Baby on Board: Secret Baby, Surprise Parents / Her Baby Wish / Keeping Her Baby's Secret

That brought something that could almost have been interpreted as a smile to his lips as he recognised the challenge. ‘You’re not interested in hearing my offer, then?’

‘Posie and I are happy here.’ And, before he could say any more, ‘We’ll be ready to leave at half past eight.’

Neither her mother nor Grace spoke until they heard the basement door shut, at which point they let go of the breath they’d been collectively holding.

‘That man is so intense,’ her mother said. ‘Not a bit like his poor brother.’

‘No. But they were very close.’

‘Were they?’ She turned to the infant in her arms and they inspected one another, her mother with a searching look, Posie with her little forehead wrinkled in a frown. ‘What offer did Josh Kingsley make you, Grace?’

‘He didn’t make an offer.’ Well, he hadn’t. She’d cut him off before he’d said the words. ‘It was just a joke.’

‘Really? He didn’t look as if he was joking. Only I did wonder, if he’s been appointed guardian, whether he’ll want to take Posie back to Australia with him.’

‘He can’t do that.’

‘Oh?’ she said. ‘Are you quite sure about that? She’s a beautiful child and he seems… attached.’

‘He wouldn’t. He’s never in one place for more than a week and children need stability. Order. He knows that.’ They both knew that.

‘They are important,’ her mother agreed, ‘but knowing that they’re loved is what really counts.’ Then, looking at her granddaughter, ‘Phoebe must have been so happy. I’m glad she had these few weeks when her world was complete.’

‘Yes…’ Grace tried to say more, but there was just a great big lump in her throat.

‘And you, Grace? What will make your world complete?’

She shook her head. Some things were never meant to be.

‘Come on through to the kitchen. I’ll get you something to eat,’ she said, anxious to change the subject.

‘I’m not hungry, just tired.’ Then, ‘I’m sorry I didn’t get here in time to share the burden, help with the arrangements.’

Grace shook her head. ‘They’d left instructions. They chose a woodland burial site. It’s very peaceful. I’ll take you there when you’ve recovered. Josh hasn’t seen it, either. He only arrived yesterday.’

Her mother nodded. ‘I need to make a phone call, let someone know I’ve arrived. Then perhaps a bath and a nap?’

‘Why don’t you use my flat? I’m staying down here with Posie so you’ll be quiet up there,’ she said, picking up her mother’s bag and heading for the stairs. ‘Private,’ she added, wondering quite how Josh’s mother would react when they met.

‘Nice idea, but I’m not sure that I could cope with all those stairs.’ She pulled a face. ‘Years of damp and cold, living in vans, hasn’t done my hips any favours.’

Concerned, Grace stopped. ‘Are you okay? I could sort you out something on the ground floor for sleeping, but there isn’t a shower on this floor.’

‘I’m going to need replacement joints sooner rather than later but I can just about cope with one flight. I’d like to make my call before I go up, though. I need to tell a friend that I arrived safely.’

That was such an unexpected thing for her free-as-a-bird mother to say that Grace said, ‘A friend?’ Then, ‘You’ve met someone?’

‘You think I’m too old?’

‘No, Mum. I’m just jealous.’ Then, ‘Help yourself to the phone in Michael’s study. I’ll put your bag in the front bedroom on the right—it’s the one nearest to the stairs. Then I’ll get Posie ready for her outing.’

‘You’re taking her with you?’ She sounded disappointed. ‘I would have taken care of her.’

‘You need a rest and, to be honest, we could both do with some fresh air. I thought we’d come home through the park so that she can feed the ducks. You know how Phoebe loved to do that.’

Her mother laughed. ‘Phoebe?’

‘Wasn’t it Phoebe who once gave all the bread we had to the greedy little beasts?’

‘No. She gave the bread to you and you gave it to the ducks.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Oh, yes. She was supposed to be looking after you so that I could put together some stuff to sell at a craft market.’

Grace had vivid memories of her mother bent over a table, working long into the night to put together her intricate necklaces and bracelets. Easy in hindsight to understand how hard it must have been for her, a single mother trying to make enough money to keep her girls fed and clothed as she lived the travelling lifestyle that she’d taken to with the man she’d loved. Had never left, even when he’d disappeared one day. How lonely it must have been.

A scenario that she was now faced with. Not that Posie would ever be hungry or afraid. Not while she had breath in her body.

‘Leaving us all without supper was her way of letting me know that she had much more interesting things to do than babysit her little sister.’

‘No!’ Grace found that hard to believe. ‘Phoebe was always so protective. So caring.’ So… good. Or was that the grown-up Phoebe she was thinking of?

‘It was me she had a problem with, Grace. Not you. We both know that I would never have made the shortlist for greatest mother in the world. Something she made very clear when I came to fetch you after my twenty-eight days for vandalism and disturbing the peace.’

‘You came for me?’ Her mother hadn’t just abandoned her, taken the easy option, the get-out-of-jail-free card? ‘I never knew.’

Phoebe had never told her. It seemed that her big sister was better at keeping secrets than she’d ever imagined.

‘We agreed that it was for the best. You didn’t have her rebelliousness, her toughness. You needed to feel safe. I loved you more than words could say and it was like cutting off my right arm to leave you, but I knew you’d be happier with her. That it would be easier for you if you weren’t torn by any foolish loyalty to me.’ She kissed Posie’s downy head and handed her over. ‘She would have been such a wonderful mother. But you will be, too. Much better than I ever was.’

There was such a world of need in her eyes that Grace put an arm around her, held her and said, ‘You gave me up because you loved me. That’s the hardest, finest thing for a mother to do.’

‘Oh…’ There were tears in her eyes as she pushed her away, saying, ‘Go and pretty yourselves up. I’ve got a call to make.’

CHAPTER SIX

DRESSING Posie, putting together everything she’d need for the morning, took nearly all the time Grace had so that ‘prettying herself up’ consisted of little more than pulling a comb through her short hair.

Then she fastened jade button earrings to her lobes and a matching necklace of overlapping disks of the same stone around her throat. Make-up she could live without, but jewellery was her business and she’d never been anywhere since she’d been a toddler without something fancy around her neck or wrist—her ‘sparklies’—and she’d feel naked without them.

She settled the necklace into place, trying not to think about Josh, his hands on her shoulders as he’d leaned into her neck to hunt down some elusive scent. The feel of his beard brushing against her skin, sending gooseflesh shivering through her.

The last time they’d been that close, that intimate, they’d been naked. This morning, when she’d felt the warmth of his breath against her ear, been swamped by the scent of a man still warm from his bed, she’d wanted to be naked again.

She slipped on her suit jacket, buttoned it up and, without bothering to check her reflection, fetched Posie from the nursery and went downstairs.

Josh looked up, said nothing, as she hurried into the kitchen ten minutes later than she’d promised. He just looked at her and she was convinced he could see every hot, wicked thought that had been running through her mind, distracting her, slowing her down.