The Baby Who Saved Christmas

‘So...’ Julien lowered himself onto a couch facing Alice. ‘You are a teacher?’

‘Yes.’

‘You like children, then?’

‘Of course.’

‘Do you have any of your own?’

That startled her.

‘No... I’m not...um...married.’

‘Neither was your mother.’

Maybe she wasn’t quite as vulnerable as he’d thought. A flash of something like anger crossed her face and her chin lifted.

‘She suffered for that. There are communities where it’s still considered shameful to produce an illegitimate child.’

Julien blinked. If the mother had suffered, it was logical to assume that the child had as well.

‘Why did she go back, then?’

The stare he was receiving made him feel like he’d asked a very stupid question. There was something even more disturbing in that look, however. Pity? Was he missing something fundamental?

‘Brannockburn was her home. She was very young and her heart was broken. She needed her mother.’

A broken heart? Well, she probably hadn’t been the only woman who’d believed that she might be the one to tame André Laurent. He could hardly brand her as a complete fool when his own sister had fallen under the same spell decades later.

‘I’m sorry...’ Her apology was unexpected.

‘What for?’

Alice was twisting a lock of hair in her fingers as she shifted her gaze to the doors that led back into the house. ‘You’ve lost your sister. You must have family here. Your mother perhaps? I’m intruding on a very personal time. I’m sorry. Obviously, I wouldn’t have come if I’d had any idea of what had happened.’

‘My only family was my sister,’ Julien said quietly. ‘And I lost her three months ago. She died in childbirth.’

* * *

A heavy silence fell but Alice didn’t dare look back at him.

Had the baby died as well? Had they both recently lost their only living relatives? Not that there was any real comparison. He’d known his sister and she’d only lost the potential of knowing her father. But she knew what it was like to lose the person who was the emotional touchstone in one’s life. Her mother had seemed far too young to be taken but how old had Julien’s sister been? Probably only in her thirties, as he looked to be himself.

This was a tragedy in anybody’s terms and Julien clearly blamed her father and hated him for it. She had come here claiming a close relationship to André so it was no wonder she wasn’t welcome. Had André been as reckless on public roads as he’d been on a racing circuit? That would give credence to the idea that the crash had been his fault but Julien had said his sister had died in childbirth months ago. How could André be blamed for that?

A cold chill ran down Alice’s spine. Had it been an abortion that had gone horribly wrong? That was part of her own history, in a way. The only reason she existed had been because her mother had refused to go along with what had been deemed compulsory.

The silence grew heavier. And more awkward.

And then it was broken by something totally unexpected.

The wail of a baby.

CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_e0cdb7a5-cd29-5cc3-a555-610080df1396)

ALICE FOUND HERSELF staring at the doors as the sound grew louder. Julien had gone pale. He got to his feet and walked past her without a word. Without thinking, Alice stood up and followed him.

There seemed to be two groups of people at the other end of the huge room. Two men wearing dark suits, facing each other and talking loudly. Behind the second man were two women. One was older and wore an apron. A younger woman was carrying the baby, who couldn’t be more than about three months old. The age of the youngest of the children who attended the pre-school educational centre she worked for.

The age Julien’s nephew or niece would have been by now?

Julien was walking swiftly, as though he intended to stop them coming any further. Alice was a few steps behind by the time they all stopped.

They spoke French, of course, so she couldn’t understand a word but she could pick up a sense of what was going on. There was a problem of some kind and Julien wanted nothing to do with it. She couldn’t be sure that he’d even looked at the baby, having positioned himself alongside one of the men so that he was only facing the other man and the older woman. Their voices rose over the sound of the baby crying and the younger girl was looking ready to cry herself.

Alice might teach the older pupils at the Kindercare Nursery School but she had had enough experience with the youngest children to know that this baby wasn’t well. The crying was punctuated by coughing. He had a runny nose and kept rubbing at his eyes with a small fist. His mother, if that’s who she was, jiggled the bundle she held with what looked like a desperate attempt to comfort him. When she looked away from the heated discussion happening between the others, she met Alice’s gaze and there was a plea in that look that Alice could not ignore.

She moved closer, her arms outstretched in an invitation to give the mother a break from a stressful situation. Astonishment gave way to relief as Alice took the baby, unnoticed by anyone else. She walked away, back towards the conservatory, with the thought that she could at least give them a chance to talk without having to shout over the wailing, which was probably becoming a vicious cycle as the loud voices distressed the baby further.

‘It’s okay, sweetheart,’ she told the baby. ‘You’re just miserable, aren’t you? Look, it’s cooler in here. Let’s get that blanket off you and let you cool down, shall we?’

The tone was one she used with any unhappy child and her movements were calm and confident as she unwrapped the covering that would be far too hot for a baby who was probably running a temperature.

‘You’ve got a cold, haven’t you?’ Spikes of damp, dark hair covered the baby’s forehead and Alice smoothed them back. ‘They’re rotten things, colds, but you know what?’

The exaggeration of her question seemed to have finally caught the baby’s attention. He hiccupped loudly and opened his eyes to look up at Alice.

Dark eyes that had that baby milkiness that made it hard to decide whether they were blue or brown.

‘Colds go away.’ Alice smiled. ‘In a day or two you’re going to feel ever so much better.’

She unsnapped the top fastenings of the sleep suit to allow a bit more fresh air to cool the baby’s skin. Miraculously, he’d stopped crying now, so Alice rocked him gently and started singing softly. It was amazing how comforting it was to hold this tiny person. For the first time Alice felt as if she was welcome in this house.

Needed even.

The baby’s eyes drifted shut and only moments later there she was sitting in the conservatory again but this time holding a sleeping infant.

A quiet one.

For a few seconds Alice watched the baby’s face as it twitched and settled deeper into sleep. Who was he? Julien’s child perhaps? Was that young woman his wife? Or his girlfriend perhaps, given the speed with which he’d suggested it wasn’t necessary to be married to have a child. If either scenario was correct, her opinion of him was dropping rapidly. He should have been trying to help, not making things worse.

Not that she could hear the sound of any arguments any more.

In fact, it was so quiet she glanced up with the worrying thought that they might have all gone somewhere else and left her with the baby.

To her horror, she found that there were five people watching her from the doorway.

Julien looked angry again. His words were cold.