Carole Mortimer - Witchchild

He had come back, of course, as soon as he calmed down enough to realise Laura wouldn’t change her mind and marry him straight away as he wanted, and with both Laura and his father against the idea of an instant marriage he had finally agreed to wait the year.

It hadn’t been too bad at first. Laura and Hal had seen a lot of each other, but then his father had begun to send him to other hotels that they owned for weeks at a time, straining their relationship as he and Laura had to rely on telephone calls and letters to tell each other of their love.

Hal had been in Acapulco for over six weeks now, and those weeks had been difficult ones for her sister, Leonie realised. Laura was thinner than she used to be, fine lines of strain around her eyes that hadn’t been there before.

All this pain and suffering because Hawk Sinclair had decided to play God with their lives!

Leonie didn’t doubt that Laura would still want to marry Hal at the end of the year’s wait, or that Hal would feel the same way, in fact the two of them had already started discussing wedding plans.

Leonie’s illness hadn’t helped Laura’s peace of mind; the emergency operation she had gone through had been frightening for them both, and the weeks she had spent in hospital had left her still feeling weak and far from well. Laura had taken complete control during the crisis, and was still doing so several weeks later. Today she was having to go alone to their publisher to explain why the book he was waiting for from them still wasn’t finished.

‘Are you sure you’re going to be able to handle this meeting with Desmond on your own?’ Leonie frowned her concern.

Laura grinned. ‘I know you usually walk in and totally disarm the poor man, but I’m afraid that today he’s going to have to make do with me!’

Leonie’s mouth quirked. ‘You could always pretend you’re me!’

‘Darling, much as I love your idiosyncrasies, there is no one else like you!’ her sister teased. ‘Are you going to be all right here on your own?’ She frowned her concern.

‘But I’m not alone,’ Leonie shrugged dismissively. ‘We have June to take care of us now.’ She mentioned the woman in her mid-forties they had employed to take care of the cooking and housework now that she felt too weak to do it and Laura was too busy taking care of her.

‘Call her if you need anything,’ Laura directed firmly. ‘You’re still far from strong. The doctor said you were to take things very easy.’

Leonie looked down ruefully at the cat curled up on the bottom of her lounger, Pop stretched out on her legs from knee to thigh. ‘I think I’m about as relaxed as I can be,’ she drawled. ‘The sun’s out, there’s a gentle breeze, the jug of fresh lemonade’s within easy reach.’ She looked pointedly at the table beside her on the lawn. ‘I certainly don’t envy you your trip into London.’

Laura grimaced. ‘Someone has to go and placate poor Desmond. The television series is going wonderfully in America, and the book they want to be published parallel with it hasn’t even been completed yet!’

‘That’s because you won’t let me near my typewriter—–’

‘I nearly lost you, Leonie,’ her sister cut in emotionally. ‘I’m not taking any chances with your health now.’

Being rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night, hearing the ambulance bell ringing and knowing it was for her, the examination before the stinging prick of the needle that rendered her unconscious for the operation, had frightened Leonie as well. She still felt far from well, but as much as possible she tried to hide that from Laura, knowing how illness worried her twin.

Several months ago they had been approached by a television company in America who wanted to serialise their books, and after establishing that they would have some say in the scripts that were used they had signed the contract. They were now richer than they had ever dreamt of being, but Laura was still unhappy without Hal, and she had never felt so terrible in her life. That adage ‘money can’t buy happiness’ certainly seemed true for them. And Hawk Sinclair’s wealth didn’t seem to have made him happy either!

Leonie’s mouth tightened as she thought of him, the fascination she had initially felt for his strength now completely dispersed after what he had asked of Laura and Hal.

Laura stood up determinedly. ‘Oh well, sitting here complaining isn’t going to get this meeting with Desmond over with. I think I’ll pop into the hotel for a chat before coming back,’ she added lightly.

Her sister had become friendly with quite a lot of the staff at the Sinclair London hotel the last few months, and Leonie knew that chatting to the girls who worked on the reception desk made her sister feel a little closer to Hal.

She smiled encouragingly. ‘You do that. And don’t worry about Holly and me, we’ll be fine,’ she assured her.

A frown marred Laura’s brow. ‘Hal’s going to be so angry when he finds out I didn’t tell him the baby came early,’ she sighed. ‘But if I’d let him know he would only have wanted to have come back, and then his father would have said I wasn’t keeping to the agreement, and—–’

‘Darling, Hal will understand,’ Leonie cut in firmly. ‘And we both agreed it would be best not to worry him.’

Laura nodded abruptly. ‘Are you sure you’re going to be able to cope with Holly on your own this afternoon? I’d take her with me, but—–’

‘That would totally confuse Desmond,’ drawled Leonie. ‘Holly and I will be just fine together,’ she assured her twin.

‘She’s been fed and changed, and she’s sleeping now, so—–’

‘I can manage, Laura,’ Leonie cut in softly. ‘You just worry about placating Desmond.’

She kept the bright smile on her face for as long as it took Laura to go around to the front of the house, only relaxing back against the lounger when she heard the car leave the driveway.

Could she cope with the baby? Until Holly’s arrival into their lives she had never had anything to do with babies, small or otherwise. And Holly was very small, only six pounds at birth. And she was so very beautiful too, with her cap of golden hair and blue-grey eyes that Laura was sure would eventually turn a deep grey. Her sister had read every baby book she could find before Holly’s birth, so Leonie was sure she knew what she was talking about. What was Hawk Sinclair going to say when he found out about the baby’s existence? She shuddered to think!

She would cope with the baby, even though it was the first time she had been left on her own with her. She and Laura had shared Holly’s care from the day she came home, there was nothing different about it just because she was on her own. There was always June to call if she got into difficulties, their housekeeper having had a child of her own years ago. She could do it!

She must have fallen asleep in the warm sunshine, because the next thing she knew June was gently shaking her shoulder to wake her.

‘What is it?’ She immediately shot into a sitting position. ‘Is it the baby? What—–’

‘Calm down,’ June chuckled softly; she was a gently rounded woman with laughing brown eyes and peppered brown hair that refused to be anything but flyaway; Leonie and Laura had liked her immediately when she came for her interview, and she had moved into the house with them within a few days. It was a move none of them seemed to have regretted. ‘I only came to tell you that there’s a visitor.’

Leonie blinked to clear her brain of the fogging she so detested about the daytime naps she couldn’t seem to get out of since coming home from hospital. She took a sip of the lemonade to rinse out her mouth and moisten her lips. ‘Who is it?’