Moriah had changed into dry clothes and was sitting on the end of one of the couches. A bowl of chili sat untouched beside her on the side table.
“The Wrights are set for the night,” she said. “We are not expecting any other guests until tomorrow. Now, would you mind telling me what’s going on between you two?”
Ben had already consumed two bowls of chili and was giving serious consideration to having a third. He nursed a cup of coffee while he listened.
“Honestly,” Katherine said. “It’s really not important. Would anyone like more chili?”
“Kathy and I grew up together,” Nicolas interrupted with a quick glance at Katherine. “My father left my mother when I was only three. She fought her way through medical school with no help except from your family. My mother and your grandmother were close friends. Both had grown up here on the island.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about him, Katherine?” Moriah asked. “All these years and you never mentioned knowing Nicolas? Why?”
“Probably because the subject was too painful,” Nicolas said. “Am I right, Kathy?”
Katherine bit her lip and nodded.
“My mother dreamed of becoming a medical missionary,” Nicolas continued. “I was six when she left me permanently with her friends, the Robertsons, while she went to establish a medical clinic in the jungles of Brazil.”
“She did visit, though,” Katherine said.
“Yes, but even when she came here, she went to the reservation every day to help out.”
“True,” Katherine said. “Nicolas and I would follow her around. She really was quite gifted.”
“Brilliant woman, my mom.” Nicolas’s voice held a tinge of bitterness. “Great doctor. Absentee mother.”
Katherine looked around, brightly. “Does anyone want cocoa? Or cookies? I baked cookies.”
Ben thought he did…
“Please, Katherine,” Moriah said, “I don’t want cocoa or cookies. I just want answers.”
…and decided he didn’t.
Katherine sighed. “I wanted to be a doctor, too, just like her. She always made it seem so noble. I studied hard. I applied for scholarships. Your dad, my big brother, helped. Nicolas and I were in our first year of medical school when we called off our engagement.”
“Engagement?” Moriah gaped at them, and Ben choked on his coffee. “You and Nicolas? You have to be kidding! You actually considered marrying someone like Nicolas?”
“He’s sitting right here, lass,” Ben reminded her. “He can hear you.”
“I’m sorry, Nicolas,” Moriah said. “But seriously, you and Katherine? It’s pretty hard to imagine. She’s so kind and caring, and you…”
“And I bought the lighthouse out from under you,” Nicolas added. “I committed the unpardonable sin. You’ve made that abundantly clear.”
“Nicolas can come off as being a little cold, sometimes,” Katherine said, defensively, “but that isn’t who he is. I always knew him as the sweet, shy little boy who cried at night for his mama.”
Nicolas made a surprised sound. “You knew about that?”
“I heard you crying, Nicolas,” she said. “We all did, but there was nothing any of us could do.”
“So why did you break off your engagement?” Moriah began to braid a small lock of her hair nervously.
A long look passed between Katherine and Nicolas. It was a look that went deep. Ben felt like he had just seen a lifetime pass between them.
“Oh, nothing, really,” Katherine passed it off. “The timing just wasn’t quite right.”
“That’s the understatement of the century,” Nicolas said. “Tell her the truth, Kathy.”
“What good will it do?”
Ben felt his stomach tighten, as though anticipating a punch to the gut. Whatever Katherine’s next words were, he was fairly certain they were going to hurt Moriah, and from what little he knew, she had been hurt enough.
“Did I have something to do with it?” Moriah said. “Was I the reason you broke off your engagement?”
“After your parents died, the only family you had left was your grandfather and me. Dad was too old to raise you by himself, and he had lost a son, a daughter-in-law, and a beloved wife in the space of two years. I needed to stay and take care of you. I couldn’t leave.”
A sick dread built inside of Ben as he watched and listened. This story was not going to turn out well.
“Nicolas didn’t understand how I could drop out of medical school to care for you. I was a good student, and I worked hard, but he was scary smart. By the time your parents died, he had focused his sights on becoming a top surgeon. He wanted it more than anything else in the world, and he was capable of achieving it.”
Katherine looked down at her hands, which were clutched together in her lap.
“So?” Moriah prompted.
“In the end,” Katherine’s voice was low, “he wanted it more than he wanted me.”
Nicolas gazed at Katherine but said nothing. Instead, he slowly shook his head as though refuting everything she had just said.
“Nicolas is a surgeon?” Moriah asked.
“No,” Nicolas said, “I’m not a surgeon. My mother was an obstetrician. After her death, I specialized in high risk pregnancies. I suppose I thought it would bring me closer to her, somehow.”
“That’s why you were able to save Camellia’s baby.”
“Camellia’s birth was easy, compared to some of the situations I’ve had to deal with, but yes, that’s why I was able to help her.”
“So, let me see if I understand what you’re saying,” Moriah said. “You, Katherine, thought you could not leave the island because of me. You quit medical school because I went into a meltdown every time you tried to take me across the bridge, and you didn’t feel like you could dump me on my grandfather. And Nicolas, you couldn’t face being tied down forever on Manitoulin Island. Is that correct? Am I reading this right? I managed to ruin both of your lives?”
“You couldn't help any of it,” Katherine said. “You were a child. I was only twenty-two, myself. Too young to know how to help you. Not wise enough to deal with your problems in a healthy way. All I knew to do was to keep reassuring you that you were safe here with me, but my reassurances apparently only made the situation worse. Besides, if Nicolas had loved me enough, he would have found a way to work something out. He married within the year.” Katherine glanced at Nicolas as she continued. “I heard his wife was very beautiful and quite wealthy.”
“Correction,” Nicolas said. “If you had loved me enough, you would have found a way. And for the record, I soon discovered that my ‘beautiful’ wife was incapable of loving anyone besides herself. I made a terrible mistake, but I was already bound to her by the time I found out.”
“Then why did you stay with her?”
“I am not my father. I had made a vow to her, and I kept it.”
Nicolas and Katherine were so intent on one another they had apparently forgotten Ben and Moriah were in the room.
“You were the one I loved, Kathy. Always. From the time we were children. You were the only one. My marriage was created in a selfish fit of temper and I have suffered a lifetime for it.”
“You did throw a lot of tantrums when we were small,” Katherine smiled, remembering. “They were memorable, but they never accomplished much.”
“I grew up, Kathy. My wife died fourteen months ago. I cared for her until the end.” He waited for the impact of these words to sink in. “I’ve done a lot of good with my life. I’ve done the best I knew how. But now, all I really want to do is come home. That’s the only reason I bought the lighthouse, Kathy. I’m so tired. I just want to come home.”
Katherine, who was seated in one of the leather chairs, hesitated a moment, then she reached out her arms to him. Nicolas rushed over, knelt in front of her and they embraced. Nicolas held onto to Katherine like a drowning man, as she stroked his hair and crooned soothing words.
“This is our cue to leave,” Ben whispered to Moriah.
“I know,” Moriah said, “but I still need to ask Katherine about my nightmare.”
“Later,” Ben said. “Those two deserve some time alone.”
“I’ll see you in the morning, then.” Moriah reluctantly went upstairs, and Ben let himself out while Nicolas and Katherine simply clung to one another.