Fiona McArthur - Baby for the Midwife

She shook her head. ‘That was like being hit by a truck.’ She couldn’t begin to imagine the desolation she would be going through now if Elsa hadn’t survived. ‘I haven’t thanked you for being there when I needed someone.’

Max smiled. ‘And I haven’t thanked you for saving me from Tayla. So now we have that out of the way, let’s forget the others. What are you going to do now?’

Georgia tilted her head. ‘My situation is fine. I’m free. I have a healthy baby, a home and a nanny arranged for the future when I go back to work.’

He looked a little taken aback at her well-laid plans. What had he expected?

‘I can see you are organised.’ He stood up. ‘And you must be tired. I’ll go. Congratulations on your beautiful daughter. My best wishes to both of you. Good bye.’ He smiled and left.

She watched him go, watched him walk out after all they had been through, and now she really was alone. Well, what had she expected? He wasn’t even her cousin-in-law now so she probably wouldn’t ever see him again.

Of course, she couldn’t sleep after that.

Elsa woke and gratefully Georgia fed her and stroked her hair and began to feel the peace she’d dreamt of when her child was safely born.

She tried to imagine how she would have felt if Max hadn’t been there and she’d been alone when Elsa had been born. If Elsa hadn’t been fine. It didn’t bear thinking about.

Then the cold ice of fear in the base of her stomach reminded her there were other things to be afraid of. What if Sol came back and tried to take Elsa, as he’d threatened? Could she keep her baby safe? Could Max help her keep her baby safe? It was a dangerous thought.

The next morning Dr Sol Winton stepped out of the lifts on the maternity floor and no one tried to stop him. The quality of his suit and the half-exposed stethoscope poking out of his pocket ensured that nobody questioned he belonged there.

He inclined his head at two nurses and his slow smile brought the colour to both their cheeks. The gilt-ribboned chocolate boxes screamed money and he placed one box on the nurse’s desk and kept one in his hand.

‘I’m looking for my wife. Georgia Winton?’

‘Certainly, Doctor. She’s in room four, down the corridor on the left.’

‘Thank you. Enjoy the chocolates.’

He set off as if sure of his welcome. A tall, welldressed, charming man, who drew the eyes of women and exuded authority.

When he entered the room only the baby was there wrapped up in a bunny rug in the Perspex cot. A name card tucked into the end read, ‘Elsa, baby of Georgia, five pounds two ounces.’

He reached across and stroked the baby’s cheek and her downy skin was silky soft beneath his finger.

MAX FROWNED and strode quickly down the corridor as he saw the man enter Georgia’s room.

He knew most of the consultants across the hospital but not this one. Some latent protective instinct raised the hairs on the back of his neck and all he could think about was that Georgia might need him.

His suspicions firmed at the sight of the man bent over Elsa’s cot.

Max loomed in the doorway. His voice came out low and hard. ‘Can I help you?’

Sol straightened slowly and he lifted his chin. ‘No. I don’t think so. Thank you.’

The man smiled but something about his phoney amusement increased Max’s own wariness and disquiet.

Max moved to one side of the doorway to allow a free exit from the room—though only if the man left Elsa in her cot.

‘Are you a friend of Georgia’s?’ Max enquired politely, yet the hint of steel suggested it wasn’t a frivolous question and he required an answer.

‘I’m more than that.’ Sol smiled gently. ‘Are you her doctor?’

‘You could say that.’ Max looked up as Georgia opened the bathroom door and his instincts firmed as her eyes widened and then closed for a second as if her worst nightmare had come true.

Her hand hovered over her mouth. ‘Sol?’ She shook her head but no further words came.

‘My dear wife.’ Sol smiled.

Georgia shook her head again and the words burst out in a vehement whisper. ‘I’m not your wife.’

Sol smiled again, and from the outside he looked quite pleasant yet something made Max take a step closer to Georgia in support.

Sol ignored him. ‘You’ll always be my wife. But I do see this is not a good time so I’ll leave you. Our daughter is beautiful.’ He placed the chocolates squarely on the bedside table.

‘Good day.’ He turned nonchalantly and sauntered away.

Georgia belted the robe as she rushed to Elsa to check she was fine. ‘Thank God you were here.’

Fighting back tears, she looked at Max. ‘Did he try to take her?’ She lifted and hugged Elsa to her as she sank onto the bed as if unable to support the weight on her legs. Her hands shook violently.

Max didn’t know what to do to comfort her.

‘No. He didn’t pick Elsa up. He just looked at her.’What the hell was all that about? Max thought, and he glanced at the door through which Sol had disappeared. He’d love to ask the sleaze but he’d gone and Georgia needed him.

Max sat down beside Georgia on the bed and slid his arm around her shoulders. She quivered under his arm like a new lamb.

‘I’ll put safeguards in place. Your ex-husband won’t be able to get to you if that’s what you want.’

She shook her head and shuddered as she wrapped her arms around her baby. ‘I don’t want to stay here.’

Max squeezed her shoulders. ‘Where do you want to go?’ Her distress affected him in a way he hadn’t expected and he’d like to have shaken the truth out of the other man.

Georgia’s free hand was at her throat. She could barely speak because of the panic she was trying to control. ‘I was afraid this would happen. There is something I need to explain. Something I haven’t told anybody.’

She hesitated with reluctance to dwell on the whole distressing nightmare but it had to be spoken of. Her reluctance had almost cost the ultimate price. Elsa.

Sol would take her baby if he possibly could. He’d threatened her in those silky tones of his and the thought terrified her, made her sick to her stomach, and now it grew to epic proportions, like a phobia about spiders—except her phobia was all about Sol.