Not just as a father.
He had far greater plans for them than that.
Dominic handed the baby back to his mother and then he shook his brother’s hand.
‘Congratulations,’ Dominic said, and he could finally look him in the eye and smile.
‘Oh!’
He turned at the sound of his mother’s voice and saw the concern in his father’s expression.
‘I was just dropping in to see how William was doing,’ Dominic explained.
‘Is everything okay?’ William Senior asked as he came in.
‘All’s good,’ Dominic said. ‘I’ll see you back at home. And, Lorna,’ he added. ‘If you want a proper dinner or to stay at my home, then you’re very welcome.’ He turned to his mother. ‘But I’ve been working all night, remember, so can you please keep it down.’
And they were back to being a family.
Dominic made his way back to Accident and Emergency. He had a coffee and killed time, watching as a nurse rolled her eyes as she did her best to hold on to her temper as she spoke with someone on the phone.
‘I am sorry about that but I wasn’t working last night. I’ll try and find out for you.’ She pressed Mute and let out a hiss. ‘That man!’
‘Who?’
‘Professor Christie over at Riverside.’
‘What does he want?’
‘A transfer last night...’ She shook her head. ‘Don’t worry, I know you’re not on.’
‘It’s fine.’
He picked up the phone and on the other end of the line he heard the great Professor Christie berate a member of staff.
‘Hello,’ Dominic said. ‘Dominic MacBride speaking.’
‘Oh!’ Professor Christie said, and he switched to charming. ‘Sorry about that, I’m working with clumsy imbeciles this morning.’
He had thought about it for a long time and examined it from many angles and, in this instance, Dominic did know what to say.
‘Well—’ Dominic’s voice was curt ‘—that might have something to do with the fact that they’re working alongside an arrogant git. So,’ he asked, and adopted a more professional tone, ‘how can I help you?’
He saw the nurse turn with eyes wide as he heard the professor splutter into the phone.
‘What did you just say?’ Professor Christie demanded.
‘Do you want me to repeat it?’ Dominic calmly replied. ‘Or would you like me to come over now and say it to your face?’
‘Now, listen here—’
‘I do listen,’ Dominic said. ‘I listen very carefully and I also think before I speak.’
His voice held a warning and there was silence on the other end of the line.
‘Now,’ Dominic said, ‘what did you want to know about the patient?’
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
VICTORIA SAT IN the waiting room of the Imaging Department.
There was a television up high on the wall but Victoria was too busy replying to some emails about the next Save Paddington’s meeting to watch it.
Then her phone rang and Victoria grimaced when she saw that it was her father who was calling her.
He rarely called. In fact, it was always Victoria who called him.
Perhaps there had been a change of heart, Victoria thought.
‘Hi, Dad,’ she said.
‘Who’s the father of the baby?’
‘Why?’ Victoria asked.
‘Just tell me.’
Victoria sat there.
Her father had shown absolutely no interest in this baby and from his very brusque tone she didn’t think he sounded particularly interested now.
In fact, he sounded furious as he spoke on. ‘You said that he was in Scotland...’
‘Why do you want to know?’
‘Well, I’ve just had some upstart insult me. Dominic MacBride...’
Her heart was bumping against the wall of her chest.
‘What did he say?’
She closed her eyes as her father repeated it.
What the hell was Dominic thinking to speak to her father like that? Dominic, who insisted his responses were measured, clearly hadn’t thought this one through.
For it made a future impossible.
Any get-togethers would be fraught and tense.
And in that moment she felt as if she were about to cry, for she was mentally waving goodbye to Christmases and Easters and family celebrations and she had been trying so hard not to think of them.
‘Well?’ Professor Christie demanded. ‘Is he the father?’
‘Yes,’ Victoria answered. She was cross with Dominic, even if she privately agreed with what had been said, but she did not tell her father that. Instead she told him a truth. ‘And I’m very glad that he is.’
Dominic would be a wonderful father, she absolutely knew.
She was glimpsing Christmases and birthdays again, and even if she might not be in the picture, her baby would be taken care of during celebrations whenever it was in his care.
He deserved to be here.
She simply ended the call because there was another major incident occurring, but this time it was with her heart.
It wasn’t just that he deserved to be there.
He would be the one she would call on if anything was wrong.
It would be Dominic’s voice she would need if their baby was ill, or hot, or fussing.
Glen seemed to think it was possible but she didn’t know how to let him into the baby’s life without revealing how she really felt.
Yet, he did deserve to be there.
And so, before she could talk herself out of it she sent a hurried text.
Can you come to the ultrasound?
She hit Send and then panicked because that sounded too needy, and then started to write another.
You can come to the ultrasound if you still want to.
But that didn’t read right and so she didn’t hit Send but then she thought of him waking to the first, as he was probably asleep and would read it and think there was something wrong.
What if there was something wrong?
She needed him here.
And then suddenly he was there.
She knew, as she always did, whenever Dominic was close. He stood over her as she stared down at her phone and then she looked up. ‘You got here fast.’
‘I thought I’d hang around in case you changed your mind,’ Dominic said as he took a seat by her side.
He would not rush in and scare her with his feelings. That text, asking him to be here, was enough for now.
‘Have you been speaking to my father?’ she accused.
‘Aye.’
‘What did you say?’ she asked, wondering if he would be vague but Dominic told her exactly.
‘He was talking down to a member of his staff and one of ours. I just said he was an arrogant git. That’s all.’
‘So how is it going to be when you see him?’ She would not admit to the family get-togethers that she dreamed might happen one day. ‘At the hospital and things.’
‘I’ll be civil.’ He looked over to her angered face. ‘Victoria, do you really think there are going to be many cosy get-togethers with me, him and the baby?’
‘No,’ she said, and she was struggling to keep her feelings in, because what he had said didn’t bode well for any chance for them.
‘But if they do happen,’ Dominic said, ‘then I will play the part and do the right thing, but he has to know that I know what he’s like. I will not let him inflict his bloody nature on my child nor on the mother of my child. I just served him a warning today.’
His lips were taut and his words were clipped and Victoria nodded because deep down she knew that
he was right.
It wasn’t fear of confrontation that flooded her now; it was a wash of relief that came over her, though she tried not to show it. Finally there was someone in her corner where there never had been before, and even if he was there just to guard their child she was very glad that Dominic was on board.
‘Are you nervous?’ he asked.
‘Are you?’
‘Yes.’
And they smiled because given what had happened to Dominic, and given their short history, perhaps he should be, but Dominic nudged her and they looked up at the television.
‘Look.’
It was that image of them from Westbourne Grove.
It seemed like ages ago, but it had been just a couple of weeks.
Yet so much had changed.
Images of the protestors outside the hospital came onto the screen.
The fire had been a terrible day.
It had changed so many lives, and the fight to save some of them was ongoing. Children were still desperately ill, and yet, from such a terrible event good had prevailed.
Angela Marton was now talking about the fight to save Paddington Children’s Hospital and saying that Londoners did not want to lose the institution that brought hope to so many.
‘I want my baby to be born here,’ Victoria said.
‘Our baby,’ he corrected.
‘So you believe me now,’ she nudged.
‘Victoria, the more I know you, the more I’m amazed at the speed with which you dropped your knickers.’
‘Stop it!’
‘It’s true. That condom had probably expired.’
‘So why are you nervous, then?’
‘Because, like every other parent, I want our baby to be fine.’ He gave her a smile. ‘You do believe in fairytales.’
‘I don’t.’
‘Penny told me about the princess.’
‘How is Penny?’
‘Don’t worry about that now.’
‘I’m not worried,’ she lied. ‘Just tell me.’
‘She’s got a virus and she’s in severe heart failure.’
She thought of Penny’s beautiful eyes taking in the lounge and she prayed, so hard, that she would one day be back there.
‘Do you think she’ll be okay?’
‘I don’t know, Victoria. She’s got a long road ahead of her.’
‘Victoria Christie.’
She stood up for the radiographer when her name was called.
‘Come through.’
She was shown to a little cubicle and asked to put on a gown.
‘Then go in and lie down, and I’ll be through shortly,’ she said.
Victoria changed and went through to the little room and got up on the examination couch, putting a blanket over her legs.
And Dominic sat by her side.
The radiographer came in then and they chatted about dates and confirmed, when she had a feel of Victoria’s stomach, that indeed she did have a full bladder.
They had a little laugh, then the radiographer’s pager went off and she said that she’d be back soon.
They were both very quiet.
Dominic was probably feeling sick, Victoria thought, given what had happened the last time he was in this situation.
Dominic did not feel sick.
Not in the least.
He would not be demanding a DNA test.
He knew for a fact this baby was his.
Victoria didn’t need anyone.
Except maybe she did.
‘I’m nervous.’ She just came out and said it. ‘What if there’s something wrong?’
‘Then we shall deal with it together.’
He held her hand.
Oh, she did need a handhold because it felt like silk wrapping around not just her fingers but her heart.
She started to cry.
‘It will be okay,’ Dominic said, and he peeled off some tissues.
‘I’m just tired,’ she said. ‘It was a busy shift and I’m worried about Penny.’
‘I know,’ he said.
But it wasn’t just that.
‘I’m sorry I was terse with your father.’
‘It’s not that.’
She was glad of it now.
It was her mother.
‘I love this baby so much already. I don’t get how she could just leave me like that.’
‘Nor do I,’ he told her. ‘Victoria, I shan’t be doing the same.’
And Glen was right; whatever happened between them, they would do what was best for the baby.
But it wasn’t just that.
It was a huge comfort to know her baby would have such a wonderful father, yet the fears about Dominic were not for her child now. They were for her own heart.
The radiographer came in and he peeled off more tissues and she pressed them onto her eyes.
‘I’m enthusiastic to see our baby,’ Dominic said, and that made her smile. He hadn’t rushed in and said it when her eyes had pleaded for him to in the canteen.
He said it now when he meant it.
‘So am I.’
And there it was.
All that fuss for something so small.
Yet so beautiful and so vital and alive.
And they weren’t really listening to dates and looking at crown rump length and things.
Just watching the baby with its tiny arms and legs and even fingers and toes. It was just a moment they shared.
He looked from the screen to Victoria, and there was the flash of fresh tears in her eyes. He would never leave her, yet she didn’t even know. He didn’t care if it took for ever; he would get right into that guarded heart. What had happened when their baby had been made was a rare magic; he bent over and gave her a light kiss. This man could not hold back any longer!
‘I love you.’
He had sworn not to push her, but he couldn’t not say it. He did not want her to go another moment in this life without love.
Though because he was all stoic and Scottish, and there was someone else in the room, that was all the romance she was going to get.
It meant everything and more to hear that, but she was certain it was just the emotion of the moment. The dates matched exactly and maybe Dominic had just gotten a bit carried away.
She lay there as his hand remained over hers but those fears in her head beat faster than the heart on the screen.
It was like the world was all in this room—his hand, their baby—and she was scared for the lights to go on, for she would surely wake up alone.
And then it was over.
The images would be looked at, they were told, but everything seemed perfect, and Victoria could now get dressed.
‘Thank you,’ Victoria said, but she was almost scared to move because the tears were threatening.
‘I’ll wait in Reception,’ Dominic said, but as he turned to go she started to cry.
‘What are you crying over?’ he asked. ‘Your mum?’
It would be so easy to nod and say yes and perhaps a whole lot safer too, because she was scared to reveal herself.
Then she thought about something else that Glen had said, about not being too proud for your own good and so this woman met his eyes in the ultrasound room and made her confession and told him her truth.
‘You,’ Victoria said. ‘I’m crying over you.’
‘Cry on me, then.’
He pulled her into his arms and held her as she wept, and she told him her fears; she had so many and he dealt with each in turn.
‘You might change your mind.’
‘Never.’ Dominic knew that he would never change his mind.
And he sounded
so sure, and here in his arms she was brave enough to voice her fears for them.
‘You loved Lorna.’
‘Not like this,’ Dominic told her. ‘I’ve never loved like this.’
She could hear the steady beat of his heart while hers was racing, and she could feel his quiet strength.
It wasn’t the first time she had cried but it was the first time she had cried in someone’s arms and so she voiced her deepest fear.
‘If there wasn’t the baby...’
‘Then you’d still be here in my arms.’
And his deep voice was soft and it felt like the truth but she disputed it all the same. ‘You stayed back.’
‘You asked me to.’
‘But before you knew about the baby you didn’t make a move.’
‘Neither did you,’ he pointed out.
‘I stayed back because I don’t know how to make things work between us,’ Victoria said.
‘And I stayed back because I do.’
She frowned into his chest.
‘Victoria, I told you at the start I was in the middle of something; I wasn’t going to land it all on us and come into a relationship jaded and bitter. I needed to sort things out properly.’
She thought about that for a moment and then he spoke some more.
‘Now I have sorted it out. I’ve taken the baby a present, I’ve had a hold and I’ve told Lorna she’s very welcome in my home.’
‘Do you still love her?’ Victoria asked. ‘You can’t undo love.’
‘Believe me, you can unravel it,’ Dominic said. ‘It pretty much came undone the day I found out. Victoria, I haven’t been steering clear of Lorna because I have feelings for her. Not positive ones anyway. The last months have been hell, more over my family and brother, but I’ll tell you this, since that night, I’ve thought about you every day.’
‘Every day?’
‘Every minute of every day.’
She looked up to him and she knew he was telling the truth. And that was what had been missing for ever, being thought of by another, every minute of every day.
She thought of her father and his money and occasional gifts.
And her mother who had simply walked away.
But she didn’t just think about the bad things. Instead there were thoughts of Glen and how he carried his family in his heart throughout his working day.
Their One Night Baby Page 14