Название: The Baby Barter
Автор: Patty Smith Hall
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Исторические любовные романы
Серия: Mills & Boon Love Inspired Historical
isbn: 9781474047050
isbn:
“Maybe,” Mack replied, giving her an unrepentant smile that made her heart trip over itself. “But she’d have to catch me first.”
A smile tugged at the corner of Thea’s mouth, but she caught herself before she made a complete idiot out of herself and smiled back. What on earth was she doing, almost flirting with the man! She had to make him understand the situation. Otherwise, Eileen’s baby would be adopted by him, and the opportunity to raise her sister’s child would be forever lost to her. “I don’t think what I said was that funny.”
“It wasn’t.” A weak grin tugged at his lips. “It’s just that Ms. Aurora has a hard enough time providing the necessaries for the children left in her care without going out and stealing more of them to spread her resources even thinner.”
“Maybe there was a misunderstanding,” Thea argued. “Maybe Eileen was upset, or overwhelmed, and considered giving up her baby. But Momma says she changed her mind. She just didn’t get a chance to take her back before the car accident. This isn’t an abandoned baby anymore—this is a little girl whose family wants her. Momma and I are entitled to have her.”
Thea glanced into blue eyes studying her intensely as if he were staring straight into the very heart of her soul. She swallowed. No wonder the people of Marietta trusted Mack to watch over their town. He could probably drum a confession out of the most hardened criminal, let alone a young girl still haunted by the cries of her sister, years ago, longing for the first child she’d borne—a child she had held only once before the baby was whisked away in the night, never to be returned. Thea had left town to find that baby...and she had failed. This was her chance to make things right, and she wasn’t going to let it go. How could she make Mack at least listen to what she had to say? “Have you ever known me to lie, Mack?”
He glanced down at her, the lines in his face taut. This was killing him. Thea knew it, but wasn’t it better to learn the truth now than after the adoption had gone through? “What kind of proof do you have to back up your allegations that Sarah is Eileen’s child?” Mack asked. “A birth certificate? An entry in the family Bible?”
“I haven’t checked with the courthouse about a birth certificate yet.” She’d never seen a family Bible around the house but that didn’t mean her mother didn’t have one stashed somewhere. “But I do have Eileen’s journal. She wrote about delivering a little girl, just as everyone was celebrating the end of the war.”
“Which will only prove she had a baby around VE Day.” Mack leaned close enough so that only she could hear him. “Until you have some kind of proof that Sarah is that baby, I’d suggest you keep your claims to yourself.”
“Then will you promise to hold off on the adoption until we’ve figured out this situation?” she countered.
A muscle in Mack’s jaw jerked slightly, then he relaxed. “I’m not sure there is anything to figure out, Miss Miller. According to the courts, Sarah has been abandoned and can legally be adopted.”
“Miss Miller,” was she? So, he’d dug in his heels. Well, she could be just as stubborn. Thea crushed her fingers into the leather sides of her purse. She’d need a new one after the punishment this one had taken today. “You can’t think I’m just going to let you adopt my niece without putting up a fight.”
“We still haven’t established Sarah is Eileen’s child.”
“It’s like I told you. Sarah’s the right age, and she has the same sandy-blond hair and blue eyes that Eileen did when she was a baby.”
“That’s all circumstantial evidence, Thea. You’re going to have to do better than that.”
She knew that, but the more she thought about the situation, the more convinced she was that the little girl Mack aimed to adopt was her niece, especially considering what her mother had told her of the baby’s abnormalities. “According to Momma, she was born on May eighth. I’m sure the birth certificate will back that up, once I locate it.”
“She probably wasn’t the only kid born that day,” Mack replied, though his cheeks had gone slightly pale beneath his tanned complexion, as if the news had hit a sore spot. Clearly, that was Sarah’s birthdate, as well. “And finding the official record might not be as easy as you think. It can take months for a birth certificate to be filed, and I happened to know Mrs. Williams left to stay with her sick sister up in Tennessee not two days after Sarah was born.”
“The preacher’s wife delivered Sarah?”
Mack nodded. “Placed that precious girl in my arms no more than an hour after she was born.”
It felt as if the air had been sucked out of her lungs. “You were there?”
“Mrs. Williams called me at the station. Said the girl and her family didn’t want anything to do with the baby so could I come by her house and take the baby to the hospital until Dr. Adams could get someone from the state to take over her care.”
Thea’s world tilted slightly, a dark mist settling over her eyes. “Why didn’t you do something? Did you try to talk Eileen out of giving her baby up? Or at least convince her to wait a day or two before she made such a huge decision?”
Thea didn’t realize she was shaking until Mack rested his hands on her shoulders. “First—” he spoke to her in that calm way of his that had always made her feel so safe “—why would I have any reason to believe Eileen was the one giving up Sarah? I didn’t even know she was back in town. I certainly didn’t go back into the delivery room to see the mother—that wouldn’t have been appropriate. And secondly, Mrs. Williams takes her position as midwife very seriously. She wouldn’t turn a child over to the authorities without being absolutely certain the mother understood exactly what she was doing.”
Mack had a very real point. The protocol Mrs. Williams had followed was the same they used in the hospital. Still, she couldn’t help her suspicions, especially after what she’d seen years ago, in her dealings with Miss Tann. Maybe Mack could answer a few questions she still had about the night Sarah was born. “How did the baby end up with Ms. Adair instead of at the hospital with Dr. Adams?”
Mack’s lips flatlined. “I took her there.”
“Why?”
“Because once he heard about her condition, Dr. Adams wanted to send her away.” Mack glanced around. Some of the guests had begun drifting out of the house and back into the yard. Thea wondered what tales about her and the sheriff would be making the rounds about town tomorrow.
Well, if they wanted something to talk about, she’d sure enough give it to them. “He wanted to put her in an institution because she had a cleft palate.”
His stony gaze sent a chill up her spine. Being on the wrong side of the law would be a hazardous business with this man in charge. “What did you say?” he asked, his voice low and dangerous.
“Whoever did her first surgery did a good job, but from the sounds she was making, I suspect she’ll need more. Momma’s been so worried about how the baby would survive with...a defect so severe. There are new procedures that could give Sarah a normal life.”
“I know. There will be time for those later.”
Thea blinked. Why was he waiting? Hadn’t the surgeon explained to him that the risk of complications rose as the baby grew and the bones СКАЧАТЬ