menus look nice for the customers."
"I can see that you are a great help to your mother." I told him, and made him smile.
Passing along, we went through an assertively feminine tea parlor, with peony-pink walls and a great deal of blue and white porcelain. There was a correspondingly masculine smoking room, a sitting room for guests…It all blurred together for me, after a little while. It was not what I was seeing, but who I was seeing it with. That Anne's head came up a little above my shoulder—she was on the tall side—meant that I could smell the faint, elusive fragrance of vanilla and honeysuckle that clung to her, and the boy's little hand in mine, so trusting, so confidant… I would have been just as happy to view the inn's cesspit, if they were to lead me to it.
A/N: This was too long coming and too short, I know, but it was a dreadful week.
I have heard about the ban on answering reviews in chapters, thanks to the petition that is circling, so until I learn more, I am going to comply. Sorry about there being no shout-outs, but I don't want to be kicked off. I haven't seen any official notice about it on the site, so I have written ff net an email to ask what is going on. I hope they will answer soon.