‘Where are the children, Hetty?’ Adam asked.
‘Top of the stairs, bedroom on the right. They were OK when I last – ooh!’
‘I’ll just go and check,’ Adam whispered to Lyn. ‘Shout if I can help.’
She was pleased by the way he deferred to her expertise. This was her job.
Lyn got Hetty to lie out on the couch, placed a hand on her abdomen and winced. First, the waters had certainly broken. Second, the contractions were only about four minutes apart. Hetty’s baby was coming fast.
‘Why didn’t you ring me sooner, Hetty?’ she asked. ‘You must have been in pain for quite some time.’
‘Had some fried fish for my tea. I thought it was that that brought the pain on. Fried stuff doesn’t agree with me, but I love it.’
Fortunately Hetty’s bedroom was on the ground floor. Lyn half lifted the girl and supported her to her own bed. Hetty had dutifully followed Lyn’s earlier advice, and all that was necessary for the new baby was stacked neatly to one side. Then Lyn walked out to speak to Adam. ‘We’re going to have a home delivery – and soon. I daren’t send for an ambulance – all that bouncing about would mean the baby would be born before they got to hospital. Fetch all the stuff out of the boot of my car, will you? We’re going to need it.’
As a matter of course Lyn carried all she might possibly need in the back of her car. Emergencies like this weren’t too uncommon.
She stripped the bed, put on the coverings and undressed Hetty. Adam brought in her boxes and cases, opened the sealed packs and passed Lyn what she needed. He was a good nurse, anticipating her actions. Then he left as Lyn gave Hetty gas and air, showing her how to use the mask.
It might be an emergency – or a near emergency – but things had to be done according to protocol. Baseline observations first. Automatically Lyn took temperature, blood pressure, pulse and respiration rates. All were well within acceptable levels. Carefully she noted down her findings.
Next she listened to the baby’s heart, holding the Pinard’s stethoscope firmly to her ear. A good healthy beat. Then an internal examination – head was at plus two.
Lyn slipped into the living room to find Adam. ‘This is going to be one of those lightning babies, but all seems well. I’ll need you to take the baby in a while, but until then there’s no problem.’
‘I’m here when you want me.’
As they talked they both heard a wail from upstairs. ‘I’ll go to see what I can do,’ Adam said. ‘With any luck I should be able to get whoever it is off to sleep again. Don’t worry about anything.’
Lyn realised that he might have his uses after all.
The birth wouldn’t be long. Lyn bathed Hetty’s face, and in the moments of respite made sure that cot, basin, and so on were ready. Adam drifted in and said, ‘All quiet on the bedroom front upstairs. One small child accompanied to the toilet and now back in bed. How’s Hetty?’
Now everything was under control. Hetty was proving to be a perfect mother-to-be. It was to be a textbook birth, nothing was going wrong. At the right time Lyn called Adam, who pulled on a smock and stood ready to receive the child. Then he wrapped it – no, it was a him now – in the cloth Lyn held ready and placed the baby on Hetty’s breast. ‘He’s a lovely baby, Hetty,’ he said, and Lyn thought that she could hear real warmth in his voice.
There would be a certain amount of clearing up to do, but for the moment all was well. Lyn sat at a side table and filled in the Apgar form. Hetty’s baby might have come somewhat quickly but he was a strong and healthy child.
‘What are you going to call your baby, Hetty?’ Lyn asked.
Hetty looked up from her child and for a moment her smile was replaced by a scowl. ‘I’m going to call him Jamie,’ she said defiantly. ‘Jamie, after Jamie Lennox, his dad. He might not want anything to do with me or his son, but he’s going to give him his name.’
‘He’s a lovely baby,’ Lyn said. She’d heard this kind of comment too often before to start to ask questions.
To Lyn’s surprise, Adam helped her with the cleaning and clearing up. Childbirth was a messy business and it was usually the midwife who cleaned away. But Adam was happy to help her. And just when they had finished they heard the rumble of a diesel engine outside.
Seconds later Hetty’s sister and brother-in-law burst into the room.
‘What’s to do?’ asked Jack.
‘Not while we were out?’ gasped his wife.
‘It was easy,’ said Hetty. ‘Once I got started, that is.’
Lyn knew that Hetty was in good hands. Jack and Cathy were fond of Hetty, and would look after her and her child. Not every mother she saw was so lucky.
She decided that there was no need to stay the night. ‘You’ve got my number,’ she told Hetty, Jack and Cathy. ‘Any problem whatsoever, ring me and I’ll be here inside a quarter of an hour. Otherwise, I’ll call first thing in the morning. But I don’t think this little one is going to be any trouble.’
‘Thanks a lot, Lyn,’ Hetty called. ‘And thank you, Doctor, too.’
‘Jamie’s a wonderful little lad, Hetty,’ Adam said. ‘I envy you.’
Lyn led him out to her car. ‘You meant that about envying her, didn’t you?’ she asked as they swayed down the track. ‘You were really taken with the baby.’
‘He was a good strong boy, the sort of child any parent would be pleased with. I’d like to have one like that myself. In time, of course.’
‘One?’ she asked.
‘Just to start with. I’d like at least one of each. But two’s a small number, isn’t it?’
‘You can tell you’re a man, and they don’t have babies,’ she told him. ‘If you were a woman you might feel differently.’
‘True. But isn’t Hetty happy now?’
Adam was an odd man, Lyn thought, as she eased the car out onto the main road. Most of her dads-to-be were happy about having a child – though some were a little apprehensive. But she had never met a man who was so committed to the idea of having children. That was usually a woman’s thing. And Lyn felt certain that it wasn’t just a wild idea on his part. When – and if – he had children, she knew he’d be a wonderful father.
‘See, we’re passing the Red Lion. Ros is in there asleep, not knowing what she’s missed.’ He paused a minute and said cautiously, ‘Weren’t we arguing when that call came?’
Lyn sighed. ‘So we were. But it all seems unimportant now. Birth and so on puts it all in perspective.’
‘So I’m forgiven?’
‘There’s nothing to forgive. My reaction was a bit excessive, I know that now. It’s just that I don’t know where I am with you. I’m sorry.’
Adam leaned over and for a moment covered her hand on the steering-wheel with his. ‘Lyn, I won’t say that the women I knew were unimportant. At the time they were very important to me. I was always faithful and when we broke up I was sorry. But in every case we both realized that what … what I was looking for wasn’t there. You might not believe it, but I envy that long relationship you had with Michael.’
‘It was so good,’ she said simply.
‘I want something as good as that myself. And … I’m wondering if I’ll find it with you.’
There was nothing she could say to that.
Afterwards Lyn wondered why it had happened that night. True, she’d had a hard day. There had been the misery and uncertainty when she’d thought Adam was a womaniser. Then there had been the sheer hard work of delivering Hetty’s baby, and she had done a full day before that. She should have been exhausted, but for some reason she wasn’t.
He pulled up outside her cottage and walked round to open the car door for her. She took the keys from him, turned irresolutely to her cottage door and then back to him.
‘I suppose we’re friends again now,’ she said. ‘You might as well come in and have a cocoa or something.’ Then she thought over what she had just said, and giggled. ‘Not the most enticing invitation, was it? Sorry. Please, l
et me make you a drink, Adam.’
‘I’d really like that,’ he said. ‘I’d half forgotten what delivering babies was like.’
Lyn led him into her living room and switched on a table lamp so the room was filled with a soft glow. Hetty’s bedroom had been very brightly lit – fortunately – but now Lyn wanted something a little less glaring.
He agreed he would like cocoa, and she went to the kitchen to make it and to shake out the last few of her chocolate biscuits onto a plate. ‘Pick out a CD,’ she called, ‘but something not too rousing. A bit of mood music.’
‘Are you in the mood for love?’ he called back, but she didn’t reply. Moments later she heard a clear beautiful voice start one of her favourite romantic songs.
‘And why did you pick that?’ she asked as she came on with the drinks and biscuits. ‘Not a hint, I trust?’
‘I don’t think there’s a better song about the joys and possible miseries of love.’
‘You’re just an old romantic.’ She smiled, ‘Not really, a hard-bitten doctor.’
‘Doctors can be romantic, too. Well, I hope they can.’
He was sitting on her couch and it seemed natural to sit beside him. And for a while they drank, ate the biscuits and listened to the music.
The tension brought on by a very hard day slowly seeped away. But then there came another kind of awareness. She was sitting next to a very attractive man. His knee and thigh were close to hers, she could feel his warmth. She could see the movement of his chest as he breathed, smell the aftershave he used. They were alone together.
They both finished their drinks at once and leaned forward together to put their cups on the coffee table. They smiled at the tiny coincidence. Then she saw his smile fade, to be replaced by a look whose meaning was unmistakable. She knew she could lean back or stand up or make some loud comment and all would be well. But instead, of their own volition, her eyes closed.
He kissed her. He put his arms round her body, pulled her to him and kissed her lips. At first he was gentle. But then, when she didn’t resist – indeed, when she clutched him and pulled him even closer – his kiss grew much more demanding, and so much more exciting.
They sat there holding each other for – how long? She had no idea. But then he eased her away, only holding her two hands in his. His voice was hoarse, his breathing ragged. ‘Perhaps I should go?’ he said.
Some part of her could appreciate what he was doing, giving her this last chance to back away with her dignity intact. Did she want the chance? She considered.
Years of repression fought with every instinct that she had. She was Lyn Pierce, widowed midwife; she wanted nothing to do with men, she was fulfilled with her work. But she was also a woman. Both body and mind were telling her that this man was right for her. She wanted him, she needed him.
‘Do you want to go?’ She knew it was a foolish question as she asked it.
‘No! I want to stay here with you. But I don’t … I don’t want to do or say anything that will spoil what we have between us. I desperately want to stay but only if you …’
She pulled him back to her, kissed him almost desperately. ‘I’m frightened,’ she confessed. ‘But I know this is right for me and I know that it will get more right. Now … now … I want to go to bed.’
Had she said that? Part of her mind reeled at the sheer unlikelihood, the sheer horror of it.
She stood, still holding his hands, led him upstairs. This was her bedroom and for the past three years only she had entered it. There was a lamp on her dressing table, and she clicked it on to show the white sheets on the double bed, the bedside bookcase, the little radio she listened to when she could treat herself to an extra half-hour in bed. This was her own little world and she was inviting Adam into it.
She was still wearing her uniform. He reached for her tunic, lifted it over her head. Then he reached behind her, unfastened her bra. She stood before him, thrilling to his sigh of excitement, the glint in his eyes. His hands cupped her face, then his fingers traced a double line down her neck, the line of her shoulders, the sensitive spot on the insides of her arms.
She could feel her breathing getting faster, could feel her heart beating. When, very delicately, he touched her breasts, she felt them tighten, the peaks erect against the warmth of his palms.
He crossed his arms, swiftly pulled off his shirt. Then he took her to him, crushing her breasts to the muscles of his chest, kissing her with a passion that excited her.
Now Lyn knew the full force of his urgency. His hands hooked into her trousers, pushed them down, together with her knickers, so that she was naked before him. He bent, slipped an arm under her knees and lifted her onto the bed, ignoring her little squeak of alarm. And he, too, was naked, poised above her.
But then he twisted to be beside her and kissed her again. And his lips roamed downwards, taking, caressing her breasts, then moving even lower so her back arched and she had to stop herself from screaming in ecstasy.
But this wasn’t fair! She grabbed for Adam’s arm, pulled him so once again he was on top of her.
‘Lyn darling – I haven’t got any …’
She nodded and indicated her medical bag by the bed. ‘Free samples in there.’
As he retrieved a foil packet, Lyn reflected on the bitter irony of the situation, but she pushed it out of her mind. She still had hope.
‘Make love to me,’ she whispered.
Was this Lyn Pierce talking?
For a while longer he was there. Then he lowered himself onto her, into her, and she gasped with delight.
They fitted so well together. They weren’t two bodies but one and each knew, felt what the other needed. And they were so excited, it couldn’t take long. And she knew as she screamed with climactic excitement that he was there with her.
‘Sweetheart,’ he whispered as he lay by her. ‘That’s never happened to me before.’
‘Nor me. But go to sleep now,’ she mumbled. ‘We can talk in the morning.’
It was good to wake with the warmth of a man’s body beside her. It was comforting, reassuring. She always woke early, when the first fingers of sunlight were creeping into her room, but, instead of thinking about the day ahead, this time she was content just to be there. Adam was next to her and that was all she needed.
Then a voice beside her said, ‘I can feel you looking at me. Are you all right?’
‘I’m fine. I feel happy.’ Lyn rolled onto her side, put an arm round him and hugged his back. ‘I was just thinking, these cottages must be haunted. What happened to us happened to Jane and Cal, too. Well, she sort of told me.’
‘It must be the nicest ghost I’ve ever come across. We’ll find out who lived here. I’ll bet it was a happily married woman blessed with fifteen kids. Encouraging other women to have the same.’
‘With fifteen kids she wouldn’t be haunting. She’d be having a rest. And fifteen kids isn’t a blessing, it’s a curse.’
‘Well, certainly hard work,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Five is a nice number, isn’t it?’
‘I’m too sleepy for this kind of conversation, I think I’ll go back to sleep for a while. D’you want a cup of tea or anything?’
He rolled onto his back. ‘I don’t want any tea. But if you like, we could …’
She removed an exploring hand. ‘Adam!’ Then she giggled. ‘I was just going to say that I hardly know you. But, then …’
‘We do hardly know each other. But I’m really looking forward to getting to know you. Starting right now.’
His hand was wandering again so, although she liked it, she slipped out of bed and pulled on her dressing gown. ‘I’ll fetch you some tea, and then you’d better go home before the neighbours are up.’
She fetched the tea, although it was largely an excuse to get out of bed. She knew what would happen if she stayed there. When she returned she sat on the bed and said, ‘We’re neighbours ourselves. We’ll be seeing a lot of each other. But I’m still a bit unsure a
bout things.’
He nodded. ‘I know that.’ His voice was serious now. ‘We need to get things straight. First, we both know that what happened last night wasn’t just sex, don’t we?’
She blushed. ‘Well, I certainly know. You took me to places I’d never been before. And I want to go there again. But we have time to get to know each other.’
‘That’s fine.’ He put down his cup and stretched an arm round her naked shoulders. ‘We’ve got time, but I don’t think it’ll take too long.’
She’d finished her drink. It was still very early, perhaps she’d just snuggle down and wait a few minutes before getting up. And now he had one arm round her neck and the other round her waist, was easing her under the sheet again, was reaching across her.
‘Adam, you really ought to go home. It’ll soon be time to …’
Perhaps they did have enough time.
Chapter Six
Finally, after more ecstatic lovemaking, Adam did go. And it was still very early. Unbelievably – or perhaps not – Lyn managed to sleep for a while when he had gone. Well, she’d had an eventful past few hours.
But then she was still up early, and happy, and wandered downstairs as if the world was somewhere new and she wanted to make the most of it while she could.
After a quick breakfast she drove over to see Hetty and her new little boy. As Hetty lived on a farm, Lyn knew that there’d be someone up. It was another wonderful morning, with the trees getting the early brown tinge of autumn.
As she drove she remembered when she had visited Julie and Bill on their farm, on her way to take the papers to Adam. That, too, had been a glorious day, but her mood had been different. She had felt melancholy, her life had seemed boring and even. She hadn’t met Adam then.
It seemed odd to think of a time when she hadn’t known him. He had made such a difference to her life! It wasn’t boring and even any more, it was … different. It was going to change. But right now she didn’t want to think, to plan. She just wanted to be, to feel. Life was good.
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