2.
~ "Juniper Eames is coming here?" Ariadne questioned as Eames looked over the telegram.
Eames shook his head.
"She promised she would leave me in peace. Swore up and down that she hated the country and she would never return." he said reading over the telegram as a maid took Phillipa to her nursery and Cobb followed them into their conservatory.
Ariadne pulled her mourning veil off. She felt like a child playing dress up in it anyway.
Olivia was still nestled comfortably in her arms as Eames fumed.
"Why is she coming here?" Ariadne asked.
She had only heard about Eames' mother.
Juniper was the rouge daughter of the former Lord Bradford, Lady Percy's brother. She had married below her station and had traveled all over the world with her journalist husband. Born a female, she was not in line for the title, no was her only child, Eames. Thus it was, Arthur received the title after the Titanic took Juniper's brother and nephew.
Eames scanned the telegram.
"She want's to meet you." he said looking worriedly at Ariadne.
"Me?" Ariadne gasped in horror. "Why me?"
She tossed her widows veil on the retain sofa as Cobb sat down at their writing table.
It felt odd to have Cobb intrude into their world. The conservatory was always their retreat. It's the place they hid out in when Arthur was busy with work or the weather kept them indoors. The servants respected their privacy and left them alone to write all day sometimes.
"I may have told mother a little about you." Eames confessed.
"Such as?" Ariadne snapped.
"No reason to panic. She's only coming for a short visit." he assured.
"She's coming all the way from India to England for a short visit. No one travels halfway around the globe for a short visit." she snapped at him.
"I'm sure she won't stay any longer than a year or two." Eames told her.
~ It still didn't feel right to not have Arthur in the bedroom with her at night. True, he had been gone a few months in America. But Ariadne still expected him to come through the door at any moment.
To keep her company, she had Olivia's crib placed by her bed. It was too lonely in her room otherwise.
She listened to her daughter breathing. The infant deeply in the land of dreams as she imagined Arthur coming home.
"Sorry, I'm so late, Madam." he snarled. Her convenient husband bursting through the door without knocking.
"Arthur, do you have any idea how worried I've been? We even had a funereal for you and everything! Now, how will it look: you turning up alive?" she scolded.
"Sorry to inconvenience you, Madam." he said harshly as he shrugged off his jacket and let it fall to the floor. "But I've had a rather difficult sea voyage. Then I come home to find my loving wife has buried me."
"Don't toss your things on the floor!" she snapped at him. "You know how I hate that!"
"Once again, I'm sorry, Madam." he said with a certain mockery in his voice.
She straitened up and smiled at him.
"I must admit, I'm glad you're home." she said as she put his coat in the closet.
"It's nice to be missed." he said with an impish grin. "How's the little one?" he asked nodding to Olivia's crib. "She's sleeping with us now?"
"Just for now. I was lonely." Ariadne told him.
"So, no sleeping with Mr. Eames while I was gone?" Arthur asked.
"Arthur." she scolded. "What ideas you have."
"Just because, I know how he feels about you." he told her.
"Well, there is no reason to worry." she told him.
Arthur looked pleased as she gave him a shy smile.
"Maybe we can get back to our little... project we were working on before I left." he whispered in her ear and she giggled.
"Oh, yes. Our project has been most neglected." she agreed.
Ariadne was suddenly seized with a horrible pain in her body.
She knew then, she would never see Arthur again. She would never feel his hands on her body, or the warmth of his kiss, or the elation of his lovemaking. He was gone. His body was cold and lost in the sea, never to be found.
She went to his wardrobe and carefully unlocked it.
Arthur's winter clothing still hung neatly in a row. His formal wear and his shirts were all lined up.
She gently touched the fabrics. Ran a hand over the fine seems of the dinner jacket. She could smell his aftershave still clinging to them. His distinctive masculine scent that made his face flash before her.
"Oh Arthur." she cried as she buried her face in the coat and sank to the bottom of the wardrobe.
~ She had no idea how long she sat there. Breathing in the smell of Arthur's clothing. His coat was warm and she could almost pretend it was her husband holding her. She could lie to herself. Pretend he was there with her.
It was a nice fantasy. The two of them sitting at the bottom of his wardrobe like children. Him holding her and saying all the right things.
"Ariadne?" came a voice.
She looked up to see Eames had let himself into her room.
She suddenly felt very foolish. Her late husbands clothing wrapped around her like a bird building a nest.
"I knocked but you didn't answer. I heard you crying." Eames said as he gently removed Arthur's coat off her.
Ariadne sniffed and straitened up.
"I didn't hear you." she said feebly.
"I've been worried about you." he told her as her friend looked at Olivia sleeping in her crib.
"Well Eames, I buried my husband today." Ariadne said bitterly.
"I know that. I know... that I'm not exactly number one with you either just now." he said as he helped her step out of the wardrobe.
She ran her hands over her long hair and realized she was in nothing but her night gown. She was always finding herself indisposed with Eames.
"Why would I be upset with you?" she said as she searched for her robe and realized her thin summer night dress must have done little to conceal her naked body underneath.
She located her robe and was quick to cover herself.
She glared daggers at Eames who looked helplessly lost.
"Just because you had my husband declared dead." she added waspishly.
"After a month with no word. Even his insurance company declared him lost." he told her. "I had to do it. We had to move on with our lives."
Ariadne ran a hand over her face.
He was right of course. She hated it when Eames was right.
"We wanted to have a baby, Eames." She said softly. "We were hoping for a new edition. He wanted me to have good news for him." she sniffed slightly. "He wanted me to have good news for him before he left for America. Now, I have nothing that was his. I don't have his child to keep his memory alive. Soon, he'll be forgotten."
"You have Olivia. I know she wasn't really his." he sighed as they looked at the sleeping infant. "But, she was his all the same."
"I know." she said sadly. "You know, he didn't want me to fall pregnant again because he was worried the birth would kill me. He was so afraid after Olivia was born."
"I don't blame him." Eames said as they sat on the edge of her bed and watched Olivia sleeping. "I was scared you were planning to go through that again to. It's one thing I don't envy women of. The whole task of child bearing if a messy business."
"You have no idea." Ariadne laughed.
"I don't want to know. I saw plenty of it in the London hospital." he told her. "We're just lucky our girl here was born healthy and you recovered."
They said nothing as they watched Olivia sleeping.
"Ariadne." Eames said.
She looked back at him.
"The entail... I don't want you to worry." he whispered. "I'll always take care of you."
She didn't say anything, only watched her daughter stir in her sleep.
"I told you before that you and Olivia can live here till you're both gray haired old ladies. Arthur's money is your money as far as I'm concerned." he told her.
"But the entail means you can't give me control of his holdings and assets." Ariadne sighed.
"I'm afraid not." Eames said. "I know it's not right to take his money, his life's work, away from his widow. But I would never cast you and Olivia out."
She looked at him. She could feel his breath on her neck.
"No matter what happens between us, I'll look after you and Olivia." he whispered.