Rags To Riches Collection. Rebecca Winters

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СКАЧАТЬ bedrooms. He stopped short in Ella’s doorway and his heart clenched. Nicola sat on Ella’s bed holding a bowl for the child as she was monumentally and comprehensively sick. There was evidence that Ella had been sick before Nicola had been able to reach her.

      To make Nicola’s task all the more difficult, Holly clung to her, grizzling into her neck. He could see that Holly had been sick all over herself and Nicola. Nicola’s cotton nightie clung to one breast, the wet material practically transparent.

      He turned his gaze away and pushed himself forward into the room. Nicola glanced up and relief lit her eyes. How long had she been struggling with this alone?

      Ella lifted her head, her eyes swimming with tears, her face a picture of misery. ‘Daddy, I did eat too many lollies and they made me vomit.’

      Only she pronounced it ‘bomit’, which would normally have made him smile, except...

      It’s not serious, but it’s...of your making.

      He’d created this mess? He’d made his children sick? Bile rose in his throat as he battled a cold, hard anger with himself. There’d be plenty of time for recriminations later. Recriminations wouldn’t help Ella and Holly at the moment. Or Nicola.

      He swallowed. ‘What can I do?’

      ‘Holly needs to be cleaned up. Ella...’

      Her eyes told him that Ella wasn’t through with being sick yet.

      ‘Holly, honey, you want to go to Daddy?’

      Holly screamed and clung tighter to Nicola’s neck. Ella started to cry. ‘I want Daddy to stay here.’

      No further communication was needed. He took Nicola’s spot on the bed. She handed him a damp washcloth and a clean bowl. ‘I won’t be long.’

      ‘Take the time to have a shower too,’ he said softly. She deserved to be as comfortable as she could be given the situation. He predicted that with Holly in her current mood, it’d take them an age to get her back down to sleep.

      She glanced down at the front of herself and her cheeks reddened. With a nod she was gone, taking Holly, the dirty bowl and her magnificent breasts with her.

      He shook that last thought away and tended his daughter.

      Nicola was back wearing a fresh nightie and a terry-towelling robe in less time than he dreamed possible. He frowned. ‘Holly?’

      ‘Sleeping like a baby.’

      He gaped. ‘But how...?’

      She shrugged but her eyes danced. ‘What can I say? I’m a hell of a woman.’

      Her teasing lightened something inside him. She’d returned smelling all the more strongly of strawberry jam and it eased the sour smell of sickness that pervaded the room. He pulled a deep breath of it into his lungs.

      ‘Besides, it’s what you pay me for.’

      ‘You deserve a pay rise.’

      ‘Too many nights like this and I’ll take you up on that.’

      Amid all the vomit and guilt, she’d made him want to smile. He wouldn’t have believed that possible. He watched her assess Ella, who was drooping.

      ‘She needs to be bathed and her bed needs to be stripped and remade.’ She quickly and deftly removed Ella’s pyjamas as she spoke. ‘I’ve run a bath and as you’re stronger than me...’

      He nodded and took Ella through to the bathroom and bathed her. She cried and protested, but was too tired to put up much of a fight.

      When he returned to the bedroom, the bed had been made up with fresh sheets and Nicola quickly helped Ella into a cool cotton nightie. He tucked her into bed, the guilt he’d kept at bay starting to prickle and burn.

      Nicola knelt down in front of Ella. ‘Sweetie, I need you to take three little sips of water for me.’

      ‘I don’t want to!’

      ‘Honey, have I ever lied to you?’

      Ella shook her head.

      ‘I promise you’ll feel better if you have a little drink.’

      Ella finally nodded, but she needed coaxing and cajoling every step of the way. Cade couldn’t help but marvel at Nicola’s combination of patience, firmness and gentleness.

      ‘Sing me a song,’ Ella demanded with a fretful squirm.

      Cade wanted to order his daughter to say please, but Nicola forestalled him with a light touch on his arm. ‘First Daddy has to dim the light, and then you have to lie still and close your eyes.’

      ‘’Kay.’

      Cade dimmed the light and then stretched out beside Ella, his back resting against the headboard as he gently wiped her hair back from her forehead. Nicola settled on the end of the bed. She pulled in a breath and then calmly and quietly sang “Silent Night.”

      The soft strains of the song soothed Ella and helped ease the beast raging in Cade’s own breast. He closed his eyes too and drank the song in, her voice so true it lifted the hairs on his arms.

      When it was finished they sat in the quiet for a bit. Her touch on his arm had his eyes flying open. With a finger to her lips, she led him out of Ella’s bedroom, the child sleeping quietly now.

      With a quick smile she swooped down and picked up the soiled bed-linen and walked away with a soft ‘Goodnight, Cade.’

      He wouldn’t sleep. Not yet. He followed her into the kitchen, but she moved all the way through to the laundry and set a load going.

      He put the kettle on and waited. ‘Tea?’ he offered when she reappeared.

      She hesitated, her gaze sweeping across his face. Finally she nodded. ‘Something herbal would be nice.’

      He made them mugs of peppermint tea, even though he didn’t like the stuff. Penance, he told himself.

      ‘I’m sorry about that,’ he murmured once they were both seated. ‘You tried to warn me that too many sweets would make them sick. I didn’t listen.’

      She shrugged. ‘We live and learn. Don’t beat yourself up about it.’

      Don’t beat himself up? He shot to his feet. ‘I made them sick! I’m supposed to protect them and look after them and...’

      Her eyes widened.

      ‘I want to make Christmas special for them, but...damn it, I’m making a hash of everything! Those poor kids.’ He fell back into his chair. ‘They drew the short straw in the parents stakes, no mistake about it, and...’ He couldn’t go on. His throat had grown too tight.

      ‘Now where did I put that hair shirt?’ Nicola said with an efficient crispness so utterly devoid of sympathy it made him sit back in shock.

      ‘Stop being such СКАЧАТЬ