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Good nightshe signed to Braden with a sleepy smile.
He gave her a quick hug before she left the room, closing the door behind her. Then Braden removed his boots and carefully joined his wife. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, cuddling her, and she subsided against him with a happy sigh.
“And how are you truly feeling, sweet lass?”
“Sleepy and rather sore, but quite grand for all that.”
“All to be expected. You’ll feel quite a bit better after a good night’s sleep.”
She rested a gentle hand on their son’s tiny chest. “If this little fellow cooperates.”
“I’ll stay up with him. When he needs to feed, I’ll wake you, but I want you to get some rest.”
The nursemaid they’d hired would start tomorrow. For tonight, Braden was happy to take her place.
Samantha craned a bit to look at him. “Dr. Kendrick, you also need your rest. You’ve been up as long as I have.”
“But you did all the work. I just hung about, making a fuss over you.”
“I like it when you fuss over me. And you made the entire experience infinitely more bearable.”
“Does that experience include putting up with my deranged family?”
She started to laugh but choked it off. “Don’t make me laugh, you brute. It hurts.”
“Sorry about that. But I’m also sorry you had to put up with my family all day. They were so ridiculously excited, though, that I didn’t have the heart to kick them out to the street.”
“It was lovely that they could be here,” she said. “And it’s not as if you let them swarm in all at once. Nor did you allow anyone to stay very long. I swear you were timing their visits.”
“I was timing them,” he admitted.
She pressed a hand to her lips, trying not to laugh.
“Well, there were quite a lot of them popping in and out,” he explained. “I didn’t want them to wear you out. Besides, it’s not good for the baby to be around so many people, so soon after the birth.”
It had been quite the Kendrick mob scene. Nick, Victoria, and their children had arrived from Glasgow last week, and Graeme and Sabrina had come for a visit from their estate up north. They’d all piled into Heriot Row, leaving Logan and Donella with a full house.
Samantha scoffed. “You barely let them look at the poor little thing. I thought Angus was going to cry when you took the baby away from him.”
“The old fellow would carry wee Johnny off if we let him. You know how he loves babies. Anyway, Logan managed to console Grandda with several tots of whisky. In fact, they practically had to roll him out to the carriage when they departed. He was exceedingly full of good cheer by that point.”
She patted his arm. “There’s quite a lot to cheer about, after all. So I take it that everyone has now gone home?”
“They left about an hour ago. And I gave them strict orders not to come back until tomorrow afternoon. You do need your rest.”
“I know, but tomorrow is Christmas. And we have a Christmas baby. Braden it istooterribly exciting, isn’t it?”
He rested his cheek on top of her head. “It’s a bloody miracle. I never thought I could be this happy.”
She nestled closer. “It’s a Christmas miracle.”
It wasalla miracle—the fact that fate had brought them together, the storms they’d weathered, and now the quiet joys of family life. He’d never thought such a life would be his, but Samantha had given him that gift. For that, he would be grateful for the rest of his days.
The clock in the hall chimed the midnight hour, echoed moments later by the tower bells of the nearby church.
Samantha stirred. “Goodness, midnight already? I had no idea it was so late.”
“It’s now officially Christmas.”
“Happy Christmas, Dr. Kendrick,” she said, smiling up at him.
“Happy Christmas, Mrs. Kendrick. Thank you for being my wife, and thank you for the most splendid gift a man could ever wish to have.”
For unto them, against so many odds, a child had been born. Love had been restored.
