Hugh rubbed the small of her back.
“Where are my manners?” Aleida said. “Dora, this is my fiancé, Hugh Collingwood.”
Dora shook his hand. “I feel as if I know you already from the BBC.”
Hugh dipped his chin. “My deepest apologies.”
Everyone chuckled, and Aleida gave him a warm smile.
With his hand in the cast, he awkwardly helped with her coat, removed his, and hung them up in the entry.
“Now that we are all acquainted, we have tea in the sitting room.” Dora gestured to a room to the left. “Teddy is playing in there. He is ... a shy child.”
Aleida nodded. She would not swoop him up with tears and kisses. “I’m ready,” she said, but the words came out wispy.
Her ankles and knees threatened to fail, but she made her way forward, and Hugh kept his hand at the small of her back.
She stepped through the doorway.
In the back corner by a window sat a little boy on his knees, playing with blocks. His legs in their short pants were no longer chubby, his hair had darkened to a light blond, and his cheeks had lost some of their roundness. But even with his face in profile, Aleida would have recognized him anywhere.
A splendid ache built around her heart, the same ache she’d once felt every night as she peeked into his nursery, and she pressed her hand to that precious pain.
“Teddy,” Julian said. “Our guests have arrived.”
Teddy pushed to standing and came over, so much taller and more grown up.
“Mr. Collingwood, this is Teddy.”
Hugh squatted in front of the little boy and extended his hand. “How do you do, Teddy? You may call me Uncle Hugh if you like.”
Teddy slipped his left hand in Hugh’s and shook—with his right arm tucked behind his back. “How do you do?”
The sound of his voice—the same, yet different. Aleida’s fingers dug into her chest.
“And this woman,” Dora said. “This is—”
Aleida held up her hand to stop her. “Good morning, Teddy. Would you show me what you’re building with your blocks?”
His green-blue gaze rose to hers, met hers for the first time in over a year, and her heart seized with the pain and joy of it.
She managed a smile.
Teddy blinked hard, jerked his head to the side, and scampered to the blocks.
“I’ll take your purse, Aleida.” Hugh took it from her hand.
“I’ll pour the tea,” Dora said. “Take your time.”
Aleida shoved her feet forward, past the sofas and the fireplace,to her son at play. He’d stacked wooden blocks in columns with Oli standing in the center.
She knelt a few feet away. “Is Oli in the zoo?”
Teddy shook his head and added another block to a column, using his left hand. “He’s in the jungle. These are trees. Oli ate the tops off of them.”
A chuckle escaped. He spoke so clearly, in perfect English, without a hint of an accent. “How clever.”
Teddy ignored her and built another tree, block by block.
