Their One-Night Christmas Gift

by Karin Baine

  Perhaps she’d convinced herself something had changed between them after their escapade in that hotel room, and not merely on a physical level. Deep down she’d hoped he’d be pleased to see her again because, even before realising she was pregnant, she’d wondered about rekindling their relationship. Sentimentality and lust over common sense, but she hadn’t been thinking with her head lately. That’s how she’d ended up in this mess.

  Charles Ross-Wylde had altered the course of her life again, sending her down a road she’d never planned to take. Now she simply had to make the best of it, the way she had the last time. Only instead of becoming a successful surgeon, her next goal was to become a good mother too.

  Bright lights began strobing around her, disturbing the pitch-black night. A glance in her rear-view mirror revealed a car, flashing its headlights at her and now blaring its horn. Someone from the house had followed her and was trying to get her attention. Esme, no doubt, had figured out something was amiss and was coming to persuade her to go back. There was no way Charles would’ve told his sister about the baby when he didn’t want it messing up his life. It was likely to be her good heart making her chase after someone who was virtually a stranger now.

  Although Harriet had no intention of going back with her, she would put Esme’s mind at ease because she held no bad feelings towards her. She indicated and pulled into the side of the road. The sooner they said their goodbyes, the sooner she could leave Heatherglen behind her for ever.

  She stepped out onto the grass verge, but the headlights continued to blind her as she waited for the driver to get out. It wasn’t until the very tall, very male silhouette drew closer that she realised it wasn’t Esme who’d flagged her down.

  ‘I have nothing to say to you. At least, nothing very ladylike,’ she threw at Charles, hurrying back towards her car. He probably wanted her to sign some sort of gagging order to prevent her from claiming her unborn child had any right to the estate.

  Her attempt to open her car door was thwarted as Charles grabbed her arm and spun her around. ‘I’m sorry, Harriet. I reacted badly.’

  ‘You think?’ She tried to wrench her arm out of his grasp. It was going to be harder to continue hating him if he insisted on touching her, reminding her of an intimacy they could never have again.

  ‘Come back to the house so we can talk.’ He didn’t let go of her, but he did loosen his grip.

  ‘Why? You’ve made it clear you don’t want to be part of this.’

  ‘I’m sorry. It was a shock to the system, that’s all. We both know I was a very willing participant that night, and the following morning.’ His cheeky grin did things to her insides, which apparently shouldn’t be acted on.

  Goodness, she needed him to stop teasing her with enough delicious memories to block out the more hideous ones. Twice now he’d let her down in the most callous way. The last time she’d forgotten not to trust him and had let her hormones do the talking she’d ended up pregnant.

  ‘I should’ve called instead of coming here.’ That was one thing she was sure about and something he’d agree with when she’d spoiled his Christmas.

  ‘No. I’m glad you came. Look, it’s late and freezing cold out here. Why don’t you just come back to the house? The talking can wait.’

  It was tempting when her stomach was rumbling and the tip of her nose was so cold she was convinced it had turned blue. She thought of the lovely roaring fire in the lounge and the banquet of food spread out and going to waste. Pregnancy apparently had lowered the price of her pride. If she went back with him it would be for the baby’s sake. They had things to sort out. It was the whole reason she was here. It definitely wasn’t anything to do with the man still holding her, dressed in that ridiculous sweater his little sister had knitted for him.

  ‘I don’t have anywhere else to go, I suppose.’ She didn’t fancy traipsing around town, knocking on doors and hoping to find room at an inn.

  ‘That’s settled, then. You’re coming home with me.’ If only he meant that as something other than a polite host she’d be reassured he’d had a change of heart where the baby was concerned. This was more about him saving face in front of his family and friends. She shouldn’t get too carried away with the idea that he’d finally stepped up to be the man she’d always believed he was deep down. For now, she’d take advantage of the food and lodgings being offered because it suited her and meant she’d no longer be putting her unborn child at risk out here in the Scottish wilderness.

  ‘Fine.’ She got back into her car, but nothing had changed. Except perhaps his conscience getting the better of him at letting the mother of his child disappear into the night.

  Harriet followed Charles back to the house, resolving to take herself straight to bed and avoid any further confrontation. When he slammed on his brakes as they approached the house, she almost ran into the back of his car. As it was, she nearly gave herself whiplash having to make her own emergency stop.

  ‘What the hell are you playing at, Charles?’ she shouted as she wrestled her seat belt off, about to jump out and give him hell. That’s when she saw him bolting across the driveway, not even taking time to close the car door behind him.

  She got out and followed him over to the side of the road where the house lights didn’t quite manage to reach. It wasn’t until she was standing over him that she realised what it was his headlights had picked up along the drive. Charles was hunched over the body of a woman who was clearly having some sort of fit. Stranger still, there was a dog lying next to her, providing some sort of cushion for her head.

  ‘Fenella? Can you hear me? It’s Charles, Esme’s brother.’ Charles checked the woman’s pulse while he tried to get some sort of response from her.

  Harriet knelt beside them and brushed away the debris of Christmas presents scattered around her, and anything else she could hurt herself on while her body was jerking uncontrollably on the cold ground. ‘Is she one of your patients?’

  ‘One of Esme’s clients. She’s epileptic so we’ll just have to wait this out with her.’

  When someone was having a seizure it was important not to restrain or try to move them in case of injury. All they could do was make sure she didn’t hurt herself and time the fitting in case it developed into something more serious. A fit lasting more than five minutes could lead to brain damage.

  ‘I don’t think she hurt herself in the fall. I can’t see any obvious injuries.’ Harriet checked as best she could and loosened the scarf around Fenella’s neck.

  ‘That’ll be down to Nora, the dog Esme trained with her. She would’ve alerted Fenella that the seizure was coming and positioned herself underneath to prevent her hitting her head.’

  ‘That’s amazing.’ She’d known what Esme did for a living but actually seeing it in practice made Harriet see what a valuable service she was providing to the people who came to her. As was Charles. Despite her personal issues with him, there was no denying the good he was doing at Heatherglen between the clinic and the canine therapy centre he’d set up with his sister.

  ‘The convulsions are slowing now. She should be back with us soon.’

  ‘I’ll go and alert the others so we can get her inside out of this cold.’ Harriet hurried inside to inform Esme and Max so they could organise a transfer for her into the clinic. When she came round, Fenella would be tired and probably confused about what had happened. She’d be spending the night under medical observation and so would Nora.

  * * *

  By the time Fenella had been admitted to a bed in the clinic for the night and Esme had taken Nora to the kennels, Harriet was emotionally and physically exhausted. Charles had gone out to park the cars and lock them so she thought she could sneak off to bed unnoticed.

  With a foot on the first tread of the staircase she thought she’d got away with it until Charles called her back.

  ‘Harriet, you don’t have to
hide away from me up there. Come and get something to eat. You deserve it after the night you’ve had.’

  Her stomach rumbled and made the decision to stay for her. ‘I did miss dinner.’

  ‘It’s important for the baby’s sake that you don’t skip meals.’ At least he was acknowledging her condition, even if it was only to scold her.

  The house was unfeasibly quiet compared to the raucous atmosphere she’d arrived to earlier. ‘Is Fenella okay?’

  Charles led her to the kitchen where the worktops were laden with covered leftovers. ‘She’ll be fine. Apparently, she was coming to deliver a few Christmas presents to the staff but she really shouldn’t have been out walking alone in that cold weather. I’m going to look into the medication she’s on and see if I can reduce the frequency of the seizures. I’ll get onto Clydesbank Hospital again and get a rush on her records. In the meantime, Esme is spoiling the dog something rotten for doing such a good job tonight.’ The smile on his face showed the pride he had in his sister’s achievements.

  ‘Does Esme know about you-know-what?’ She pointed to her belly, afraid to mention the baby again and end this fragile truce, but she didn’t want to put her foot in it if she ran into Esme at some point.

  ‘No. One thing at a time. Now, turkey sandwich?’ He uncovered the carcass of their earlier dinner and Harriet was so hungry she could’ve attacked it with her bare hands.

  ‘Yes, please.’

  ‘Help yourself to a drink.’ He waved the huge carving knife in the direction of the fridge, where she found a bottle of non-alcoholic grape fizz. She poured two glasses in the hope he wasn’t just going to sit there and watch her eat. Thankfully, he placed two plates of sandwiches on the table and they both sat down.

  ‘This is really good. Thanks, Charles.’

  ‘I’m sorry about what I said earlier, Harriet.’

  After a couple of bites, they talked over each other, Charles surprising her with his topic of choice.

  ‘You were being honest. A baby isn’t in your plans.’

  He set down his half-eaten sandwich. Harriet’s appetite too had waned at the reminder of their earlier conversation. ‘It’s been a long day and I wasn’t prepared for that kind of bombshell. I shouldn’t have been so short with you.’

  ‘Believe me, it came as a shock to me too. Why do you think I jumped into my car and started driving here, Charles? I didn’t know how to react any more than you do, but the important thing is where we go from here.’

  An apology for his behaviour on this occasion was progress and more than he’d offered the last time he’d spoken to her so harshly.

  ‘Okay, so you’re a couple of months gone?’

  She nodded, though she’d been so busy she hadn’t noticed the first missed period. ‘I honestly only came to tell you about the baby so no one could ever say I kept it from you. I mean, joint parenting between London and Scotland simply isn’t feasible. Plus, I intend to continue with my medical career.’ Motherhood and her job could co-exist if organised properly well in advance.

  Charles took a drink as he contemplated his response. ‘I want to be a father. I just didn’t think it would happen. Although seeing everyone around me settling down and starting their own families has made me realise I did want that once. I know this wasn’t planned, but it’s really a blessing. I mean, this child will be the heir to Heatherglen. This is a legacy that should be passed on to the next generation. I can’t let you walk away with my baby when I’d want to be more than just a weekend dad. Family is everything to me and I want my child close.’

  It was such a turnaround Harriet’s head was spinning. She should’ve considered the Ross-Wylde obsession with family tradition before coming here. Of course the Laird of Heatherglen would want an heir and she’d made it all so easy for him. There was nothing to say he had to want her along with the baby. As was clear when his first thoughts were about passing on his legacy. She’d left herself open to becoming collateral damage for a second time.

  Did Charles think he could somehow get custody of their child and keep her out of the picture altogether? She hadn’t anticipated having a custody fight on her hands but if he insisted, she’d do everything in her power to make sure this child had a stable influence in life. Experience had taught her that Charles wasn’t reliable enough for that role.

  ‘How do you suppose we do that? It’s not practical for either of us to travel up and down the country on a whim and my schedule is not nine to five, Monday to Friday. What are you going to do, kidnap me? Lock me up in the attic until I give birth and dispose of me when I’ve outlived my usefulness?’ She snorted. It might sound absurd but right now he was making her feel little more than a baby-making machine. This wasn’t supposed to be about him. She had to fit in a life of her own somewhere, not spend every spare minute making sure Charles was happy.

  ‘I don’t think we need to resort to that, but you could move in here. The house is big enough that we could live our separate lives and share child care.’ He’d managed to come up with a practical solution to co-parenting that suited him. Her initial suspicion was that he’d only suggested the move because he knew she’d never agree to it. Heatherglen held so many sad associations for her that she couldn’t imagine waking up every morning in the very place where their fairy-tale romance had turned into a nightmare.

  Then he would be free to make a legal bid for custody and who wouldn’t think a child would be better off with his prestigious side of the family and their millions in the bank? A cold sweat broke out over Harriet’s skin at the fight she could have on her hands for a baby she hadn’t realised she wanted so much until now.

  ‘You know that’s not an option, Charles. My life and my career are in London.’ Unlike him, she’d never left.

  ‘Hear me out. The country would be so much better to raise a child than the city. You have no family there and look at the land we have around us. At least here you’d be surrounded by family and friends.’

  ‘Your family, your friends, your home and your rules, I expect.’ She wasn’t going to let him control her. There was no way she was giving up her independence to be locked away in a tower, so the Laird and master of all he surveyed had unlimited access to his heir. What was in that for her?

  ‘Esme would be the baby’s family too. Everyone else who lives and works at Heatherglen would soon become a friend to you. Not to mention those mutts my sister keeps around the place. I’m sure a child would appreciate growing up around her four-legged friends much more than I do.’ There was a hint of tension surrounding the matter and she could imagine how irked he’d be finding puppies peeing on his antique rugs. She’d be tempted to agree just to see his face when that happened.

  ‘I told you, I’m not flushing away my career because I’m pregnant. Being the mother of your children is no longer enough for me in life, as hard as that might be for you to believe.’ His ego had grown to match the size of his bank balance if he thought he was enough for her to turn her back on the success she’d worked so hard to achieve.

  ‘I’m not asking you to give anything up for me. It would be for the baby.’

  ‘Emotional blackmail won’t get you anywhere, Charles. I’ll raise this child to understand women can have it all these days. You did me a favour, you know, dumping me like that. If you hadn’t, I would’ve left London there and then and moved here with you. I would never have had the career I have now.’

  ‘Why do you think I did it?’ he mumbled as he cleared the dishes away. That was the first time he’d offered any explanation for his actions, but he wasn’t making any sense.

  ‘You told me you no longer wanted to marry me, that you had Heatherglen and didn’t need me once you inherited your father’s land and title.’ Not his exact words but it was the gist of his rejection after his father’s funeral and sufficient to send her back to London alone with a broken heart.

  ‘Did you ho
nestly believe I was able to switch off my feelings for you so easily? I knew you’d insist on moving back here with me and I didn’t want you to give up on your medical dreams. This place cost my father his life. I knew the mess and the hard work I had waiting for me here. I didn’t want to inflict that suffering on you too.’

  Harriet could see he was being sincere and felt as though her heart was breaking all over again. For that young woman who’d believed she wasn’t good enough for the love of her life, and for the grieving son who’d had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

  ‘I had no idea.’ Her voice was but a whisper as she came to terms with the knowledge it had all been a lie, albeit with the best of intentions. All these years she’d hated him when he’d acted out of love for her. Yet there was a slow burning fire starting deep inside her that he’d taken the choice away from her about her future.

  ‘Yes, well, we can’t go back even if we wanted to. This is about moving forward.’

  ‘Wait. You made that decision for me to return to London and now you’re dictating I move here because it’s more convenient for you? Control freak much? Are you so bored and lonely out here you’ve decided it might be nice to have an ex with benefits on site?’ She couldn’t sit here any more when she wanted to smash things, including Charles’s face, for he was being so damned noble and breaking her heart without giving her a valid reason. There was no doubt she would’ve moved to Heatherglen with him because she’d loved him and nothing else had mattered. It was a shame he hadn’t felt the same way about her.

  ‘I know you’re angry, but it worked out for the best, didn’t it? Until now.’ He gave a sad smile, which she wasn’t sure was for her or himself.