Their Secret Royal Baby

‘In a moment,’ Elias said.

‘I have a two-year-old convulsing...’

He just stared at the baby.

‘Elias,’ Mandy called loudly, on her way to Resus.

He looked over at Beth, who was being comforted by Valerie. A midwife was looking after her too but for a brief moment she glanced at him.

‘Elias!’

His name was called again and an emergency bell sounded and there was nothing he could do for his baby.

Even if he told them that she was his, he would just be asked to step aside.

And so he did what, as a doctor on duty, he had to do.

‘I’ll be back...’ he said to Beth, but she wasn’t looking at him now. She was in the third stage of labour and about to deliver the placenta while looking over anxiously at the crowd of experts around her baby.

His.

He allowed himself to acknowledge it then.

The baby was his.

CHAPTER THREE (#uf458d626-41a9-54e7-8ee0-4eb9c75aac16)

ELIAS HAD GONE.

She could hear him being urgently summoned and understood that he had no choice but to leave.

Actually, no, Beth didn’t understand anything.

It was twelve twenty-nine and less than half an hour ago she had been standing in the street, wondering what to do.

Now she was a mother and no one could tell her how her baby was.

She heard the odd word.

‘Surfactant.’

‘Struggling.’

‘Grunting.’

‘CPAP.’

‘I want her on the Unit,’ someone said.

Beth lay back, shivering under a blanket, as a midwife checked her blood pressure and listened to what was being said.

‘There are no cots. She’ll have to go to St Patrick’s.’

There were voices with no names and she felt dizzy as it dawned on her they were talking about transferring her baby.

‘You’re not taking her to another hospital.’ She shook her head. ‘No.’

‘It’s okay,’ the midwife said. ‘We’ll get you over there as soon as we can.’

‘I want to be with her.’

An IV had been inserted and Beth couldn’t even remember it going in.

‘Her blood pressure is ninety over fifty,’ the midwife called, then spoke to Beth. ‘What’s your normal blood pressure?’

She couldn’t answer.

Beth tried to explain that she’d been told at her checks that her blood pressure was on the low side but she couldn’t remember the numbers and there were little dots swimming before her eyes. Her lips had gone numb.

‘I’m just going to lay you flat,’ the midwife said, and Beth felt her head drop back. ‘Take some deep breaths.’

Again.

The only noise she could hear was the heart monitor on her baby and it sounded fast, though she wasn’t crying now and hadn’t been for a while.

Beth lay there trembling at the shock and the speed of it all.

A man who said he was a neonatologist came and told her that her baby was about to be transferred and that NICU was the best place for her now.

‘Can I go with her?’

‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘We’ve got a lot of equipment and staff that will be travelling with her.’

‘I’ll not get in the way. I’ll just sit.’

He didn’t wait to explain further that she was in no fit state to sit.

‘Can I see her?’ Beth asked, but her baby was already being moved out and all she got was a tiny glimpse of red hair and the sight of tubes and machines and then she was gone.

It was very quiet in the cubicle after she left.

Mandy came in with another flask of IV fluid and it was checked with the midwife. ‘I’ve ordered an ambulance for you, Beth. It might be a while, though, they have to deal with emergencies first.’

Thankfully it was only fifteen minutes or so before she was being moved onto a stretcher.

The midwife would escort her and all that was left to do was thank Mandy, who gave her a smile.

‘I’ll ring before I leave in the morning and find out how your baby is doing. Do you have a name for her?’