More Than A Dream

‘Oh, hell. No, it would have shown up on the scan—wouldn’t it?’

‘Probably,’ she comforted. She didn’t care what it was, or how many it was, so long as everything was all right.

Turning back to watch the monitor, he continued thoughtfully, ‘I read somewhere that, if the heartbeat stays under forty, it’s a boy. Over, it’s a girl.’ With a wide smile he watched the monitor jump from thirty-eight to fifty and then back down to thirty-six. ‘Perhaps it hasn’t made up its mind yet,’ he commented humorously. ‘It doesn’t seem to stay either above or below.’

‘It had better—’ Breaking off as the nurse came in, Melly carefully watched her face as she stopped the machine and tore off the graph.

Turning, she gave Melly a wide smile. ‘Is OK,’ she said triumphantly. Whether for her English, or the graph, Melly wasn’t sure, but she didn’t miss the flirtatious glance she gave Charles.

He asked her something in French, and the nurse replied, and, to Melly’s heightened imagination, seemed to linger over what she wanted to say. It was Charles who broke the contact by standing and saying something very softly to the young nurse. She blushed scarlet and hastily unstrapped Melly from the machine.

Charles rearranged her maternity dress over her bulge and helped her to her feet. ‘We can go home. All, as the nurse said, is OK. You are to come back next Wednesday.’

Hitching her dress into a more comfortable position and collecting her bag, she asked quietly, ‘What did you say to make the nurse blush?’

Bending his head to drop a light kiss on her hair, he said softly, ‘I told her to behave herself, that I was a happily married man.’

And are you? she wanted to ask as they walked out to his car. Are you happy? Or are you just acting out a role? That of a devoted husband and father-to-be? You were the one who settled for the crumbs, she told herself with an inward sigh; don’t complain now that they aren’t enough.

* * *

‘Come on, upstairs,’ he insisted when they got home, ‘the doctor said you were to rest. And we’ll stay in this evening,’ he added as he helped her on to the bed.

‘No,’ she put in softly. ‘We’ll go out, as planned. It’s only a dinner party, not standing around or anything, and it will help take my mind off things. if I stay in I’ll only lie and worry.’

Staring down at her for a moment, he frowned, then finally nodded. ‘All right, but only for a little while. We won’t stay late.’ Slipping off her shoes, he pulled the quilt across her and tucked it warmly at her side. Perching on the edge of the bed, he smoothed her unruly hair back with a gentle hand. ‘Get some sleep. I’ll give you a knock about seven.’

‘All right—and Charles?’ she called softly as he got up and walked to the door. ‘Thank you.’

‘Nothing to thank me for, Melly,’ he denied rather sombrely. ‘Nothing at all.’