The Sins of the Mother

Chapter 27


In March, Olivia and Peter took the trip she’d been talking about for months. She combined it with business, as usual, and spent two days at their store outside Paris, and another day in Bordeaux, and then they traveled to Provence to look at the château. It was incredible and enormous, in beautiful condition, fully staffed, and there was room for everyone. The gardens had been designed by Le Nôtre, who had done the gardens at Versailles, with arbors, miles of rose gardens, and a maze. It had been the summer palace of one of the mistresses of Louis XV, and had miraculously escaped being destroyed during the Revolution. Its current owner had fully restored it to even more than it had once been. Olivia was planning to stay there for a month with Peter, and the children were coming for two weeks, unless they wanted to stay longer. It was the longest vacation she’d ever taken.

She and Peter spent the nights as guests there, and they agreed that her family was going to love it. She had invited Peter’s children to join them. There was room for them all, with some twenty or twenty-five bedrooms lining the long halls.

They explored the area over the weekend, and were delighted with their decision, and from there they went to London to see Cassie. She was six months pregnant by then and looked enormous, and they knew it was a boy. Danny was beside himself with excitement and wanted his band to play at the birth, which Cass had vetoed. She promised to let them play for the baby the minute they got home.

Olivia was happy to see her, and they went shopping for the baby, and bought stacks of tiny clothes, and furniture for the nursery. Danny had had a tiny piano made to match the guitar.

“I’m not sure I can keep him calm until the birth,” Cass said to her mother. “He wants to see the baby, especially now that he knows it’s a boy.”

“It won’t be long,” Olivia said, enjoying her daughter. “Only three more months.”

“It’s so scary, Mom. I wonder if I’ll ever feel ready, I’m so afraid I’ll do something wrong.”

“You won’t.” Cass had just turned thirty-five, and they had just hired their nanny. Olivia told her about the château in Provence then. It seemed like the perfect place for them that summer. They had loved the boat the year before, but it seemed too complicated with a baby. He would only be six weeks old when they gathered in Provence.

She spent two days with Cass, wandering and shopping and helping her get the nursery ready, and then she spent two days in their London stores. Peter had friends in London, so he was busy, and at home John was training his replacement so he could leave in May. All of them were busy, and Alex called her while they were still in London. He had gotten into Stanford and was overjoyed, and she told him how proud of him she was.

Sophie was working in the New York store by then, in a training program for management. Olivia was thinking of sending her to London in a few months, and Cass had offered to have her stay with them until she found an apartment. Everyone was busy and had plans of their own.

Peter and Olivia went from London to Milan and then to Paris again for work. Olivia found everything in order, and then they went back to New York.

The next three months flew by, and Olivia had her follow-up mammogram before she went back to London and everything was fine. This time she was going to London alone to wait for Cass’s baby. And Peter was going to join her once it came.

When she got to London and saw her daughter, she almost burst out laughing. She had never seen anyone so huge. It was all in her belly. Danny could hardly contain himself—he put his mouth to her enormous belly and talked to the baby all the time. Sometimes he sang to it or played music, and he swore his son was going to be a musical genius. Cassie seemed amused by his antics, and he spent an afternoon taking Olivia around in his bright red Rolls, and she had a ball.

The baby was two days late when Cass had her first labor pains. She was calm and peaceful about it, told her mother what had happened, and shortly after, her water broke, and they took her to the hospital. And Danny sang to her all the way.

“I love you, but I think you’d better shut up now. The pains are getting bad,” she told him between contractions, and he stopped singing and held her hand.

“It’s going to be all right, you know,” he told her in a gentle voice. He was a child at times, but when she needed him to be, he was a man. Olivia watched them quietly, and then helped her into the wheelchair at the hospital. Olivia and Danny were given hospital pajamas to change into while the midwife examined Cassie, and Danny turned to Olivia in the room where they were putting on the pajamas.

“You know how much I love her, don’t you?” he said to Olivia, and the person talking to her was no child. As playful as he had been before to distract Cassie, he was entirely serious now.

“Yes, I do.”

“And the baby. I would die for them, I would. I love your daughter more than life. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her. She’s a fantastic woman. I’d be nothing without her.”

“Just be good to each other,” Olivia said gently. “That’s all you have to do.” She was thinking of Joe when she said it, and all the children they had had, who had turned out to be wonderful people, and now even Cassie was back in the fold.

“I will, I promise,” Danny said solemnly, and then he kissed Olivia, and she smiled.

“I know you will, Danny. Now let’s go and meet your son.”

“Right on, Grandma. Off we go,” he said, and propelled her out the door, and when they found Cassie in the labor room, the pains had gotten bad. The nurse had told her she was dilated to four. But with a first baby, she had a long way to go. Many hours.

For the next eight hours, Olivia watched Danny massage her back, hold her hand, rub her neck, croon softly to her, and dry her tears when she was crying and saying she couldn’t take it anymore. She had wanted to have it naturally and then changed her mind and wanted an epidural, and by then it was too late. Danny stood on one side of her and Olivia on the other, urging her on, and Danny held her aching shoulders when they told her she could start to push. She was exhausted by then and looked at her mother in despair.

“I can’t, Mom, I can’t … it hurts too much.” She was crying, and Danny looked beside himself. His eyes implored Olivia to help them, and there was nothing she could do except hold Cassie’s hand. Cassie got a minute’s respite and started pushing again, as the midwife told her she could see the baby’s hair, which suddenly gave Cass a second wind. She worked harder than Olivia had ever seen any woman work, while tears streamed down her cheeks and Danny’s, and then they heard a powerful cry and a long thin wail. The baby was out, and he was a big, beautiful bouncing little boy, as Danny clung to Cass and told her how much he loved her. She looked around with amazement to see her baby, and Olivia cried watching all three of them. The midwife let Danny cut the cord and hand his baby to Cassie, and then they handed it to Olivia, and all she could think of was Maribelle and how much her own children had meant to her. Olivia was carried away on a tidal wave of joy.

“You were fantastic!” Danny said to Cass, as their son nursed at her breast. Olivia bent down to kiss her daughter’s cheek, and Cass smiled at her mother.

“Thank you for being here, Mom. I couldn’t have done it without you and Danny.” And she meant it. Olivia knew at that moment that she had her daughter back forever and her sins had been forgiven her. It was the most beautiful moment of her life since her own children were born.

“What are you going to call him?” Olivia asked them. She felt closer to Danny than she ever knew she could. They had a bond they would share forever, this precious child, who was sleeping peacefully in his mother’s arms and weighed just over ten pounds.

“Harry. Harry Hell,” Danny answered, and Cass nodded, looking pleased.

“That’ll work,” Olivia said, smiling at them with an enormous sense of peace. It didn’t matter to her at all that they weren’t married. All the same ties were there as if they were, and she knew how much Danny cared about Cass. He was young, but he was a man. And his son would help him grow.

“I want to have four more,” Danny said, as Cass groaned loudly.

“Could we wait a while?”

“Sure, I’ll give you a week, then I’ll have you knocked up again,” he said in his strongest cockney accent, and they all laughed, even the midwife who was sewing Cassie up where she had torn. But she was so happy holding her baby, she couldn’t feel a thing.

Olivia left them for a few minutes and went to call Peter then.

“We have a big beautiful baby boy,” Olivia said proudly. “Ten pounds.”

“How’s Cassie?” he asked, sounding concerned.

“I’ve never seen her happier, and Danny was great.”

“I’ll be there tomorrow,” he said. “I’ll catch the first plane out.”

“I can’t wait to see you,” she said, sounding excited. Watching her grandson’s birth had been a miracle she knew she’d never forget. It was the final healing for her and Cass, and she was so grateful to have been asked.

When she walked back into the room, Cass and Danny were beaming at each other, and the midwife had gone. “We’re getting married,” Cass told her mother.

“I just proposed,” Danny explained.

“Well, it’s about goddamned time,” Olivia teased them, happy for them. “Peter will be here tomorrow.” But she was planning to stay another week until Cass got settled at home, and she’d be back in a month to get organized at the château before everyone arrived.

“Can we get married in Provence when everyone is together?” Cass asked her mother. Olivia loved the idea, and so did Danny.

“I’ll get everything organized.” Olivia beamed at her. She’d just seen a birth, now she was going to organize a wedding. She loved being part of Cass’s life again, in ways she never had been before. They shared an intimacy now that they had never had. “All you have to do is pick the day.”

She stayed with them for another hour until they took Cass to a room, and then she went back to the hotel. She wanted to leave them alone to enjoy the moment between them, and it had been a long day for her too. But she was so excited, she couldn’t sleep. After Cass had called to tell her the news, Liz called her mother to see how it went, and they went over all the details. Liz was thrilled for her baby sister and excited about the wedding.

And Olivia was still flying high from all the excitement when Peter arrived the next day, at six o’clock at night. She’d been with Cass all afternoon, holding the baby and talking about the wedding. Harry was a gorgeous child. And Danny was pouring the champagne like water. He was ecstatic.

She told Peter all about the wedding when he walked in.

“That sounds like a fine idea,” Peter said as he sat down in their suite. “It’s a beautiful place to get married.” And then he looked at her tenderly. They had been through a lot together over the years, and in the last six months, her brush with cancer, her reconciliation with Cass, the birth of the baby. He wondered if she would be more open to the idea and hoped she would. “Any chance we could get married there too? Maybe a double wedding?”

She didn’t answer for a minute, and smiled at him.

“It’s possible. I’ll have to ask the caterer, and get back to you,” she teased him, and he came to put his arms around her.

“I’ll do whatever you want. I’m not pushing you.” He wanted to be sure she knew that, but she sounded more open to it and less adamant.

“Let’s think about it and see how we feel.”

He nodded and kissed her again, and as she touched his face, the sapphire he had given to her sparkled on her hand. He was well aware that it was not yet an engagement ring, but he still hoped it would be one day.