She didn’t finish the sentence. Without warning, her entire manner changed. She sat very still, her face concentrated. Inward. Breathing steadily but deeply. In, out. In, out.
Nervously, Will watched his wife. If Lucy was in labour he wanted her safely in hospital, surrounded by a team of medical experts.
‘Phew,’ she said at last. ‘That was stronger.’
‘What about the timing? How far was it from the last one?’
She looked at the clock. ‘Gosh, it was only ten minutes.’
‘That’s it then.’ Will lurched to his feet. ‘Come on, we’ve got to leave now.’
Lucy caught his hand. ‘Are you sure you don’t want your breakfast?’
‘Not now.’
Lucy’s suitcase had been packed and ready for some weeks. ‘I’ll put your bag in the car,’ he said, grateful that they’d bought a comfortable all wheel drive station wagon some months back.
‘OK. I’d better get the rest of my things.’
He gave her a tremulous smile, but there was nothing tremulous about Lucy’s grin. Her face was alight with exhilaration. ‘Isn’t this exciting, Will? Our baby’s coming.’
A tidal wave of emotions flooded him. Glorious love for her. Chilling fear and a desperate need to protect her. Closing the gap between them, Will took her in his arms. ‘I love you so much.’
‘I know, my darling.’ She touched a gentle hand to his cheek.
He clasped her to him, his precious, precious girl. ‘I’m going to get you there safely, Lucy. I promise.’
Will drove with his heart in his mouth. Despite Lucy’s calm assertion that all was well, he knew her contractions were getting stronger and he suspected they seemed to be coming closer. He could tell by her bouts of deep breathing and the way she massaged her stomach and he knew she needed all her concentration just to get through the pain.
Now he cursed himself for not making better contingency plans. He’d tried to suggest that Lucy stay in town with her father for these final weeks, but she’d insisted she’d be fine. He’d read the books on childbirth. He knew every case was different. Hell, he shouldn’t have listened to her.
‘Sorry, this is going to be bumpy,’ he said as they came to the old wooden bridge crossing Willow Creek.
‘It’s OK,’ she said, smiling bravely. ‘I’m between contractions.’
But they had only just made it to the other side of the bridge when Lucy gave a loud gasp.
‘What’s happening?’ Will sent her a frantic sideways glance.
She couldn’t answer. She was too busy panting.
Panting? Didn’t that mean—?
‘Lucy!’ he cried, aghast. ‘You’re not in transition already, are you?’
‘I think I might be,’ she said when she’d recovered her breath. For the first time she looked frightened. ‘First babies shouldn’t come this fast.’
She no longer sounded calm. All too soon, her eyes were closed, her face twisted with pain, one fist clutched low, beneath the bump of the baby.
Oh, God. They were still thirty minutes from the hospital. Will felt helpless and distraught as he pressed his foot down on the accelerator. His heart began to shred into tiny pieces.
As they rounded the next curve, Lucy cried out and the guttural animal force of the sound horrified Will. Seizing the first possible chance to pull off the road, he brought the car to a halt.
‘I’ll ring for an ambulance,’ he said, already reaching for his mobile phone.
Lucy nodded and managed a weak smile. ‘Good idea. I…I think the baby’s coming.’
Will choked back a cry of dismay.
The voice on the other end of the emergency hotline was amazingly calm as he explained their situation and gave the necessary details, including their location.
‘The ambulance is on its way,’ he said, wishing he felt more relieved.
Lucy nodded and fumbled with her door handle.
‘What are you doing?’ he cried as her door swung open. Had she gone mad?
Leaping out of his seat, he hurried around the car and found his wife slumped against its side, panting furiously.
Helplessly, he tried to stroke her arm, to soothe her, but she pushed him away and shook her head. He stood beside her, scared she might collapse, arms at the ready.
When the panting was over she opened her eyes. She looked exhausted. Sweat beaded her upper lip. ‘It’s too painful sitting in that front seat. I think I need to get into the back.’
‘Right,’ he said, biting back his fear. ‘Let me help you.’
He hated to see Lucy’s pain as he struggled to help her with the unwieldy transfer. Her contractions were fast and furious now and there seemed to be no spaces between them. He found a cushion for her head and helped her to lie along the back seat.
In a tiny lull, she sent him a wan smile. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t dream it would be this fast.’
‘Our baby can’t wait to get here,’ he said, doing his best to sound calm. ‘He knows what a great mother he’s getting.’
After the next contraction Lucy said quite calmly, ‘Do we have any towels? Can you get the baby blanket out of the suitcase, Will?’
The baby blanket? He must have looked shocked.
‘In case we beat the ambulance,’ she said.
No, no. That couldn’t happen, surely?
But by the time he’d found a beach towel—freshly washed, thank God—and retrieved the baby blanket from the hospital suitcase, Lucy was panting so hard she was in danger of hyperventilating.
‘It’s coming!’ she cried. ‘Will, help me!’
With frantic hands, she was trying to push her clothing away in preparation for the baby’s imminent birth.
Oh, God it was actually happening. This was it. The birth of their child. On the side of the road beneath a river red gum.
Over the past nine months Will had imagined this birth, but he’d always pictured himself watching from the sidelines while medical experts did the honours. Mostly he’d seen himself emerging from a delivery room wearing a green hospital gown and a beaming smile as he shared the good news with their waiting families.
But, to his surprise, as soon as he accepted that he had no choice about where their baby might be born, an unexpected sense of calm settled over him. The terror was still there like a savage claw in the pit of his stomach, but Lucy needed him and he had to pull himself together.
Before they’d left home, he’d promised to protect her. He’d never dreamed what that might involve, but this was the moment of reckoning. She needed him to be calm and competent.
He could do this. For her. For their baby.
‘OK, Goose, you’re doing really well,’ he said as he settled the folded towel beneath her.
Lucy merely grunted and went red in the face. Her right hand was braced against the back of the front seat. With the other she clung to an overhead strap.
She held her breath and grimaced, and Will couldn’t bear to think how much this was hurting her.
Then he saw the crown of their baby’s head.
Lucy finished pushing and let out an enormous gasp as she wilted back against the cushion.
‘Good girl,’ he said. ‘Our baby has dark hair.’
She tried to smile. ‘I’m going to have to push, Will. I can’t hold back any longer. If you can see the baby’s head, that means I can push without doing any harm.’
‘Tell me what to do,’ he said, ashamed of the hint of fear that trembled in his voice.
‘Just be ready to catch. Support the head.’ Lucy sent him an encouraging smile before her belly constricted and she was overtaken by the force of another contraction.
Inch by inch, their baby emerged.
‘You’re brilliant, darling,’ he told her. ‘I can see the eyebrows, eyes, nose.’ Excitement bubbled through him now. ‘I can see the mouth. It’s kinda scrunched but cute.’ He held his hands at the ready. ‘OK, the head’s out.’
Somehow he managed to sound calm. ‘It
’s turning.’
With the next of Lucy’s grunts, he gently but firmly held his child’s warm damp head. He saw a slippery shoulder emerge and then another. In the space of three heartbeats, he was steadying his baby as it slipped from its safe maternal cocoon.
He and Lucy had chosen not to know the baby’s sex, but now his heart leapt with incredible joy.
‘Lucy, it’s a boy.’
‘A boy?’ Her eyes opened and a radiant smile lit up her face. ‘Oh, the little darling. I had a feeling he was a boy.’
Will’s throat was too choked to speak as he lifted his son onto Lucy’s tummy. Their son had thick dark hair, and his little arms were outstretched, tiny fingers uncurled, as if he was reaching out for life, or bursting through the winner’s tape at the end of a race.
‘Oh, Will!’ Lucy whispered, looking pale but happy. ‘Isn’t he handsome? Isn’t he gorgeous?’
‘He looks like a champion,’ Will agreed, but then he frowned as a new fear worried him. ‘Should I do anything? Is he breathing OK?’
‘I think he’s fine.’ Lucy spoke calmly as she rubbed the baby’s back and, as if to answer her, the little fellow began to cry, with a small bleat at first, then with a loud gusty wail.
She grinned. ‘He’s got a terrific set of lungs.’
‘He’s got a terrific mum,’ Will said as he helped her to wrap their son in the soft white blanket dotted with yellow ducklings.
The whine of a siren sounded in the distance and Will felt a weight lift from his shoulders.
‘Help is on its way,’ he said.
Lucy smiled. ‘I’ve already had all the help I needed.’ With a wondrous, soft expression she touched the top of their son’s head. ‘Thank you, Will. Thank you.’
By midday Lucy was happily ensconced in a private room in Willowbank Hospital in a lovely big white bed, with her darling baby boy, wrapped in a blue bunny rug, beside her.
Surrounded by flowers.
Surrounded by so many flowers, in fact, that she felt like a celebrity.
‘You are a celebrity,’ Gina told her. ‘Think how many puppies and kittens and ponies and sheep you’ve looked after in this district. Every household in Willowbank is thrilled that you now have your own dear little boy.’
‘And he’s such a beauty,’ said Mattie, gazing fondly at the sleeping little cherub in the crib.
Lucy watched the soft glow in Mattie’s eyes, watched the reverent way Mattie stared at little Nathan, at the way she gently touched his cheek, and she felt a tiny current of excitement inside her.
The excitement grew as Lucy saw the meaningful glance Mattie sent to her husband, and a thrilled shiver ran through her as she witnessed the warm intimacy of Jake’s answering smile.
They had important news. Baby news. Lucy could feel it in her bones.
‘Mattie…’ she said, but then she stopped, not sure how to continue.
Mattie smiled, almost as if she was encouraging Lucy to question her.
‘You’re not?’ Lucy began and then she stopped again.
‘Yes!’ Mattie exclaimed and she was smiling broadly now. She reached for Jake’s hand and their fingers twined. Her eyes glowed. ‘I’m three months pregnant.’
‘And we couldn’t be happier,’ said Jake, backing up his words with a huge grin.
The room suddenly erupted with excited questions and congratulations.
‘That’s the most perfect news,’ Lucy said and she knew she was beaming with joy as she looked around the room, filled with the people who were so important to her—Gina and Tom, Mattie and Jake—and Will, her darling Will. And now, dear little Nathan William Carruthers.
‘There’s going to be a whole new generation of the Willow Creek gang,’ Tom said, grinning.
Everyone laughed and, from his vantage point near the door, Will sent his wife a conspiratorial wink. He thought Lucy had never looked more beautiful.
He looked around the room at their friends and he marvelled at the sense of completion he felt. He thought about the long and roundabout journey he’d taken to reach this satisfying moment.
And he knew at last that he was finally home.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4112-5
THE BRIDESMAID’S BABY
First North American Publication 2009.
Copyright © 2009 by Barbara Hannay.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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