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“Have you had an ultrasound done yet?” the doctor asked as Lauren lay back on the exam table and peeled up her t-shirt. She unbuckled her belt and exposed her lower abdomen.
“No,” Lauren said. “I haven’t even seen an OBGYN yet.”
“How far along?”
“Eight, nine weeks.”
“Morning sickness?” the doctor asked as she took her tape measure out of her coat pocket.
“In spades.” Lauren hiccupped.
“Your first?”
“Third,” Lauren said.
The doctor measured her abdomen. Her brow lifted as her cheeks rose into a smile. “You’re measuring closer to ten weeks,” she noted, putting the tape measure back in her pocket, then palpated her abdomen. “Tomáš said you were drugged?”
“So it would appear,” Lauren said, gazing up into the light fixture. She wasn’t sure how much the detective had told the doctor, but she seemed to know him well enough to call him by his first name.
“Any lingering side effects?”
“Headache,” Lauren said. “But that could be from a number of things.”
The doctor took a small device from the other pocket and pressed it to the slight swell of her stomach. The rhythmic woosh of a rapidly beating heart echoed from it. “Baby’s heartbeat is strong,” she said. “140 beats per minute. Let’s run an ultrasound just to be sure everything’s okay with this little one.” She patted Lauren’s leg. It took a moment to get the equipment set up. After a few squirts of cold gel on her belly, the doctor ran the transducer over her lower abdomen. Lauren closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“Is it too early to tell the gender?
The doctor glanced back at her with a light in her amber eyes. “Most likely,” she said. “Twelve weeks is usually the earliest, but that’s rare.”
“Oh...” Lauren hesitated, turning to look at the screen as the doctor adjusted it so she could see. The image in grayscale was grainy and it was difficult to make out details, but as she moved it, Lauren could see the profile of her baby’s face. A small hand was tucked up next to its face. “Probably for the best. My husband would have a fit if I found out without him.”
“Of course.” The doctor nodded. “I’ll take some pictures so you can show him your baby when you get home.”
“Yeah, let’s do that.” A tear ran from the corner of Lauren’s eye. The thought of seeing the baby growing inside her suddenly made it real. It hadn’t really sunk in until that moment, that she would soon be a mother of three. To think that she never wanted to marry, never wanted children. She had been so wrong. She knew that now. Life was better with a family than she could have ever imagined.
* * *
Kovač waited for her when she came out into the lobby at the clinic. She had a white paper bag in her hand and a few black and white photos the doctor had given her. “Everything okay?”
“So it would seem,” Lauren said.
“What’s that?”
“Prenatal vitamins and something for nausea,” Lauren said. “If it is what I think it is, it’ll knock me out cold for a whole day.”
“Will you take it?”
“At this point, yeah, probably.” Lauren followed him out into the hallway. It was late in the day and there were no patients left in the lobby. “How do you know the doctor?”
“Oh, Katia is my sister,” he said. “She’s usually not that slow. I thought you’d be done in less than an hour.”
“She gave me some IV fluids,” Lauren said. “She said I was dehydrated.”
“And the baby?”
“The baby is fine,” Lauren said, handing him the ultrasound pictures. He took them and inspected them politely. He gave her a nod and a small smile as he handed them back. “As far as she could tell.”
“She’s a very good doctor,” he said.
Lauren could see the pride written on his face. She also noticed the family resemblance once it was pointed out. “Now what?”
“The safe house is ready,” he said. “I’ll take you there and you can rest tonight. I have a security officer who will guard you overnight. I’ve got some questions to ask at the museum tomorrow then I’ll come get you. I’ll take you to see the monastery where the Codex was supposedly written, or what’s left of it, if you want to go.”
“I do.” Lauren nodded. “What about my things, back at the hotel?”
“I’ll send someone to pick up your belongings,” he said, holding the door for her. “If you need anything before then, I’ll have it brought in for you.”
“Thank you,” Lauren said. “That’s very kind of you.”
“Have you eaten today?”
Lauren shook her head. “No.”
“I’ll make arrangements for dinner then,” he said. “Any preferences?”
“Just something simple.” Lauren shrugged. “I don’t think I could manage anything rich or spicy.”
“Noted,” he said as they reached the car.
The sky was purple in the west as the sun set beneath a bank of clouds moving in from the south. Lauren could taste rain in the air. A bolt of lightning flashed in the sky and the immediate crack of thunder made her jump. She felt ill-at-ease and chewed on what was left of her thumbnail as she watched the city pass away as he drove into the outskirts of town. No words were spoken, but none were needed. The rain overtook them. The detective flipped on the headlights and the wiper-blades before reaching for the defroster. It always occurred to Lauren when she traveled, how other parts of the world were so similar to the United States. She had driven on many long and winding roads, in all sorts of weather. Other than a few climatological differences, most countries were very much like another. Some buildings were older than others; some countries drove on the left, others on the right. Still, cars were essentially the same. The buttons and knobs were generally found in the same configuration.
The road wound through trees as the landscape grew hilly, and soon, the car turned off the main highway to a long private driveway. She sat up in the seat when they came around a wide bend in the road, as a rising castle appeared over the trees. For a minute the thought crossed her mind that he intended to put her up in a real-life castle. Then he turned off and veered towards a smaller house just inside the stone fortification that surrounded the estate.
He pulled the car up as close to the house as he could. He got out in the pouring rain and came around and got the car door for her, holding his jacket over her head as they rushed to the house. The front door wasn’t locked.
Puddles collected around them as they stood in the stoned entry way shaking the rain off their clothing. “Tomáš?” She heard a voice echo from the other room.
“We’re here, Zuzu,” Tomáš answered back.
An older woman came down the hall and into the entry way. She wore a heavy sweater and jeans. She was slender and slight, her features chiseled. Her silver-gray hair was knotted up on the back of her head. “Ah, Tomáš! It’s good to see you.” She came over and greeted him with a kiss on each cheek, taking his hands in hers as he reciprocated. He embraced her affectionately. “Zuzu, this is my friend, Dr. Lauren Pierce.”
“Welcome, Dr. Pierce,” she beamed. “Any friend of Tomáš is welcome here. Come in. Come in.”
“Thank you.” Lauren wasn’t sure how to address her.
“My dear, you are soaked to the bone.” She observed as she put her hand on Lauren’s arm. “Let me find you something dry to put on.” Lauren couldn’t say no. “Follow me, I’ll show you to your room.”
The house was twice as large as the Pierces’ bungalow in Hawaii, practically expansive when compared to their apartment in Cairo. She was led to a room was on the 2nd floor, down a long hallway from the top of the stairs. The walls were paneled in what appeared to be mahogany, and a great canopy bed sat in the middle. There was a fireplace and a bundle of wood beside it.
The chill of the room required a fire to be built, but now was not the time. As Zuzu went to find her something to wear, she inspected the furnishings and décor. She found a spacious bathroom off the bedroom, including a deep ball-and-claw tub, and she longed to take a hot bubble bath. Such a luxury would have to wait. Her stomach was protesting from emptiness rather than nausea and she wasn’t sure which was worse. She returned to the bedroom, unsure of what to do. She paused at the foot of the bed and gazed up.
There was a portrait over the mantel of what might have been a long-lost ancestor, or perhaps some historical figure from the region that Lauren didn’t recognize. He looked a bit like Kovač, in that the Slavic features were similar. Dark hair, bright blue eyes, fair skin. He was clearly someone of import by the cut of his clothing and his regal appearance.
Lauren was standing under the painting, gazing at it, when Zuzu returned. “Here you go, dear.”
Lauren startled.
“Sorry to have frightened you.” She apologized, noticing the subject of her guest’s interest. “Do you know who this is?”
Lauren shook her head. “No. I don’t.”
“That is my great-great-great-grandfather, Jiří Antonin Kovač, he was the royal composer to King Charles IV, the Holy Roman emperor, the King of Bohemia.”
“Kovač?”
“Tomáš is my son,” she said, proudly. “He didn’t tell you, did he?”
“No.” Lauren turned and took the clothes she provided.
“These should fit you. Come downstairs to the kitchen when you’re dressed. Dinner is almost ready. I need to check on the soup.”
So he’s leaving me with his mother? Great. The thought lingered in her head long after she was left to her own devices.