‘It might be,’ Sonia said airily. ‘I’ve met this new bloke over in Perth. We thought we might, you know, have a shot at a new life. The kid can come with us for a while and we’ll see how it goes. He thinks he might like a kid.’
You mean you can disrupt your child’s life with little bother to you, Wendy thought grimly. The woman had hardly even acknowledged Gabbie’s presence. She’d simply walked into the office and waited for the handover.
‘Wouldn’t it be better for you to settle into living over there first?’ Wendy suggested quietly. ‘Find a place to live, settle with your new man and have us send Gabbie to you then?’ She took a deep breath. ‘I’d cover the plane fare.’
The woman cast her a hard and suspicious glare. ‘What business is it of yours?’
Uh-oh. That had been a mistake, Wendy thought. She mustn’t let this woman see that she cared. ‘Children’s services has money for such contingencies.’ She forced her voice carefully into neutral. ‘We like to see our families settled with every possible chance of making a go of it.’
‘Yeah, well, the only thing that’d help me is a new car.’ The woman gave a hard, shrill laugh, and motioned out the window to where her ancient sedan stood in the driveway. ‘If you have any spare cash floating around you can donate it to that. You see that getting over the Nullarbor? The kid’ll have to get out and push.’
And she wouldn’t put it past her to make her, Wendy thought wearily but, as Tom shook his head, she carefully disengaged those clutching fingers and gave Gabbie a gentle push toward her mother. The law was the law and Wendy had no rights here at all. ‘Your mummy’s waiting, Gabbie,’ she said.
‘Gabbie’s been given a pup,’ Tom ventured, still caught by Gabbie’s appalled face. ‘She’s become very attached. How do you feel about taking him, too?’
‘A dog!’ Sonia’s eyes widened. ‘You have to be joking? What the hell would I do with a dog?’
‘Mummy…’ Gabbie ventured her own whispered plea. ‘Mummy, I really love Bruce.’
That was enough. Sonia’s eyes turned to flint. ‘All the better to leave it here now,’ she said flatly. ‘There’s no way I’m taking a dog anywhere and I’m not getting rid of any dog. Unless I dump it at the first corner. You lot do it.’ She grabbed Gabbie’s hand. ‘That’s all your stuff in the bag? Good! Then, that’s all I’m taking. Say goodbye, kid. With luck, you’ll never see these people again.’
With luck…
It was too much. Wendy was practically choking, trying to hold back her tears, and even Tom looked sick. Wendy turned away, and then she paused.
There were cars turning into the drive. Three cars. Who? They stopped one after another and doors opened.
Nick emerged first from his station wagon. What was Nick doing here?
A sleek black Mercedes arrived next with two men in the front seat.
And last was Luke’s Aston Martin…
They were certainly here on business. Stunned, Wendy watched as the men congregated, greeted each other and strode purposefully to the front door. They were all business-suited and they came straight in-as if they were expected-and she whirled around to find Tom’s sick look had changed to an expression of vast relief.
‘What…?’
But Tom wasn’t listening. ‘If you’d wait a moment, Mrs Rolands,’ Tom said as the four men entered. ‘These people have a proposition to put to you.’
‘A proposition?’ Sonia stared. ‘I don’t want no-’
‘Are you Mrs Rolands?’ It was Luke. He’d entered first, had cast one sweeping glance around the office, had taken in Wendy’s distress, Gabbie’s fear, Tom’s relief-and now he concentrated solely on the woman on the other side of the table. He laid down a folder and opened it wide. ‘I’m very sorry we’re late. You’ll understand we had a lot of organisation to do since we heard you were coming for Gabbie, and I’ve only just flown in from New York.’
‘New York? Who the hell are you?’
‘I’m Luke Grey.’ They might have been alone in the room together-he and Sonia. This was Luke at his businesslike best, and he was letting nothing stand in his way of his intentions. ‘I employ Miss Maher, here.’ He motioned to Wendy but he carefully didn’t meet her eyes. There was no way personal involvement could be hinted at. ‘I employ her to look after my half-sister. I’m an international businessman, and I don’t have time to care for the child myself. The pressures of work, you understand.’ He gave Sonia a brief but not unsympathetic smile. His wheedling smile. ‘I’m sure as a single mother you must feel the same.’
‘I…yes.’ Sonia was flummoxed.
‘The thing is that my small sister has taken a fondness to your Gabbie.’ He made no mention here that Grace was seven months old and took a liking to everyone. ‘As you may know, in her role as Home parent, Miss Maher has been looking after your child, too. I’m here to see if we can work out a way for that arrangement to continue-for the children to remain together long-term.’
Sonia’s eyes narrowed in distrust. ‘The kid comes with me.’
Luke nodded. ‘I can understand that as a mother you’d be very distraught to give your child up. But Mr Burrows, here…’ he motioned to Tom ‘…has indicated you’ve thought of adoption before. You’ve signed pre-adoption papers and then pulled out at the last moment-like you are now.’
‘I might have.’ Still the hard suspicion. ‘What of it? I can change my mind any time I want.’
‘But seeing you’ve left your child in care for the requisite few months before adoption can be finalised, and you’ve done this a number of times now, I wondered,’ Luke said smoothly, ‘whether there may be some way we could make your final decision easier.’
‘Such as…’
‘Such as cash, for instance?’
‘We’re not in the market of selling children,’ Tom said quickly, and Luke gave him a brief nod.
‘I understand that.’ He motioned to the men behind him-three of the solidest looking men you were ever likely to meet. ‘These men are all qualified lawyers. Nick here is Bay Beach’s local magistrate, Charles is my personal lawyer and David is specialised in family law matters. They’ve explained to me that no pre-adoption payment is acceptable. But Gabbie has been placed under foster care pre-adoptively on a number of occasions. If Mrs Rolands relinquishes her now, an offer making things easier for her in the future could be considered reasonable. It would be a personal matter between the two parties, with no bearing on the adoption.’
‘An offer? How much?’ He’d caught her now. The woman was staring at Luke as if he was holding the Holy Grail. Money…
‘Say…two-hundred-thousand dollars?’ Without further hesitation he lifted a cheque from his breast pocket and laid it on the table. The piece of paper fluttered toward her, and her eyes turned to it, riveted.
‘You’ve got to be kidding. Two hundred grand…’
‘I’m not kidding, Mrs Rolands,’ Luke said gently. ‘My half-sister needs a companion and I want her to have Gabbie.’
‘You’re crazy.’
‘Maybe. But it’s a once only offer. If you take Gabbie away now, my sister may become attached to another child and I’ll make that offer to someone else. I have the lawyers here for the necessary paperwork. Once you sign custody over to W…to Miss Maher.’
But it was a slip. The start of Wendy’s name… It made Sonia lift her eyes from the cheque and she stared from Luke to Wendy, and then they stayed on Wendy.
And it was impossible for Wendy to take the hope from her face fast enough. Oh, God…
And Sonia knew.
‘You’re doing it for her,’ the woman spat. ‘You’re doing it so she gets the kid. She wants her.’ Her vindictiveness was dreadful to see. What had happened in the past to cause this hate? Who knew, but it was there and it was real. ‘No! Two hundred thousand? I’d spend it and then what? I’d have no comeback on the kid at all. She’d be on Easy Street.’
She whirled and stared out the window. ‘And look at that?�
� She gestured to Nick’s car, gleaming immaculately out in the driveway, and her vitriol was increasing by the minute. ‘We’re worlds apart and I wanted that so much! My husband promised me we’d be rich, but he couldn’t make it in a pink fit. Two hundred grand-and I’d guess it wouldn’t even buy that. You must be loaded. It wouldn’t make any difference to you at all, and the kid…’
‘You can have the car, too-if you like.’
The sudden silence was deathly. You could have heard a pin drop. The entire room held its breath.
‘You’re…you’re joking.’ Unlike the cheque, the car was a real and tangible thing, gorgeous in its enticement, and Sonia’s incredulous face told the room she knew its worth.
‘I’m not joking.’ Luke shrugged as if he was losing interest. ‘The cheque and the car can both be yours. Now. The registration forms are in the glove compartment. I’m sure with these lawyers present I can sign it over on the spot. That’s my last offer, though. Take it or leave it.’
The woman whirled to face him. Then she stared down at her daughter, and the indecision was written clearly on her face.
This wasn’t tearing affection, though. It was still a desire to hurt.
But…the expensive car. And a cheque like this…
‘If I sign…?’
‘You need to be very clear,’ Tom interrupted from behind her, and his voice was tainted with weariness-long-standing disillusionment with human nature. ‘The money and the car have nothing to do with the adoption. Because the pre-adoptive time is up, if you sign now then your daughter is legally relinquished. You can arrange supervised access, but you’ll have no further control.’
‘But…I can sign now. I can drive the car away.’
‘Yes. But you’ll drive away alone.’
The woman closed her eyes for a long moment, and there was a trace of triumph in the flush on her hard cheeks. Then she put a hand behind Gabbie’s back and shoved her forward, back to Wendy. Decision made.
‘You take her,’ she said harshly. ‘I never wanted her. I hated her father and I hate her. Just show me where to sign and I never want to see her again.’
Wendy left the men to it.
While Sonia signed form after form of relinquishment, and Luke signed over his precious car, she gathered Gabbie in her arms. She took her outside and cradled her as if she’d never let her go.
As she wouldn’t.
‘You’re to forget your mum told us any of the horrid things that were said in there,’ she said fiercely, hugging her so tight she thought she’d squash her. ‘Your mummy and your daddy fought, and she’s taking that anger out on you. But she’s done the best thing she can possibly do for you. The loveliest thing for a mummy to do when she can’t take care of you herself. She’s given you to me. Did you hear what she said in there? She’s given you up for adoption, Gabbie, and now you can be my little girl for ever. For ever and for ever and for ever.
‘I can stay with you and Grace and Bruce?’
‘You can stay with me and Grace and Bruce.’
‘And…’ Gabbie pushed herself back and gazed at Wendy with eyes that were big and bright with wonder ‘…Luke gave his beautiful car to Mummy so she’d give me to you.’
She’d understood that much. Wendy smiled at her with eyes that were glistening with tears.
‘Yes, he did.’
‘Do you think…?’ Gabbie said seriously ‘…do you think Luke loves us?’
‘I think he must,’ Wendy said tremulously. ‘I think he must a lot and a lot and a lot.’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
HE’D left.
Wendy had heard the cars departing. First the Aston Martin, gunned down the road by an inexpert hand. She’d hoped Sonia had organised insurance-and then had been tempted enough to hope that maybe she hadn’t. Then there had been the sound of two other cars. That would take care of Nick and the city lawyers, she’d thought. But when she’d taken Gabbie back inside she’d found Nick and Tom waiting for her.
No Luke.
‘Congratulations, young lady,’ Tom told Gabbie gravely, and the flushed look on his face told Wendy he couldn’t have been more pleased at this ending. ‘We’ve just organised you a new mother. Nick has the legal forms here, and if you’d like to sign them, Wendy, we can get things underway.’ He grinned. ‘You realise, you’ll have to submit to social security checks as an adoptive mother.’ And then he chuckled. ‘If I have to forge them myself they’ll be fantastic. Well done.’
‘Where’s Luke?’ Wendy asked.
‘He’s driven Sonia’s car into the second-hand car dealer in Bay Beach,’ Nick told her, his eyes resting on her face. ‘The agreement is that we’ll send the proceeds on to her straight away.’
‘And…and then?’
‘I guess he’s going back to Sydney.’
Without seeing her? Wendy’s heart sank to her boots.
‘I need to see him,’ she said desperately. ‘Nick, I need to catch him.’
He smiled. ‘Now, how did I know you’d say that? As it happens, I’m available to take this little lady out to the farm.’ He stooped to Gabbie’s height. ‘Gabbie, you know that Shanni and Harry are at the farm looking after Grace and Bruce while Wendy’s here with you. Wendy needs to see Luke-to say thank you for what he did for you both today. Do you agree with that?’
Gabbie considered. Things were going very right for once in her small world, and her smile said she could afford to be generous. ‘Yes,’ she said.
‘Then, if Wendy goes to look for Luke, will you come back to the farm with me?’
‘And you’ll come back, as well?’ she asked Wendy, and Wendy nodded.
‘As soon as I’ve found Luke.’
‘Tell him we love him, too,’ Gabbie said, and, amazingly, she tucked her hand into Nick’s and she smiled and smiled. ‘Okay. Let’s go home. I need to tell Bruce that I can stay with him for ever.’
He was still there.
Bay Beach Motors was right on the esplanade. Wendy pulled up and Sonia’s car was parked on the tarmac and Luke was waiting patiently while a sales rep crawled all over it.
‘Eight hundred dollars,’ the man was saying as Wendy approached. ‘It’s a wreck. That’s the best I can do.’
‘Fine.’ Luke looked drawn and haggard. The flights and the stress were starting to get to him. He put his hand in his pocket, withdrew his wallet and handed over a roll of bank notes. ‘Here’s another five hundred. Make a cheque out for one thousand three hundred dollars to Mrs Sonia Rolands and we’ll say that’s what you paid us. That way she can’t have any comeback on us. We’ve been more than generous.’
‘You have been at that.’ The salesman stared. ‘She’ll never expect this much.’
‘Well, maybe it’s her lucky day.’ And then he turned as he heard Wendy approach behind him, and his face stilled at the sight of her.
‘Hi,’ she said.
He didn’t smile. He just stood-waiting.
And so did the salesman. There must have been something about the tension between them-the vibes emanating from each-that made him stop and stare.
Maybe a more sensitive sort of guy might have melted into the background, but this salesman was going nowhere. He stared from Wendy to Luke and back again, and there was nothing for Wendy to do but what she’d intended to do all along-in broad daylight with whoever watching that wanted to.
She walked straight over to Luke, she took his face between her hands and she pulled his mouth down to hers to kiss him.
The kiss went on and on. First it was Wendy kissing Luke-he was so stunned that he was almost rigid. But she kissed on, her soft lips pleading, and the warm sunlight played over their joined faces and the salesman looked on in wonder-and Luke couldn’t resist for ever.
She felt his tension slacken in his body and a tremor ran right through him. She felt him begin to respond. Please…
And then she wasn’t kissing him any more. She was being kissed herself-with a thoroughness and ruthlessness and hunger that
left her breathless.
Her Luke…
Finally it ended. Somehow it must, though afterwards she could never tell how long that wondrous, healing kiss had lasted. Ten minutes? Longer? No matter.
They pulled away and their audience had expanded. There were now three sales reps watching with avid interest, and a motley group of tourists on the esplanade were gazing on with blatant approval.
It didn’t matter one bit. Luke held her at arm’s length and he smiled at her with the smile she loved so much it made her heart still within her breast. Her Luke… Please, still her Luke.
‘Was that a thank-you kiss?’ he asked in a voice that was none too steady. It was a husky whisper, and it was laced with pure desire.
‘No.’ She shook her head, her eyes devouring him with love. ‘It was an I love you kiss. It was an I’m sorry, and I’ve been a fool and I want you more than I ever wanted anyone in my life kiss. I love you so much, my wonderful Luke. I want you to marry me. If you…if you’ll still have me.’
Silence. He took it in-he took all of her in-and the silence went on and on.
And then…
‘I might well buy another sports car,’ he said, eyeing her speculatively as if the thought had just come to him out of left field.
She grinned at that. ‘Do you have any money left?’
‘Not a lot.’ He sighed. ‘I’ll just have to make more. I need a quiet room where I can concentrate though-a farm, maybe-and a nice, peaceful family environment…’
‘Family?’ She chuckled, a lovely, joyous sound that rang over the foreshore. ‘I think I can manage family. I have a baby at hand. Also a five-year-old, a half-grown basset pup, the odd hundred or so cows and, as of last week, twenty new point-of-lay hens.’ She chuckled and her eyes devoured him with all the love in the world. ‘How does that sound?’
‘I have another leather jacket in my baggage,’ he warned her. ‘All the way from Fifth Avenue.’
‘How very suitable,’ she said, and her loving gaze didn’t falter. ‘In case we get another crow for you to rescue.’
Their Baby Bargain Page 16
