The Promise by Danielle Steel Page A

“business” arrangements. And everything had worked out just perfectly. “Marion?”
    “Hm?”
    “Breakfast?”
    “Later, Wicky. Later. I want to see Michael.”
    “I'll go up and take a look at him now.”
    Marion stopped in the ladies' room for a moment, while Wickfield went ahead to see Michael. But he didn't expect any immediate change; he had checked him only an hour before.
    But there was a strange stillness when Marion came into the room five minutes later. Wicky was standing back from the bed with a look of solemnity, and the nurse had left the room. The New England sun was streaming across the bed, and from somewhere there was the steady sound of water dripping into a sink. Everything was much too still, and suddenly her heart flew to her mouth. It was like when Frederick … oh God… her hand went unwillingly to her heart and she stood frozen in the doorway looking from Wicky to the bed. And then she saw him, and her eyes filled with tears. He was smiling at her … her boy. It wasn't like Frederick at all. A sob caught in her throat and she walked to the bed with trembling legs, and then she bent down and touched his face with her hands.
    “Hi, Mom.” They were the most beautiful words she had ever heard, and the tears poured down her face as she smiled.
    “I love you, Michael.”
    “I love you, too.” Even Wickfield had tears in his eyes as he watched them. The boy, so young and handsome and alive again, and the woman who had given so much in the past two days. He slipped quietly from the room, and they never heard him go.
    She held her son gently in her arms for a long moment as he ran a hand over her hair. “Take it easy, Mom. Everything's okay. Christ, I'm hungry.” Marion laughed. He sounded so good. He was alive again. And all hers.
    “We will get you the biggest, bestest, superest breakfast you've ever seen, if Wicky says it's all right.”
    “To hell with Wicky. I'm starving.”
    “Michael!” She couldn't be angry at him, though. She could only love him. But then as she looked at him, she saw his face cloud over as though he were suddenly remembering why he was there. Before that, he had acted as if he had just awakened from having his tonsils out. All he wanted was ice cream and his mom. But now there was a great deal more in his face, and he tried to sit up. He didn't know how to say the words, but he had to ask. He searched her face, and she kept her eyes on his and his hand tightly held in hers. “Take it easy, darling.”
    “Mom … the others … the other night … I remember …”
    “Ben has already gone back to Boston with his father. He's pretty badly banged up but he's all right. A lot more all right than you were.” She said it with a sigh and tightened her grip on his hand. She knew what was coming next. But she was prepared for it.
    “And … Nancy?” His face was ivory white as he said her name. “Nancy, Mom?” The tears already stood out in his eyes. He could see the answer in his mother's face as she sat down carefully in the chair next to him and ran a gentle hand along the outline of his face.
    “She didn't make it, darling. They did all they could. But the damage was just too great.” She paused for only the slightest of seconds and then went on. “She died early this morning.”
    “Did you see her?” He was still searching her face for something more.
    “I sat with her for a while last night.”
    “Oh, God … and I wasn't there. Oh, Nancy… ” He turned his head into the pillow and cried like a child as Marion held his shoulders. He said her name over and over and over again, until at last he could cry no more. And when he turned to look at his mother again, she saw something in his face that she had never seen there before. It was as though he had lost something of himself in those moments when he said Nancy's name. As though part of him had bled away and died.

Chapter 6
    Nancy heard the landing gear grind out of the plane's belly, and for the