Earth s CoreChapter 25 Legacy Of The One rsquo s Path
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The Legacy, Chapter 3: Echoes free porn video
They rode the next day, when Henry came by riding Beau and leading Sadie by the reins. Down by the creek, which was running high and clear, they swam in the pool where the water swirled past a large, flat-topped rock, and then against the bank and back on itself in a gentle whirlpool, a few small leaves and twigs trapped in its center. They swam naked, as they had in this same pool when they were small children; each of them in their own era, their experiences separated by decades.
After, they lay on a blanket on top of the rock, drying in the warm sun, and then they made love. It was gentle and intimate, simply touching and talking, at ease together. In the bright sunlight they were better able to see each other, to take in the beauty of each others bodies, perfection and imperfections alike. They touched and explored, taking turns arousing each other before they coupled, and when it was over they rested for a time and then started again. Beth was astonished at the older man’s libido, and his stamina, at his sheer physicality and his eagerness to please her.
She loved the look of his body, mature, but fit and solid; his thick, dark, silky cock with its soft foreskin and his large, heavy balls seemed to fascinate her as she fondled, licked, and sucked him. There was her burning curiosity which seemed to need to be satisfied as well as her powerful desire.
When Henry gazed at her sleek, pale feminine beauty, he felt as though a fire had been kindled inside of him, dormant embers fanned, his arousal quick and insistent, surprising him. Her willingness, the eager and wanton slipperiness of her sex and the sweet musky scent and taste of her aroused pussy served to turn his flames into a raging bonfire. He was astonished to discover that he still had the same needs and desires that he’d had as a much younger man, and that this young woman that he’d known for her entire life had so suddenly – and easily - awakened them.
For Henry it was a renewal, the first time in years that he’d felt fully alive, and as if his life still held some meaning beyond his simple friendships and the sons that he rarely saw. He felt like a whole man again, and Beth’s unabashed and uninhibited enjoyment of their lovemaking, in which she gave of herself so freely and eagerly, was a joyful affirmation for him. She made love with a selfless abandon, and seemed to revel in his touch, and watching her beautiful face as she climaxed was a rare and powerful moment that moved him deeply and left his eyes wet with tears. The powerful, straining release of his own orgasm, deep inside of her, left him limp and shaking, and the days slipped by them.
**************
Robert and Elizabeth’s son was born almost nine months to the day after the violent night of storm; while Henry had watched her body swell with child he’d held his breath, always aware of the possibility that the child growing in her could be his, despite her assurances. Because of Robert’s frequent absences he had attended the birthing classes along with her and Robert – often alone with Beth, as Robert was gone when some of them were held. When the time came, with Robert away in Copenhagen and unable to make it back in time, Henry had taken her to the hospital and stepped in as her coach and support in the delivery room.
He’d been present at the births of two of his own three sons, so it was not an entirely new experience for him. Once again, though, he was left in awe by the sheer wonder of the moment, the astonishing ability of a woman to nurture and grow that new life inside of her body and then to endure the pain of bringing that life into the world. He cried tears of joy with her as he held her, and silently breathed a prayer of thanks and a sigh of relief when the eight-pound, pale pink, blue-eyed baby with his wispy blond hair made his appearance and was laid on her stomach.
Beth and Robert named their son Robert - junior, after his dad, although he’d go by ‘Robby’ for many years to avoid confusion. It was more difficult for Robert to leave home now, with his beautiful wife and infant son there, but his work demanded it, and he loved flying almost as much as he loved his family. In addition, he had the comfort of knowing that Henry was there to help look after them as needed.
Henry and Beth continued to have sex, to make love, throughout her pregnancy and after; not often, not like a couple of randy teenagers, but sometimes, when they needed the warmth and intimacy of each other. Their friendship, always close, grew into something more, a tight and tender bond built on that intimacy and trust, as well as on a lifetime of love, closeness, and shared experience.
They did have the genetic testing done, eventually, as they’d talked about the night of the storm; while the results didn’t establish a firm match, the analysis gave them over an eight-five percent likelihood of a common ancestry, within the last several generations. In addition, Henry had found some additional writings that seemed to make it very clear that their ancestors, in the late 1800’s, had mingled their bloodlines during the course of an ongoing relationship. He and Beth were very excited about it; Robert simply looked on, bemused, not understanding what seemed to be yet another of those “Southern things.”
She was still Robert’s woman and his wife, of course, and she loved him deeply; when he was at home Henry and Beth were very careful to be simply the dear friends they’d always been. If Robert noticed anything different between the two of them, he never mentioned it – with one exception; he did ask her when and why Henry had stopped calling her “Miss Elizabeth” and begun to use simply “Beth”.
She’d laughed and said that maybe all of her years of badgering him about it had finally had an effect, knowing that the real reason was their hidden intimacy, their secret affair. After that first stormy night – and her final admonishment on the front porch – Henry had never once slipped and called her ‘Miss Elizabeth’ again.
Her love for her husband didn’t diminish in the least, which was something she’d been concerned about. If anything, because she was happier and less lonely her love for Robert increased, and her long-repressed resentment of his frequent extended absences seemed to fade away. And that may have been the other thing that Robert noticed, that she was happier, and unquestionably more passionate in the bedroom than she had been recently…which was saying something! Their lives and their love grew and bloomed, and a little over two years after the birth of Robby she was pregnant again.
This time she and Henry had been more careful – he’d actually been quite surprised and delighted to discover that they now made condoms in a “Magnum” size, which fit him more easily – and as a result he was much less concerned about the parentage of this child as her due date approached. They still sometimes made love without using protection, both preferring and enjoying the sensation of their bodies together without the thin barrier, but they were always very selective about the timing. She kept track, and he put his faith in her judgment.
As for her husband being present for the birth of their second child, they’d planned better. Robert scheduled some vacation time for a week on either side of her due date; as best-laid plans tend to do, however, things went awry when Beth went into labor twelve days early and delivered their baby girl while Robert was again overseas, in Rome this time. Again Henry stood in for him in the birthing room, at Beth’s side, and when tiny Elsa was born he was the first to note her strawberry-blond peach fuzz, a hair color characteristic of Robert’s family.
At this point, Beth was almost thirty-four, Robert thirty-eight, and Henry was seventy-one…and showing no signs of decreasing libido or virility, as far as Beth was able to discern! Robby was almost three when his sister was born, and as proud as a big brother of that age could possibly be; if he had any issue with the new addition to the family it was only the time that his momma had to devote one-on-one with the baby when nursing her.
Robert had been surprised initially, when she’d nursed Robby, at the complete comfort and ease she’d shown when Henry was around at feeding times; exposing her breasts and feeding her infant son in front of the older man had seemed to cause her no embarrassment or discomfort of any kind. The matter-of-fact way in which Henry had accepted it, having been around his own three sons while they were nursing, eased Robert’s mind – but then, the older man had always seemed to show a certain degree of equanimity about most things that might embarrass or offend other folks!
The three adults got along famously, as a family does, all three taking responsibility for the two young siblings. Much of their early learning and knowledge of the world around them came from Henry, with Robert so often absent; if Robert resented Henry’s ease and familiarity with his wife and children in any way, he never gave any indication of it. If anything, he seemed grateful to the older man for filling that void in their lives. He sometimes looked at Henry almost as a father figure, and the two men had as much love and respect for each other as two adult men are ever likely to share.
This troubled Henry, the fact that he and Robert were so close, and yet he continued to cuckold the younger man by sharing regular, if infrequent, intimate sexual relations with his wife. It didn’t seem to be something he was capable of stopping, despite his sense of guilt, and while their opportunities to make love diminished with the two children around, they still found time, usually after the kids were in bed. He took comfort in the fact that Beth and Robert still loved each other deeply, and that, according to Beth, their own sex lives were rich and fulfilling whenever Robert was able to be home.
When Henry and Beth did find time for each other, each continued to revel in the moments when she could take him deep inside of her, feel her own body responding, climaxing – often multiple times - and then feel his big cock stiffen and flex with his orgasm. They never seemed to tire of touching, exploring, and tasting each other, and while their sex was often intimate and loving, often tender and slow, it wasn’t always that way, and it lacked none of the pleasure, urgency, and bliss of a much younger couple experiencing each other in such intimate ways.
He was at first a bit shocked by her sexual aggressiveness; it was not at all unusual for her to initiate things, using her hands and mouth to arouse him and bring him to full readiness, and then to climb on top of him and ride him hard and vigorously, seeking her own satisfaction and invariably achieving his as well. It was something to which he wasn’t accustomed, his wife having been the less aggressive (but no less willing!) partner in their marriage, but he came to deeply appreciate it.
Shortly after Elsa turned two, Beth discovered that she was pregnant again. It wasn’t a surprise – they’d been trying – but it was still welcome news. They celebrated together, Henry, Robert, and Beth - and Robby, five now and better able to understand, seemed as excited as they were! Elsa, for her part, didn’t seem all that pleased with the prospect.
Her pregnancy was healthy and uneventful, as with the first two, and she continued to love the two men in her life. If Henry was slowing down a bit it was to be expected - he was almost seventy-four years old, after all – but he continued to enjoy his sex life with Beth, and whenever the opportunity arose, he virtually always did as well. On the rare occasions when he didn’t they touched and tasted and shared, and, ever-creative, he found other ways to satisfy the younger and seemingly insatiable woman!
This time, as her belly grew larger and her due date became nearer, Robert took off the entire month prior and two weeks after, just to be safe; he was not taking any chances on missing the birth of their third child, which they had agreed was also likely to be their last. He had made a quick morning flight over to Atlanta for an important meeting, however, and was on his way back when he got the message that Beth had gone into labor – again, almost a week before she was due!
He pushed the little Cessna to its limits and, with the aid of a fortuitous tailwind and thus a ground speed of over a hundred and seventy miles per hour, arrived in time, but only by a matter of minutes; she gave birth less than a half hour after his breathless arrival. Henry stepped out and let Robert take his rightful place with his wife, gratified that his young friend would finally have the opportunity to be present for the actual birth of his child.
However, in the same way that we recognize and comment on the fact that fate can be cruel, it must also be acknowledged that fate does not lack a sense of humor…or perhaps a sense of irony; therefore, this time, with Robert finally present, the child Beth gave birth to was Henry’s.
It was apparent immediately that the child – a healthy baby boy - was of mixed-race parentage; while even babies born to two black parents are often light-skinned, darkening over time, some are not, and Beth and Henry’s child was dark enough to leave little doubt that Robert was likely not the father. Any remaining doubt was quickly removed by his thick mat of soft, wet, black hair.
The silence that fell over the birthing room scared Beth at first, until the new baby was laid on her belly and she understood the reason for it. It was an embarrassed silence, nobody quite sure what to say in front of a man suddenly made aware of his wife’s infidelity, and Beth felt the shame of having put her husband in such a position. She loved Robert very much, and to cause him to appear as the cuckold husband, even in front of people they didn’t really know, was agonizing for her.
They looked at each other as he continued to hold her, and at her newborn son as the nurses cleaned him up and wrapped him in a light blanket. Robert’s face was unreadable, and Beth didn’t know what she could possibly say or do to make things better; she ached for the humiliation he must be feeling, something she’d never considered and certainly had not anticipated. Her own shame and embarrassment were secondary as she hurt for her man, and feared for her marriage.
Neither spoke until the medical staff had handed the baby back to her and left the room, leaving the couple alone with their son. Strangely, despite the evidence of her cheating on him, Robert had continued to hold her and stroke her hair, and when she tried to apologize, to explain, he cut her off.
“Robert, I’m so sorry…”
“No, Beth, don’t.” He laughed softly, a trace of bitterness. “I think I may have been the least surprised person in the room – other than you, of course.” She waited, not saying anything, not sure how to respond to that. He kissed her forehead. “Henry, I assume?”
She nodded, tears streaking her face. “Yes, of course…he’s the only one, ever, other than you…”
He laughed again, that same short, soft laugh as before. “That old dog! My god…what is he, seventy-three? Is that right?”
She nodded. “Almost seventy-four.”
“Amazing!” He shook his head. “I suppose I should be angry…maybe outraged. I don’t know. I’m not sure what I should feel right now. Hurt, maybe, a little. Maybe a lot.” He reached out and gently stroked the baby’s cheek, feeling the downy fuzz of the newborn infant. “He’s a beautiful boy, Beth.”
She nodded. “You must hate me.”
He bent down so that he could look into her eyes, seeing the pain, sadness, and embarrassment there and on her tear-streaked face. “Hate you? No, Beth, I could never do that. You’re the woman I love – the only woman I’ve ever really loved, I think, and the mother of my children. This can’t change that.” He leaned forward and kissed her gently, on the lips, a kiss that was returned, tentatively at first, and then with more eagerness as she sought his forgiveness. “I’m…a little confused right now…a little numb, perhaps. Oh, Beth…” He stopped, shaking his head and blowing out a pent-up breath. “This…it will take some time.”
When they separated he gently pushed a stray lock of her golden hair out of her face, lightly touching her ear as he tucked it back, and leaving his fingers resting on her neck, near her jaw. He took a deep breath, biting his tongue, unwilling to say words in a moment of pain and anger that he knew could never be unsaid. The words were there, angry and bitter and jumbled in his mind, but he wouldn’t say them.
He was too good a man for that, and he loved this woman far too much. Instead, he said, “So, it seems we have another son! What shall we name this handsome guy?”
The dam broke then, and her tears ran freely. He held her as she cried, aware of his own failures and infidelities as a husband. In a moment of rationalization-free honesty, he understood that he couldn’t condemn her for something of which he too had been guilty, even if he had left those days far behind.
Earlier in their marriage, lonely himself during his travels and subject to his own sexual urges, there had been one-night-stands; a flight attendant in New York, a barmaid in London, a friend of a fellow pilot in Amsterdam, a woman painter that he had met as she painted scenery on a street in Milan. All of them many years in the past, of course, and none he had formed any long-term relationships with; following the birth of Robby, his first son, he had mended his ways and devoted himself to his family, and his own dalliances had ended.
When Beth’s tears finally subsided they sat quietly for awhile, looking at the sleeping baby. When Robert spoke, it was softly, so as not to wake him. “May I ask how long?”
Beth looked at him. “I’m sorry?”
“How long. How long have you and Henry carried on this…affair?”
“Oh.” She looked away, unable to meet his eyes. “Since I got pregnant with Robby…right after, I suppose. It wasn’t something we ever intended, Robert, and I’m so very sorry I hurt you.”
He shook his head and wondered at the irony of the fact that her affair had begun at almost the same time that his own mistakes had ended. “So, all this time…”
She nodded. “Yes…not often. Sometimes, still – well, I suppose that’s obvious!”
He smiled as he touched the baby’s head. “Yes, it is. How…or maybe why is a better question. Why did it start?”
She took a deep breath and then blew it out. “Well, there was this huge storm – you know how I hate storms. Henry stayed with me, late into the night. The power lines went down, and we talked; I think…Robert, I think I seduced him. It’s not his fault, you can’t blame Henry; this is all on me. It may have been something that had been building for a long time, but it’s entirely my fault. All of it.”
“You were lonely, Beth. Lonely and frightened, and he was there. I wasn’t, and that’s my fault. For much of our life together I haven’t been there for you, because of my job. I love it, but I love you and the kids more; I should have done better by you.” He sighed and looked away, out the window toward the forest on the horizon, beyond the parking lot.
“But Henry…” He paused, and then went on. “But Henry is a grown man, Beth; he knew what he was doing…if we’re going to assign blame, there’s enough here for all three of us.” In a strange way he found that he was relieved that the child’s father was Henry – that if she had needed to seek the comfort of another man’s arms, that she had chosen him. He knew that the two of them loved each other – that had been obvious from the start – but with any man other than her old friend there would have been the fear, the very real chance, that she might have grown apart from her husband, fallen in love, and left him. Henry, by filling that massive void in her life, may have in this strange way ultimately saved their marriage.
She didn’t answer, didn’t know what to say, and didn’t understand how he could be taking this as well as he was. She knew she’d married a fine man, but time and again he’d surprised her, and he did again now. “You’ve loved him a long time, Beth, and I’ve always understood that – hell, I love the old bastard too, he’s a wonderful man! I suppose I understand, perhaps, how this could happen. And why. But it hurts, Beth…very much. Very deeply.” He wouldn’t tell her of his own failures; that would be self-serving, a selfish attempt to relieve his own guilt, and would only cause her needless pain. Those days were long over – had never been anything meaningful – and would remain buried in the past.
“You’re too good to me, Robert; you should yell at me, call me names, hate me. We tried to be careful – we thought we were, but…” She sighed. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, but I never tried very hard to end it either, with Henry – and I do love him. Not the way I love you, but he’s such a huge part of my life. It’s difficult. Difficult to explain, because I’m not sure I understand it myself.”
“It’s okay, Beth; I think we’re going to be okay. We’ll need time; there are some things we’ll need to work through…”
“No, but you need to understand! There are two amazing, incredible men in my life – I don’t deserve either of them, but I love them both very much.” She looked at him for a moment, biting her lip, trying to figure out how to explain. “I don’t know what to do with that. I’ve never known, and it tears me apart sometimes.”
He considered her words for several seconds, a brief time that seemed longer that it was, and then he said, “I’m proud to be one of them, my love – one of the men you love. You’re an amazing woman, and Henry is one of the finest men I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing; to be included in that small group is an honor.”
“Robert…”
He shushed her. “Ssshhh! No, look; you’ve just had a beautiful, healthy baby boy. This should be a happy time, not one for recrimination and tears. We have a new son – and yes, my love, despite all he is our son and we’ll raise him that way, and Henry can be involved in whatever way he sees fit. If I know him, as much as he’s involved with Robby and Elsa that will be a lot!” He paused. “But Henry won’t be around forever – you know that. This little guy can know all about his father when he’s old enough to understand; in the interim I suppose he’ll have two dads. Hell, that’s sort of the way it works for Robby and Elsa already!” He laughed, his earlier bitterness apparently gone.
She took a shuddering breath, her cheeks still wet with tears. “I love you, Robert.”
“I love you too, Beth, no matter what; always know that, please.” He smiled softly and scrubbed the tears from his own eyes with the back of his hand. He bent and kissed her again, and then kissed their son on the forehead. “So, what do you think? I’m leaning toward ‘Henry’ as a name for this bruiser – did you hear them say nine pounds, three ounces? That’s a very big boy!”
She laughed. “Tell me about it!” The tears came again, unbidden. “That’s very sweet, Robert; maybe Henry Pettigrew Bishop? How does that sound?”
He smiled. “I like it! He’ll have to go by ‘Hank’, of course, to avoid confusion. Sort of like Robby.”
There was a knock at the door, and they both looked over at it, and then at each other. He spoke first. “That will be Henry, I expect.”
“Robert, remember that this is all on me…please?”
“But it’s not, Beth.” He crossed to the door and opened it; as they’d expected, it was Henry, a big smile on his face and a vase full of pink roses in his hand.
“So, Mr. Robert, congratulations! Momma and baby are doing fine, I hope?”
Robert nodded. “They are, Henry. Come in.” He closed the door and turned back to face the older man. “Henry, I don’t know whether I should congratulate you, or punch you in the mouth.”
“What? I don’t…” Clearly confused by Robert’s words, he was at a loss for a moment. He glanced at Beth, unable to read anything on her face, and at the little bundled up form she held to her breast. He looked back at Robert, who put his hand on Henry’s shoulder and guided him to the bed where Beth lay.
“Come meet your son, Henry; our son, perhaps I should say.”
Shock, confusion, puzzlement, any number of things went across Henry’s features until he looked down at the baby boy in her arms, and then he understood. When it dawned, his expression changed to one of surprise, awe, shame…joy, certainly, but also sorrow for what he knew the young couple must be going through. That his weakness and lack of honor and self-control had brought them to this point, and had put them in the position of dealing with something such as this caused him great pain, and he was deeply ashamed.
“Mr. Robert, I’m so sorry. This should never have happened…it’s all my fault, you can’t blame this on Beth!”
Robert laughed. “You know, maybe I should have realized when you suddenly started calling her ‘Beth’. That was about when all this began, wasn’t it?”
Henry nodded. “Yes. But place the blame on me, where it belongs; I’m old enough to have known better. My fault, Mr. Robert, all of this.”
“We’re all adults, Henry; we all bear some of the blame, but we’re not discussing that right now. So, tell us; what do you think of Henry Pettigrew Bishop? Handsome boy, isn’t he?”
Henry’s eyes welled with tears, which quickly overflowed and ran down his cheeks unchecked. Robert clapped him on the shoulder. “I’ll give the three of you a few minutes alone, so you can get to know your son…our son, Henry. He’s also our son.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “You know, we’ve always been a family, I think, in many ways. Maybe now we’re just a little more of a family than we were before. This is going to require some getting used to! Oh, and Henry? We’ll talk later; there are some things that need to be said.”
He turned and left, closing the door behind himself. Henry turned back to Beth and his son…his newest son. “Beth, I’m so sorry…”
“Ssshhh, Henry, it’s all right. We talked…It’s going to be okay, I think. Robert is an incredible man. So, what do you think?” She held the infant out to him, and he took the baby from her, cradling him gently in his big arms.
“My god, Beth…he’s so beautiful. So beautiful. Like his momma.”
She smiled. “I think he favors his daddy, myself! Henry, I’m sorry. Somewhere I fucked up in keeping track, I guess. But now, seeing Hank…I just can’t be too upset about that!”
He laughed. “Hank? Nobody ever called me Hank!”
“And that’s why it’s perfect for him! Henry, Robert was so amazing…so incredible. He was so calm, the way he handled it; he was hurt, but…god! I don’t deserve a man that loves me that way!”
“Two men, Beth. You have two men that love you, but you’ve known that for a long time.” He bent and kissed her, passing the baby back into her arms. “A woman like you, that can find it in her heart to love two such very different men…”
“You’re not that different, Henry, you and Robert. You’re both very fine, gracious, loving, wonderful men. Mary was lucky to have you for all the years she did, and I’ve always felt very blessed that you’re a part of my life…never more than right now.”
He kissed her again, and then straightened, looking down at his son and his beautiful lover and friend, the wife of a fine man that he deeply respected. He smiled. “You know, Robert, being a pilot – they’re trained to handle anything that might come up, not to panic but to assess the situation and find a solution. I saw that a lot when I was in the Navy, with the men that flew off my carrier. Maybe that’s part of why he was able to deal with this as he seems to have done. That, and the fact that he loves you and your kids so much.”
She nodded, still in awe of the dignity and calm with which her husband had accepted the situation…at least for now. “Maybe; whatever the reason, I love him more than ever. I hope he knows that.”
“I’m sure he does, but you’ll tell him and show him in the years ahead.” He grew serious. “That he told me that my son is also your son – yours and his – God! That’s a gift, Beth. He knows I won’t be around to watch this boy grow up. Not the whole time.”
“Henry, don’t say that! You’re going to live forever.” She hugged their baby close, knowing her words weren’t true.
He did live on for a number of years, however, long enough to teach their son how to fish, and to ride, and he watched Robby, Elsa, and Hank grow into beautiful children, siblings that deeply loved each other.
It wasn’t all easy, however; Henry and Robert had a very long talk – several, actually, over numerous glasses of bourbon - each understanding that they both loved the same woman. It was not something easy for Robert to accept, although he did begin to understand; for Henry, it was something he’d known before the affair began, that Beth belonged to another, so it was easier for him.
Robert and Beth had their difficulties as well, and although there was never any shouting or fighting, they did have many long discussions. Robert, in a crisis of confidence that any husband might experience in a similar situation, suffered from impotence for a time, his masculinity threatened by his partner taking another man as a lover. Seeing his shame and humiliation at his inability to perform hurt Beth deeply; it was the one time when she truly regretted her love affair with Henry, and the one period in which the two of them, Henry and Beth, abstained completely from any form of intimacy.
With gentleness and love, however, Beth was able to make Robert understand that it wasn’t about him, and had never been about him or anything she’d found lacking in their love life. Instead, he came to understand and accept the way that she simply loved two men; that it was a force that had taken her by surprise, but one which she’d been unable to resist. When he understood and accepted that she still loved him the way she did - and always had - his dysfunction slowly relented until he was once again the confident, virile, and gentle lover that he’d been throughout their marriage.
It was Robert that took his family to see the world, to places such as London, Paris, and Rome, taking advantage of his job with the airline to expose his three children to the many beautiful and exotic wonders the world had to offer. He loved to watch their faces as they saw each new and different thing, and made a serious effort to spend as much time with them as possible, to see his three children grow and bloom.
Henry was in charge of all of the things closer to home; fishing and riding, of course, but also the stories of their home and its history. He taught them about the woods, and how to tell a venomous copperhead or cottonmouth from a harmless rat snake or king snake. He took them to the coast, to the white sand beaches of the Florida panhandle and to the Atlantic coast of Georgia, where the Gulf Stream presses its warm waters against the numerous fine beaches, and taught them to swim and to collect seashells together.
All of them went to Disney World together, the three adults and the three children spending days laughing and playing at the many attractions. For Beth it was a time of great joy, time spent with the children so dear to her and with both of the men she loved – although her sex life with each remained independent of the other. If either felt any resentment or jealousy about that they held it in check for the sake of their woman, and their children; Robert and Henry, after a tense period, remained good friends.
Sometimes people looked at them, curious about this unusual family with its one beautiful woman, two men of different races, and two white and one obviously mixed-race child; they ignored the stares and whispers and instead focused on their own lives, and on their love and the laughter of their kids. Hank was an incredibly attractive boy, his skin a rich coffee-with-cream color and his black hair eventually turning a smoky brown/blonde in the sunlight. He had somehow inherited his mother’s brilliant blue eyes, and they gave his small, dark face a startling beauty.
As it turned out, though, Henry had been closer to the truth than she had; he didn’t live forever. He died at the age of eighty-one, when his son, Hank, was seven years old and Beth was almost forty-four. At the end, he died in the saddle - and no, not what you’re thinking, although he and Beth remained sexually active - as active as any eighty-one year old is likely to be – right up until the end. He could have died in the saddle in that way, but he didn’t.
On the day he died they were out riding, he on Beau and Beth riding Sadie, both of whom were also getting on in years. Elsa was with them, on Princess, the small filly that Henry had gotten for her and taught her to ride. When Henry groaned loudly and slumped over in the saddle Beth had immediately sent her then-ten year old daughter back to the house, where Robert was playing basketball with Hank and Robby, with instructions to tell her father what had happened and then wait for the ambulance and lead it to their location.
She jumped down from her own horse and helped Henry to the ground, where she cradled his head and held him close as she called 911 on her cell phone. They both knew, even then, that the ambulance wasn’t going to arrive in time, but they had time to say the things they needed to say to each other. And so they talked as she held him, and he died peacefully in her arms, content with the life he’d lived and secure in the knowledge that his son was loved and would be raised by these two fine, loving people.
And that was the way Robert found them, his wife on the ground with the older man’s head in her lap, his last words spoken to her in love and peace, his magnificent heart finally stilled. Her face was streaked with tears and she sobbed, distraught and inconsolable, while the paramedics lifted his body into the ambulance, no heroic measures left to be taken on his behalf, their actions calm and measured in respect for the grieving.
She had the comfort of knowing that he’d died with people he loved while doing something he still deeply enjoyed, in a place that he’d always considered the most beautiful place on earth. It turned out that he’d suffered a ruptured aneurysm in his abdomen, serious enough that he’d bled out internally; there was nothing anyone could have done, no CPR or anything else that would have saved him.
They buried him in the family plot at Three Oaks, in a clearing on a hillside overlooking the fields and the old farmhouse below. He was laid alongside his beloved Mary, and in the company of generations of Pettigrews, black and white. The space on his other side they reserved for Beth, and the one next to her for Robert, so that someday she would lie at rest between her two beloved men.
For all the years after Henry’s death, Beth made regular trips to the small cemetery to speak with him. She liked to go just before sunrise, either walking up the hill from the road, or else on horseback, so that she could watch the sun come up over the land she loved so much. With the sight of the mist laying in the bottomlands and her home in the distance, she was sure that sometimes she could still hear his deep, gentle voice whispering words of love, or telling her of the past and their ancestors - or perhaps it was merely echoes in the breeze. She would stay until the heat of the morning sun burned away the mist, and then return to her loving family, somehow more at peace.
He was deeply missed – not just by Beth, but by Robert and their three children, and by his three older boys, who had accepted Hank as a brother – albeit a very young one! They all accepted Beth and Robert and the other two kids as well, not terribly surprised by the relationship that had existed between them; they knew of their father’s capacity for love and compassion…and, too, it was just the way things were!
John, Henry’s youngest son – other than Hank, of course – soon moved back into his parent’s home, which had also been his childhood home at Three Oaks. He was five years younger than Beth, but he carried on many of the traditions that Henry had established with the three younger children, such as taking them fishing and riding, teaching them about the outdoors, and sharing all the old stories his father had shared with him and Beth when they were small.
He and Beth became dear friends, but never lovers; he did fill some of the void that Henry’s passing had left in her life, however, in those times when Robert was away, and she was grateful for that. She wondered sometimes what would happen to the old place when she and Robert got older; it seemed that both Hank and Elsa had formed a bond to the land, to the old plantation, and she could envision them, brother and sister, one in Henry’s home and the other in hers, each with their families.
She hoped that would be the way things turned out…and she thought they might, because things in the South somehow seem to endure; sometimes things that are not so good, but often very fine things as well. She hoped that her ancestral home and the gentle echoes of the lives of the people that had lived and loved there would be one of the things that would endure, because surely it was one of those good things.
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As always, my thanks to each of you for reading; I hope you enjoyed "The Legacy". Again I'd like to thank MamaScribe, brandylady53, and kscorn079 for their willing help and expertise; your friendship and willingness to share your time, knowledge, and expertise with me is deeply appreciated, and you made the writing of this story much more enjoyable that it would have otherwise been. Thank you.
After, they lay on a blanket on top of the rock, drying in the warm sun, and then they made love. It was gentle and intimate, simply touching and talking, at ease together. In the bright sunlight they were better able to see each other, to take in the beauty of each others bodies, perfection and imperfections alike. They touched and explored, taking turns arousing each other before they coupled, and when it was over they rested for a time and then started again. Beth was astonished at the older man’s libido, and his stamina, at his sheer physicality and his eagerness to please her.
She loved the look of his body, mature, but fit and solid; his thick, dark, silky cock with its soft foreskin and his large, heavy balls seemed to fascinate her as she fondled, licked, and sucked him. There was her burning curiosity which seemed to need to be satisfied as well as her powerful desire.
When Henry gazed at her sleek, pale feminine beauty, he felt as though a fire had been kindled inside of him, dormant embers fanned, his arousal quick and insistent, surprising him. Her willingness, the eager and wanton slipperiness of her sex and the sweet musky scent and taste of her aroused pussy served to turn his flames into a raging bonfire. He was astonished to discover that he still had the same needs and desires that he’d had as a much younger man, and that this young woman that he’d known for her entire life had so suddenly – and easily - awakened them.
For Henry it was a renewal, the first time in years that he’d felt fully alive, and as if his life still held some meaning beyond his simple friendships and the sons that he rarely saw. He felt like a whole man again, and Beth’s unabashed and uninhibited enjoyment of their lovemaking, in which she gave of herself so freely and eagerly, was a joyful affirmation for him. She made love with a selfless abandon, and seemed to revel in his touch, and watching her beautiful face as she climaxed was a rare and powerful moment that moved him deeply and left his eyes wet with tears. The powerful, straining release of his own orgasm, deep inside of her, left him limp and shaking, and the days slipped by them.
**************
Robert and Elizabeth’s son was born almost nine months to the day after the violent night of storm; while Henry had watched her body swell with child he’d held his breath, always aware of the possibility that the child growing in her could be his, despite her assurances. Because of Robert’s frequent absences he had attended the birthing classes along with her and Robert – often alone with Beth, as Robert was gone when some of them were held. When the time came, with Robert away in Copenhagen and unable to make it back in time, Henry had taken her to the hospital and stepped in as her coach and support in the delivery room.
He’d been present at the births of two of his own three sons, so it was not an entirely new experience for him. Once again, though, he was left in awe by the sheer wonder of the moment, the astonishing ability of a woman to nurture and grow that new life inside of her body and then to endure the pain of bringing that life into the world. He cried tears of joy with her as he held her, and silently breathed a prayer of thanks and a sigh of relief when the eight-pound, pale pink, blue-eyed baby with his wispy blond hair made his appearance and was laid on her stomach.
Beth and Robert named their son Robert - junior, after his dad, although he’d go by ‘Robby’ for many years to avoid confusion. It was more difficult for Robert to leave home now, with his beautiful wife and infant son there, but his work demanded it, and he loved flying almost as much as he loved his family. In addition, he had the comfort of knowing that Henry was there to help look after them as needed.
Henry and Beth continued to have sex, to make love, throughout her pregnancy and after; not often, not like a couple of randy teenagers, but sometimes, when they needed the warmth and intimacy of each other. Their friendship, always close, grew into something more, a tight and tender bond built on that intimacy and trust, as well as on a lifetime of love, closeness, and shared experience.
They did have the genetic testing done, eventually, as they’d talked about the night of the storm; while the results didn’t establish a firm match, the analysis gave them over an eight-five percent likelihood of a common ancestry, within the last several generations. In addition, Henry had found some additional writings that seemed to make it very clear that their ancestors, in the late 1800’s, had mingled their bloodlines during the course of an ongoing relationship. He and Beth were very excited about it; Robert simply looked on, bemused, not understanding what seemed to be yet another of those “Southern things.”
She was still Robert’s woman and his wife, of course, and she loved him deeply; when he was at home Henry and Beth were very careful to be simply the dear friends they’d always been. If Robert noticed anything different between the two of them, he never mentioned it – with one exception; he did ask her when and why Henry had stopped calling her “Miss Elizabeth” and begun to use simply “Beth”.
She’d laughed and said that maybe all of her years of badgering him about it had finally had an effect, knowing that the real reason was their hidden intimacy, their secret affair. After that first stormy night – and her final admonishment on the front porch – Henry had never once slipped and called her ‘Miss Elizabeth’ again.
Her love for her husband didn’t diminish in the least, which was something she’d been concerned about. If anything, because she was happier and less lonely her love for Robert increased, and her long-repressed resentment of his frequent extended absences seemed to fade away. And that may have been the other thing that Robert noticed, that she was happier, and unquestionably more passionate in the bedroom than she had been recently…which was saying something! Their lives and their love grew and bloomed, and a little over two years after the birth of Robby she was pregnant again.
This time she and Henry had been more careful – he’d actually been quite surprised and delighted to discover that they now made condoms in a “Magnum” size, which fit him more easily – and as a result he was much less concerned about the parentage of this child as her due date approached. They still sometimes made love without using protection, both preferring and enjoying the sensation of their bodies together without the thin barrier, but they were always very selective about the timing. She kept track, and he put his faith in her judgment.
As for her husband being present for the birth of their second child, they’d planned better. Robert scheduled some vacation time for a week on either side of her due date; as best-laid plans tend to do, however, things went awry when Beth went into labor twelve days early and delivered their baby girl while Robert was again overseas, in Rome this time. Again Henry stood in for him in the birthing room, at Beth’s side, and when tiny Elsa was born he was the first to note her strawberry-blond peach fuzz, a hair color characteristic of Robert’s family.
At this point, Beth was almost thirty-four, Robert thirty-eight, and Henry was seventy-one…and showing no signs of decreasing libido or virility, as far as Beth was able to discern! Robby was almost three when his sister was born, and as proud as a big brother of that age could possibly be; if he had any issue with the new addition to the family it was only the time that his momma had to devote one-on-one with the baby when nursing her.
Robert had been surprised initially, when she’d nursed Robby, at the complete comfort and ease she’d shown when Henry was around at feeding times; exposing her breasts and feeding her infant son in front of the older man had seemed to cause her no embarrassment or discomfort of any kind. The matter-of-fact way in which Henry had accepted it, having been around his own three sons while they were nursing, eased Robert’s mind – but then, the older man had always seemed to show a certain degree of equanimity about most things that might embarrass or offend other folks!
The three adults got along famously, as a family does, all three taking responsibility for the two young siblings. Much of their early learning and knowledge of the world around them came from Henry, with Robert so often absent; if Robert resented Henry’s ease and familiarity with his wife and children in any way, he never gave any indication of it. If anything, he seemed grateful to the older man for filling that void in their lives. He sometimes looked at Henry almost as a father figure, and the two men had as much love and respect for each other as two adult men are ever likely to share.
This troubled Henry, the fact that he and Robert were so close, and yet he continued to cuckold the younger man by sharing regular, if infrequent, intimate sexual relations with his wife. It didn’t seem to be something he was capable of stopping, despite his sense of guilt, and while their opportunities to make love diminished with the two children around, they still found time, usually after the kids were in bed. He took comfort in the fact that Beth and Robert still loved each other deeply, and that, according to Beth, their own sex lives were rich and fulfilling whenever Robert was able to be home.
When Henry and Beth did find time for each other, each continued to revel in the moments when she could take him deep inside of her, feel her own body responding, climaxing – often multiple times - and then feel his big cock stiffen and flex with his orgasm. They never seemed to tire of touching, exploring, and tasting each other, and while their sex was often intimate and loving, often tender and slow, it wasn’t always that way, and it lacked none of the pleasure, urgency, and bliss of a much younger couple experiencing each other in such intimate ways.
He was at first a bit shocked by her sexual aggressiveness; it was not at all unusual for her to initiate things, using her hands and mouth to arouse him and bring him to full readiness, and then to climb on top of him and ride him hard and vigorously, seeking her own satisfaction and invariably achieving his as well. It was something to which he wasn’t accustomed, his wife having been the less aggressive (but no less willing!) partner in their marriage, but he came to deeply appreciate it.
Shortly after Elsa turned two, Beth discovered that she was pregnant again. It wasn’t a surprise – they’d been trying – but it was still welcome news. They celebrated together, Henry, Robert, and Beth - and Robby, five now and better able to understand, seemed as excited as they were! Elsa, for her part, didn’t seem all that pleased with the prospect.
Her pregnancy was healthy and uneventful, as with the first two, and she continued to love the two men in her life. If Henry was slowing down a bit it was to be expected - he was almost seventy-four years old, after all – but he continued to enjoy his sex life with Beth, and whenever the opportunity arose, he virtually always did as well. On the rare occasions when he didn’t they touched and tasted and shared, and, ever-creative, he found other ways to satisfy the younger and seemingly insatiable woman!
This time, as her belly grew larger and her due date became nearer, Robert took off the entire month prior and two weeks after, just to be safe; he was not taking any chances on missing the birth of their third child, which they had agreed was also likely to be their last. He had made a quick morning flight over to Atlanta for an important meeting, however, and was on his way back when he got the message that Beth had gone into labor – again, almost a week before she was due!
He pushed the little Cessna to its limits and, with the aid of a fortuitous tailwind and thus a ground speed of over a hundred and seventy miles per hour, arrived in time, but only by a matter of minutes; she gave birth less than a half hour after his breathless arrival. Henry stepped out and let Robert take his rightful place with his wife, gratified that his young friend would finally have the opportunity to be present for the actual birth of his child.
However, in the same way that we recognize and comment on the fact that fate can be cruel, it must also be acknowledged that fate does not lack a sense of humor…or perhaps a sense of irony; therefore, this time, with Robert finally present, the child Beth gave birth to was Henry’s.
It was apparent immediately that the child – a healthy baby boy - was of mixed-race parentage; while even babies born to two black parents are often light-skinned, darkening over time, some are not, and Beth and Henry’s child was dark enough to leave little doubt that Robert was likely not the father. Any remaining doubt was quickly removed by his thick mat of soft, wet, black hair.
The silence that fell over the birthing room scared Beth at first, until the new baby was laid on her belly and she understood the reason for it. It was an embarrassed silence, nobody quite sure what to say in front of a man suddenly made aware of his wife’s infidelity, and Beth felt the shame of having put her husband in such a position. She loved Robert very much, and to cause him to appear as the cuckold husband, even in front of people they didn’t really know, was agonizing for her.
They looked at each other as he continued to hold her, and at her newborn son as the nurses cleaned him up and wrapped him in a light blanket. Robert’s face was unreadable, and Beth didn’t know what she could possibly say or do to make things better; she ached for the humiliation he must be feeling, something she’d never considered and certainly had not anticipated. Her own shame and embarrassment were secondary as she hurt for her man, and feared for her marriage.
Neither spoke until the medical staff had handed the baby back to her and left the room, leaving the couple alone with their son. Strangely, despite the evidence of her cheating on him, Robert had continued to hold her and stroke her hair, and when she tried to apologize, to explain, he cut her off.
“Robert, I’m so sorry…”
“No, Beth, don’t.” He laughed softly, a trace of bitterness. “I think I may have been the least surprised person in the room – other than you, of course.” She waited, not saying anything, not sure how to respond to that. He kissed her forehead. “Henry, I assume?”
She nodded, tears streaking her face. “Yes, of course…he’s the only one, ever, other than you…”
He laughed again, that same short, soft laugh as before. “That old dog! My god…what is he, seventy-three? Is that right?”
She nodded. “Almost seventy-four.”
“Amazing!” He shook his head. “I suppose I should be angry…maybe outraged. I don’t know. I’m not sure what I should feel right now. Hurt, maybe, a little. Maybe a lot.” He reached out and gently stroked the baby’s cheek, feeling the downy fuzz of the newborn infant. “He’s a beautiful boy, Beth.”
She nodded. “You must hate me.”
He bent down so that he could look into her eyes, seeing the pain, sadness, and embarrassment there and on her tear-streaked face. “Hate you? No, Beth, I could never do that. You’re the woman I love – the only woman I’ve ever really loved, I think, and the mother of my children. This can’t change that.” He leaned forward and kissed her gently, on the lips, a kiss that was returned, tentatively at first, and then with more eagerness as she sought his forgiveness. “I’m…a little confused right now…a little numb, perhaps. Oh, Beth…” He stopped, shaking his head and blowing out a pent-up breath. “This…it will take some time.”
When they separated he gently pushed a stray lock of her golden hair out of her face, lightly touching her ear as he tucked it back, and leaving his fingers resting on her neck, near her jaw. He took a deep breath, biting his tongue, unwilling to say words in a moment of pain and anger that he knew could never be unsaid. The words were there, angry and bitter and jumbled in his mind, but he wouldn’t say them.
He was too good a man for that, and he loved this woman far too much. Instead, he said, “So, it seems we have another son! What shall we name this handsome guy?”
The dam broke then, and her tears ran freely. He held her as she cried, aware of his own failures and infidelities as a husband. In a moment of rationalization-free honesty, he understood that he couldn’t condemn her for something of which he too had been guilty, even if he had left those days far behind.
Earlier in their marriage, lonely himself during his travels and subject to his own sexual urges, there had been one-night-stands; a flight attendant in New York, a barmaid in London, a friend of a fellow pilot in Amsterdam, a woman painter that he had met as she painted scenery on a street in Milan. All of them many years in the past, of course, and none he had formed any long-term relationships with; following the birth of Robby, his first son, he had mended his ways and devoted himself to his family, and his own dalliances had ended.
When Beth’s tears finally subsided they sat quietly for awhile, looking at the sleeping baby. When Robert spoke, it was softly, so as not to wake him. “May I ask how long?”
Beth looked at him. “I’m sorry?”
“How long. How long have you and Henry carried on this…affair?”
“Oh.” She looked away, unable to meet his eyes. “Since I got pregnant with Robby…right after, I suppose. It wasn’t something we ever intended, Robert, and I’m so very sorry I hurt you.”
He shook his head and wondered at the irony of the fact that her affair had begun at almost the same time that his own mistakes had ended. “So, all this time…”
She nodded. “Yes…not often. Sometimes, still – well, I suppose that’s obvious!”
He smiled as he touched the baby’s head. “Yes, it is. How…or maybe why is a better question. Why did it start?”
She took a deep breath and then blew it out. “Well, there was this huge storm – you know how I hate storms. Henry stayed with me, late into the night. The power lines went down, and we talked; I think…Robert, I think I seduced him. It’s not his fault, you can’t blame Henry; this is all on me. It may have been something that had been building for a long time, but it’s entirely my fault. All of it.”
“You were lonely, Beth. Lonely and frightened, and he was there. I wasn’t, and that’s my fault. For much of our life together I haven’t been there for you, because of my job. I love it, but I love you and the kids more; I should have done better by you.” He sighed and looked away, out the window toward the forest on the horizon, beyond the parking lot.
“But Henry…” He paused, and then went on. “But Henry is a grown man, Beth; he knew what he was doing…if we’re going to assign blame, there’s enough here for all three of us.” In a strange way he found that he was relieved that the child’s father was Henry – that if she had needed to seek the comfort of another man’s arms, that she had chosen him. He knew that the two of them loved each other – that had been obvious from the start – but with any man other than her old friend there would have been the fear, the very real chance, that she might have grown apart from her husband, fallen in love, and left him. Henry, by filling that massive void in her life, may have in this strange way ultimately saved their marriage.
She didn’t answer, didn’t know what to say, and didn’t understand how he could be taking this as well as he was. She knew she’d married a fine man, but time and again he’d surprised her, and he did again now. “You’ve loved him a long time, Beth, and I’ve always understood that – hell, I love the old bastard too, he’s a wonderful man! I suppose I understand, perhaps, how this could happen. And why. But it hurts, Beth…very much. Very deeply.” He wouldn’t tell her of his own failures; that would be self-serving, a selfish attempt to relieve his own guilt, and would only cause her needless pain. Those days were long over – had never been anything meaningful – and would remain buried in the past.
“You’re too good to me, Robert; you should yell at me, call me names, hate me. We tried to be careful – we thought we were, but…” She sighed. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, but I never tried very hard to end it either, with Henry – and I do love him. Not the way I love you, but he’s such a huge part of my life. It’s difficult. Difficult to explain, because I’m not sure I understand it myself.”
“It’s okay, Beth; I think we’re going to be okay. We’ll need time; there are some things we’ll need to work through…”
“No, but you need to understand! There are two amazing, incredible men in my life – I don’t deserve either of them, but I love them both very much.” She looked at him for a moment, biting her lip, trying to figure out how to explain. “I don’t know what to do with that. I’ve never known, and it tears me apart sometimes.”
He considered her words for several seconds, a brief time that seemed longer that it was, and then he said, “I’m proud to be one of them, my love – one of the men you love. You’re an amazing woman, and Henry is one of the finest men I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing; to be included in that small group is an honor.”
“Robert…”
He shushed her. “Ssshhh! No, look; you’ve just had a beautiful, healthy baby boy. This should be a happy time, not one for recrimination and tears. We have a new son – and yes, my love, despite all he is our son and we’ll raise him that way, and Henry can be involved in whatever way he sees fit. If I know him, as much as he’s involved with Robby and Elsa that will be a lot!” He paused. “But Henry won’t be around forever – you know that. This little guy can know all about his father when he’s old enough to understand; in the interim I suppose he’ll have two dads. Hell, that’s sort of the way it works for Robby and Elsa already!” He laughed, his earlier bitterness apparently gone.
She took a shuddering breath, her cheeks still wet with tears. “I love you, Robert.”
“I love you too, Beth, no matter what; always know that, please.” He smiled softly and scrubbed the tears from his own eyes with the back of his hand. He bent and kissed her again, and then kissed their son on the forehead. “So, what do you think? I’m leaning toward ‘Henry’ as a name for this bruiser – did you hear them say nine pounds, three ounces? That’s a very big boy!”
She laughed. “Tell me about it!” The tears came again, unbidden. “That’s very sweet, Robert; maybe Henry Pettigrew Bishop? How does that sound?”
He smiled. “I like it! He’ll have to go by ‘Hank’, of course, to avoid confusion. Sort of like Robby.”
There was a knock at the door, and they both looked over at it, and then at each other. He spoke first. “That will be Henry, I expect.”
“Robert, remember that this is all on me…please?”
“But it’s not, Beth.” He crossed to the door and opened it; as they’d expected, it was Henry, a big smile on his face and a vase full of pink roses in his hand.
“So, Mr. Robert, congratulations! Momma and baby are doing fine, I hope?”
Robert nodded. “They are, Henry. Come in.” He closed the door and turned back to face the older man. “Henry, I don’t know whether I should congratulate you, or punch you in the mouth.”
“What? I don’t…” Clearly confused by Robert’s words, he was at a loss for a moment. He glanced at Beth, unable to read anything on her face, and at the little bundled up form she held to her breast. He looked back at Robert, who put his hand on Henry’s shoulder and guided him to the bed where Beth lay.
“Come meet your son, Henry; our son, perhaps I should say.”
Shock, confusion, puzzlement, any number of things went across Henry’s features until he looked down at the baby boy in her arms, and then he understood. When it dawned, his expression changed to one of surprise, awe, shame…joy, certainly, but also sorrow for what he knew the young couple must be going through. That his weakness and lack of honor and self-control had brought them to this point, and had put them in the position of dealing with something such as this caused him great pain, and he was deeply ashamed.
“Mr. Robert, I’m so sorry. This should never have happened…it’s all my fault, you can’t blame this on Beth!”
Robert laughed. “You know, maybe I should have realized when you suddenly started calling her ‘Beth’. That was about when all this began, wasn’t it?”
Henry nodded. “Yes. But place the blame on me, where it belongs; I’m old enough to have known better. My fault, Mr. Robert, all of this.”
“We’re all adults, Henry; we all bear some of the blame, but we’re not discussing that right now. So, tell us; what do you think of Henry Pettigrew Bishop? Handsome boy, isn’t he?”
Henry’s eyes welled with tears, which quickly overflowed and ran down his cheeks unchecked. Robert clapped him on the shoulder. “I’ll give the three of you a few minutes alone, so you can get to know your son…our son, Henry. He’s also our son.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “You know, we’ve always been a family, I think, in many ways. Maybe now we’re just a little more of a family than we were before. This is going to require some getting used to! Oh, and Henry? We’ll talk later; there are some things that need to be said.”
He turned and left, closing the door behind himself. Henry turned back to Beth and his son…his newest son. “Beth, I’m so sorry…”
“Ssshhh, Henry, it’s all right. We talked…It’s going to be okay, I think. Robert is an incredible man. So, what do you think?” She held the infant out to him, and he took the baby from her, cradling him gently in his big arms.
“My god, Beth…he’s so beautiful. So beautiful. Like his momma.”
She smiled. “I think he favors his daddy, myself! Henry, I’m sorry. Somewhere I fucked up in keeping track, I guess. But now, seeing Hank…I just can’t be too upset about that!”
He laughed. “Hank? Nobody ever called me Hank!”
“And that’s why it’s perfect for him! Henry, Robert was so amazing…so incredible. He was so calm, the way he handled it; he was hurt, but…god! I don’t deserve a man that loves me that way!”
“Two men, Beth. You have two men that love you, but you’ve known that for a long time.” He bent and kissed her, passing the baby back into her arms. “A woman like you, that can find it in her heart to love two such very different men…”
“You’re not that different, Henry, you and Robert. You’re both very fine, gracious, loving, wonderful men. Mary was lucky to have you for all the years she did, and I’ve always felt very blessed that you’re a part of my life…never more than right now.”
He kissed her again, and then straightened, looking down at his son and his beautiful lover and friend, the wife of a fine man that he deeply respected. He smiled. “You know, Robert, being a pilot – they’re trained to handle anything that might come up, not to panic but to assess the situation and find a solution. I saw that a lot when I was in the Navy, with the men that flew off my carrier. Maybe that’s part of why he was able to deal with this as he seems to have done. That, and the fact that he loves you and your kids so much.”
She nodded, still in awe of the dignity and calm with which her husband had accepted the situation…at least for now. “Maybe; whatever the reason, I love him more than ever. I hope he knows that.”
“I’m sure he does, but you’ll tell him and show him in the years ahead.” He grew serious. “That he told me that my son is also your son – yours and his – God! That’s a gift, Beth. He knows I won’t be around to watch this boy grow up. Not the whole time.”
“Henry, don’t say that! You’re going to live forever.” She hugged their baby close, knowing her words weren’t true.
He did live on for a number of years, however, long enough to teach their son how to fish, and to ride, and he watched Robby, Elsa, and Hank grow into beautiful children, siblings that deeply loved each other.
It wasn’t all easy, however; Henry and Robert had a very long talk – several, actually, over numerous glasses of bourbon - each understanding that they both loved the same woman. It was not something easy for Robert to accept, although he did begin to understand; for Henry, it was something he’d known before the affair began, that Beth belonged to another, so it was easier for him.
Robert and Beth had their difficulties as well, and although there was never any shouting or fighting, they did have many long discussions. Robert, in a crisis of confidence that any husband might experience in a similar situation, suffered from impotence for a time, his masculinity threatened by his partner taking another man as a lover. Seeing his shame and humiliation at his inability to perform hurt Beth deeply; it was the one time when she truly regretted her love affair with Henry, and the one period in which the two of them, Henry and Beth, abstained completely from any form of intimacy.
With gentleness and love, however, Beth was able to make Robert understand that it wasn’t about him, and had never been about him or anything she’d found lacking in their love life. Instead, he came to understand and accept the way that she simply loved two men; that it was a force that had taken her by surprise, but one which she’d been unable to resist. When he understood and accepted that she still loved him the way she did - and always had - his dysfunction slowly relented until he was once again the confident, virile, and gentle lover that he’d been throughout their marriage.
It was Robert that took his family to see the world, to places such as London, Paris, and Rome, taking advantage of his job with the airline to expose his three children to the many beautiful and exotic wonders the world had to offer. He loved to watch their faces as they saw each new and different thing, and made a serious effort to spend as much time with them as possible, to see his three children grow and bloom.
Henry was in charge of all of the things closer to home; fishing and riding, of course, but also the stories of their home and its history. He taught them about the woods, and how to tell a venomous copperhead or cottonmouth from a harmless rat snake or king snake. He took them to the coast, to the white sand beaches of the Florida panhandle and to the Atlantic coast of Georgia, where the Gulf Stream presses its warm waters against the numerous fine beaches, and taught them to swim and to collect seashells together.
All of them went to Disney World together, the three adults and the three children spending days laughing and playing at the many attractions. For Beth it was a time of great joy, time spent with the children so dear to her and with both of the men she loved – although her sex life with each remained independent of the other. If either felt any resentment or jealousy about that they held it in check for the sake of their woman, and their children; Robert and Henry, after a tense period, remained good friends.
Sometimes people looked at them, curious about this unusual family with its one beautiful woman, two men of different races, and two white and one obviously mixed-race child; they ignored the stares and whispers and instead focused on their own lives, and on their love and the laughter of their kids. Hank was an incredibly attractive boy, his skin a rich coffee-with-cream color and his black hair eventually turning a smoky brown/blonde in the sunlight. He had somehow inherited his mother’s brilliant blue eyes, and they gave his small, dark face a startling beauty.
As it turned out, though, Henry had been closer to the truth than she had; he didn’t live forever. He died at the age of eighty-one, when his son, Hank, was seven years old and Beth was almost forty-four. At the end, he died in the saddle - and no, not what you’re thinking, although he and Beth remained sexually active - as active as any eighty-one year old is likely to be – right up until the end. He could have died in the saddle in that way, but he didn’t.
On the day he died they were out riding, he on Beau and Beth riding Sadie, both of whom were also getting on in years. Elsa was with them, on Princess, the small filly that Henry had gotten for her and taught her to ride. When Henry groaned loudly and slumped over in the saddle Beth had immediately sent her then-ten year old daughter back to the house, where Robert was playing basketball with Hank and Robby, with instructions to tell her father what had happened and then wait for the ambulance and lead it to their location.
She jumped down from her own horse and helped Henry to the ground, where she cradled his head and held him close as she called 911 on her cell phone. They both knew, even then, that the ambulance wasn’t going to arrive in time, but they had time to say the things they needed to say to each other. And so they talked as she held him, and he died peacefully in her arms, content with the life he’d lived and secure in the knowledge that his son was loved and would be raised by these two fine, loving people.
And that was the way Robert found them, his wife on the ground with the older man’s head in her lap, his last words spoken to her in love and peace, his magnificent heart finally stilled. Her face was streaked with tears and she sobbed, distraught and inconsolable, while the paramedics lifted his body into the ambulance, no heroic measures left to be taken on his behalf, their actions calm and measured in respect for the grieving.
She had the comfort of knowing that he’d died with people he loved while doing something he still deeply enjoyed, in a place that he’d always considered the most beautiful place on earth. It turned out that he’d suffered a ruptured aneurysm in his abdomen, serious enough that he’d bled out internally; there was nothing anyone could have done, no CPR or anything else that would have saved him.
They buried him in the family plot at Three Oaks, in a clearing on a hillside overlooking the fields and the old farmhouse below. He was laid alongside his beloved Mary, and in the company of generations of Pettigrews, black and white. The space on his other side they reserved for Beth, and the one next to her for Robert, so that someday she would lie at rest between her two beloved men.
For all the years after Henry’s death, Beth made regular trips to the small cemetery to speak with him. She liked to go just before sunrise, either walking up the hill from the road, or else on horseback, so that she could watch the sun come up over the land she loved so much. With the sight of the mist laying in the bottomlands and her home in the distance, she was sure that sometimes she could still hear his deep, gentle voice whispering words of love, or telling her of the past and their ancestors - or perhaps it was merely echoes in the breeze. She would stay until the heat of the morning sun burned away the mist, and then return to her loving family, somehow more at peace.
He was deeply missed – not just by Beth, but by Robert and their three children, and by his three older boys, who had accepted Hank as a brother – albeit a very young one! They all accepted Beth and Robert and the other two kids as well, not terribly surprised by the relationship that had existed between them; they knew of their father’s capacity for love and compassion…and, too, it was just the way things were!
John, Henry’s youngest son – other than Hank, of course – soon moved back into his parent’s home, which had also been his childhood home at Three Oaks. He was five years younger than Beth, but he carried on many of the traditions that Henry had established with the three younger children, such as taking them fishing and riding, teaching them about the outdoors, and sharing all the old stories his father had shared with him and Beth when they were small.
He and Beth became dear friends, but never lovers; he did fill some of the void that Henry’s passing had left in her life, however, in those times when Robert was away, and she was grateful for that. She wondered sometimes what would happen to the old place when she and Robert got older; it seemed that both Hank and Elsa had formed a bond to the land, to the old plantation, and she could envision them, brother and sister, one in Henry’s home and the other in hers, each with their families.
She hoped that would be the way things turned out…and she thought they might, because things in the South somehow seem to endure; sometimes things that are not so good, but often very fine things as well. She hoped that her ancestral home and the gentle echoes of the lives of the people that had lived and loved there would be one of the things that would endure, because surely it was one of those good things.
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As always, my thanks to each of you for reading; I hope you enjoyed "The Legacy". Again I'd like to thank MamaScribe, brandylady53, and kscorn079 for their willing help and expertise; your friendship and willingness to share your time, knowledge, and expertise with me is deeply appreciated, and you made the writing of this story much more enjoyable that it would have otherwise been. Thank you.
Kaidence
- 03.07.2022
- 49
- 0
- Category:
- Wife Lovers
