AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t be silly! I’m perfectly happy with my life.”
It appeared Ella was not as calm and composed as he’d thought. The brief flare of irritation revealed she was human, after all.
From his position beside the bed stand, Yevgeny switched his attention to the younger McLeod sister. Keira was biting her lip.
“You were going to ask Keira about names.” Yevgeny spoke into the silence that had settled over the ward following Ella’s curt response.
“Names?” Ella’s poise slipped further. “Oh, yes.”
Yevgeny waited.
Keira twisted her head and glanced at him, a question in her eyes. “What names are you talking about?”
His brows jerked together. “The names you’ve been considering for the baby.” His sister-in-law shouldn’t need a prompt. The baby was so firmly in the forefront of his mind, how could it not be the same for her...and for Ella? What was wrong with these McLeod women?
“I hadn’t chosen one yet.”
“That’s what I told him,” Ella added quickly, protectively, her hand closing over her sister’s where it rested on the edge of the bed. “Keira, you don’t need to think about it if it upsets you....”
Relief flooded Keira’s face as she turned away from him and said, “Ella, you’re the best. I knew you would take care of everything.”
Those words set his teeth on edge.
Shifting away from the sisters, Yevgeny crossed the room. Foreboding filled him.
Keira’s confidence in her sister didn’t reassure Yevgeny one bit. Because it was clear to him that Ella couldn’t wait to get rid of the baby.
And that was the last thing he wanted.
* * *
Despite all the drama of the day, Ella surprised herself by managing to get several hours sleep that night.
Yet she still woke before the first fingers of daylight appeared through the crack in the curtains. For a long while she lay staring into space, thinking about what needed to happen. Finally, as dawn arrived, filling the ward with a gentle wash of December sun, she switched on the over-bed light and reached into the drawer of the bed stand for the legal pad she’d stowed there yesterday.
By the time the day nurse bustled in to remind her that the baby would be brought in from the nursery in fifteen minutes for the appointment with the pediatrician, Ella had already scribbled pages of notes. After a quick shower, she put on a dab of makeup and dressed in a pair of gray trousers and a white T-shirt. Then she settled into one of the pair of padded visitor chairs near the window to await the doctor’s arrival.
The baby was wheeled in at the same time that the pediatrician scurried into the room, which—to Ella’s great relief—meant that she wasn’t left alone with the wide-awake infant. The doctor took charge and proceeded to do a thorough examination before pronouncing the baby healthy.
Tension that Ella hadn’t even known existed seeped away with the doctor’s words. The baby was healthy. For the first time she acknowledged how much she’d been dreading that something might be wrong. Of course, a well baby would benefit by having many more potential sets of adoptive parents wanting to love and cherish her.
After the pediatrician departed, the nurse took the baby back to the nursery, and Ella’s breakfast arrived in time to stem the blossoming regret. Fruit, juice and oatmeal along with coffee much more aromatic than any hospital was reputed to produce.
Ella had just finished enjoying a second cup when Jo Wells entered her room. Ella had been pleased when she’d discovered that Jo had been assigned to processing the baby’s adoption to Keira and Dmitri. Of course, that had all changed. Now she was even more relieved to have Jo’s help.
Slight with short, dark hair, the social worker had a firm manner that concealed a heart of gold. Ella had worked with Jo a few times in the past. Once in a legal case where a couple wanted to adopt their teen daughter’s baby, and more recently in a tough custody battle where the father had threatened to breach a custody order and kidnap his children to take them back to his home country.
“How are you doing?”
The understanding in Jo’s kind eyes caused Ella’s throat to tighten. She waved Jo to the other visitor seat, reached for the yellow legal pad on the bed stand and gave the social worker a wry smile. “As well as can be expected in the circumstances— This is not the outcome I’d planned.”
Jo nodded with a degree of empathy that almost shredded the tight control Ella had been exercising since Keira had dropped her bombshell—was it only yesterday?
“I want the best for the baby, Jo.”
Focusing on what the baby needed helped stem the tears that threatened to spill. Ella tore the top three pages off the pad and offered them to the social worker.
