The Family She's Longed For

by Lucy Clark

  ‘Now, wait a second—’ he started to say, but she cut him off.

  ‘I have nothing more to say to you, Virgil.’

  She was about to disconnect the call when his words tumbled out in a rush.

  ‘Wait. I was an idiot. I love you, Clara. Please?’ he implored. ‘I handled everything badly. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Please, come over?’

  Clara was silent. She’d never heard Virgil so worried, or so desperate.

  ‘Please? Don’t deny me the chance to explain.’

  She looked at the clock. If she got ready for work and skipped breakfast she could make it to Virgil’s, hear him out, and still make it to the clinic in time.

  ‘I’ll be there in an hour.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘An hour, Virgil.’

  ‘An hour’s time. See you then.’

  His pleasant tone was forced and she rang off, her hands trembling with anxiety. Was she doing the right thing?

  Clara dragged in a deep breath and stood, commanding her legs to hold her weight. She reminded herself that she was a strong, independent woman, and if she needed to live the rest of her life without Virgil Arterton, then she would.

  * * *

  ‘How much longer, Rosie?’ Virgil was asking the little girl as they sat playing on the floor with some blocks. ‘How much longer?’

  Gwenda had let Clara into the house and told her that Virgil and Rosie were in Rosie’s bedroom. Virgil had his back to her, playing intently with his daughter, mindful of the plaster cast on the little girl’s leg.

  Clara’s heart swelled with love for him at seeing the caring and patient attitude he displayed with Rosie. He loved that little girl so much—surely he could extend that love to any other children they might have.

  He built up a tower and Rosie knocked it down with her hand. Then her little blue eyes spied Clara in the doorway and her face radiated happiness.

  ‘Clara!’ she squealed, and instantly tried to stand, the cumbersome plaster cast making it difficult.

  ‘Stay still, sweetheart,’ Virgil told Rosie as Clara tiptoed her way through the toy debris scattered around the place.

  She crouched down next to Rosie, wanting to keep a bit of distance between herself and Virgil.

  ‘Hello, sweetie.’ She gave Rosie a kiss. ‘You’re looking so much better.’

  ‘You’re here.’ Virgil put out a hand to touch her. ‘I’m not imagining it?’

  The light touch on her upper arm caused a burst of fiery awareness to flood through her. She did her best to ignore it. ‘I’m really here, Virgil.’ She tried not to put too much inflection into her tone.

  Rosie clutched at Clara’s hand. ‘Let’s have a special playtime with Daddy. Let’s play with the blocks. I know the letters. That’s an A,’ Rosie announced, holding up the appropriate block. ‘That’s a G,’ she told them earnestly.

  ‘Can you build a tower?’ Virgil asked. ‘Get Clara to help you,’ he decided. ‘I bet she loves building towers.’

  ‘I do,’ Clara declared, and together she and Rosie built a big tower and let it fall to the ground. Blocks went everywhere and Clara started to gather them up again, delighting in the child’s giggles.

  That was when she realised what Virgil was doing.

  He’d arranged some of the blocks to spell out a message.

  Clara was immediately thankful that she was already sitting down.

  There, in multi-coloured plastic blocks, he’d put the letters together to spell out WILL YOU MARRY ME?

  Clara could only stare at the letters, her eyes beginning to blur with tears. She looked at him, and then at Rosie, who seemed oblivious to the adults, then back to Virgil again.

  ‘I’m sorry, Clara,’ he whispered, and took her hand in his. ‘It came as a shock and I didn’t handle it well. If we can’t have any children, that’s fine. We have Rosie but, more important, we have each other.

  Clara appreciated what he was saying, but did he really grasp the concept? ‘If we adopt a child,’ she asked slowly, ‘do you think you’ll be able to love that child just like you love Rosie? A child that isn’t biologically your own?’

  Virgil instantly nodded. ‘Yes.’

  There was no hesitation in his answer, and that helped to alleviate some of Clara’s tension.

  ‘What I said to you when Rosie was in the hospital—that you couldn’t know what I felt like because you weren’t a mother—that was mean and cruel and I’m so incredibly sorry. My only defence is that I was beside myself with worry for—’

  Clara leaned over and pressed a finger to his lips to stop him, tears brimming on her lashes. ‘It’s OK. I accept your apology.’

  Virgil took her hand in his and gazed lovingly into her eyes. ‘I have thought about what you’ve told me, and I’ve reflected on what you’ve been through and how, when you met Rosie, you simply accepted her and loved her. It was so natural and easy for you, and it made me realise that you deserve to be a mother. You and me, we deserve to be parents together. And Rosie...’ He looked at his gorgeous girl. ‘She deserves to be loved by both father and mother. Together—the three of us—we can make that happen, and if there are any other children who join our family then it will make us all richer in love.’

  His words were heartfelt and sincere and Clara found it difficult to control her tear ducts.

  ‘Please, Clara, marry me? We’ve been through so much and yet we’ve found each other again. It’s meant to be. Please be my partner. Be Rosie’s mother.’

  Virgil tenderly wiped the tears from her eyes, a look of hope in his. Clara looked at the blocks, unable to believe this moment was finally here and that he was waiting...waiting for her answer.

  ‘Clara?’

  The word was filled with worry, and it was enough to help her to snap back to reality. Smiling, she reached out her free hand and gathered three of Rosie’s blocks together, arranging them to spell her answer.

  ‘Y... E... S...’ Rosie read the letters out, then blended them together. ‘Yes! It says yes!’ Rosie clapped her hands with delight that she’d read a real word.

  Clara looked at the little girl and kissed her. ‘Yes. That’s exactly what it says. It says yes.’ She looked at Virgil. ‘Yes, I’ll marry you.’

  A slow smile spread across Virgil’s lips and his eyes were alight with love as edged closer, needing to kiss her immediately.

  ‘Kiss Rosie, too, Daddy,’ the little girl interrupted, and Virgil laughed.

  Clara laughed too as he complied with the wish of the other female in his life. Clara felt incredible—on top of the world—and it was all because of the two people in front of her.

  ‘Clara is going to come and live with us,’ Virgil told Rosie.

  ‘Yippee!’ Rosie announced loudly.

  ‘My sentiments exactly.’ Virgil nodded.

  EPILOGUE

  ‘ROSALEEN CAIT ARTERTON...’ Clara warned in a voice her daughter had come to learn and respect over the past three and a half years.

  ‘Yes, Mummy?’ the six-and-a-half-year-old asked innocently.

  ‘You’ve been told countless times before not to climb up on your bookshelves. Thank goodness your father bolted them to the wall after your previous fall or there would have been another injury.’

  ‘Sorry, Mummy.’

  ‘All right. Go and tell the twins to pack up their toys and wash their hands for dinner.’

  ‘Do we have to pack up? We love playing together. We’ll be quiet. We won’t wake the babies.’

  Maybelle came into the dining room carrying a large bowl of salad. ‘It’s not a matter of waking the babies,’ she told her niece. ‘It’s a matter of dinner being ready to eat. And if the girls don’t listen to their big cousin, tell them their mummy will come and check on the state of
the playroom and it had better be tidy.’

  ‘Yes, Aunty Maybelle.’ Rosie sighed again and headed off down the hallway, grumbling about how difficult it was to be the eldest.

  Clara turned to Maybelle and both of them chuckled. ‘Such a hard life.’

  Clara walked over to where a large travel cot was set up in the corner of the room. Snuggled inside were two little babies. It had taken some time for the adoption process to happen, and when she and Virgil had been notified that there was a baby waiting for them in the Pacific Island nation of Tarparnii, they had been surprised to find the adoption was for twins.

  ‘We know all about twins,’ she’d said as they’d accepted the offer, thinking of Arthur’s gorgeous girls. ‘Double the blessing, double the love and—’

  ‘Double the trouble,’ Virgil had stated.

  And so they’d been blessed with two baby boys.

  That had been four months ago, and now both Eddie and Percy had finally settled into something of a routine.

  ‘When I have baby number two,’ Maybelle said, rubbing her enlarged abdomen, ‘do you think Gwenda will help me?’

  Clara laughed. ‘I don’t know how I would have coped without Gwenda. While Mum and Dad are more than happy to spend time with their grandchildren, they also like to travel. Besides, as far as everyone’s concerned Gwenda’s another grandmother.’

  ‘And I love each and every one of my grandchildren,’ Gwenda stated as she brought more food out to the table.

  She came over to join Maybelle and Clara, watching the twins in their cot. The two boys, with their dark skin and big brown eyes, had captured everyone’s heart.

  ‘My cup really does run over,’ Clara murmured.

  ‘You and me both,’ Maybelle added.

  ‘I’ll join that club,’ Gwenda chimed in, and the three women embraced, knowing that even though they might not be biologically related they were family through and through.

  ‘Right. Enough of this soppy stuff,’ Gwenda said a moment later. ‘I hope that Arthur and Virgil are done cooking on the barbecue outside. Why men persist in shooing women away from the barbecue, I don’t know. I can cook on it much better than either of them.’

  Gwenda headed off to check on Arthur and Virgil while Clara bent to pick up Eddie, who was starting to fuss.

  ‘I’ll go check on the progress of the crazy cousins,’ Maybelle said.

  ‘I might give Eddie his bottle before we eat.’

  ‘Good idea.’

  Maybelle headed off towards the playroom and Clara cuddled her son close. She’d just sat down with a warmed bottle, Eddie drinking hungrily, when Percy started to cry.

  ‘Ugh. You boys. You always tag team.’

  ‘I’ve got him.’

  Virgil’s deep voice washed over her as he came into the room.

  ‘Dinner’s ready, by the way, but I’ll organise a plate of food for you and put it aside.’

  ‘Thank you.’ She smiled as she watched him pick up Percy, kissing the baby’s head before holding him close. Percy instantly stopped grizzling as his father held him, as though glad he was finally getting some attention.

  Virgil came and sat down next to Clara, watching Eddie drink his bottle of formula.

  ‘I love our boys, Clara, and they are our boys. We’ve only had them a few months and yet I can’t remember life without them.’

  ‘They complete our family.’

  ‘That they do.’ He leaned over and kissed his wife’s lips. ‘You, me, Rosie, Eddie, Percy, Gwenda, Fuzzy-Juzzy and Peachy the bird.’

  ‘And in another four months—’ Clara nodded to where Arthur was standing behind his wife, his hands resting on Maybelle’s pregnant belly ‘—we’ll add to that number again.’

  ‘It doesn’t bother you, seeing Maybelle pregnant?’ Virgil asked softly.

  Clara instantly shook her head. ‘After everything Maybelle’s endured, she deserves a world of happiness.’

  ‘And that, Mrs Arterton, is what we all seem to have found.’ He kissed her once more, as though he couldn’t get enough of his wife.

  ‘Ugh! Why do you always have to do that kissing thing?’ Rosie asked as she looked across at them.

  Their daughter was sitting up at the table next to her cousins.

  ‘Yeah,’ one of Arthur’s daughters added. ‘Our mum and dad do that too.’

  ‘Blech!’ the three of them said in unison, making all the adults laugh.

  ‘If you eat your dinner quickly,’ Clara told Rosie, ‘you can feed Percy.’

  ‘OK.’ Rosie’s attitude instantly changed as she started to spoon food onto her plate. She loved helping with her baby brothers.

  ‘We’re going to be big sisters too,’ stated Samantha, one of Arthur’s twins.

  ‘And we’re going to help Mummy and Daddy with our new baby,’ added Kristen, the other twin.

  ‘You bet you’ll be helping,’ Arthur agreed, winking at his daughters.

  ‘We’re all going to help each other,’ Maybelle stated, and raised her glass of apple juice in the air. ‘I’d like to make a toast. Everyone get a glass.’

  It took a good three minutes before everyone had a glass with something in it so they could make a toast.

  ‘To family. Both here and those travelling. May we always support each other with unconditional love, never asking why but instead asking, What can I do to help? I’ve been so blessed since I came back into Arthur’s life, and never in my wildest dreams did I think I could be this happy and this cherished.’

  ‘And never in my wildest dreams,’ Virgil added, tacking his own bit onto Maybelle’s toast, ‘did I ever think I would be married to the woman I love the most, and that we would have an incredible family.’

  ‘To family,’ Clara said, clinking her glass with Arthur’s.

  ‘To family!’ everyone echoed.

  ‘Can I eat now?’ Rosie demanded, and they all laughed.

  * * * * *

  Read on for an extract from SLEIGH RIDE WITH THE SINGLE DAD by Alison Roberts.

  EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT

  Dr Hayley Clark and Sam Price’s holiday romance was unforgettable – and unrepeatable! Then risk-taking doc Sam arrives at her hospital… Could their fling become something more?

  Read on for a sneak preview of

  CHRISTMAS WITH HER DAREDEVIL DOC

  the first book in the MIRACLES AT MUSWELL HILL HOSPITAL duet

  ‘Hayley, meet your replacement, Samuel Price. Sam, Hayley’s just been promoted to senior registrar and you’ve taken over from her. You’ll be working together.’

  Of all the places…

  Sam hadn’t told Hayley that he was about to start a new job in London, and she hadn’t told him where she worked. London was a massive city with quite a few hospitals. What were the chances that they’d end up working together? The way her pupils expanded momentarily told him that she was just as shocked and surprised as he was.

  This was going to make things awkward. They’d had a fling in Iceland, agreeing that it would be nothing more than that, and they’d said goodbye. What now? Would she want to see if their fling could be something more, something deeper? Or had he just been her transition person, the one who’d helped her to move on after her partner’s death, so she wouldn’t want to pick up where they’d left off?

  The problem was, he didn’t know what he wanted, either. He’d really liked the woman he’d started to get to know in Iceland. But then again he’d liked Lynda, too—and his ex-fiancée had let him down so badly. Could he even trust his judgement any more? Would he be making a huge mistake if he started seeing Hayley?

  She recovered first, holding her hand out. ‘Welcome to Muswell Hill Hospital, Dr Price.’

  Don’t miss

  MIRACLES AT MUSWELL HILL HOSPITAL:

  CHRISTMAS WITH HER DAREDE
VIL DOC

  THEIR PREGNANCY GIFT

  by Kate Hardy

  Available November 2017

  PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY

  www.millsandboon.co.uk

  Copyright ©2017 Kate Hardy

  ISBN: 978-1-474-05181-1

  The Family She’s Longed For

  © 2017 Lucy Clark

  Published in Great Britain 2017

  by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

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