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'Don't think about it,' Nick commanded her masterfully. 'Don't think about anything apart from us,'
he whispered sensually. 'And this...' As he kissed her mouth and then her naked breasts, Sara sighed her pleasure into the still, night air.
IN THEIR APARTMENT Sara's father frowned as he g
lanced at his watch.
'Surely Nick must have caught up with Sara by now?'
'Yes, dear, I'm sure he has,' his wife agreed with a small rueful smile that caused him to check and then shake his head as she laughed tenderly at him.
EPILOGUE
'ARE YOU SURE this is what you want? There's still time to change your mind, you know,' Max told Maddy as they stood together.
'I'm sure,' Maddy confirmed serenely as she smiled up at him and handed him the securely wrapped bundle that was their son of a few months and watched the love illuminate his face as he held him. She already knew there was a very strong tie between this baby and Max. Right from the moment of his birth he had bonded with Max and he, in turn, adored his son. It was as though the baby knew somehow just how much Max had needed the reassurance of his love.
Behind them in the congregation David was sitting proudly with his own family, Honor and Olivia exchanging mutually understanding and rueful looks as David, Amelia and Alex fought over who was to hold Honor and David's ten-day-old daughter.
It was too soon for Olivia to tell Honor that she hoped she would soon be announcing an addition to her own family, but as Caspar quietly reminded his daughters that it was their grandfather's turn to hold the baby, Olivia squeezed his hand. Tenderly Caspar turned to smile at her.
So often these last few weeks he had felt as though he were seeing a completely new Olivia, an Olivia who had stepped so joyously out of the shadows of her own unhappiness that it caught at his heart sometimes to recognise just how sad she had been.
It had been at her suggestion that they had made arrangements to spend the summer with Caspar's fam-fly.
'You're definitely sure?' Max checked with Maddy again as the vicar came towards them.
'Positive.' She laughed.
As he took the baby from them and the service began Max held his breath only expelling it properly once the baby's name had been pronounced.
'Benjamin Matthew Crighton.'
Benjamin Matthew! Max's eyes had widened when Maddy had told him shortly after the birth what she wanted their son to be called.
'Ben's name?' he had questioned uncertainly.
'Ben's name and his brother's,' Maddy had agreed.
And now as the vicar formally named their son she could almost feel the wave of peace and love that rip-pled through the old church. It had been Leo who had casually told her about the two little boys he had thought he had seen playing in Grandfather Ben's study.
'They were wearing funny clothes,' Leo had told her, 'like in a photograph.'
Maddy had simply said calmly that if he saw them again he must tell her.
But when she mentioned the matter to Honor, Honor had sighed and she had asked her quietly,
'Have you seen them, too?'
Honor had shaken her head.
'No. But I thought I heard them when you and I were clearing away Ben's things.'
Without saying anything to Max, Maddy had carefully cleaned her way through the whole house, talking to Ben as she did so, reassuring him that his memory and his home were safe.
'They've gone,' Honor had told her positively the next time she had visited.
'Poor Ben,' Maddy had sighed sadly. 'He was always so very alone and so very sad.'
'He isn't sad any more,' Honor had offered gently.
Maddy smiled as she received her son back from the vicar. The names she had given him were her gift to Queensmead for all of its gifts to her...a gift of love for a gift of love.
