Libby nodded. ‘Good to hear.’ Her reply was without emotion and it made Daniel wonder what she might be thinking, but he knew he had no right to ask.
‘If it’s okay with you, we need to make a crew cabin call.’
‘Why do you need me?’ she asked curtly as she placed her plate back on the end of the buffet with others that had been used by guests.
‘It’s a young woman. She sounds a little distressed and is complaining of gastro symptoms. I hope to hell it’s not, because we know that can spread through the ship very quickly. Her symptoms do sound vague but I’m also hoping it’s not appendicitis. I would ordinarily go alone, as it’s nothing I can’t manage, but she asked for a female doctor. When we explained that wasn’t possible, she asked for you to attend with me.’
‘That’s fine. Whatever she wants,’ Libby replied matter-of-factly.
He suspected it was not her ideal situation, but she was showing him professional courtesy and he appreciated that.
‘Thank you, Libby. I’ve got my bag with extra gloves, masks and a couple of disposable gowns just in case it is gastroenteritis,’ he told her as he began walking in the direction of the glass elevator.
‘If it is, how do you plan on controlling that on board?’ Libby asked as she followed him.
‘If I consider it a risk, I’ll take away her swipe card and secure the cabin. If she has a cabin buddy we will keep an eye on them too and quarantine her in another cabin if possible. I don’t like to do it but sometimes it’s necessary even on a yacht this size. There’s still four days’ cruising to go and it would be unfair to the other passengers and particularly nasty for Walter.’
‘Let me take that,’ she said, reaching for the small bag. Her soft skin brushed against his as her fingers took the handle. His heart unexpectedly began racing as he had not been expecting her touch.
Libby suddenly released hold of the bag and stepped away from the elevator door. Neither made eye contact but each automatically created a distance between them. Daniel’s reaction reaffirmed to him that it was going to be the most challenging four days of his life. He was still unsure how Libby felt but he realised it was best he didn’t know.
They reached the cabin within a few minutes and Daniel checked his pager.
‘The young woman’s name is Alexandra and she just confirmed that she’s been vomiting for two days now.’
Libby pulled from her bag the two disposable gowns, masks and a pair of gloves for each of them, which they immediately donned before knocking. Daniel had a swipe card that opened every one of the ship’s cabins in case of an emergency.
‘Come in,’ a very drained and weary female voice called out.
Daniel and Libby stepped inside the tiny cabin with no windows. It was on the lowest deck and not too far from Libby’s original cabin. Alexandra, still dressed in pink pyjamas, was sitting on a chair with her head resting in her hands. Her complexion was drained of any hint of colour.
‘Hello, I’m Dr Dimosa and this is Nurse McDonald but please call us Daniel and Libby,’ Daniel said, then looked at Libby for approval.
It was after the fact, but Libby nodded her agreement; she was happy to use her less formal first name and with what they were facing she wasn’t overly fussed whatever they called her.
‘I’m Alex,’ the woman said in a strained voice and little energy behind her words. ‘I’ve seen you both around but I didn’t know what you did. I’m a cleaner. I do some galley work now and then but mainly clean the suites.’
‘Please tell us what’s happening and how you’re feeling now,’ Daniel said.
‘I’ve been throwing up for two days and I’m not sure if it’s something I ate or sea sickness but whatever it is I feel dreadful.’
‘When did this start? And what were your initial symptoms?’ Daniel continued, as he reached back to find Libby was already holding the digital thermometer he wanted. He couldn’t help but smile to himself. Naturally she had known what he would be needing next; she always had.
‘It was about two days ago, when I woke up. I thought it was something I ate because I felt a bit queasy,’ the woman began.
Daniel rested the thermometer gently inside the woman’s ear and it quickly beeped the reading. ‘Thirty-six point five,’ he reported to Libby, who was already taking notes. ‘You don’t have a temperature. Not even a low-grade fever.’
‘Is that good? What does it mean?’
‘It means your body’s not fighting a bacterium or virus so there must be another reason for the nausea,’ he said as he turned to find Libby reaching for the thermometer, discarding the disposable cap, wiping the handle clean with antibacterial wipes and returning it to the medical bag. She was her ever efficient self.
‘But what can you give me to make it stop? I’ve been vomiting for hours and my stomach hurts,’ the woman asked. ‘And I want to get back to work.’
‘Before I give you anything, I would like to know what we are dealing with.’
‘I feel like death warmed up again, but...’ she paused as she made her way to the bunk and lay down, pulling the covers up to her chin protectively ‘...it did improve both days after lunch.’
‘So the nausea stopped completely after lunchtime?’
‘Yes, I had some dry toast and then by dinnertime I was fine and then it started again the next morning. Last night I was fine again and I ate a good dinner and could work but now today it’s back,’ she said with her eyes starting to close. ‘I’m exhausted with all of this throwing up. Is it seasickness? I’ve never worked on a boat before.’
‘No, Alexandra, I don’t think so.’
‘Then what is it?’ she mumbled wearily, her blue eyes as pale and drawn as her skin.
‘Your lack of fever and the transient nausea are leading me to believe it might be a case of morning sickness...’
‘Morning sickness?’ The young woman almost yelled her response as she sat bolt upright. ‘Are you telling me I’m pregnant?’
Libby silently agreed with Daniel’s diagnosis. While it wasn’t how she had felt when she’d been pregnant, it was a common symptom during the first trimester of pregnancy. For her entire pregnancy she had been overtaken by cravings for food she couldn’t ordinarily stomach and, once she had given birth, never ate again.
‘I’m putting it forward as a possibility,’ he said calmly. ‘We would need to confirm with a pregnancy test and then bloodwork.’
‘I can’t be pregnant. It’s not possible,’ she said, shaking her head as she slumped back against the pillows.
‘You haven’t had sex in the last month?’
Alexandra looked down at her hands, they were trembling slightly in her lap.
‘Or months,’ Daniel added. ‘If you are pregnant, you may have conceived a few months ago and be further along in the pregnancy.’
‘This is a mess,’ she said, turning back to face Daniel and Libby with tears welling in her eyes. ‘I haven’t had a period in over eight weeks but I thought it was the stress of the separation. I left my husband six weeks ago.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Daniel and Libby said simultaneously.
Libby leaned in and instinctively put her arm around the young woman to comfort her.
‘We were told we couldn’t have children naturally—’ Alexandra continued.
‘Again,’ Daniel cut in as he looked at the woman with compassion, ‘I’m not saying that you are pregnant but it’s something we need to consider as the symptoms do align.’
‘I can’t believe it,’ she returned, as she began shaking her head again. ‘If it’s true, the timing couldn’t be worse. I just secured the job with Sir Walter and I really need to keep it. I’m employed to clean the yacht when he cruises and look after his house in Miami the rest of the time. He’s a good boss and I need the money to pay rent now that I’m not living with my husband.’
; Daniel nodded. ‘Walter is a good man, Alex, and I can have a word with him once we know if you’re pregnant and see what sort of arrangement can be made for maternity leave. Do you have any other support at home?’
Libby pulled her arm away slowly and turned her attention to the medical bag nearby. She wondered if there was a pregnancy test inside. It was a long shot but if there was one on board it would either confirm or negate the pregnancy diagnosis and ensure any decisions made by Alexandra were based on fact.
‘No, my mother and father passed away in an accident in Mexico three years ago. It was just my husband and me and now...now it’s just me.’
Libby was surprised to find a two-window pregnancy test. While it was what she wanted, it wasn’t what was normally in a medical bag—but, then, she surmised that a medical bag on a cruise ship was not a regular medical bag. She checked the date then held it up for Daniel, her eyes signalling her intention to suggest Alex take the test. He nodded his response.
‘There’s a pregnancy test here,’ Libby announced in a low and equally calm voice. ‘Would you like to go to the bathroom and find out one way or another? As Daniel said, you’ll need bloods when you return to shore but these over-the-counter pregnancy tests become more accurate all the time.’
‘How does it work?’
‘It will detect the hormone chorionic gonadotropin. When an egg’s fertilised and attaches to your uterine wall, the placenta begins to form and produces this hormone, and it appears in your bloodstream and your urine. As you get further along in pregnancy, the hormone levels rise more rapidly, doubling every couple of days. That’s why if the test is positive, you’ll need to see your obstetrician in the next week or so to gauge how far along you are in your pregnancy.’
The young woman reached in silence to take the test kit from Libby and then swung her feet around and slowly moved to stand up. She was still visibly weak so Libby held her arm as she made her way to the bathroom.
‘Do you know what to do?’ Libby asked. ‘It’s a two-window test so two lines indicate positive and a single line is negative. But, remember, while the positive result is generally accurate, the negative may not be definite and if the symptoms continue you may want to visit your GP for bloodwork.’
‘I’ve done this too many times before and each time it’s been negative and that never changed with a blood test,’ she said as she stepped inside the tiny bathroom.
‘We’re nearby, if you need us,’ Libby said without making any further comment as she closed the bathroom door.
Libby was distracted thinking about the anxiety surging through Alex behind the small bathroom door. She knew and understood it first-hand. For Libby it was a lived experience, and one she would never forget. She reached for her locket and held it in her gloved hand, wondering if in the not-too-distant future Alex would be holding a much-loved child in her arms.
She looked over at Daniel and felt a pang of guilt. He had no idea what she’d been through on her own. Part of her was still angry and part of her felt sad for him that he had not been able to share the joy of the little boy who was his son.
If he had known, perhaps he still would have stayed away. Perhaps he would have returned, not for her but for his son.
‘If she’s pregnant,’ Daniel suddenly said, breaking her thoughts and completely unaware of the enormous decision weighing heavily on her mind, ‘Alexandra’s nausea might be temporary with any luck, and she might be a mother-to-be who has cravings more than sickness. My mother was apparently like that when she was pregnant with me. Lived on olives, grilled fish and homemade bread for months.’
Libby’s eyes grew wide. She couldn’t believe what Daniel was telling her. He was describing exactly her pregnancy diet with Billy.
The door opened tentatively and Alex stood there crying, her body visibly shaking, with the test in her hand.
‘There are two lines. I’m pregnant. I’m actually going to be a mother,’ she said through tears. ‘I’m so happy and so sad and so confused. It’s all I ever wanted and now I’m not sure I can do it. Not alone.’
Libby, still reeling a little from Daniel’s story, crossed to Alexandra and took her arm to lead her back to the chair. ‘Sit down and catch your breath. It’s a lot to take in. Particularly when it’s unexpected.’
‘I’m... I’m happy. I’m actually so happy but I’m not sure what to do. It’s all so surreal to me and part of me still can’t believe it. We went through three rounds of IVF and three negative pregnancy tests and my husband said he couldn’t go through it again.
‘It wasn’t just the cost. The devastation of the last negative test made me go a little crazy. I wanted a baby so much and my husband shut the door on the idea. He said the hormones I had to take made me so sick and he didn’t want me to go through that again. He said he loved me too much to do that but his decision ripped us apart. I wanted to try just one more time. I knew he would be the best father and we would be so happy. With no parents, a family of our own meant the world to me. But he wouldn’t. He said it wasn’t meant to be.’
‘I understand, and I might be out of line here,’ Libby began, ‘but your husband sounds like a very caring man who made that decision from concern for you.’
‘I know. I still love him, I always will, but...we did nothing but argue and then I went into my shell and shut him out because I wanted a baby so badly.’
‘And now that’s become a reality,’ Daniel said, rubbing his chin. ‘While it’s unexpected, I’d say it’s a great outcome.’
‘But what if I lose the baby? What would happen? I would go completely crazy and I can’t put him through that,’ she said as she moved to the bed and curled up into a foetal position, pulling the covers over her. ‘I can’t do that to him, I can’t.’
‘It looks like we’re both at risk of being out of line,’ Daniel started, ‘but I think you might be selling your husband short on this one. There’s no indication that you’ll miscarry, so if you don’t tell your husband he will have missed the joy of these months. The joy of finding out he’s going to be a father. That would be a very special time for him. Don’t take that away from him. My advice, both professionally and as a man, would be to let him know.’
‘But what if something goes wrong with the pregnancy?’
‘You’re jumping to the worst-case scenario,’ Daniel said as he drew closer and looked intently at Alexandra. ‘As I said, unless the obstetrician has identified an issue and told you there would be a risk, you should not be overly concerned. You’re young and appear otherwise healthy so make sure you see your GP and obstetrician and start an antenatal plan, and seriously take this time to consider bringing your husband up to speed with the fact he’s going to be a father. Give him the chance to step up. I’m not a counsellor, but you said you still love him so at least give him the chance to tell you and your baby the same thing.’
Libby felt a lump rising in her throat with every word that slipped from Daniel’s lips. The previous pang of guilt threatened to become a tsunami of regret.
Her mind was spinning and her stomach churning in a way they never had before.
She and Alex each had a huge decision to make.
But Libby had only five more days before the opportunity might be gone for ever.
CHAPTER NINE
LIBBY SPENT THE following days concentrating on Walter. He didn’t like any fuss, so she caught up with him after he had enjoyed his breakfast on the deck, after lunch and then just before he retired to his luxurious cabin for the night, checking his blood pressure and his wound. Despite the less than healthy diet, her patient was progressing very well. The wound was healing nicely and his blood pressure was back within normal limits. The sea air certainly agreed with him.
When she wasn’t with Walter, she returned to the quiet of her suite to call home and check in with Billy and her parents—and more importantly avoid seeing Daniel. She had
done some soul searching after hearing Daniel speak openly and honestly to Alex about her need to tell her husband about her pregnancy. It wasn’t a decision she was making in haste, the way she had done the night Daniel had driven her home. She was going to tell Daniel that he had a son.
Her decision was born from thinking hard about the words Daniel had imparted to Alex, both as a doctor and as a man, and knowing in her heart they were true. Libby didn’t want to keep Daniel from his son to punish him. With hand on heart, she knew her immediate reaction had been to protect Billy but she had to trust that in letting Daniel know, whatever the outcome she had not prevented Billy from having the opportunity to know his father.
Now it would be up to Daniel whether he wanted to take on that role. And what that role in Billy’s life might look like in the coming years.
The time alone in her cabin was giving Libby the space she needed to think about everything.
She could not be sure that Daniel would not leave Billy the way he had left her four years ago, without an explanation and with no way to contact him, but it was a chance she had to take. She just had to get the timing right. If he reacted badly and they still had a few days at sea, it would not be fair on Walter and the rest of the passengers. Libby decided she would tell him the night before they docked. It would give her sufficient time to tell him everything, answer his questions, and then he could process his feelings about it alone, not trapped on the yacht surrounded by a group of strangers.
Libby had no reason to socialise too much. Georgie was busy with preparations for the upcoming engagement party and the day-to-day running of the galley. It was busier than she had thought so they both caught up every evening for half an hour to chat and then head to bed early. That was the time when Libby called home because there was a time difference.
She missed Billy, Bradley and her parents. She had no intention of raising the fact that Daniel was on the yacht to either Bradley or her parents as she didn’t want to be swayed by their bias. They would naturally want to protect both her and Billy and none of them had known Daniel. Not the man she’d fallen in love with, at least. They had only known him as the cad who had broken her heart. So their opinion no doubt would not favour Daniel.
Reunited with Her Secret Prince Page 10