Claiming His Pregnant Princess

by Annie O'Neil

  “Jesse Walton Junior,” Marilee added with an equally starry-eyed expression, her finger teasing at the clutch of fingers making up her son’s miniature fist.

  “J. W. Junior. My little boy.”

  As the couple carried on with their cooing, Jamie quickly clamped the umbilical cord, while Beatrice gave the baby a bit of a wipe to clear some of the vernix from his skin. Jamie could hear her agreeing, that, yes, he was the cutest baby she’d ever seen and, no, she’d never been through anything like this before. Yes, she did think he weighed enough, and he was long enough. She answered all the questions as calmly as if she’d done this a thousand times before, and as joyfully as if she’d never before experienced the magic of seeing a newborn.

  He delivered the placenta and made sure his patient was clear of any cuts or tears.

  “Not a one?” Jesse exclaimed, all the while giving his wife the thumbs-up. “That’s my girl!”

  Bea magicked the baby away to weigh and measure him, and put a little tag on his wrist—even though they had no obstetrics ward in the small clinic, so he would most likely be their only newborn tonight and there was no one to mix him up with.

  A hit of longing struck him so suddenly when Beatrice reentered the exam area, holding the swaddled baby in her arms, that he had to turn away. She would see right through him.

  Pulling in a draught of air, he swallowed back the sharp sting of emotion. That micromoment couldn’t have been more pronounced. He could have sliced each second into a hundred frames. A glimpse into what fatherhood would feel like. Pride. Unchecked love. A bit of fear as to whether he would be able to do the best by his child—and its mother...

  He forced himself to turn around again, only to clash and connect again with Beatrice’s dark-eyed gaze. She hadn’t moved. Had frozen on the spot as if the moment had been as laden with emotion for her as it had for him.

  He felt as if his chest was being crushed, and his heart was barely able to provide the simple pumping action required to keep him alive... Because without Beatrice in his life...

  Jesse was walking across the room to retrieve his son. Jamie barely noticed when he elbowed him out of the way.

  “Now, you just hand that little whippersnapper over here, Dr. Jesolo. Daddy and Mommy are going to take care of him now.”

  Bea looked up, her dark lashes beaded with tears, her sole focus on Jamie.

  “So...” Jesse looked between the pair of them, “What about the two of you, huh?”

  Jamie cleared his throat, tore his gaze away from Beatrice, forcing himself to face reality. “What about us?”

  “When are you two going to have a child?” Marilee joined in, arms extended toward her husband to regain possession of her newborn.

  Jamie hadn’t meant to laugh. The idea had been far from ridiculous at one point in their lives. But now? No. Children weren’t on the menu.

  He glanced across at Beatrice, who had backed up against the curtain, her expression stricken as if the question had caught her completely off guard.

  Marilee’s brow crinkled. “You’re obviously together, or you wouldn’t have been shooting all those doe-eyed looks at one another when the baby came out, wouldja?”

  “Oh, no.” Beatrice pulled the curtain back and took another step away from Jamie. “We’re not... We’re not a couple.”

  “No!” Jamie shook his head and popped on a smile, as if people were always honing in on the fact that he was just pals with the woman who had smashed his heart into smithereens.

  I messed that up a long time ago.

  “If you’ll excuse me? I’m just going to get a vitamin-K jab for your little one.”

  When the Jameses raised their eyebrows in alarm he assured them it was standard practice. Nothing to worry about.

  When he headed out into the corridor there was no sign of Beatrice.

  Being with her, watching her hold that tiny child in her arms was as close a glimpse as he’d get to believing he and Beatrice could start again.

  Yes, they had history. And there was a part of him that wasn’t sure he’d entirely forgiven her for leaving. Or forgiven himself for breaking his Hippocratic oath by getting too close to his patients. Too emotionally involved.

  Which was exactly what he was doing right now. Superimposing someone else’s emotions onto his own hollowed-out heart.

  He might be able to forgive Beatrice for leaving, but how would he ever be able to trust that she wouldn’t do it again? Pick up and leave when her mother unearthed another prince or far-off royal for her to wed in order to uphold the di Jesolo name?

  More important... He needed to stop pointing the finger of blame.

  He’d had a chance to fight for his true love and he hadn’t done it. Had just stood back and watched it happen.

  He deserved this. Deserved the searing heartache. The bleak, unfulfilling future as a bachelor... The single bed. The sleepless nights. All in a vainglorious attempt to escape the wretched truth.

  He had let her go.

  Let her walk out of his life as if she hadn’t meant a thing.

  It wasn’t his place to forgive. He saw that now. It was hers.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “AT LAST!” TEO pulled his head in from the window. “This must be the first day without rain in—what?—a fortnight?”

  “Something like that. It’s not been the best of summers, has it?”

  Jamie gave Teo a clap on the shoulder, before turning around and nearly careening into Beatrice as she went out to the waiting room to fetch a patient.

  “Apologies!” He raised his hands and backed off, trying his best to ignore her sidelong look as she slipped through the swinging doors, leaving a trail of fresh linen and honey in her wake.

  They might have called a truce, but polite chitchat wasn’t making working with Beatrice any easier. If anything, the surprise-baby night had only made him more aware of just how singular a woman she was. An amazing doctor. Kind and generous. Calm in a crisis. Quieter than he remembered her being back in England, when her laughter had been able to bring a room to life. Still every bit as beautiful.

  It didn’t help that she had taken to life in the village as naturally as dewdrops to a flower petal. She had well and truly blossomed in the past few weeks. There was a lovely pink bloom to her cheeks, and a...a softness about her that complemented her slender figure.

  He scribbled out a prescription for a patient he’d just seen—a regular at the clinic owing to his severe asthma, who’d had the temerity to scrunch his face up when he saw Jamie was going to be the doctor and asked for Beatrice instead.

  “Such a lovely young woman. Don’t you think so, Dr. Coutts?”

  The cheek! He’d been there for a year and had yet to have anyone request him. Then again...he hadn’t exactly been himself. Before or after she’d arrived. And no doubt he’d be a right old curmudgeon when she left. There was no winning at this game.

  “Dr. Coutts?” Rhianna held out a tablet to him so he could check another patient’s stats.

  Jamie started. He’d been staring at Beatrice. Again.

  “Yes...good.” He scanned the stats. “I think she’s good to go. Can you give her a couple of extra ice packs for the journey back to the campsite?”

  “Will do.” Rhianna nodded with a smile. “And Dr. Coutts...?”

  Jamie turned away from staring at the platinum blond pixie cut, astonished at how short his attention span was. “Yes—sorry?”

  “It’s good to see you in—” her eyes traveled over toward Bea “—in such good spirits.”

  She gave her eyebrows a little happy jig and tossed him a knowing wink as she rejoined the mother and teenage daughter trying out new crutches in the wake of a freshly sprained ankle.

  Jamie gave his face a scrub. Was he that transparent? He kn
ew he hadn’t been able to hide it at Northern General. Hadn’t felt any need. He’d been in love.

  He tried shrugging it off. Just because Rhianna was having a torrid summer romance with one of the adventure-tour-group guides it didn’t mean every single person in the clinic needed to be floating on air. Someone had to keep his feet firmly grounded. He was British! Made of stern stuff. He could make it through the summer without falling in love again. As sure as the sun would hit the horizon every day of the week, he could keep himself emotionally off-limits.

  He forced himself to focus on the patients board until, a few minutes later, he found himself unable to drown out the sound of a crying baby.

  He turned and saw a mother handing her infant over to Beatrice, who expertly tucked the baby into her hands using his “magic trick.” The special hold he’d been taught by his mentor that never failed to stop a baby from crying.

  Fold the right and then left arm across the child’s chest, use an index finger to prop up the little chin and tip the child to a forty-five-degree angle. Place your other hand along its nappy and rock it. A bit like a baby jig, but gently. Slowly. And in... That’s right... In just a few seconds a smiley, relaxed baby.

  He vividly remembered teaching Beatrice the technique. The light in her eyes when she’d had a success on her first try.

  Beatrice looked up, perhaps feeling the weight of his gaze upon her?

  And when their eyes met...

  Lightning strike.

  It never failed to amaze him.

  Bea’s gaze dropped to the child for just a moment before she returned it to meet his eyes, and in that instant of reconnection he saw something in her he hadn’t seen before. Was it—longing for a child?

  As quickly as their gazes had clicked and meshed, Beatrice’s attention was straight back on the mother, discussing the reason for their visit. A rash on the infant’s leg, from the looks of things.

  “Dr. Coutts?” A nurse was holding out a phone for him as Beatrice disappeared behind the curtain of her cubicle. “You’ve got a call from 118.”

  His pulse quickened. The Italian mountain-rescue team.

  “This is Dr. Coutts. What’s the situation?”

  He listened silently as the caller detailed an accident. An accident involving a school group on holiday from England. A massive landslide. A bus. Crushed roof.

  Regular medics were en route in the helicopter, but they needed ground crews because of the number of children involved. The fire department was on their way, too, but they needed more medical personnel. Did they have anyone free?

  He glanced up at the clock. It was late afternoon. They’d have a few hours of daylight left, and they were precious.

  “We’ve got another shift coming in a couple of hours. For now I can get together a team of three or four. More to follow.”

  It would have to do.

  He quickly called one of the ambulance drivers on the radio to come and meet them at the clinic entrance.

  When he turned around Beatrice was waving off her patients—a happy mother and a giggling baby.

  “Dr. Jesolo, can you suit up for an emergency rescue?”

  If she wasn’t keen to participate, she didn’t let it show. Just nodded and headed off to the supplies area. A true professional.

  “Dr. Brandisi?” He flicked his thumb in the direction Beatrice was heading. “Suit up. We’ve got a long night ahead.”

  Teo gave him a quick, grim nod, finished up with his patient and the pair of them headed off to change.

  “Steel yourself,” Jamie warned Teo—the most anxious and excited father-to-be he had ever encountered. “This one’s full of children.”

  * * *

  “Children?” Bea had caught the end of Jamie’s warning as she tugged on a red jumpsuit. “What age?”

  “A group of eight-year-olds, I think. Hiking holiday. Wilderness skills or something. About twenty-plus counsellors and a few parents.”

  Jamie’s expression was flinty. A sure sign that he was steeling himself from the inside out for the worst-case scenario.

  If there was any time she needed to keep her emotions at bay, it was now. Carrying a precious life inside her had not only ramped up her hormones, it had opened up her heart in a way she hadn’t imagined possible. As if carrying a child herself had made her a proxy mother to every other child she encountered until she could hold her own beautiful baby in her arms.

  “Fatalities?”

  Jamie gave a sharp nod. “Definitely the driver. Thrown through the front window on impact. Lacerate carotid.” He huffed out a tight breath. “We should get an update on our way up there. Have you all got your run bags?”

  Teo shouldered his large emergency travel bag and picked up Bea’s bag with his free hand.

  “Don’t worry—I can get that.” She didn’t want special treatment. Not yet anyway.

  Teo gave her a look. One that said she hadn’t been hiding her pregnancy symptoms as well as she thought she had. “I’ll carry it to the ambo. When we get there you’re on your own. But call me if you need anything. No heavy lifting, all right?”

  She glanced across at Jamie, relieved to see he was busy rattling through a list of medications they’d require in addition to what was already on the emergency vehicle.

  “Is he...” Teo began, eyes gone double wide with disbelief.

  “No!” Bea shushed him as quickly as she could. “Just—I need this job, all right?”

  She pulled her fingers across her lips in a zip-it-up-pal move, but not in time to stop Jamie catching the end of it.

  The vertical furrows between his eyes deepened. “Everything all right with you two? This is going to be intense. We don’t have time for any disputes between colleagues.”

  “No, mate.” Teo stepped forward, all business. “We’re all good here. Just trying to be chivalrous and it got Dr. Jesolo’s dander up a bit—didn’t it, Bea?”

  He turned and gave her a complicit wink. He’d be quiet. For now.

  Which was just as well because she knew the coming hours were going to be tough.

  * * *

  The minutes of their ride to the accident ticked past in a merciless silence. Each doctor was shoring up their emotional and mental reserves as information began trickling in on the ambulance driver’s radio.

  Bea felt as though mere seconds had passed when the ambulance lurched to a stop and they opened up the back.

  Cars were already backed up along the narrow mountain route—the only way to the summer resort at the foot of the Alpine glacier. And up beyond there was some hastily put-up emergency tape.

  Bea could see the fire crew already on-site, and heard the loud, shrill screech of metal on metal reverberating against the exposed chunk of the mountainside laid bare by the devastating landslide.

  Each shouldering their emergency packs, the three doctors took off at a steady jog to reach the overturned bus, precariously hanging to the cliffside. When they arrived, Jamie led them to the head of the 118 team.

  “Dr. Coutts, good to have you on-site.” The man stepped forward and gave him a quick handshake. “We’ve got to shoot off with two of the most critically injured patients. Will you be all right taking charge?”

  Jamie nodded. “Anything in place yet?”

  “Only the triage sites. I’ll leave assignments up to you. We’ve kicked off with START.” He glanced over at the helicopter, its rotors already beginning to whirr into action.

  “START?” Bea looked to Jamie. She wasn’t familiar with the acronym.

  “Simple triage and rapid treatment.” He nodded across to a lay-by near the bus, where large plastic ground cloths in bright colors had been laid out. “Red, yellow, green and black. Critical, observation, minor or walking wounded, and expectant.”

  “Expectant
?” Bea gave a little stomp of frustration. What a time for her English to be failing her.

  “Deceased or expected to die,” Jamie said, his green eyes following a pair of fire crew members carrying an adult-sized body bag over to the black tarp. He looked back to Bea, concern tightening his features. “It’s harsh, but essential if we’re going to get to those who require critical care.”

  “I’ll help with the crew tagging up at the bus—all right, Doc?” Teo took off at a run when he received Jamie’s okay.

  “Let us know if you need a hand,” he called after him, and then placed a solid hand on Bea’s shoulder. “Are you up to this? Do you want me to get someone else on board?”

  “No. Absolutely not.”

  She shook her head clear of the fog of information overload. No matter how distant he’d been over the past few weeks, she took strength from his touch now. From knowing he was there. If she ever wanted anyone at an emergency situation it would be Jamie. The calm at the eye of any storm.

  “Where would you like me?”

  “Are you up for the critically wounded? I’ll be there. Working between you and Teo.”

  She nodded. Despite everything, she knew she flourished at work with Jamie by her side.

  “Let’s get to it.”

  * * *

  “I need an extra pair of hands over here!”

  Jamie called across to Beatrice, who was downgrading a child she had resuscitated to the yellow crew. Another life saved.

  “What have you got?” She was there in an instant.

  He glanced across at her as she knelt on the other side of the young boy he was tending to, relieved to see the hesitation he’d noticed in her when they’d arrived had completely vanished. She was one hundred percent focused now. Exactly what the situation warranted.

  And then she saw it. The long shaft of thin metal impaling the boy in the lower part of his chest. She glanced up at the boy’s face, her eyes widening, then quickly regrouped into a smile as she felt the boy’s gaze on her.

  “Well, look at what you’ve gone and done!” Beatrice chided the boy teasingly, her eyes not leaving his for an instant.