‘This is the best Christmas I’ve ever had.’ Nick sat back with satisfaction to view their handiwork once they had finished putting the presents out; the tree was really looking beautiful now.
Bethany smiled. ‘Children have a way of—’
‘It’s not just the children, Beth,’ Nick cut in forcefully, moving to stand directly in front of her. ‘You’re the one that’s made this Christmas perfect for me. And it’s not over yet.’ He smiled down at her, looking nothing like the stern-faced man who had opened the door to her only a day ago. ‘I love you, Beth—’
‘No!’ Now she had her answer to how she would react if he should say those words; she panicked! ‘You can’t—’
‘Oh, but I do.’ He laughed softly, taking her gently into his arms. ‘Somewhere in between the tales of angels, Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy, I fell in love with you.’ His laugh was exultant now. ‘I love you, Beth.’
She knew that she should stop him as he began to kiss her, knew that she couldn’t allow this to happen. But as his lips gently claimed hers, as passion flared so hotly between them, she knew she couldn’t stop it. She loved him in return—deeply, irrevocably—and probably would for all time. For all eternity.
CHAPTER TWELVE
NICK stirred sleepily, smiling happily as the memories of last night came flooding back. Beth in his arms. Beth kissing him. Beth touching him. Beth lying naked beside him. Beth crying out as they reached their pleasure together. Beth lying cradled in his arms, both of them satiated. Beth falling asleep, their bodies entangled, their arms about each other even as they slept.
He loved that woman. Loved her more than he had ever believed it possible to love anyone.
And, as he felt his body stir with the warm, scented memory of her, he knew he wanted to make love to her again.
But when he turned in his bed to reach for her it was to find the space next to him empty—still warm from the imprint of Beth’s body, but empty none the less.
Of course, it was Christmas morning; Beth would have gone to see to the children. He hoped he hadn’t missed the present-opening by lazing in bed like this. He had just been so tired—satiated tired—from hours of making love with Beth.
He slid out of bed to pull on his robe, a piece of white paper fluttering to the floor as he did so. He looked at it curiously after bending down to pick it up, the first thing he noticed being the signature ‘Bethany’ at the bottom of the brief note. He had wondered what Beth was short for, had thought it must be Elizabeth. Bethany… It suited her, gentle and beautiful.
He read the note quickly, his face pale as he reached the end. She had gone… Had had to go, she said. And she wished him well. She wished him well! How the hell could he be ‘well’ without her?
It was still quite early, he discovered as he rushed frantically about the apartment, checking to make sure that Bethany had actually gone, that it wasn’t all a dream, some terrible joke.
It wasn’t. Every last thing she had brought with her was gone too. Just as if she had never existed…
But she had existed! And she was very firmly in his heart. A heart that felt heavy as he sat on the floor with the children a short time later as they opened their presents. He had explained that Bethany had had to go to her own family this morning, that he wasn’t quite sure when she would be back. None of the children had looked too happy about this explanation, especially Lucy, but the lure of their presents under the tree had soon diverted their attention. For the moment.
The trouble was, Nick didn’t even know if Bethany had any family—had no idea where she lived. And there was only an answering machine taking the calls at Heavenly Angels at the moment. Not surprising really; it was Christmas Day. As soon as the holiday period was over he was going down to the office to demand some answers where Bethany was concerned. If she hadn’t come back before then… It was the one thing he hoped for.
In the meantime, he had a responsibility to help the children enjoy Christmas, and, once they had opened their presents and eaten breakfast, the four of them prepared and put the turkey in the oven before he drove them all to the hospital so that the children could see their mother. He needed to see Sam himself now—and what better day than Christmas Day to try to heal the rift between them?
‘Robert.’ He held his hand out warmly to the man who had once been his friend. Who he sincerely hoped would become so once again.
‘Nick.’ The other man greeted him more reservedly, although he returned the handshake.
‘Merry Christmas,’ Nick added, with a rueful smile towards the impatiently waiting children. ‘If they don’t soon give their mother her presents they are going to burst with excitement!’ he said indulgently. ‘Although I would like to speak to Sam alone once things have calmed down a little; is that all right with you?’ He spoke softly, so mat the children shouldn’t hear.
Robert looked at him coldly. ‘As long as you aren’t going to upset her.’
Nick knew he more than deserved the other man’s suspicion, knew he must have hurt Sam time and time again over the last five years. ‘The opposite, I hope.’ He gently grasped the other man’s shoulder. ‘It isn’t easy—especially when you’re an arrogant bastard like me,’ he added ruefully, ‘to admit when you’ve been wrong and say you’re sorry. Humble pie was never my favourite food.’ He grimaced. ‘But I do owe you and Sam my deepest—’
‘Daddy, please can we see Mummy now?’ Lucy grabbed his arm, jumping up and down in her agitation at the delay.
‘Of course you can, love.’ Nick touched her curls affectionately. ‘If Robert says you may?’ He looked at the other man, knowing from the slightly shocked expression in Robert’s eyes that he had recognised the shift in the situation concerning Lucy and Nick. But, while Nick had come to terms with his daughter, he also knew that he owed a debt of gratitude to Robert that could never be repaid, in as much as Robert had become her father because her own father had simply refused to recognise her. He would never forget that.
‘Of course,’ Robert agreed dazedly. ‘Mummy has been looking forward to seeing you all.’
‘Robert…?’ Nick held the other man back momentarily from joining the children in their mother’s room. ‘I really am sorry. For everything,’ he added gruffly.
Robert hesitated only briefly before thumping him lightly on the shoulder. ‘Good to have you back, Nick.’ He grinned. ‘And I really mean that!’
Nick wasn’t completely sure that he deserved the other man’s magnanimity, but he was grateful for it none the less. He could see that Sam was surprised to see him there too, and even more so to see Lucy’s obvious closeness to him and his own warm reaction to his daughter. His daughter. And for five years he had denied her existence. He didn’t deserve to be forgiven—by either of them.
‘The children seem—happy,’ Sam said awkwardly once they were alone, Robert having taken the children to buy a chocolate bar each from the machine down the corridor.
‘It’s time we all were,’ Nick acknowledged grimly. ‘I’ve been such a fool, Sam. So damned selfish. And it’s taken loving someone myself to make me see that love is the most important thing you can have in your life. Without it, you don’t have anything.’
Sam relaxed slightly, eyeing him teasingly. ‘Would this have something to do with the young lady I met with the children yesterday? Beth, I believe her name is?’
‘Everything to do with her!’ he admitted forcefully. ‘I love her so much. So completely. She—’ He broke off, looking uncomfortably at the woman who had once been his wife. ‘I loved you too once, Sam.’
‘Not in this way. And not in the way I love Robert, otherwise the two of us would still be together.’ She squeezed his hand understandingly.
‘Yes,’ he accepted huskily. ‘I understand that now. Now that I know love like that myself. And even though she seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth for the moment,’ he added fiercely, ‘I’ll always be grateful to Robert for hiring her to—’
&nb
sp; ‘Robert didn’t hire her,’ Sam cut in frowningly. ‘We assumed she was a friend of yours who had kindly taken over the care of the children. Robert didn’t even know of her existence until you told him she was at the apartment looking after them for us.’
Now it was Nick’s turn to frown. ‘But—Heavenly Angels.’ He shook his head dazedly. ‘Bethany said the agency sent her—’
‘What did you say?’ Sam was looking at him with startled eyes.
‘I know it’s a damned stupid name for an agency,’ he dismissed impatiently. ‘I was just as sceptical myself when Bethany first told me, but somehow it seems to fit. And Bethany told me—’
‘Bethany,’ Sam repeated breathlessly. ‘I knew she reminded me of someone yesterday. My God…’ Sam lay back weakly against the pillows, her face almost as white as they were now.
‘What is it?’ Nick sat forward worriedly. ‘Sam, what is it?’ he demanded. ‘Do you need a doctor? Speak to me, damn it!’ He rasped his concern.
She drew in a ragged breath. ‘I don’t know where to start. What to say. I just—It’s incredible. I don’t understand why or how—definitely not how!—but I—’ She looked at him with wonder in her eyes. ‘Nick, I think we’ve all met an angel!’
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
‘YOU see, Bethany, sometimes mistakes are made. Not very often and completely unintentionally, of course,’ Mrs Heavenly quickly added, her kindly face creased into lines of concern. ‘But occasionally they are made—’
‘I know I shouldn’t have left Nick that note,’ Bethany accepted miserably, sitting opposite the elderly grey-haired lady in her ‘office’, ‘that we have to bring everything away with us. But I just couldn’t leave Nick in that cold way, without any sort of word,’ she explained brokenly. ‘Like—like some sort of thief in the night!’ She sniffed emotionally, the tears still flowing two hours after she had arrived.
‘I wasn’t referring to the note, dear.’ Sympathy beamed from the rounded cherubic face. ‘No, no, occasionally—very occasionally, I must stress,’ she fluttered nervously, ‘a little mistake is made, and we—well… Sometimes we can rectify it. And sometimes we can’t. Of course, once the deed is done we usually try to make the best of the situation, but in this case it obviously didn’t work out. You didn’t work out,’ she added kindly.
‘I’ve succeeded this time,’ Bethany protested huskily. ‘Nick is reconciled with his daughter, his ex-wife and his ex-friend. And—’
‘I wasn’t talking about that, dear.’ Mrs Heavenly handed her another tissue. ‘I don’t think you’ve re-ally been listening to what I’ve been trying to tell you.’ She shook her head in gentle reproof.
‘But Nick’s life is fine now.’ Bethany frowned. ‘He—’
‘I’m afraid it isn’t.’ The older woman shook her head.
‘But I… He’ll be all right, won’t he?’ The distress on Bethany’s face deepened at the thought of him not being all right.
‘He’s in love with you, my dear.’ Mrs Heavenly gave an understanding sigh. ‘He’s telephoned the agency at least half a dozen times today, each time leaving a message on the answering machine—the last one pleading with me to tell him where you are.’
Bethany couldn’t stand the thought of Nick being in that much pain. She should have left as soon as she knew he was starting to love her. She should have—
‘Of course, we always knew there was a danger of this happening,’ Mrs Heavenly continued more briskly. ‘As soon as we realised Nicholas was about to make a totally unsuitable marriage to this woman Lisa, we knew that we had to do something about it.’ She shook her head. ‘The poor man—his life has been such a mess the last five years.’
Bethany nodded. ‘Since he and Samantha separated.’
‘Oh, no, dear.’ Mrs Heavenly looked surprised at this assumption. ‘It had nothing to do with his separation from his wife. Well… Only indirectly,’ she conceded thoughtfully. ‘Nicholas didn’t love Samantha in the way that he should have, and Samantha is to be admired for realising that, for making the decision to be with the man she did love—and more importantly who loved her!—at that difficult time in her life. No, no, dear.’ Mrs Heavenly shook her head dismissively. ‘Nicholas’s life hasn’t been a mess because of that; that has been because the woman he was going to love was denied him.’
Bethany swallowed hard. ‘Nick is in love with someone else?’ It would be better for everyone if he were, but it would also break her own heart. But she mustn’t be selfish; she wanted Nick to be happy!
‘I don’t know whether it’s me, dear—’ the normally unruffled Mrs Heavenly was certainly becoming so ‘—or whether your own distress is just making you not listen to what I’m saying. Of course Nicholas isn’t in love with someone else; what sort of, fickle man do you think he is?’ the elderly woman admonished her.
‘The truth of the matter is, Bethany, that someone slipped up five years ago. At the time it was decided just to leave things alone, let them develop—but recent events in Nicholas’s life have shown us that they haven’t developed at all, that without the life that should have been his Nicholas Rafferty has just drifted along, becoming more and more cynical—bitter, even. He was even in the process of embarking on a second marriage that would have been even more disastrous for everyone than the first one was!
‘Well, of course, it was our mistake in the first place.’ Mrs Heavenly frowned. ‘Over-impetuosity on the part of a relative novice. So it was decided that we should see what would happen if Nicholas met the woman he should have fallen in love with five years ago,’ she said with satisfaction.
Bethany shook her head dazedly. ‘And just how did you do that?’ She had no idea what the other woman was talking about.
The elderly lady gave her an impatient look. ‘Why, we sent you back, of course,’ she said dismissively. ‘I’m sure you’ll understand, Bethany, when I say you haven’t worked out too well in your new capacity either—that something always seems to go wrong when we send you on an assignment. The powers that be decided that perhaps it was for the same reason that Nicholas’s life has been such a dismal failure. So we sent you back to him and he fell in love with you, just as he should have done five years ago. So it’s been decided—’
‘Sent me back?’ Bethany burst in incredulously. ‘Sent me back where?’
‘To Nicholas, dear.’ The elderly lady patted her hand soothingly. ‘You see, you were a nanny five years ago, and Samantha was going to employ you to look after her two sons, Jamie and Josh. And—’
And instead she had died, in a totally senseless accident, her own path and Nick’s never crossing after all. God, no wonder Samantha Fairfax had thought she looked familiar that day at the hospital; the other woman had half recognised her as the nanny she had been going to employ five years earlier. But instead Bethany had died.
But if she had lived she and Nick had been going to fall in love, would have married, probably had children of their own. Oh, God, what had gone wrong? How had it happened that they hadn’t even met after all? And what was going to happen now—now that they had met and fallen in love with each other, in spite of all the odds? Surely that couldn’t be snatched away from them a second time? They couldn’t be that cruel!
‘Mrs Heavenly!’ She looked desperately across at the other woman. ‘We’re in love now. You can’t do this to Nick a second time.’ Tears darkened the green of her eyes.
The other woman’s face softened as she looked at her compassionately. ‘You’re such a kind young lady, Bethany,’ she said warmly. ‘You aren’t thinking of yourself at all in this, but of Nicholas. It’s that warmth in you that he loves so much, of course. He—’
‘Please, Mrs Heavenly,’ Bethany cut in emotionally, ‘tell me that Nick isn’t going to be left alone, as he has been the last five years.’
‘Well, of course he isn’t, my dear.’ The elderly woman looked wounded that she should even suggest such a fate for him. ‘How insensitive do you think we are?’ she chided gently. �
��You were never meant to die at that time, Bethany, it was the mistake of a relative newcomer that you were taken in the way that you were. Now you’re to go back, my dear, to the beginning.
‘Of course, the two of you won’t know each other to start with, because you’ve never met each other before, but it won’t take long for the two of you to get to know each other.’ She gave her a conspiratorial wink. ‘And it won’t take long, under your loving influence, for Nicholas to be reconciled to his daughter’s existence and to the relationship between his ex-wife and best friend.’ She sat back with satisfaction. ‘Altogether a much better ar-rangement all round for everyone.’ She nodded her approval.
‘But where will we meet?’ Bethany said desperately. ‘How will we—?’ She broke off as everything around her seemed to be falling away, rapidly spiralling out of focus.
‘Have a good life with your Nicholas, Bethany.’ Mrs Heavenly’s voice seemed to come from a great distance. ‘You were never meant to be an angel. Not for a long time yet, anyway…’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
BETHANY sat on the carpeted floor and watched as Nick swung the angelic little girl in his arms round and round. She giggled and giggled, her blonde curls bouncing, her blue eyes aglow, father and daughter hugging each other as Bethany turned to look at the two boys putting the decorations on the Christmas tree. There were far too many decorations, of course, and the hanging of them was haphazard to say the least, but to her the tree looked beautiful.
‘Will Aunty Sam and Uncle Robert be here soon?’ the eldest of the two boys bounded over to demand.
He had been asking the same thing at five-minute intervals for the last half an hour! ‘Very soon now, darling,’ Bethany answered smilingly, smoothing the dark hair back from his brow, gazing up lovingly at her eldest son. Tall for his age, at only four Richard was a small replica of his father.
‘And Jamie, and Josh, and Lucy!’ Three-year-old Peter cried excitedly as he joined them.
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