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“Natural causes.”
Slowly, Eleanor inhaled and exhaled. For once, she seemed to be taking the conversation seriously. She grabbed a pillow and pulled it to her, clutching it as if for comfort.
“I would die, too. Not physically. But there’s no way this Eleanor could go on without him.”
“Is there another Eleanor?”
She smiled and nodded. “Horrifying thought, I know. I guess to survive, I’d just think of my life in terms of acts in plays or something. Like how the old movies were so long, they used to have intermissions. Eleanor…Part One, I guess, she would die with him. But Eleanor Part Two would wait for the curtain to go up and she’d step out on the stage and put on one hell of a show. You can’t let the curtain stay down before the second act.”
Eleanor leaned forward and dragged a hand through his hair. “Maggie’s dead. She’s been dead for over four years. And I remind you of her and that’s why you wanted me so much. Maggie’s dead and Daniel Part One is dead. Maybe you lethergo. I don’t know. But I know you haven’t lethimgo. Maybe it’s time for Daniel Part Two to step out on the stage.”
He felt her words in his heart; they hurt more than his crop on her back had hurt her. And as the truth always hurt, he knew her words were true.
“I don’t know who he is.” Daniel half-whispered the confession.
“Daniel Part Two is everything Daniel Part One was. But wiser, smarter, and even sexier. Seriously, what have you been doing for the past year? You’re so cut, I could slice myself open on your quads.”
Daniel laughed, almost blushing at her erotic appreciation of his body. “Mountain climbing…trekking through rain forests…stomping all over South America.”
“Sounds like hell on earth.”
“I loved it.”
She shuddered in feigned horror. So much for all his fantasies about her being his traveling companion on his wilderness sojourns.
“So tell me, what did you love most about being Daniel Part One? And don’t say anything that has anything to do with camping.”
Grinning, Daniel contemplated the question. Not that he really needed to think about it. He knew the answer immediately.
“Maggie. No question.”
“Because she was your sub? Your property?”
“Because she was my wife.” The words seemed to hang in the air, like the echo of a church bell. “I loved being married. I loved going out with her and saying to someone, ‘Meet my wife, Maggie.’ Loved it when she introduced me as her husband. Men have this bad reputation about being afraid of marriage. I wasn’t. Marrying her was the best thing I ever did.”
Eleanor looked at him without smiling. “Now tell me…what was the worst part of being Daniel Part One.”
Once again he knew the answer in an instant.
“Maggie.”
Eleanor didn’t seem the least shocked. “Why?”
Daniel slowly exhaled as he adjusted the pillow behind his back. “She was thirty-nine when we got married. Turned forty on our honeymoon. And her career was so important to her.”
He saw realization dawning in Eleanor’s bright green eyes.
“God, Daniel… You wanted kids, didn’t you?”
It seemed like a betrayal of Maggie’s memory to even say it aloud. But with Eleanor, he couldn’t hold anything back.
“I did. She didn’t. I finally worked up the courage to suggest adoption…it didn’t go over well. And the next week, she had her yearly physical and…”
“Cancer.”
Daniel nodded. “Sort of a moot point then.”
Eleanor inched closer to him and raised her hand to his face. With fingers both gentle and knowing, she traced his jawline, his lips, his forehead.
