Barbara Hannay - Their Doorstep Baby

“The doctors always told us that if we put babies out of our minds, one might turn up unexpectedly, but I bet they never guessed it would happen this way.”

“This wasn’t how I pictured it, either,” Adam replied.

After a few more minutes of gazing at the baby, she said, “Come and say hello to our little boy. He’s so cute!”

“Don’t get carried away, sweetheart. There’s no way we can just assume the baby is ours….”

Will they…?

Won’t they…?

Can they…?

The possibility of parenthood: for some couples it’s a seemingly impossible dream. For others, it’s an unexpected surprise.…Or perhaps it’s a planned pregnancy that brings a husband and wife closer together…or turns their marriage upside down?

One thing is for sure, life will never be the same when they find themselves having a baby…maybe!

This emotionally compelling miniseries from Harlequin Romance® will warm your heart and bring a tear to your eye.…

Their Doorstep Baby

Barbara Hannay

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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For Colleen

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Early December—Sydney

ADAM TOWNSEND knew something was wrong. Very wrong. The moment he heard Claire’s hasty footsteps enter the room he sensed it. Then he looked up and saw her deathly white face.

Even her lips were bleached of colour and her dark eyes shimmered with tears as she stared at him. She was clutching the timber door frame for support. What had happened? She looked ill—as fragile as a porcelain doll.

‘Claire, what’s the matter?’ He scrambled to his feet, ignoring the cries of protest from his little nephews as he abandoned their noisy game of wrestling. ‘What on earth’s happened?’

‘I think I’ve made a terrible mistake,’ she whispered and her words brought fear clenching in his stomach like a cold and clammy fist.

Was this the moment he’d been dreading for weeks now? Had his wife’s growing unhappiness finally pushed her to say something she’d regret? To do something they’d both regret?

‘What kind of mistake?’ he forced himself to ask.

But she seemed unable to answer. Her face crumpled as she shook her head and then she turned and left as quickly as she’d appeared.

‘Stay here, guys,’ he ordered the three little boys.

His heart rocketed into overdrive as he followed Claire’s stumbling progress back through her brother Jim’s shabby cottage to the kitchen.

Jim and his wife Maria were both there, looking just as shocked and upset as Claire. Maria leant against her husband, one hand pressed to her mouth while the other held a slim rectangle of paper.

Adam recognised it instantly as a bank cheque and he had a sickening premonition that he could guess exactly what this was all about.

Maria’s lips quivered. ‘The baby,’ she said, in a voice barely above a whisper. ‘Claire has given us a cheque for Rosa.’

With an angry grunt, Jim shoved the cheque under Adam’s nose and his heart leapt when he saw an alarming string of zeros. He whirled around to face Claire. ‘You want to give all this to the baby?’

‘Yes,’ Claire said softly, but she didn’t look at Adam and he knew why. She hadn’t consulted him about this decision. Normally, they discussed everything—certainly anything as important as handing over such a large sum of money to Jim and Maria Tremaine’s tiny, new daughter; the fifth baby the couple had produced in as many years.

‘I wanted to help,’ she told him and her voice seemed to crack beneath the weight of overpowering emotion.

‘Come off the grass, sis,’ Jim cried. ‘You didn’t just want to help. Tell Adam the whole story.’

Claire’s lips trembled and tears spilled down her cheeks. ‘It’s—it’s a kind of exchange.’

Oh, God! Adam’s stomach dropped like a plane falling out of the sky. Sweetheart, you can’t be doing this!

‘An exchange for Rosa,’ Maria clarified and then burst into tears.

‘It’s crazy!’ Jim yelled. ‘She wants to buy our baby!’

‘I just wanted to help—to help you out.’ Claire’s tormented eyes sought Adam’s. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.

Bewildered, he shook his head. This disaster had happened in the ten short minutes he’d spent playing with his nephews. It was almost too much to take in. He’d never felt so torn. Part of him wanted to throw his arms around Claire and offer her comfort, but he also wanted to shake her.

Heaven knew, she was at the end of her tether, but this…She should never have done this.

‘How could you want to take our little daughter away from us?’ Jim glared.

Beside him, Maria continued to cry quietly.

Claire looked even more distressed. ‘I thought—you have to struggle so hard to support so many children—and I—we—could give Rosa such a good home.’

Jim scowled. ‘You two think we’re in dire straits just because we don’t eat caviar and smoked salmon and can’t go gadding off to Europe whenever we flaming well feel like it?’

His jaw clenched stubbornly and he stepped closer to Maria and flung an arm across her shoulders. Drawing her against him, he planted a possessive kiss on her forehead.

Now Adam felt wretched that he hadn’t shown Claire the same kind of solidarity. If anyone needed comforting, it was his wife. Despite his shock, he understood the wild, pitiful desperation that had driven her to this.

But if only she had spoken to me first.

She stood in the kitchen doorway looking miserable, guilty and lost with her arms wrapped across her stomach. And she continued to avoid his gaze.

But then her chin rose and she looked back at her brother with the same stubborn glare he’d fixed on her. ‘I’d give up any luxury, any trip to Europe for a baby. You know how badly I want a baby of my own.’

Jim let out his breath noisily. ‘Yeah, sis. I know it’s rough on you.’ He waved the cheque at her. ‘But this—’ Sadly, he shook his head. ‘This is completely crazy. Apart from anything else, it’s illegal.’

Then he held the cheque in both hands and slowly, deliberately ripped it into two pieces and then into four. He crossed the kitchen to the waste paper basket and let the pieces of paper flutter from his hand.

A choked cry broke from Claire’s stricken lips. She turned to Adam. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt anyone,’ she sobbed as she staggered across the room towards him. ‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. What an awful, awful mess I’ve made.’

As she fell into his arms, one thought filled Adam’s head: I share the blame for this. The writing has been on the wall and I should have seen it coming.