The Baby Verdict
Page 17
‘I couldn’t bear the thought of marrying you when you didn’t love me and I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving you, of only being tied to you through our child.’
He smiled and kissed her very thoroughly on the mouth and she moaned and guided his hand to her breast.
‘So. Will you marry me?’ he asked huskily.
‘Do you know, Bruno Carr? I think I just might.’
EPILOGUE
‘MUMMY! Mummy! Mummy!’
Jessica looked at her daughter and against the flickering night shadows she could make out the glowing eyes and rosy-cheeked smile. Beyond her, she met Bruno’s eyes and they smiled at one another. With Amy in his arms, her little face was at the same level as his, and even without the benefit of bright lights it was easy for her to see how closely they resembled each other.
‘Strong genes,’ he had told her with proud satisfaction two years ago when he had gazed down at that seven-pound three-ounce scrap of closed-fisted baby wrapped in blankets. ‘Spit image of me. A little clone.’
‘Poor child!’ Jessica had teased, looking at the thatch of dark hair.
‘Amy! Amy! Amy!’ Jessica replied, reaching to stroke her daughter’s face. It was after seven and they had wrapped her up warmly for this little expedition to the local village school.
‘Isn’t she a little nag?’ Bruno murmured, nuzzling Amy’s cheek with his nose and then planting a kiss on her neck. ‘I knew she’d inherited certain important character traits from you!’
Jessica laughed, and wondered, not for the first time, how she could still be so thrilled with this extraordinary man. She still felt that magical tingle of awareness whenever he was near her and that warm feeling of security, as though the sweetest things in life had somehow found her and were there to stay.
‘Me like de fireworks!’
‘I can see that you do, darling.’
‘She’s so advanced,’ Bruno said in wonderment, for the umpteenth time, and Jessica’s arm around his waist circled him even closer.
‘You’re biased.’
‘Not at all. How many children of her age do you know can hold a conversation?’
Jessica doubted whether her daughter’s ability to string words together could actually be labelled ‘holding a conversation’ but she knew better than to argue the point. Bruno, the archetypal single man, had become the most devoted father.
‘Absolutely none,’ she agreed and she saw the glimmer of teeth as he smiled and looked upwards to where a shower of light was descending back to earth. The ground was packed to the rafters, but here, at the back, it was as though there were only the three of them in the entire universe. Amy’s face, tilted upwards, was alight with childish amazement.
‘Again!’ she cried. ‘Again! Again! Again!’
‘Time to go, Amy,’ Jessica said, laughing, as her daughter pushed out her mouth in stubborn disagreement.
‘No!’
They walked past groups of milling people towards the car and, despite the childish protestations and tears, within five minutes Amy was sound asleep, her thumb half falling out of her mouth, her head curled to one side.
‘Isn’t she an angel when she’s asleep?’ Jessica said, resting her head back and half closing her eyes.
‘Something else she’s inherited from you,’ Bruno said softly. She felt his hand cover hers and their fingers entwined into a solid bond. ‘Now admit it, aren’t you glad you persuaded me to marry you?’
She laughed and squeezed his fingers. ‘Oh, yes, my lord and master!’
‘And, of course, you can prove that when we get back,’ he growled, and then he shook his head. ‘But then again, maybe not. Not quite yet, anyway.’
‘I know. Things are getting a trifle difficult on that front, aren’t they, my love?’ she said ruefully, glancing down at her stomach.
‘And a more beautiful reason for that I can’t imagine.’ He smiled and glanced across to her, his eyes warm and loving. ‘Just think, by Christmas, no more stomach.’
‘I know,’ she sighed contentedly. ‘But lots of broken nights.’
‘Could things be better?’
And they laughed in unison.
ISBN : 978-1-4592-5200-4
THE BABY VERDICT
First North American Publication 1999.
Copyright © 1999 by Cathy Williams.
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