Читать книгу The Lost Knights - William Speir - Страница 15

Three weeks before Constantine and Juliana’s conversation about the prisoners captured in France, a news report was being shown in a kitchen on the other side of the Atlantic.

“Tensions are mounting in Finland this morning after the stoning of a woman in one of the Muslim communities yesterday,” the reporter said on the news telecast. “Local residents are calling for the perpetrators to be arrested for murder, but the leaders of the Muslim community are claiming that the stoning was acceptable under Sharia, or Islamic Law. This is just the latest incident involving an act that’s illegal under civil law but allowed under Islamic law. Demonstrations broke out all over Finland in opposition to the government’s apparent acceptance of Sharia in place of the civil laws governing the rest of the population. Signs reading ‘One Law For All or No Law At All’ were seen at several of the demonstrations. Jewish leaders were quick to condemn the Finnish government’s unwillingness to arrest the perpetrators, calling for…”

“Can you turn that off, Honey?” Emily McCafferty Anderson asked as she entered the kitchen where her husband was fixing breakfast for the family. She wore her robe open and unbelted, showing her pajama top and shorts, and her slippers made a swishing sound as she walked over to her husband. “I hate starting the day listening to news like that.”

“No problem, Gorgeous,” Tom said, hitting the power button on the remote control. The wall-mounted TV in the kitchen went dark as Thomas Campbell Anderson leaned over to give his wife a kiss and hand her the mug of tea that he had just poured for her. “Where’s Jamie?”

Jamie Michelle Anderson, named for her grandfathers James Anderson and Michael McCafferty, was Tom and Emily’s baby daughter. She was two-and-a-half years old, and she was already a handful. She had her mother’s striking features, including flashing green eyes and red hair, and she had her father’s boundless energy. She was always moving, and now that she could walk and climb stairs, her parents spent way too much time trying to find her or chase after her as she explored her world. Still, she was precious, and her parents loved her with all their hearts.

“She’s on her way,” Emily replied with a happy expression as Tom started putting the food on the breakfast table. Emily loved being a mother, and she loved being Tom’s wife. They had been married for four years, but she still felt like a newlywed, having lost none of the original excitement that she felt being with Tom. Having Jamie had brought her and Tom even closer together, and she truly felt that her life was complete.

A moment later, Jamie raced into the kitchen on her little legs, squealing as she saw Tom. “Daddeeee!” she cried as Tom picked her up and gave her a good-morning hug and kiss.

“Good morning, Cutie,” Tom said as he put her down in her chair at the table. He grabbed his tea and sat down with his two girls. Mealtime was a happy time in the Anderson household, and Tom and Emily spent a lot of time laughing as their daughter demonstrated new ways to get her food all over the place.

Tom had just taken a sip of his tea when he saw Jamie’s cereal bowl go flying off the table and onto the floor. Emily quickly stood up, tore off a couple of sheets of paper towel, and started cleaning up the mess. It was her turn.

“Almost two minutes,” she said as she picked up the bowl and put it in the sink. “That’s a new record.”

“I know,” Tom said and he leaned over to wipe Jamie’s mouth with a napkin. “I thought for sure that the bowl would last for only one minute today.”

“Me too. She’s still not quite ready for big people bowls yet.”

“I agree. I’m glad that we took Mom’s advice and got all plastic dinnerware to use with Jamie.” Jamie looked up and smiled when she heard her name, and then she went back to eating the cereal that had fallen on the table with her hands. “Otherwise we would’ve replaced most of the pieces by now.”

Emily finished cleaning up that morning’s mess and got a new bowl of cereal for her daughter. As she walked back to her seat at the table, she ran her hand across the back of Tom’s shoulder.

Tom smiled as he watched her sit down and start feeding Jamie. Ever since Jamie had been born, Tom and Emily dressed a little differently at breakfast than before. When they were first married, Emily normally wore just a t-shirt and Tom a pair of sleep shorts. Now, they both wore pajamas when they were outside of the bedroom, although behind closed doors was a different story. Jamie’s nursery was across the hall from their bedroom, and while they had a sound monitor hooked up in Jamie’s room, she couldn’t hear any sounds from her parents’ room. Fortunately, Jamie slept through the night and didn’t wake up until either Emily or Tom went into her room each morning to see her. This was a good thing since Emily and Tom continued their tradition of showering together in the morning, and at least once a week they made love in the shower. Jamie never heard them and, so far, had never walked in on them.

“What’s on your schedule for today?” Tom asked Emily, finishing his own breakfast so he could help feed their daughter.

“I have a meeting with Edison this morning, and then I’m going to the dojo this afternoon to get in some practice – maybe even some fencing.” Emily loved fencing and practicing Tae kwon do. It not only kept her in shape, but it also helped her mentally stay focused. “Nothing other than that, except for the meeting tonight.”

Edison Travis Shane was the CEO of SignalCorps and Emily’s business partner. His company produced and sold a surveillance system that she had designed, and together they were making a lot of money. Emily’s royalties were more than what Tom earned from his job. Emily was working on an updated version of the system to include higher resolution, longer range, longer battery life, and easy mounting on small, unmanned remote control aircraft. The new version had done well in testing and was just about ready for demonstrating to SignalCorps’ top clients.

“Are you dropping Jamie off at Mom’s or is she coming here to get her?”

“I’m dropping her off on my way to Edison’s office. What’s your day like?”

“It’s actually a pretty light day today – only one meeting that I know of. Are you free for lunch?” They met for lunch at least one day a week. More often than not, they met at the gun club, where the entire family had memberships, to get some practice in before going back to work. It was a great way to relieve stress.

“Sure,” Emily replied as she finished her breakfast. “I’ll meet you at the club. My meeting with Edison might run long, and I don’t want you waiting at the studio in case I’m not back in time.” Emily also owned her own video production studio, specializing in commercials and other video services.

“That’ll be fine,” Tom replied. “Will we be able to ride to the meeting together tonight?” There was a meeting of the Order that night, and Tom liked riding together with Emily so they could both pick up Jamie from his mother’s house afterwards.

“Should be no problem there,” Emily replied. “I’ll be home before dinner tonight.”

Tom was happy about this. They didn’t get to eat dinner together every night because of their jobs, and he knew that his afternoon schedule would allow him to be with her that evening. “Me too. It’ll be nice to have dinner with just you tonight.”

“Well, then,” Emily said with a twinkle in her eye. “We’ll have to make it something special.”

Tom smiled and stood up to take care of the dishes.

Emily was still getting dressed when Tom was ready to leave. He gave her a kiss good-bye and went to find Jamie to kiss her good-bye as well. He found Jamie in her playroom, the room next to her nursery, creating a colorful mess on the floor with her toys. Tom carefully stepped over her dolls and doll furniture and picked up Jamie to give her a kiss. Jamie hugged him around the neck, but then she started squirming and pointing to the floor, letting her daddy know that she wanted to be back with her toys. He put her back down in the middle of the mess and carefully stepped back out of the room and headed for the garage. She’s just too cute!

A few minutes after Tom left the house, Emily came into Jamie’s playroom to get Jamie ready to go to Grandmom’s house. She laughed and groaned at the same time when she saw the mess on the floor. Jamie just looked up at her happily – evidently proud of the colors and patterns she had created on the carpet with her playthings.

Emily quickly reached for Jamie’s two favorite toys, put them in the bag that she always took with Jamie to Tom’s parents’ house, and put the rest of Jamie’s toys back in the toy box next to the window. Jamie made a sound of protest, but Emily had already finished putting the toys away. Emily picked up Jamie and carried her to the car before the crying started.

Jamie was just getting used to this new routine. Emily had only recently gone back to work almost full-time and, thankfully, Tom’s parents were all too happy to step in as permanent babysitters. Now that they were both retired, and Sophie’s boys were older and didn’t come over as often, Tom’s parents loved having a little one around that they could spoil. Sophia Anderson Douglas, or Sophie as she was called, was Tom’s older sister and one of Emily’s best friends. Her boys were both teenagers and had their own lives now.

Emily tossed Jamie’s bag and her own workout bag into the car and put Jamie into her car seat. Jamie never fussed when being put in her seat like some children did. She loved being in the car and knew that she’d soon be at Grandmom and Granddad’s house. She loved Grandmom and Granddad.

As Emily pulled out of the driveway and drove to Tom’s parents’ house, she thought about how her life had changed in the past four years. She had met Tom during one of the largest crises that the United States had gone through and had married him shortly after the Order helped successfully bring that crisis to an end. Less than a year-and-a-half later, she found herself pregnant with Jamie. She stopped doing fieldwork for the Order, preferring instead to help provide analysis of surveillance footage and train other members of the Order on how to use her surveillance system. She continued to make some minor upgrades to the system for SignalCorps up until she was about ready to give birth, but she stopped working on upgrades altogether until after Jamie had turned one. It was only after Jamie had turned two that Emily started working on major modifications to the system based on customer feedback and a few ideas of her own. Her associates at the video studio kept that business running in her absence, only needing her to come in every now and then to handle a client or employee situation, but now she felt that she could start putting in more hours there as well. The money she made from her deal with SignalCorps meant that she didn’t have to work anymore, but she loved the studio and wasn’t quite ready to give it up.

She glanced at Jamie in the rearview mirror, and saw her daughter looking out the side window in wonder. Emily smiled, remembering that Tom had almost the same look on his face when he held Jamie for the first time in the delivery room. He was the greatest husband and father ever, and her love for him grew steadily every day.

A little while later, Emily pulled into the semi-circular driveway in front of Tom’s parents’ house. The tips of the leaves on the trees around the house were just beginning to show a little color. It was early autumn, and the air was beginning to get crisp in the mornings. Her father-in-law, wearing a deep burgundy cardigan sweater, came out of the house to help get Jamie and her things.

“Hi, Dad,” Emily said as she got out of the car.

“Hi, Emily,” Tom’s father answered back. Emily thought that retirement suited her father-in-law. James Kirkland Anderson may have added more grey hair and a few lines across his forehead since she first met him and discovered that he was the Grand Master of the Order of the Saltire, but he looked more calm and content every day.

Emily came around the car and gave him a kiss on the cheek as he extracted Jamie from her car seat and lifted her out of the car. “How’s my big girl today?” he asked Jamie as she hugged him tightly around the neck.

Emily reached into the car to grab Jamie’s bag, “Where’s Mom?” Emily asked as she followed James and Jamie into the house. Theresa Katherine Anderson, or “Tracy” as she liked to be called, was Emily’s mother-in-law and usually came out to help Emily get Jamie’s things out of the car.

“She had to drop off something at the cleaners,” James replied. “She’ll be back in a minute or two. Can you wait for her, or do you need to run?”

“I need to run. Can you give her my love and tell her I’ll see her tonight?”

“I’ll be happy to.”

“You’ll be at the meeting tonight?”

“Count on it,” Tom’s father replied with a wink. “Sophie’s coming over for dinner, and the three girls will have the house to themselves until we get back. The boys have football practice tonight, so Liam will stop and pick them up after the meeting.”

“OK,” Emily said, giving Jamie and James a kiss good-bye. “I’ll see you tonight.” She left the house, got back in her car, and drove to her meeting at SignalCorps.

“Come on, my big girl,” James said to his only granddaughter. “Let’s see what Grandmom left for us in the kitchen!”

Jamie clapped her hands excitedly, and when her Granddad set her down, she raced to the kitchen to see what goodies there were to eat. Her Granddad had to move quickly to follow her toward the back of the house, making sure that she didn’t bump into anything.