My Dearest Darling

Chapter 41

Someone was squeezing his hand.

No.

Cora was squeezing his hand!

For a second, he simply lay there on his side, looking at her in complete and utter disbelief.

"Cora? Oh, Cora, darling!" he exclaimed, sitting up in his bed when realisation finally dawned on him. All prior sleep and drowsiness instantly fell away from him. "Thank God! Do you need anything, my dear? Should I call someone?"

Her voice was hoarse and small in the otherwise tranquil room when she replied: "No, don't call anyone just yet. But some water would be nice."

When her father was about to get up and leave her mother's bedside, Mary did the same, but only quicker. "Stay there, Papa. I'll get some water and then go and look for a nurse in a few minutes. They need to know she's awake."

The water jug the nurse had brought in a while ago did indeed stand closer to Mary on the small table and she filled two glasses; one for her father and one for her mother. He needed it just as much as her, if only to calm his nerves a bit. He was behaving a bit like Tiaa when she was younger, excitedly running around and almost making them all stumble over her at one point.

Robert kept whispering to her relievedly, pressing kisses to her knuckles and stroking her cheek, while Cora could only look at him with big, teary eyes. Mary had her back turned to them to put their glasses away, but she couldn't help but steal a brief glance over her shoulder.

She saw the scene. She saw how her father had pushed his metal bed away a bit to be able to kneel by her bedside and find himself level with her. She saw how he looked at her Mama with barely suppressed emotions as he kept on whispering to her in his quivering voice, stroking her hair and caressing her cheek relentlessly as if he had to make sure she was truly there.

Mary took that as the perfect opportunity to grant them some privacy, and she quietly slipped from the room. What she heard just when her hand came to rest on the doorknob, however, made her breath hitch in her throat.

"You are here," she heard her mother rasp quietly in her father's direction. "Like you said."

"Of course. I made a promise, my dear," he replied slowly and equally as softly in the quaint room that still smelled faintly sterile. After looking for his second handkerchief in his pocket and dabbing at the wet stains on his cheeks, he said: "I am so sorry for blubbering. I am just so relieved to be here, talking to you and getting to look into your eyes."

With a gentle, yet tired smile, she replied: "So am I, Robert."

"I am so relieved, you cannot imagine how much," he said with a subtle shake of his head, still in disbelief at the situation unraveling. And then, just a little louder and sounding as if he could finally breathe properly for the first time in weeks, if not months, this invisible weight weighing down on him suddenly lifted, he exclaimed breathily: "Oh Cora, my darling." He stroked her cheek carefully and so very lovingly yet again, this time with both his hands on either side of her face, as he looked at her intently. Finally, his eyes locked with hers, he breathed: "My dearest darling!"

Mary did not see the lingering kiss her father then pressed on the back of her mother's hand that was still clasped in his while his eyes never left hers. She did not see the silent conversation between her parents that followed in the room that was only illuminated by the low light of the moon and the lamp she had switched on when she handed them both their glasses of water.

And she did not need to. She knew without even a shadow of a doubt how much he loved her. This exchange she just witnessed spoke more of her parent's love for each other than those three most commonly used words could ever express.