The evening flew past. Thankfully, Lucy had no time to brood because she was far too busy. The second baby, a girl, finally made her appearance just before nine p.m. Although it had been a long and tiring labour for the mother, everything was fine. Once mum and babe had been moved onto a ward, Tina went for her break. She’d only just left when the front doorbell rang to warn them there was someone waiting outside. Diane was in the office so Lucy popped her head round the door.
‘Someone’s just rung the bell. Can you hold the fort while I see who it is?’
Leaving Diane in charge, she hurried downstairs. Security was extremely tight on the maternity unit. All the external doors were kept locked during the night and anyone who wanted to be admitted had to ring the bell. Most mums phoned ahead to warn them they were coming in but there were always a few who just turned up. Opening the door, she peered out but there was nobody about. She frowned, wondering if it had been children playing a trick by ringing the bell. It had happened a couple of times, although it seemed unlikely on Christmas Day. Stepping outside, she scanned the car park but still couldn’t see anyone.
Lucy went to go back inside when she heard a noise. She stopped dead, trying to work out where it was coming from. There was a bench seat against the wall close to the door and she realised that the sound was coming from that direction. She hurried over to the bench and gasped when she saw a Moses basket tucked on the end of it. There was a baby in it, wrapped in blankets and with a pale blue knitted hat on its head.
Lucy hurriedly picked up the basket and carried it inside. Although she would have liked to have gone and looked for whoever had left it there, her main concern was to make sure the baby was unharmed. She quickly made her way back to the maternity unit, seeing the shock on Diane’s face when she saw what Lucy was carrying.
‘Someone left this on the bench by the front door,’ she explained as she carried the basket into the office. Placing it on the desk, she stared down at the baby. ‘I’ve no idea who left it there because there was nobody about by the time I got to the door.’
‘We’ll have to inform the police,’ Diane said immediately. ‘I’ll do it while you make sure he’s all right. We’ll use one of the delivery rooms for now. There’s always a few mums in the nursery at this time of night, doing feeds, and it would be better if we kept this to ourselves for now.’
‘Of course.’
Lucy carried the basket into one of the delivery rooms and placed it on the bed. Although the baby was well wrapped up, it was bitterly cold outside and she wanted to make sure that he wasn’t suffering from hypothermia. Babies rapidly lost body heat and even a relatively short period of being exposed to the elements could cause a drop in their temperature. She fetched a thermometer and took his temperature, relieved to find that it was within normal limits. She had just finished when Tina appeared.
‘I can’t believe this has happened!’ Tina exclaimed as she came over to the bed. ‘How could any mother abandon her child like that? And on Christmas Day too!’
‘Whoever did it must have been desperate,’ Lucy said sadly. She lifted the baby out of the basket when he started to grizzle and stroked his cheek. ‘He’s obviously been well cared for—you can tell that just by looking at him. Both his clothes and the blankets he was wrapped in are spotless.’
‘I suppose so,’ Tina conceded. ‘Anyway, the police are on their way. Diane said to tell you that they want to interview you, apparently. She’s going to phone Max and let him know what’s happened. I expect he’ll be here shortly, too.’
‘Oh. Right.’ Lucy felt her heart lurch at the thought of seeing Max again so soon. She had to make a conscious effort not to let Tina see how on edge she felt. ‘I think this little fellow might be hungry. Will you stay with him while I go and rustle up a bottle?’
Lucy popped the baby back into the basket and made her way to the nursery. There were a few mums in there so she had a quiet word with the sister and explained what had happened. Once she had made up a bottle of milk, she went back to the delivery room. The police had arrived and they were keen to interview her, so she handed the bottle to Tina while she made a statement. She had just finished when Max arrived and she felt her pulse start to race when he came straight over her.
‘Are you all right, Lucy? This must have been a real shock.’
‘I’m fine.’ She smiled up at him, loving the way his eyes had darkened when he looked at her. Max might be reluctant to commit himself, but he couldn’t hide the fact that he cared about her. The thought made her heart overflow with happiness. ‘I’m more concerned about finding the baby’s mother. She obviously needs help.’
‘We’ll find her,’ he said softly, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze.
The police wanted to ask him some questions next so Lucy excused herself. Tina had finished giving the baby his bottle so she volunteered to change his nappy. She undid the poppers down the front of his pale blue sleep suit, smiling when he started gurgling and kicking his legs.
‘So you think this is a game, do you?’ she said, tickling his tummy. He wriggled even harder, his chubby little legs flailing up and down with excitement, and she laughed. ‘You’re a lively little fellow, I must say.’
She changed his nappy and was about to pop him back into his clothes when Max came over to her. ‘The police need his clothes and the basket in case they contain any clues as to who he belongs to.’
‘Of course. I’ll undress him now.’
Lucy quickly slipped off the baby’s sleep suit and vest and handed them to one of the officers who placed them in a plastic bag. Although the mums were asked to bring in clothes for their babies, there was a selection of baby clothes in each delivery room in case someone forgot. She found a fresh vest and a sleep suit and took them over to the bed.
‘Can you tell us roughly how old he is, Doctor?’ the older police officer asked as Lucy started to dress the baby.
Max frowned. ‘Well, he’s not a newborn.’ He pointed to the baby’s tummy. ‘The stump of his umbilical cord has fallen off and that usually happens in the first couple of weeks. If I had to make a guess I’d say he’s about four to five weeks old and that he’s been well looked after too. He’s definitely not undernourished.’
‘I see. And is there any way of checking if he was born here?’ the officer continued, making a note on his pad.
‘You think that’s why the mother left him here?’ Max said in surprise.
‘It’s possible. Most women who abandon their babies choose a place where they know the child will be looked after. It’s possible that this little chap’s mum gave birth to him here and that’s why she chose to leave him outside your door.’
‘It makes sense, I suppose.’ Max sighed. ‘We keep a record of all the babies who are born in the unit, but I’ll need to speak to the hospital’s manager before I can give out information like that. It’s a question of patient confidentiality, you understand.’
‘I understand, Dr Curtis. Rules are rules. But the sooner we find the mother, the better. In my experience, the longer this goes on, the less chance we have of tracing her.’
Lucy could tell that Max was torn between the desire to help all he could and the need to protect their patients’ privacy. She hurriedly intervened, wanting to take some of the pressure off him. ‘What happens now? To the baby, I mean.’
‘He’ll be taken into care and placed with foster-parents,’ the officer explained. ‘I’ll get onto the child protection team as soon as we get back to the station and arrange for them to collect him.’
‘Actually, I’d feel happier if he remained here tonight,’ Max said firmly. ‘Although he appears to be perfectly fit and healthy, I’d like to keep him under observation. We can find a place for him in the nursery, can’t we, Lucy?’
‘Of course,’ she said immediately.
The policemen agreed that it was probably the best option and left shortly afterwards to check the CCTV footage. There were cameras covering all the outside doors and
they were hoping that the incident had been captured on film. Lucy sighed as she fitted a plastic identification tag around the baby’s wrist before she took him to the nursery.
‘I hope they find his mother. I hate just putting the date and the time he was found on this tag instead of his name.’
‘Hopefully, his mum will come forward soon and claim him,’ Max said quietly.
‘Is that why you were so keen to keep him here?’
‘How did you guess?’ He smiled at her. ‘I know it’s a long shot, but the fact that she left him outside our door suggests that she trusts us. I think it’s far more likely that she will get in touch with us if she thinks the baby is here rather than with the police.’
‘You could be right. So what do we do if she does contact us?’
‘Try to reassure her that she isn’t in any kind of trouble. She must be in a pretty bad state to have abandoned her child like that and the last thing we want is for her to think that she’ll be in trouble with the authorities.’
‘I feel so sorry for her,’ Lucy said sadly, looking down at the baby. ‘I can’t imagine what she must be going through at the moment, can you?’
‘We’ll do everything we can to help her, Lucy. I promise you that.’
His tone was so gentle that her heart ached. Max was such a good person, kind, caring, considerate of other people’s needs. Maybe he did portray the image of a carefree bachelor, but she was more convinced than ever that it was all a front. It didn’t seem right that he should continue to deny himself the kind of life he deserved because his first marriage had failed and she needed to make him understand that.
‘Look, Max,’ she began, then stopped when the door opened and Diane appeared.
‘Sorry, Max, but you’re wanted on the phone. It’s Alan Harper, the hospital’s manager. Apparently, the press have found out about the baby being abandoned and phoned him at home.’ Diane grimaced. ‘He’s none too pleased, either, seeing as he knew nothing about it.’
‘How on earth did they get hold of the story so soon?’ Max exclaimed, hurrying to the door. He paused to glance back. ‘Can you book him into the nursery and make sure all the staff know that any phone calls concerning him are to be directed to me. There’ll probably be a lot of crank calls once the news gets out, but if the mother does phone, I want to speak to her.’
‘I’ll make sure everyone knows what to do,’ she assured him, and he smiled.
‘Thanks, Lucy.’
Lucy sighed as she took a blanket off the rack and wrapped the baby in it. Maybe it was a good thing that she’d been interrupted when she had. It wasn’t her place to give Max advice and he would probably have resented her interfering. After all, if he’d wanted to change the way he lived, he would have done so. The fact that he hadn’t pointed to just one thing: he must still be in love with his ex-wife if their divorce continued to exert such an influence over him.
She knew she should accept that, but it was hard to accept that Max loved another woman after what they had shared that afternoon. She had felt closer to him that day than she’d felt to anyone else and knew that if she continued to see him, her feelings would grow stronger. She knew that she should call a halt but she couldn’t face the thought. The truth was that she had fallen in love with Max and didn’t want to lose him.
* * *
By the time Max returned to the maternity unit, over an hour had passed. Alan Harper had decided to consult a member of the trust’s legal team to ask his advice about handing over the information the police had requested. He’d insisted that Max should be included in the discussion so a conference call was set up. However, in the end nothing definite was decided. It seemed that everyone was reluctant to take any steps that could result in the trust being sued, so more lawyers would need to be consulted before a final decision was made.
Max was seething when he stepped out of the lift. Although he understood the need to protect their patients’ privacy, nobody seemed to appreciate how urgent the situation was. Lucy was working at the desk and she frowned when she saw his grim expression.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Bureaucracy gone mad is what’s wrong. Instead of doing all we can to help the police find the mother, we’ve been banned from handing over any information.’ He shook his head. ‘Everyone’s more concerned about the trust being sued than anything else.’
‘It’s a sign of the times,’ she said softly. ‘Court cases are rife these days. Nobody’s immune, not even hospitals.’
Max sighed. ‘You’re right, of course. It’s just so frustrating not to be able to do anything to help.’
‘I know.’ She picked up a printed sheet and handed it to him. ‘I checked back through our files and this is a list of all the babies born here during the past six weeks. If we discount all the girls it leaves fifteen in total.’
Max glanced at the paper and shook his head. ‘Nothing leaps out at me. How about you?’
‘I feel the same. I recognised some of the names, the babies I delivered, but that’s as far as it goes. He could be any one of them.’
‘Or he might not be on this list at all. After all, there’s no guarantee the baby you found was born here.’
‘That’s what’s so worrying. The police have so little to go on.’
‘Did they find anything on the CCTV footage?’
‘Yes, but it’s not much help, I’m afraid.’
She handed him half a dozen grainy photographs. Max grimaced as he squinted at the blurred image of a hooded figure carrying the Moses basket. ‘You can’t even tell if it’s a man or a woman from these!’
‘I know. The police have taken the tape back to the station to see if they can clean it up, but they didn’t sound too hopeful. In the meantime, they want us to show these pictures to everyone who works here in case someone knows who it is.’
‘I doubt they’ll recognise her from these.’ He handed back the photographs. ‘There’s been no phone call?’
‘Not yet, but everyone knows what to do if she rings,’ she assured him.
‘There’s not much more we can do, then, is there?’ He glanced at his watch and groaned. ‘It’s gone midnight already!’
‘I didn’t realise it was so late. I need to check Helen Roberts’s blood glucose levels again.’
She got up and came around the desk. Max stepped aside to let her pass, feeling his body stir when she accidentally brushed against him. He took a deep breath to control the surge of desire that flooded through him, but he could tell that she’d realised what was happening when he saw her face colour. It took every scrap of willpower he possessed not to haul her into his arms and kiss her until they were both senseless.
‘I’ll be in the office if you need me,’ he told her, his voice grating from the strain of keeping a rein on his feelings.
‘You’re not going home?’ she asked, and he could hear the tension in her voice too. His heart started to race when he realised that she felt exactly the same as he did.
‘No. I’d rather stay here in case the mother phones.’
‘She might not phone tonight, though. It could be tomorrow before she plucks up enough courage, or the day after that. You can’t work twenty-four hours a day, Max, until she gets in touch. You’ll wear yourself out!’
Max smiled when he heard the concern in her voice. It felt good to know that she cared about him, very good indeed. ‘I understand that, but if she does call tonight then I’d like to be here so I can talk to her.’
‘It’s up to you, of course. But promise me that you’ll be sensible and go home in the morning.’
‘I promise, on one condition.’
‘And that is?’
‘That you’ll come home with me, Lucy.’
Chapter Fourteen
PALE winter sunshine was filtering into the room when Lucy awoke. Just for a second she had no idea where she was before it all came rushing back. She was in Max’s flat. In his bed.
Rolling onto her side, she studied his slee
ping face as she recalled what had happened when they had arrived at his apartment earlier that morning. Their hunger for each other had been so great that they hadn’t made it further than the living room. Max had made love to her right there on the sofa, his powerful body pressing her down into the smooth leather cushions. It had been an explosion of raw passion, the release they had both needed so desperately. Max had wanted her as much as she had wanted him; surely that had to mean something?
Lucy sighed as she tossed back the quilt. Maybe he did want her but it wasn’t proof that he was looking for more than a physical relationship, was it? She had to accept that this was probably all she could have and enjoy it while it lasted.
She made her way into the en suite bathroom and stepped into the shower. Like the rest of the apartment, it was state of the art and she spent several minutes trying to work out how to turn on the water. She was so engrossed that when the glass door slid back and Max appeared, she jumped.
‘I wondered where you’d got to.’
‘I…um…I was attempting to take a shower,’ she explained, feeling her breath catch when he stepped into the stall. Even though it was only hours since they’d made love, she could feel the hunger building inside her again as she took stock of his naked body.
‘It can be a bit tricky to work out all these switches,’ he agreed, reaching past her to turn one of the dials. Water suddenly began to flow from the shower head and she gasped when she felt its coolness on her bare skin.
‘It’s freezing!’ she protested, trying to move out of the way.
He caught her hand and stopped her. ‘You won’t feel cold in a moment,’ he said softly, his eyes holding hers as he raised her hand to his lips.
Lucy’s pulse leapt when she felt his tongue glide across her palm. When he reached her wrist he didn’t stop but carried on up the inside of her arm, licking the droplets of moisture off her skin. Although the water was still beating down on her, she no longer felt cold but boiling hot, burning up inside. When his mouth moved from her arm to her breast, she cried out, shuddering as his lips closed over her nipple. Her legs felt so weak all of a sudden that she could barely stand but he eased her back against the tiles and held her there while his lips and tongue continued to work their magic, licking, stroking and caressing every inch of her until she was mindless with passion.
The Midwife's Christmas Miracle (Dalverston General Hospital) Page 13