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The family was mortified, but not enough to report it because of the family connection and not wanting the exposure. Thom and Gretchen offered to take Emily to live with them in New Orleans, but her parents arranged for her to stay at one of the maternity homes in Baton Rouge, where the baby could be given up for adoption. It started a battle between mother and daughter that resulted in an estrangement that persisted until Margaret Benoit’s death.
When Emily returned from Baton Rouge, changed, she had an inner strength that she hadn’t had before. She contacted Vic right away.
“Do you still love me?” she cried.
“Yes, I love you.”
“I can’t bear it here at my parents’ house.”
“Do you want to get married?”
“Yes! Please,” Emily cried.
Against her parents’ wishes, she moved into the lodge with Vic and his mother and father, and a week later, four days before Christmas, they were married, Emily wearing the beautiful silk lace Oscar de la Renta gown she’d picked out ten months earlier.
That luminescence Vic had first seen in her had disappeared. Over the years they were together, he got glimpses of it, when she was pregnant and giving birth and caring for her children, or when she was on horseback. It was during those moments that he saw a glimmer of the old pre-catastrophe Emily. Largely, she never recovered from it, either the rape or having to give her child up for adoption.
***
With dinner ready and in warmers, Vic got out a bottle of wine and opened it to let it breathe. Dave’s favorite beer chilled in the beverage fridge behind the bar.
The rumble of Dave’s huge diesel truck vibrated the windows. Justin came out of the clinic, hearing the truck. Their laughter rang out when they greeted each other and came through the door.
“Pop,” Dave called out.
Watching his big, brawny sons dwarf the enormous room made Vic laugh and get teary-eyed at the same time. His boys.
The conversation started out boisterous and nonstop, the two brothers sharing the incidents of the day and asking questions of their father, who seemed to grope for answers, preoccupied.
“Let’s eat,” Vic said, thinking no one would have an appetite later in the evening. “Tell me about your babies. What are their latest achievements?”
“They aren’t babies anymore, that’s for sure,” Dave said. “Little Davie’s latest antic is getting up on the kitchen counter and turning the burners on the stove. Fortunately, we were watching him when he did it, so he didn’t burn himself to death.”
“What are you going to do?” Vic asked.
“Well, clearly he can never be alone. But just in case, we took all the knobs off the stove. If he figures out how to use a wrench, we’re in serious trouble.”
“Tina throws a tantrum now whenever one of us gets on horseback. When we go, we have to sneak out. It’s like having the worst jailer.”
“Ha! She wants to ride,” Vic said.
“Yes, in the worst way. We’ve introduced her to Raven’s yearling colt, and she sees him daily. In the meantime, I’ll find a little pony for her to ride until she’s old enough for Lightning. She loves horses, that’s for sure.” Raven, a wild horse who had taken a liking to Maggie, and her foal, Lightning, lived at Maggie and Justin’s barn.
“How old were we when you put us on horseback?” Dave asked.
“You were practically born on horseback. Your mother was in labor, hiding it from me, and thought that a good old-fashioned ride would speed things up.”
“What happened?”
“She made it home and went into the bathroom and delivered you alone. That was so your mother. I was in the clinic, and when I came out to the house to get a snack, the hysterical housekeeper came out to get me. Emily had showered, cleaned everything up, and had you washed and swaddled in a blanket, and Justin was at the table eating lunch.
“I was furious, but she said she didn’t want to be separated from me and Justin, and when I refused to allow her to have a home birth, she did it on her own.”
“There was something different about my mother,” Justin said, shaking his head. “I feel like I married a clone of her.”
The men laughed, agreeing Maggie had that same chutzpa.
“What about Justin?” Dave asked, still laughing at his own introduction to horses.
