Christmas Under a Starlit Sky

by Holly Martin

  She nodded and lifted the hand Oakley wasn’t holding to wipe her tears before realising that it was really heavy. As she glanced at it, she saw that it was set in a thick white cast.

  ‘Sadly your wrist didn’t quite survive the fall. It’s not a bad break though, but they think you’ll have to wear that thing for about six weeks. Are you in a lot of pain with it?’

  She waggled her fingers slightly. It hurt a lot, but she couldn’t find it in her to care. All she wanted to know was whether their baby was OK.

  ‘It’s fine,’ Neve said.

  ‘They can’t give you any painkillers unfortunately, it might hurt the baby,’ Oakley explained.

  Neve nodded and looked around again. ‘Where are we?’

  ‘We’re in Lerwick. The air ambulance brought you here. They would only allow one person to come with you on the helicopter so Gabe, Luke and your mum and dad are coming over on the hotel plane. They should be here soon.’

  Neve smiled slightly, wondering how Oakley had been the one to get a seat on the helicopter, rather than a member of her family, though knowing Oakley he wouldn’t have taken no for an answer.

  The door to the room opened and a blonde woman in her early forties walked in, followed by one of the hotel porters, pushing a wheelchair.

  ‘Hello, Miss Whitaker. Good to see you awake. I’m Simona, I’m the obstetrician here. How are you feeling? Any nausea, dizziness?’

  ‘I’m fine. I just want to know that the baby is OK.’

  ‘I understand and we’ll get to that in just a moment. I accessed your medical records and there’s nothing on there about you being pregnant.’

  ‘I only found out myself about two weeks ago. I was going to make an appointment with the doctor after Christmas. I work at a hotel and it’s been so busy.’

  ‘That’s fine, do you know the date of your last period?’

  Neve blushed, hating that they were talking about this in front of Oakley.

  ‘Um, my periods have never been regular. Sometimes I don’t get them at all. Maybe three months ago.’

  Simona nodded. ‘OK, well, we can have a look at the baby on the ultrasound and that will give us a good indication of how far along you are. Let me get you unhooked from the monitor and we can take you down there.’

  Simona removed the pads and cables and Neve gingerly sat up. She ached everywhere. But before she could climb down off the bed, Oakley very gently scooped her up and placed her in the wheelchair. After making sure she was comfortable, he stepped back. ‘I’ll wait here for you, Freckle.’

  ‘Mr Rey, you should come too. If everything is OK with the foetus, then you’ll probably be able to see your baby for the first time on the ultrasound.’

  Oakley brushed his hand through his hair, awkwardly.

  ‘Please come,’ Neve said, softly.

  He hesitated for a second and then nodded.

  The porter wheeled her down the corridor and Oakley held her hand but he didn’t say anything. When they got to the scan room, Oakley repeated the process and lifted her gently onto the bed, sitting down next to her and taking her hand again.

  Simona closed the door and dimmed the lights. She rolled up Neve’s gown and sat down on her other side as she fiddled around with the ultrasound machine.

  ‘This will be cold,’ Simona warned as she squirted icy-cold jelly onto Neve’s stomach.

  Simona switched on the TV screen on the wall and it flickered white and black for a moment. She picked up the ultrasound scanner and moved it over Neve’s stomach. Neve closed her eyes, suddenly not wanting to see if the baby was dead. Tears filled her eyes again.

  After a moment, she felt Oakley kiss her forehead. ‘Neve,’ he whispered. ‘Open your eyes.’

  Neve did and stared at the screen in front of her. It was filled with grey, but in the middle was a black hole the shape of a large kidney bean and inside that hole something moved. As the camera moved around and then zoomed in, she could clearly see the shape of a head, and legs bent at the knees. Its little arms were bent behind its head as if it was lying back and taking things easy. It had a little fat belly and as it rolled over away from the camera, Neve could clearly see a spine. Right in the middle of the baby’s chest something flickered and moved at a frantic pace and Neve smiled through her tears as she realised this was the heartbeat.

  ‘Your baby seems perfectly healthy,’ Simona said. ‘I’ll take some measurements and we’ll have a good look around, but I can’t see any problems at the moment.’

  ‘It’s alive, it’s OK?’ Neve said, hardly daring to believe it. She couldn’t take her eyes off the screen.

  ‘Yes, babies are often tougher than we give them credit for.’

  ‘Thank God,’ Oakley muttered next to her, visibly exhaling with relief.

  She dragged her eyes from the screen to look at him and was surprised to see tears in his eyes too.

  ‘Do you want to know the sex?’ Simona said.

  Neve whirled back to look at her and the screen. ‘You can tell this early?’

  ‘Yes, at this stage in the pregnancy we can have a really good guess, if we get a good angle. Fortunately your baby has just given us a great angle.’

  Neve looked back to Oakley. ‘Do we want to know?’

  ‘I don’t know, Freckle,’ he said, gently. ‘Do you want to know? It’s your baby.’

  Guilt and pain slammed into her chest. He couldn’t even get excited about seeing this baby because, as far as he was concerned, it wasn’t his.

  ‘I want to know,’ Neve said, gripping Oakley’s hand. She was gratified when he squeezed her hand in return.

  ‘It’s a boy. You’re going to have a son. A big, strong, healthy boy, by the looks of things. I would estimate a due date of the very end of June. I’ll know more when I’ve done some more measurements.’

  Simona continued to move the scanner over her belly, zooming in on some areas and taking measurements of other parts, while Neve sat mesmerised by the whole thing. She was going to be a mum.

  When she had found out nearly two weeks before, it hadn’t seemed real. She had stared at that tiny line on the pregnancy test and just couldn’t imagine that nine months down the road the little line would turn into a little baby that would depend on her for every single thing. She had wanted this with Oakley, to get married and raise a family together, she had wanted it more than anything but before they had broken up he had made it clear that marriage wasn’t really on his agenda and babies were very far down on his list of priorities. That, in part, had been one of the reasons she had ended it between them: though he had told her he loved her, he just didn’t seem serious about a future together.

  And now he had come back, proposed and she was pregnant with his child. It was everything she dreamed about and she had pushed it away. It might have been everything she wanted but it wasn’t what he wanted and, though there was a huge part of her that regretted lying to him, there was a small part that did think maybe she had done the right thing. She never wanted to hold him back.

  Adam ran back towards the main hotel and the dining room. It was approaching two o’clock and he just hoped that Ivy had waited for him. After playing with Chester for half an hour with a bowlful of cold spaghetti, he had gone over to see if Pip was OK with Wren, knowing she hadn’t been in the motherly role too long, fended off another journalist and dealt with three complaints about the noise of the helicopters over the last two days before he was finally free to go and have his lunch. He was starving but the fact that he was late for Ivy bothered him more than anything else. If there was ever a reason not to get involved with him it was because his job meant long and unpredictable hours.

  He pushed open the dining room doors and his eyes found the table he and Ivy were supposed to share their lunch at. It was empty and she had clearly been and gone, if the empty wine glass and dirty napkin was anything to go by.

  He sighed just as Cora, the head receptionist, and Heather, the banqueting manager, came over. The dining roo
m was over half-empty now, but there were several guests still enjoying the festivities.

  ‘How did lunch go, any problems?’ Adam asked, switching back into managerial mode.

  Cora shook her head. ‘A few little problems but nothing that Heather didn’t handle with her impeccable efficiency.’

  Adam looked at Heather.

  ‘One woman who ordered soup and then complained because the salmon looked so much better and she wanted that instead. One man complained that one of the waitresses knocked over the wine when she wasn’t anywhere near the table, but we dealt with it professionally, of course.’

  Adam smiled; the customer was always right, even if they were complete assholes.

  ‘How’s Neve, is there any news?’ Heather asked.

  Adam shook his head. ‘Not that I’ve heard. I would have thought Gabe would have phoned us by now to let us know but maybe he’s preoccupied.’

  ‘Well, let me know as soon as you hear anything.’

  ‘I will.’

  Heather hurried off again to attend to the guests and Adam surveyed the dining room to make sure everything was still running smoothly.

  ‘There was a girl who kept asking about you. I’m not sure if she was a guest or...’ Cora trailed off.

  ‘She’s a friend.’

  ‘Oh.’

  They both had arrived from the London hotel only a few days before so it was fast work to be involved with someone already, especially by his standards.

  ‘Did anyone tell her the reason I was late?’

  ‘I don’t think so. We didn’t really want to tell the guests what was happening though some of them saw the air ambulance arrive and as I wasn’t sure whether she wanted you specifically to complain about something, I kept fobbing her off and telling her you were busy. Sorry, if I’d realised she was waiting for you for a date, I would have explained to her.’

  ‘It wasn’t a date,’ Adam said, knowing that he couldn’t honestly call it anything else. ‘We’re friends.’

  ‘Well, I’m sure your friend will understand.’

  Adam cringed because knowing Ivy’s prickly armour, understanding would probably be the last thing that she would be. Maybe it was for the best. He didn’t want to get involved in a relationship, not when he was leaving in a few months, and trying to pursue one with Ivy would only lead to her getting hurt when he left, which was the last thing he wanted.

  He would find her and apologise but he would leave it at that, though he couldn’t shake off the sense of immense disappointment at that thought.

  Neve had just got back from having her ultrasound when her family arrived. Her mum, Lizzie, was the first to burst into the room, descending on her with a huge hug and lots of tears.

  ‘Oh my darling, are you OK?’ Lizzie said.

  Neve could see Gabe, Luke and her dad, David, squeezing into the room behind her mum.

  ‘I’m fine, a bit sore but fine,’ Neve said, hugging her back with her one good hand.

  Lizzie’s eyes fell to Neve’s belly, tears filling her eyes as she quickly looked away. Obviously her mum had heard she was pregnant.

  ‘The baby is fine too, Mum. You’re going to be a nanny again, this time to a little boy.’

  There was so much noise and joy in the room then, with everyone passing on their congratulations and hugs to both Neve and Oakley. Oakley barely said a word though he didn’t deny the baby was his either. As they all sat down around the bed, her dad spotted the engagement ring still shining brightly on her left hand.

  ‘You’re engaged? Congratulations! I’m so pleased you two have sorted out your problems. We’ve been so worried about Neve since the two of you broke up, but I’m glad you’re back together again. You always made her so happy.’

  Neve glanced down at the beautiful ring. Were they engaged? She hadn’t even said yes. Instead she had thrown up all the possible reasons why they couldn’t get married. Why was she so intent on pushing away the man she loved? She looked over at Oakley, wondering if he would simply snatch the ring back and walk out, but he just sat there, numbly accepting the second lot of congratulations. She had ruined everything and she felt awful.

  But as she let her left hand fall back to the bed, Oakley took it, automatically entwining his fingers with hers. He was still here and seemingly not planning on leaving any time soon. It filled her heart with hope.

  Not wanting to focus on what an idiot she had been in pushing him away, she turned back to her mum.

  ‘I’m so sorry, I’ve ruined Christmas for you guys. I was so looking forward to spending it with you.’

  ‘Don’t you worry about that, we can always celebrate it when you come back home. You just need to rest and look after your little son.’

  Neve smiled and turned her attention to Gabe. ‘I’m sorry I ruined your day too. I bet Wren was so disappointed that Christmas was cut short.’

  ‘No, she was just worried about you. Besides, before I left, I explained we would do Christmas Day when we got back. She really liked the idea of having two Christmas Days. She wanted to come here but I thought it might be best if she stayed at home. Pip is looking after her, so I imagine they are busy re-enacting the entire Frozen film by now.’

  Neve laughed. ‘She’s so good with Wren.’

  ‘They adore each other,’ Gabe said. ‘I feel so incredibly lucky to have Pip in my life. We had a second chance at love and now you two have that too.’

  Neve looked back over at Oakley again and he smiled sadly at her. They’d had a second chance and she had thrown it away. It was very unlikely she would get a third.

  Chapter 9

  Ivy sat down at her computer and fired up Skype, ready to call her little sister. She adored Rose, and she missed her so much since she had emigrated to New York two years before, but the phone calls and Skype calls were always hard.

  She checked the time – they were five hours behind so it should be around half nine in the morning there – but she knew her sister and brother-in-law would have been up for hours.

  She took a deep breath and pressed the call button on the computer. It rang only once before Imogen suddenly appeared on the screen. Three years old, brown curly hair, the biggest eyes Ivy had ever seen. She was utterly adorable. The worst thing about watching Rose’s children grow up was they all looked exactly like Rose and as Rose looked like a slightly younger version of Ivy, it was like getting a glimpse of what her own children would have looked like, had she been lucky enough to have any. Rose hadn’t stopped at one child, however; they’d had five so far, whereas Ivy hadn’t even been blessed with one.

  ‘Hey, beautiful,’ Ivy crooned. ‘Imogen, can you hear me?’

  Imogen blinked and then her whole face lit up in a toothy smile before she dropped the iPad and Ivy watched the chubby little legs run out of the room.

  A few seconds later, the iPad was picked up again and this time Ivy was looking at her seven-year-old niece, Quinn. Ivy’s heart filled with love for her.

  ‘Hey, Ivy,’ Quinn said.

  Ivy smiled as she realised this time her niece was dressed up as a knight with a silver helmet, chainmail and a sword in one hand. The only nod to her femininity was the sparkly eyeshadow she had on and the bright pink lipstick.

  ‘Hey, Quinn, happy Christmas.’

  ‘Happy holidays,’ Quinn said and Ivy laughed.

  ‘Are you going all American on me?’

  ‘Sadly I think I am, we’re not even having turkey for Christmas lunch today. We’re having ham served with sweet potatoes, which are not really sweet and not really potatoes either. We have pumpkin pie for dessert and we’ve been drinking eggnog all morning, not the stuff with alcohol in it, though. And did you know that over here they don’t call Father Christmas, Father Christmas, they call him Santa Claus.’

  ‘Wow, sounds like you’re embracing the American way of life.’

  ‘Yes, but Daddy has had some crackers sent over from the UK because we have to have the paper hats and the naff little toys and the
y don’t sell them over here. Daddy says we can introduce them to the Americans and maybe one day they will all want them.’

  ‘You definitely can’t have Christmas without crackers,’ Ivy said, thinking of the cracker that had remained unpulled, still lying on her table in the restaurant. There was something that was very sad about pulling a cracker by yourself.

  She saw Archie, the oldest of the children, peer round the iPad to see who Quinn was talking to and he grinned when he saw it was Ivy. ‘Hi Ivy, happy Christmas.’

  ‘Is that Ivy?’ Rose said from somewhere in the room and the next second her smiling face loomed into the picture as well in between Archie and Quinn.

  ‘Hey, Rosy Posy,’ Ivy smiled with affection for her little sister. ‘Quinn’s been telling me how you’re betraying your homeland with the lack of turkey.’

  Rose laughed. ‘We did have turkey over Thanksgiving, so, yes, we are trying ham for a change.’

  ‘Are you coming over soon?’ Archie asked.

  ‘Yes, I am, end of January for a whole week. As soon as the fire and ice festival is over, I’ll be flying out. You guys are supposed to be coming over in the summer, aren’t you?’

  Rose blushed. ‘I don’t think it’s going to happen this year.’

  Ivy’s heart sank a little. They didn’t see each other as often as she would like. She understood that funding the flights for the seven of them worked out really expensive but she had been looking forward to showing them the beauty of Juniper Island. Her heart fell even more when Rose stroked her stomach. No, surely not again. She made sure the smile was fixed on her face as Rose spoke.

  ‘I’ll be in my third trimester by then. We’re pregnant again.’

  ‘Congratulations,’ Ivy said, feeling her heart shatter into a thousand pieces.

  Adam put the phone down from another newspaper wanting a quote about Oakley. The story of his impending fatherhood seemed to have hit the media and spread faster than wildfire. He had fobbed them off but they were quite happy to run the story without any corresponding facts or information to back it up.