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‘Your husband was able to collect you and baby after all, Mrs Carter. Isn’t that great?’ the young nurse burbled.
Mattie thought, Not great at all. Shocking, scary, completely bewildering fitted the bill far better.
But she couldn’t say anything, not in front of an audience. She couldn’t tell him to go away, to leave her and the baby alone, remind him that he didn’t want either of them.
And the nurse was dimpling under the force of that the-man-can’t-help-it seductive smile of his as he turned to her. ‘We’d better make it snappy. It’s snowing like it means it out there.’
Mattie stumbled to her feet as the nurse was chattering happily about the prospect of a white Christmas. She felt as if she were floating, her legs turned to rubber, only able to stay upright because of the precious bundle she was holding.
After passing Mattie’s small suitcase to James the nurse stopped commenting on the weather, smiled down into the sleeping baby’s face, something James had noticeably neglected to do, and asked brightly, ‘Have you decided on a name yet?’
‘Chloe,’ Mattie answered decisively, shooting a defiant look at James as she felt the strength flow back through her body. The baby was his, but that didn’t give him any right at all to interfere in any aspect of their lives, and she would tell him as much as soon as they got rid of their audience of one.
Who was saying, ‘Now remember to get as much rest as you can for the next few weeks, Mrs Carter. And if you’re at all worried about little Chloe don’t hesitate to phone your midwife. She’ll be calling on you soon, in any case.’
Her words buzzed into Mattie’s brain and straight out again and, thankfully, she and James were at last alone in the reception area. Mattie said firmly, ‘I don’t know what you’re doing here.’
‘Don’t you?’ The glance he gave her was without expression, his mouth tight.
‘No.’ She looked around for a seat but they all seemed to be occupied. ‘You’ve wasted your time. Dad and Emily are collecting us.’
‘They should be well on their way back to London by now,’ he replied tersely. ‘I’m here to take you home.’
Mattie’s eyes glittered with stinging tears and her stomach tightened painfully. They’d abandoned her! Oh, how could they? And why on earth did he want to take her home? That Fiona wouldn’t want to be landed with her lover’s wife and newborn baby would be the understatement of the century!
‘I am not going back to London with you!’ she choked, feeling little Chloe begin to stir in her arms. Soon she would need feeding again, and changing, and she herself was on the verge of having hysterics. The thought of going to the room she’d just vacated and staying there indefinitely was very tempting.
‘I’ve no intention of dragging you back to London.’ He sounded weary. ‘We’re going to your cottage where, apparently, you are settled and happy. And the sooner you stop arguing, the sooner we’ll get there.’
A hand beneath her elbow steered her towards the automatic doors. A frizzle of unwanted sensation ripped through her and she did her best to ignore it, telling herself that if he was wearied by the situation he only had himself to blame.
She hadn’t asked him to come. She hadn’t wanted him to come. He’d chosen Fiona over her and no longer had any part in her life. Or her baby’s.
Yet if things had been different—
No, she would not let her thoughts travel that dangerous road!
The cold air came as a shock after the warmth of the hospital. Chloe stirred again and made a tiny mewing sound, bringing Mattie’s protective instincts out, fierce and bristling. He didn’t care if his baby was freezing! Apart from that initial encompassing glare he hadn’t even bothered to look at his daughter, let alone ask to hold her!
He was callous! Hateful!
‘Where’s your car?’ she snapped out as temper coloured her cheeks. ‘My daughter needs to be out of the cold.’
‘Calm down,’ he advised stonily. ‘The Jag’s right here.’
It was, too. Half a dozen yards away. It had stopped snowing now but the sky looked full of it and the ground was white. The pressure of his fingers increased as he guided her to the passenger door, opened it and waited until she had wriggled in before closing it and tossing her suitcase in the boot.
When he joined her she had taken the soft travelling rug she had never known him to carry in his car before and wrapped it around her baby, and as he turned the key in the ignition she commented frostily, ‘I suppose my father told you where I was, that my baby had been born.’
Even though she hadn’t expected James to bother to ask, she’d made her father promise not to tell him where she was living now. That he had done, probably with the best of intentions, felt like a betrayal.
‘Your father kept his word,’ he said dryly. ‘Emily told me, most likely with Edward’s tacit approval. After all, you didn’t actually make her promise anything. I knew where you were living almost as soon as you knew yourself.’
She flicked a look at the austere perfection of his profile, her voice thready as she stated, ‘You knew where I was. But you didn’t visit.’ That said it all about his total lack of feelings where she was concerned. ‘But you came when our baby was born.’ That didn’t make any kind of sense. A baby was the last thing he wanted.
‘I didn’t visit because when you didn’t reply to either of my letters asking if we could meet on neutral territory to sort things out, you made it plain you didn’t want any contact. I presume Edward did pass them on?’ He spared her a bitter glance. ‘I didn’t write directly to your address—you might have taken it into your head to move on, and I knew from Emily that you were happy where you were.’
Mattie bit her tongue, staring straight ahead. Now wasn’t the time to tell him she’d burned those two letters unread. It had been very early days, quite soon after she’d settled in. She’d been trying so hard to forget him and his perfidious behaviour, she hadn’t been able to handle any type of reminder of him.
