A Baby For Lord Roderick. Emily Dalton

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СКАЧАТЬ for a siesta. Open up. I think you’ll like this. It’s going to make you feel much better.”

      The baby’s eyes fluttered open. His mouth caught the nipple and clamped onto it. Thank God for the sucking instinct, Allie thought.

      The baby’s forehead furrowed with surprise as he took a couple of involuntary swallows. His eyes widened, blinked twice, then drifted shut as he continued to suck. Allie gave a sigh of relief and smiled, her heart swelling with that wonderful “motherly” feeling she’d experienced before only in her dreams.

      MARY ANSWERED halfway through the first ring.

      “Hello?”

      “Gran, it’s me.”

      “I’ve been worried, Liam!”

      “I know. I’m sorry. It took us longer to get into town than I expected, then Bea had to go to the loo and we stopped at a petrol station.”

      “At a petrol station? Nothing’s open this late in Annabella. Where are you, Liam?”

      “We’re at Doctor Lockwood’s.”

      “What’s wrong? Is Bea sick?”

      “No, Bea’s fine. I’m fine, too.”

      “Then why—?”

      “It’s a long story, Gran. I’ll tell you everything when I get to the house.”

      “How soon will you be here?”

      “In just a few minutes.” Liam hesitated, then asked, “How well do you know Allie Lockwood, Gran? Has she been in Annabella long?”

      “Allie’s family’s been in Annabella since the dawn of time, just like mine. Our tribe moved away, but she and…a couple of her family stayed on.”

      “Okay, so she’s a longtime resident, but is she a good doctor?”

      “I’ve never needed her services, thank God, but everyone swears by her around here. If she’s half as good as her grandfather was, though, I’d say she’s an excellent doctor.”

      Mary’s voice had gone suddenly wistful. That’s when Liam remembered something he’d heard about Annabella. Something he’d been too distracted to remember sooner. Lockwood. Lockwood was the name of that man from Gran’s past. The man she’d jilted to marry his grandfather. He’d never heard the whole story before and was suddenly consumed with curiosity, but now was not the time to drag out skeletons.

      “Liam? Why do you want to know if Allie Lockwood’s a good doctor? I thought you said you and Bea were fine?”

      “We are.”

      “But—”

      “Bea and I will be there in just a few minutes, Gran. I’ll explain then.”

      “All right, then. See you soon. I’ll have hot chocolate ready for you.”

      “Goodbye, Gran.”

      “Goodbye, love.”

      Liam hung up and looked down at Bea, curled up in the corner of a small sofa in Allie Lockwood’s tiny cubicle of an office. She looked so tired, so frail, so anxious. As traumatic as the past hour had been for him, he imagined it had been even worse for her. And he’d been so preoccupied with making sure the baby was okay, he’d neglected her a little. He forced his lips into a smile.

      “Gran’s got hot chocolate waiting.”

      Bea nodded. “Good. But what about the baby, Daddy?”

      “I told you he’s going to be all right, Bea.”

      “I know, but…but are we just going to leave the baby here? Who’s going to take care of him?”

      “Doctor Lockwood, for now. As for later, I don’t know, Bea. Probably—”

      Bea’s brows drew together and her large brown eyes darkened. “Because I’ve been thinking, Daddy,” she said in a tone that struck Liam as being heartbreakingly serious and grown-up for such a small child. “Why can’t we take care of him? He needs a home, doesn’t he?”

      “It’s not that simple, Bea.”

      “I think God sent him. We lost our baby, so God sent us another baby to take his place.”

      Sure, if life was fair, if there really was justice in the world, Liam thought to himself, the infant he’d found tonight might be able to help fill the void that had been left by the deaths of his wife and child. And the baby would be needing a home…. But Liam wasn’t even an American citizen. And with the circumstances of the baby’s birth and the crime committed still unknown, he’d be crazy to get involved. He’d done his part by fishing the baby out of that rubbish bin and now they must part ways.

      “It doesn’t work that way, Bea,” he finally answered. “But we’ll talk about it again tomorrow, if you want. Right now Gran’s waiting for us. Let’s go say goodbye to Doctor Lockwood.”

      Bea struggled up from the couch and looked so pale and weary, Liam picked her up in his arms, keeping the blanket snugly wrapped around her.

      Bea giggled. “I’m not a baby, Daddy. You don’t have to carry me.”

      “But just this once, you don’t mind, do you?”

      She put her arms around his neck and tucked her head under his jaw. “No, I don’t mind.”

      Liam walked to the door of the examination room and looked inside. Allie stood with her back to them, gently swaying back and forth. One elbow was in the air, as if she was holding a bottle. Good. The baby must be taking the formula.

      “Doctor Lockwood?”

      Allie turned around and the radiance on her face startled Liam.

      “Oh, you’re leaving?” she said. She looked and sounded pleasantly dazed, and not at all displeased that they were about to depart. It struck him then that her attachment to the baby was unnaturally quick and unprofessional.

      In fact, if looks could kill, he’d have been dead the minute he suggested giving the baby the bottle instead of her. But all Liam had wanted was to hold him just once more, now that he was safe. To hold him without that awful feeling that he might die in his arms at any moment. Was that so much to ask?

      As he stared at Allie Lockwood and the baby he’d fished out of a rubbish bin, Liam suddenly realized that it wasn’t going to be possible to simply part ways with this child. And he wasn’t going to wait for God to fix things and make them fair, either. It was impulsive and possibly stupid, but Liam determined at that moment that he would play God for once and try to bring about a little justice of his own.

      “I’m leaving, but I’ll be back,” he told Allie. “I care about that baby and I want to be involved in any and all decisions made about him.”

      Before Allie could answer he turned and left the room, but her radiant look had been replaced by one of suspicious СКАЧАТЬ