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.And soon…‘“Had crash near home.Please come.L xxxx”.Oh, my God.’ Ben felt cold all over, sick and scared and useless.He’d been shopping—shopping, of all things!—and she’d had a car accident and been unable to reach him!He dialled her mobile number, but it went straight to voice-mail.She might be calling someone else, he reasoned, so he left a message.‘I’m coming, sweetheart.Stay there.Don’t move, and call an ambulance if you need to.’And then, after a second’s hesitation, he phoned the practice.Kate answered, sounding distracted and upset, and he wondered if it was a good idea, but it was better than leaving Lucy without help.‘Kate, it’s Ben.I’ve had a text from Lucy to say she’s had a car accident on her way back to the house.Have you heard from her?’‘No, but she was really upset.Ben, she heard the row.’He swore, then thought for a moment.‘Kate, I’m worried.I can’t get her.Her phone might not be working.Can you try and find her? I’m on my way but I might need help.She might have gone into labour—you’re a midwife, aren’t you?’‘Yes.Don’t worry, we’ll come.I’ll bring a delivery pack just in case.And I’ll call the ambulance.You just get to her.’He drove fast—probably faster than was truly sensible, but not so fast that he was likely to end up in a ditch.‘Lucy!’ He pulled up behind her car, ran to the door and yanked it open, but the car was empty, canted over at a crazy angle and filling with water.Hell.He dropped the door and looked round, then spotted the barn.Would she have gone there?He looked around again, then noticed something on the side of the car.Writing.IN THE BA.Barn? The barn!He wrote it again, clearing the fresh snow from the letters, and then got back in his car and shot down the road, pulling up outside in a slither of slush and gravel.‘Lucy!’ he yelled, and he heard an answering sob.‘Ben! In here—I’m having the baby.’Dear God.And he had nothing with him—no gloves, no sterile drapes, nothing to protect her from contamination.He ran into the barn and found her huddled against some straw bales, and gathered her, sobbing, into his arms.‘Are you hurt?’‘No—but the baby’s coming, Ben.I can feel it—I can feel the head.It can’t come now, I’m only thirty-four weeks! It’s too early.’‘You’ll be fine,’ he said, giving her one last squeeze.‘There’s an ambulance on the way, and I’ve called Kate, just in case.You stay there.I’m going to sort these bales out and then have a look at you.’He stood up, shifted a few bales to make a flat, clean area of fresh straw, then stripped off his coat and laid it on them, scooped her up and set her down in the middle of it.‘We need to get these wet trousers off you,’ he said, and peeled them down her legs, taking the tiny lacy knickers that he adored with them.Hell.She was right.The baby’s head was crowning, and there was no time to do anything except catch it.‘I want to push.’‘No.Just wait—if you can.Pant.Wait for Kate, she won’t be long.’‘Lucy?’‘What’s he doing here?’‘He’s your father.’‘He didn’t want to see me again.’‘Lucy?’ Another bellow from Nick.‘In here,’ Ben yelled, thinking that he’d never expected to be pleased to see Nick Tremayne, but, by God, he was.And Kate—dear, sensible Kate, who elbowed them both out of the way, thrust a delivery pack in Nick’s hands and told him to unwrap it, sent Ben to hug Lucy up at the other end and took over.‘The cord’s around its neck,’ Kate said.‘Lucy, I’m just going to put my finger in and free it, then you can push again, darling, all right? Just hang on, just another minute, there’s a good girl.’She wriggled a loop of cord free, worked it over the baby’s head, felt again, and then smiled.‘Right, my love.In your own time, when you feel the next contraction, just pant and push gently with your mouth open— That’s it, lovely, nice and steady— Well done.Ben, can I have your jumper, please?’He peeled it off over his head and handed it to her, and with the next contraction she delivered the baby onto the jumper, lifted it and laid it on Lucy’s abdomen, tucking the warm fabric round it.‘I need to suck it out,’ Kate said, taking the aspirator from Nick and clearing the baby’s nose and mouth of mucus while Ben held his breath and prayed.And then there was an indignant squall, and Lucy sobbed with relief, and he closed his eyes, hugged her close and wondered if he’d ever heard anything more beautiful in all his life.‘Well, I have to say, if you were going to have a baby in a stable at Christmas, you could have had a boy,’ Kate murmured, and Lucy gave a fractured little laugh and peered in amazement at the baby.‘It’s a girl?’‘Yes—yes, it’s a girl,’ Kate said gently.‘Congratulations.’ She turned.‘Nick, could you go and flag down the ambulance? I can hear it coming.’He turned and went without a word, but Ben caught a glimpse of his face, taut with emotion, and wished he could unsay the words he’d said that morning.However true.‘I love you,’ Ben said, pressing a lingering kiss to his wife’s brow, and she looked up at him, her eyes filled with wonder, and smiled.‘I love you, too.Oh, Ben, look at her, she’s beautiful.’She wasn’t.She was streaked with blood and mucus, covered in the creamy vernix that protected her skin in utero, and her face was screwed up with indignation, and he’d never seen anything so amazing in all his life.‘Ben? Ben, can you get the door?’Lucy was lying propped up in bed, the baby in her arms, and she didn’t know where Ben was.He’d gone downstairs to start cooking their lunch some time ago, and there wasn’t a sign of him.‘Ben?’‘I’ve got it,’ he yelled, and she heard the front door creak open, and then silence.Silence?‘Ben, who is it?’ she called, but there was no reply, and she slipped out of bed and padded to the top of the stairs, the baby in her arms.She could hear voices, but she couldn’t hear what they were saying until she reached the end of the landing, and then she saw them [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]