She rewrapped the little body in the towel and settled back in the corner of the sofa to latch her on to her breast.
“Pass me the bag,” she said, barely glancing at me. “The placenta will come in a minute. I’ll need to cut the cord.”
I squeezed my hands together. “Do you want me to ring Dominic?”
The briefest flicker of a frown was replaced with a smile. “Yes. Go.”
In the dim light of the hall, I pushed the heels of my hands into my eye sockets.Don’t cry, I told myself.Get a grip.
I ran my fingertip down the worn tabs of the address book on the hall table, pausing on the “K.” I gritted my teeth. The number for Dominic’s London flat was scrawled on the inside front cover, and I dialed that.
“I’m on my way,” Dominic said. “Three hours tops.”
By the time I carried tea and toast back through to Ruth,the baby was asleep, the umbilical cord tied off, and Ruth was stroking the tiny face with one finger.
“I’m going to call her Seraphine,” she said. “She looks like an angel.”
Edwin came downstairs shortly afterward and padded through from the kitchen, rubbing his eyes and looking at the scene with surprise.
“Come and meet your summerborn sister, darling,” Ruth said, smiling at him. He stuck his thumb in his mouth and scowled. I led him back to the kitchen and made him some porridge, but he refused to eat it.
Dominic’s car roared onto the drive just after nine o’clock. It promised to be another warm day, and Ruth had settled herself on the patio with the baby in her arms. Dominic’s smile was broad as he bent to kiss her, and then to kiss the baby’s head.
“Was it awful, darling?” he asked.
“Of course,” she said. They smiled at each other. “I couldn’t have done it without Laura,” she added, and Dominic gave me a grateful grimace before intercepting Edwin as he wandered past on the lawn. He swung the little boy up in the air and tried to make him laugh, but Edwin burst into tears.
“What on earth’s the matter?” Dominic asked.
“I wanted a brother,” Edwin wailed.
Dominic suppressed a smile. “She’ll be just as good as a brother. Even better. She’ll be your best friend.”
Edwin sniffed. “Joel’s my best friend.”
“Well, okay. But your sister, Seraphine, says you can have chocolate biscuits for breakfast, to celebrate her arrival. What do you think of that?”
The corners of Edwin’s mouth crept upward. “Okay.”
Dominic rocked the baby and sang to her while Ruth wentupstairs to have a shower. I retreated to the annex to wash and dress, and to finish my packing. I lifted my resignation letter from its drawer and laid it on the desk; it took mere seconds to date and sign. I was still contemplating the finished result when I heard Dominic call me from the day nursery. I flipped the letter facedown.
“Oh, Laura. You wouldn’t mind just taking a picture of us all, would you? While the baby’s settled, before she needs feeding again.”
I followed him out to the patio and waited for them to arrange themselves into a little happy family tableau. Dominic put a new film in the camera and wiped chocolate from around Edwin’s mouth. A familiar squeak drifted across from the far corner of the lawn as Michael emerged from the trees, pushing his wheelbarrow toward the vegetable garden.
Edwin shouted, “Mister Harris! I’ve got a new baby!”
Dominic and Ruth both turned and waved to Michael, and he called out congratulations.
“Take a couple,” Dominic said as he handed me the camera, but I felt neither physically nor mentally able to concentrate on getting a good shot. I pressed the button once and handed it back.
“I don’t feel well, I’m sorry,” I said.
“Goodness, you should have said.” Dominic frowned at me. “Go back to bed. You must be shattered. Ruth, I’ll go and ring your mother.”
I was trailing after him into the house when he swung back in the doorway as if he’d just remembered something.
“Oh, I’ll let Alex know too. He rang me last night—he’s at the cottage, wanted me to let him know as soon as we had news.”
