Reluctant Date (24 page)

Claire’s heart went out to her.
 
How could Mr and Mrs Marchant do this to her,
to Carl, to their own flesh and blood?
 
Did they even know about Beth’s fractured family and, if they did, then
where was their compassion? She didn’t let her thoughts show, however.
 
Instead she took another leaf out of her
mother’s book and became practical.

“Do you have everything ready in case you need to go to the hospital?”

Mutely, Beth shook her head.

“In that case, tell me what I need to pack and where it is.
We may as well be prepared.”

* * *

Much later, having insisted that a weary looking Beth should
go to bed, Claire lay dozing on the couch, listening to the wind.
 
She had changed into her pajamas but it was
too hot for covers. She wished she could open the windows but she knew it was
impossible.
 
She wished Carl and Daniel
were here too.
 
Having seen how scared
Beth was, she didn’t care any longer if Daniel was still in love with her. If
Carl could accept it and remain his brother’s best friend, then she was going
to accept it as well.

It was her last thought as she drifted into a restless
sleep. She was woken in the early hours of the morning by the sound of movement
in the bathroom.

She returned to full consciousness with a start and knocked
on the bathroom door. “Are you okay Beth?”

The door opened and Beth’s frightened face looked up at her.
“The baby
is
coming Claire.
 
I know that now.”

Claire took one look at her and saw the difference.
 
A few hours ago she had just looked worried
and confused, whereas now, despite being scared, she had an inward focus.
Reaching for her cell phone Claire scrolled down to the number she had keyed in
earlier, the one she had found at the top of Beth’s maternity notes. When her
call was answered she explained the situation, listened to a whole list of
instructions, and then ended the call with a brief murmur of thanks.

Beth, meantime, had slipped down from the couch and was
curled across one of the large cushions that furnished the room, breathing
hard.
 
After a minute or so she surprised
Claire by looking up at her with an unexpected grin.

“If this is it, then I think I’ll pass,” she said.

Claire smiled at her.
 
“Too late for that now, and you’ve got to be brave too because the
person I spoke to at the maternity center says we need to stay here.
 
She says it’s too wild outside for us to
tackle a fifty-minute journey with you in labor. But don’t worry,” she added
swiftly, seeing the growing panic on Beth’s face.
 
“A couple of midwives are on their way and
they have told me what to do until they get here.”

* * *

For what seemed an eternity Claire used every skill she had
to keep Beth calm and focused, gladder than she had ever thought she would be
about the year her parents had decided to decamp to Southern Ireland to live
the rural idyll. They had ended up renting a cottage next door to a pregnant
woman who already had seven children under ten years old. When she went into labour
her husband was working a hundred miles away, so it was Claire’s mother who
took charge, acting as temporary midwife while Claire’s father went for medical
help, and while Claire looked after the rest of the children.
 

Although she hadn’t actually been present at the birth, the
experience had taught Claire a great deal about children, about babies and,
more especially, about women in labour.
 
She remembered how her mother had rubbed the woman’s back. She remembered,
too, her mother encouraging the woman to pant through her contractions. Hiding
her own growing panic as the minutes ticked by and no help arrived, she
encouraged Beth to do the same, breathing and panting with her to help her
through each labor pain.

And in the gaps between she did what her mother had done,
she rubbed Beth’s back. She talked to her, too, promising everything would be
all right, and telling her that help would soon arrive; although by the time
Beth’s contractions were barely a minute apart she was beginning to have her doubts.
Pushing such thoughts to the back of her mind she began to prepare for the
worst.
 
In the brief moments when Beth
didn’t need her, she boiled water, collected towels, spread a clean sheet on
the bed and added more pillows to the pile already there.
 
Then she resumed her position beside the
cushion in the sitting room where Beth said she felt most comfortable.

The thunderous knock on the door startled both of them, but
only for a moment, and then Claire was taking the stairs two at a time, anxious
to hand over her responsibilities to people who knew what they were doing. A
tall man and a much smaller woman were standing outside, their arms full of
medical paraphernalia.

“Are we in time?” They were already past her and half way up
the stairs as they asked the question.

“Yes…but only just I think,” she told them, slamming the
door against a sudden gust of wind that threatened to take it off its hinges.

* * *

Beth’s baby was born an hour later, and as the midwife
placed him, still naked and slippery, onto his mother’s stomach, Claire’s tears
spilled over. She had stayed with Beth throughout the labor. She had held her
hand and encouraged her to push. She had brushed back the damp tangle of her
hair and kept her forehead cool with a wet flannel.
 
And now it was all over and the baby was
perfect. He was dark, like Carl, and the ferocious frown of the newborn screwed
up his face.

“He’s just beautiful,” she told Beth, wiping her eyes. Then
she took a few photos with her cell phone before unpacking her camera in order
to take some high quality pictures.

Beth smiled at her with a new radiance as she held out her
arms for her new son. The midwife wrapped him in a clean towel and handed him
to her.
 
Then she and her assistant
busied themselves tidying up while Claire took picture after picture of mother
and baby as they gazed wonderingly at one another. It wasn’t until she had
finished that Beth asked about Carl and Daniel.

Claire shook her head.
 
“I’m sorry Beth.
 
I’ve been
calling Daniel for hours but his cell isn’t picking up. I’ve left a whole
string of voice mail messages though, so we should hear from them as soon as
they have a signal.”

Beth’s eyes filled with tears.
 
“It wasn’t meant to be like this.
 
Carl was meant to be here with me.”

“I know he was.
 
It
was just bad luck that you went into labor early.”

“It wasn’t bad luck. It was all my own fault.” Beth shook
her head as she shifted the baby into a more comfortable position.
 
“He arrived early because I let that old goat
who calls himself Carl’s father upset me!”

“I don’t think it happens like that. Babies come when
they’re ready, not because their mothers are upset,” Claire did her best to
reassure her, but Beth wouldn’t listen.
 
Instead the worry and fear she had been keeping shut up inside her burst
out, and she began to talk.

Claire listened in growing horror as she learned about the
trouble the family business was in, and how the only way it had a chance of
being saved was for Daniel and Carl to get their father removed from the Board.

“The last few weeks have been dreadful,” Beth told her.
 
“So much so, that in the end I decided I
would go and see Carl’s parents.
 
I
thought if I made the first move I might be able to put things right, persuade
my father-in-law to let go of the reins maybe.”

She saw the expression on Claire’s face and sighed. “I know!
I know! I accept it was a stupid idea, but I had to try because Carl and Daniel
are worried that removing him from the Board will destroy their father and it’s
tearing them apart!”

She paused for a moment and looked down at her own new
son.
 
When she spoke again her voice held
a mix of puzzlement and despair. “I just don’t understand how he can behave
like he does.
 
How can anyone do what he
is doing to both of his sons and not care about it?”

“Does Carl know that you went to see him?”

“No.
 
Nor does Daniel,
and you mustn’t tell them.
 
They must
never know the things he said about Carl; about how he wasn’t fit to father a
child; about how any child of ours was likely to end up on drugs and
worse.
 
Of course my mother-in-law wasn’t
around. If she had been he wouldn’t have said such terrible things, but she was
having a coffee with Carl at the print shop. You see I deliberately chose my
time. I thought if I visited him alone I might be able to appeal to his better
nature.
 
Stupid of me to think that he
had one,” she added bitterly.
 

Claire was relieved when the midwife and her assistant came
back into the room and said they needed to check Beth and the baby.
 
She wanted Beth to enjoy her first hours with
her little boy, not obsess about her father-in-law’s cruelty. He had already
done enough damage.
 

“I’ll go and get us all something to eat,” she said.

Glad to have something practical to do to counteract her
growing anger, Claire rummaged through Beth’s cupboards until she found enough
ingredients to put together several rounds of sandwiches.
 
She added cakes and biscuits, and some fruit,
piled the whole lot onto a tray and carried it through to the sitting room.
Then, because the others were still busy, she scrolled down to the cell phone
pictures she had taken of Beth and the baby and sent them across the ether to
Daniel, hoping against hope he would pick up soon.

* * *

By the time he finally called, Beth was asleep and Claire
was sitting on the sofa cradling the baby. He had stirred just as Beth’s eyes
began to close, and the midwife had handed him to Claire and told her to try to
keep him quiet for an hour or so while Beth got some rest. Then, barely pausing
long enough to check Claire knew enough about small babies, and new mothers, to
be left in charge of both of them, she and her colleague had rushed off to
another emergency.

“Claire! It’s Daniel.” The connection was so poor she missed
one word in three.
 
He did manage to make
her understand that he and Carl were on their way home, however, and that they
hoped to be back in Dolphin Key by lunchtime.

With a sigh of relief she put down her cell phone and looked
at the sleeping baby.
 
“Your Daddy will
be here to see you soon,” she told him, gently stroking his cheek.
 
“And your Uncle Daniel will want to see you
too,” she added, feeling as if her heart were about to break as she said the
words out loud.
 

She didn’t want to be around to see the pain Daniel would
feel when he met his new nephew for the first time. To all outward appearances
he might have got over his relationship with Beth, but the concern she had
heard in his voice when he spoke to her on the phone told her otherwise, and
she was quite sure the sight of Carl and Beth’s new baby would bring it all back.

* * *

“Was that Carl?” Beth called from the bedroom.

“It was Daniel.
 
He
said they’ll be here by lunchtime,” Claire told her, carrying the baby back
into the bedroom.
 
“And as soon as they
arrive I’m going to leave you all and go and tell Mr and Mrs Marchant and the
twins the good news.”

Beth stared up at her. There was something in Claire’s face
that spelled trouble but, before she could question her, the baby started to
cry, and soon Beth was too wrapped up in motherhood to remember anything about
it at all.

Chapter Twenty

True to their promise, Daniel and Carl turned up at
midday.
 
By then, taking advantage of the
fact that both Beth and the baby had gone back to sleep again, Claire had
washed up and tidied the kitchen, returned the uneaten food to the fridge, laid
the table, plus a tray for Beth, and made a large pan of vegetable soup based
as closely as possible on her memory of a recipe her mother had used for years.
She had also laid out bread, pickles, and cold meats, and a bowl of fruit.
Satisfied there was little else she could do, she had then sat down and waited
for them to arrive.

One look at their faces told her all she needed to
know.
 
It was obvious from their
expressions that they had had a bad time and that they were tired and hungry,
as well as worried out of their wits.

“It’s okay! Everything is fine,” she hastened to reassure
them as they reached the top of the stairs.
 
“Beth and the baby are both asleep. He’s a lovely little boy,” she
added, smiling at Carl.

He dumped his bag, stripped off his coat, and disappeared
into the bedroom without a word, leaving Claire and Daniel staring at one
another.

Hardening her heart against the weariness she could see on
his face, Claire told him what had happened; why Beth had called her; and why
the baby had ended up being born at home.
 
Then she waved towards the food on the table, told him soup was
simmering on the stove, picked up her bags, and prepared to leave.