LITMIR.BIZ

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      “A tout à l’heure, chérie.”

      “À bientôt, chère Claudine.”

      Kellie hung up the phone, dissolved in fresh tears.

      Unable to bear the pain, she ran through the house to her room and collapsed on the bed.

      CHAPTER TWO

      KELLIE?”

      Her head swerved toward the nurse. “Yes?”

      “Dr. Evans wants to talk to you. As soon as you’re dressed, just step into his office.”

      “All right.”

      Dr. Evans had been the Madsen family doctor for as long as she could remember. He’d seen her through everything from tonsils and stitches to fractures and flu.

      Lately she’d been having headaches and could pinpoint the onset of them to the day Kellie’s attorney had sent Philippe’s solicitor the divorce papers by express mail. The packet had gone out a week ago. Since then, the calls from Philippe had stopped.

      It was what she’d wanted, but she couldn’t help but be anxious about him and needed to know if the baby had been born yet. She could always phone Claudine. However a part of her was afraid that if she did that, she’d break down crying again and it would make her headaches worse.

      Hopefully Kellie’s doctor could prescribe something to take them away. The normal over-the-counter drugs weren’t helping.

      A few minutes later she left the examining room and walked into his office. He was waiting for her. “Sit down, Kellie.”

      After she’d taken a seat opposite his desk he smiled at her. “I believe I’ve discovered the source of your headaches, but I’ll leave it up to your obstetrician for a final determination.”

      Kellie blinked. Obstetrician?

      He stared at her. “You didn’t have any idea you were pregnant?”

      She lurched in the chair. If she hadn’t been holding on to the sides, she might have fallen out of it.

      His expression grew solemn. “I take it you and your husband hadn’t planned on starting a family yet.”

      “No— I—I mean we did want a baby. But we c-can’t have one now. We just can’t!” she cried in anguish.

      He leaned toward her, looking at her in that confiding way. “Kellie? In twenty-five years I’ve never seen you this emotional. Obviously something traumatic is going on in your life, thus the reason for the headaches.”

      His confiding tone had the effect of opening the dam. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

      He passed her the box of tissues on his desk. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

      Dr. Evans had always been like a father confessor, but for the first time in her life, she found she couldn’t talk to him. Not about this.

      How could she explain her feelings over finding out she was pregnant with Philippe’s child when he was awaiting the birth of his son right now? Maybe Yvette had already delivered.

      “I’m sorry,” she said a few minutes later, lifting her head to wipe her eyes. “Please forgive my outburst. Thank you for seeing me, but right now I’m afraid I have to go.” She shot out of the chair.

      His concerned gaze followed her to the door. “I’m the one who’s sorry. In light of your pregnancy, promise me you’ll get hold of an OB right away. Dr. Cutler’s one of the best. His office is on the second floor. Tell him I referred you.”

      She nodded. “Thank you, Dr. Evans.”

      “You want to have a healthy child. Don’t wait too long to start your prenatal care, and don’t take any medication unless you’ve cleared it with your OB first!”

      “I won’t. Goodbye.”

      Kellie couldn’t get out of his office fast enough.

      She hurried down to the car park and drove back to the café. It opened for lunch in half an hour. She needed to get busy going over the dinner menu.

      Her family didn’t know she’d been to the doctor. Until she’d made a decision about what to do, she didn’t want to tell them what she’d learned. At the moment she was still trying to absorb the news with all its ramifications.

      In order to avoid conversation, she parked behind the restaurant and slipped in the rear entrance which was used for delivery people. Luckily the other chef and the serving help were working at a steady pace. There was no unnecessary talk, especially on Fridays which brought in the large weekend crowds of tourists on their way to and from the Cascades.

      Her grandparents did the cashiering while her mom ran the dining room. That left Kellie in the kitchen to hide her grief over an untenable situation. But by four o’clock that afternoon her head was splitting.

      She told the other chef she needed to quit for the day. Excusing herself, she went up to her room and called Dr. Cutler’s office for an appointment. The receptionist fit her in for the following Friday.

      When Kellie explained about her headaches, the nurse came on the line and told her of one painkiller she could take that wouldn’t hurt the baby.

      Kellie thanked her for the information and hung up. She’d already tried it, but she’d received no relief. The only thing to do was go to bed and hope she could sleep it off.

      To some degree her solution worked. A short nap seemed to stave off the worst of the pain.

      Over the next seven days while she waited to find out if Philippe’s solicitor had responded, she would excuse herself to lie down as soon as she felt a headache coming on.

      After her appointment with Dr. Cutler on Friday, Kellie made the decision to tell her family about her condition. As soon as they closed the restaurant for the night, she would sit down with them.

      “Kellie?”

      “What is it, Roy?” she asked the college age waiter who’d come in the kitchen for the steak dinners she’d put under the warmer.

      “Someone’s out in front wanting to speak to you. The woman said she’d wait until you had a break.”

      “I’ve already had mine for today. Who is it?”

      “I don’t know. I’ve never seen her before or believe me, I would have remembered.” He smiled. “It was Lee something. Her last name started with an M, but I can’t pronounce it.”

      Kellie didn’t know a woman named…wait a minute— No. It couldn’t be that Lee, the wife of Philippe’s best friend, Raoul.

      While Kellie had lived in the apartment with Philippe, Prince Raoul Mertier Bergeret D’Arillac, ruler of the French-Swiss cantons and his new twenty-six-year old American bride who was the same age as Kellie, had still been out of the country on their honeymoon.

      Though Kellie had never met either of them, she’d seen the news clippings of their royal wedding among the things in Philippe’s desk. He also had hundreds of photos and various videos of Raoul and his friends out climbing.

      If the prince and his wife had taken up residence in Neuchâtel since Kellie’s flight from Switzerland, they couldn’t possibly be here. Could they?

      “Hey— Kellie— What do you want me to say?”

      His question brought her thoughts back to the present. “Roy—did her last name sound like Mertier?”

      He nodded. “That’s it exactly!”

      Kellie’s legs started to shake.

      If Lee Mertier of all people was in The Eatery dining room, then the only reason she would be here was that something terrible had happened to Philippe. Maybe his injuries were worse than Claudine had made them

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