"Your Excellency?" Gracie said timidly from the door to the master suite.
"Yes... oh Gracie darling, you don't have to call me that!" She smiled, going over to give her daughter a kiss.
Gracie backed away from her Mother.
"What's the matter, sweetheart?" She asked, seeing something was terribly wrong, the little girl looked upset and scared of her.
"I think it's best if I refer to you as Governor, Ma'am," Gracie said, her eyes filling with tears. "And perhaps it would also be best if you and Julian took me back to St Mary's Orphanage, it's just not working out..."
When Emmaline went to reassure the girl she just held up her little hand.
"You are first and foremost Queensland's Governor, Ma'am, and you have a duty, to Her Majesty and to Queensland, trying to squeeze a child in just isn't working, is it? And Julian is so busy as well it's not even funny, he never stops with the foundation, with his photography and with his music." She said to her mother, who by now had to sit down on their bed, due to the fact she was feeling faint.
A ten-year-old was speaking so much maturity it scared Emmaline.
There was no more Mum and Dad, it was like she had grown up and was an adult, and was cutting them off.
It was like they had blown it and she wanted absolutely nothing to do with them ever again.
"Gracie, darling... I" she began.
"You hurt me, Ma'am!" Gracie continued "I was happy having breakfast with the two people I thought loved me and would protect me. How could you even think to discuss something so dire in front of me like it was nothing? Two women had been shot dead in their jail cells and you think it's okay to just casually discuss that in front of me, Your Excellency? And then you scold me and smack me for interrupting Clayton!"
Emmaline herself was close to tears, perhaps the Gordon women just weren't mean to be Mothers, was the Lord trying to tell her that?
Her mother died in childbirth, her aunt died in childbirth and now she couldn't even protect a little girl, instead, she scolded her and humiliated her for being right.
"What can Julian and I do, to fix this Gracie?" She asked.
"Call Sally, I want to go home to Liverpool, I don't belong here in Australia" Came Gracie's cold answer, and she left the master suite before Emmaline could utter a single sound.
"Julian?? JULIAN!!" She called, rushing down the stairs.
"Hey, hey, hey!" He appeared and caught her as she slammed into him, sobbing uncontrollably "What's happened, Sweetness? Calm down and take a deep breath!"
"Gracie doesn't want to live with us anymore, she wants to go back home to St Mary's" she cried, hugging him.
"What? Why???" He asked, alarmed.
"The way I treated her at breakfast this morning, over Clayton coming and telling me about Tilly and Amelia, maybe she's right Julian? Maybe we just can't try and squeeze a child in between my duties and your work with the foundation, photography and music..."
"I was thinking about that, that's why I've been talking to Clayton, from now on, anything to do with your duty as Governor, he tells you in private in your study," Julian said. "Especially mature content like what he said this morning over breakfast, Emmaline, we should have known better!"
"But maybe I'm not just cut out to be a Mum!"
"What? Because your Mum and Aunt died in childbirth? Rubbish!" He said, "yes, we're new to it and yes we have a lot on our plates, but marriage and adoption is not a short term deal, we are in this for the long haul!"
"So what do we do? She was even calling me Your Excellency, Ma'am and you Julian" she told her husband.
"Oh dear, that's serious! Emmaline, we need to fix this now!"
She agreed with him.
"Gracie?" Julian knocked on the door, "may we come in, your Mum and I?"
She opened the door, a suitcase was packed at the foot of her bed.
Julian noticed that her Gentoo Penguin sat on her bed, it wasn't in her suitcase.
"We would both like to apologise for the way we treated you at breakfast this morning Gracie," Julian said, softly, while keeping his distance. "We handled it very badly and we should have known better. Can you accept our apology?"
"This isn't going to work Julian" she spoke clearly, yet she was upset, "As much as I love it here, I know I won't be your main priority, not Her Excellency's at least, her service to The Crown would always be more of a priority, and The Governor has enough grief and stress in her life to deal with without a child on top of it as well. I miss Sally. I miss home!"
It was like the girl had burnt her very last bridge and was just walking away.
"I'll get onto Sally then," Emmaline said blankly and left the bedroom.
"Gracie, my sweet, please don't do this!" Julian said, the tears in his eyes "we love you! We do! And we did wrong, very wrong this morning, but you will always be our main priority! Life is hard, Gracie!"
"But not so hard your wife needs to scold me and smack me over a conversation that you shouldn't have been having in the first place!" Gracie growled.
One of the other carers had warned him over picking Gracie, she was too straight forward for her age and ran whenever things got tough. But they loved her the moment Sally brought her into her office.
It wasn't long and Emmaline returned, "As soon as we can get you on a plane, you can go back to St Mary's, Sally will arrange to have you back in her care. This is what you want, Gracie?"
She cleared her throat, they had given in so easily, did they not love her after all?
"We adore you, love you and worship you Gracie" Julian read her mind "but if you don't want to be in our family anymore we'll never understand why you wouldn't let us fix the problem, but we respect your decision to go home to where everything is familiar to you!"
She pushed him out of the room and slammed the door in his face.
***
"Cup of tea darling?" Julian handed her a cup of tea, in a travel mug as they sat in their makeshift tent.
It had been six months since Gracie had gone home and the couple had been ripped to pieces by everyone willing to judge them.
They were back in Africa for The White Feather Foundation, helping out some villages in dire need. The people there didn't judge them, they were grateful that they had come to help.
Wolf had been sent to prison himself for shooting Tilly and Amelia and had taken his secret with him leaving Emmaline still unaware that her father was still alive.
She had stepped down as Governor and was more than happy to just be Dr Lennon again.
They sat on his makeshift bed after a long, hard day of work, sipping their tea and finally relaxing.
"Do you ever think about Miss Gracie?" He broke the silence.
Their marriage was about the only thing that hadn't been broken or ripped to pieces because they simply hadn't let it.
"Sometimes," she said, "I miss that little girl"
"I find it hard to think about her, I love her still, but for the one mistake we did make and even though it was a big one, asking to go home to the orphanage was... she was adopted I heard, by a couple in London," He said, kissing her cheek softly.
That wasn't exactly the truth, she had been considered being adopted by a family from London.
He had heard from friends over there that she desperately wanted to go back to them, and be their daughter again. She had realised even though he and Emmaline had made a mistake, they were the best parents she could ever be given, perhaps she had blown it too.
"I want all the best for her," She said, looking into her cup.
He leant in to kiss her softly "we tried our best, at parenting, and at the same time trying to hold down just time-consuming jobs, but it just wasn't workable...old habits die hard! We helped a lot of people today!"
"But your name and reputation have been dragged through the mud, I'm the worst wife and mother in the world, a coward for running from my responsibilities and duty!" She said to him.
"I'm a useless Father like Dad, I know Sweetness, I have felt their venom and cruelty too, but we're still here, aren't we? Look at the medicine you were able to get into the village today to help so many mums and dads and children! We are doing so much more out there in third world countries than in a big white mansion as Governor and Mr Lennon!" He said to her, with a smile.
"The last six months have been hard Julian, but you're right, we are doing so much more aren't we?" She smiled at him.
"Mmm-Mhmm" he nodded, kissing her. "Sean and Charlotte will be parents soon!"
"Do they want us around the child?" she asked, still feeling terrible about Gracie.
"She's adamant about you delivering it, Sweetness," he said "and you've known that since we were told she was pregnant"
"She's nearly due, Julian," the doctor said. "we'll make it, just In time"
"Actually, I've arranged for us to leave here early so you can be in New York a few days before she's due," He gently stroked her hair that was done up in a tight bun "so my doctor can work at her best and not be all stressed out!"
She smiled and looked down "and to think, that was how we met...I was just your doctor! Life throws some curveballs sometimes and at the other times it blesses us with the most wonderful experiences and people!"
He smiled and gently leant in to kiss her tenderly.
He loved kissing her, it was one of his favourite things to do.
"And to think you once had a rule that you would NEVER date a patient...thank heavens you broke that one for me! I love you more than anything my sweet doctor, and please never, ever forget that!"