Elizabeth Duke - The Parent Test

‘He’s planning to get married again, love. He told me when I called him the other day to ask after Emma. He wants to give the baby a proper family again, he said, like she had with Hamish and Serena.’

Shock jolted Roxy into silence for several long seconds. Getting married again? Cam Raeburn?

‘He wants to marry one of his flashy bimbo brunettes?’ she finally bit out. She felt a trembling, irrational surge of fury. ‘I’ll fight him in the courts first!’

Her father gave a brief, sympathetic laugh. ‘A single, penniless female, fighting a rich industrial chemist with a highly profitable business and powerful connections? And a married man?’

‘He’s not married yet! And if I have anything to do with it, I’ll have poor little Emma out of his clutches before he is! Serena wanted me to have Emma,’ Roxy burst out. ‘She told me once that if anything ever happened to them, she wanted me to bring up their daughter!’

‘Serena—um—didn’t mention custody in her will, love…unfortunately. Look…you’d better take that up with Cam as well.’

‘Oh, I will, don’t worry.’ Her voice trembled. She’d have a lot of things to take up with Cam Raeburn when she saw him. But first she had to find out more about this woman he was planning to marry. As a married man—as a wealthy husband with a wife—he’d hold every trump card. She’d have no hope in the world of fighting him and winning.

Had he actually proposed yet? Or was he just thinking about it?

A bitter memory stirred, and she shivered. The night of her sister’s wedding…Cam Raeburn, leading her into that secluded moonlit garden…the deceptive magic in the air… She swallowed hard, remembering the way he’d kissed her, soaring her to heights she’d never known…the way he’d looked at her, gazing deep into her eyes…the way he’d murmured, in that deep rumbling voice of his, Things can happen when you least expect them to.

How prophetic his words had been! When she’d least expected it, the magic spell he’d been weaving had cruelly shattered. The moment Cam had found out that she wasn’t just a history lecturer, but also an archeologist who spent half her year out of Australia, scrabbling around in the dirt at remote digs, he’d lost interest in her. Worse, he’d dumped her for someone else. A stunning dark-eyed brunette.

Hurt, humiliated and angry, she’d been trying to avoid him ever since. They’d only come face to face once in the past year and a half…unavoidably, at baby Emma’s christening five months ago, when their niece was just two months old. In typical fashion, Cam had flaunted another raven-haired beauty in her face—a clone of the one at her sister’s wedding.

She hadn’t been back home since—until now.

Who was this girl Cam was planning to marry?

Had Cam Raeburn finally found a leggy, dark-eyed brunette who was willing to look after a home and a baby? Was he so determined to give his niece a secure, stable family life again that he’d decided to marry his niece’s nanny?

No! Roxy thought violently, her face heating. Serena’s baby is not going to be brought up by a roving-eyed uncle and some flashy bimbo who doesn’t genuinely care about her. Emma is my responsibility.

She drew in her lips, her eyes narrowing as she asked her father caustically, ‘Emma’s live-in nanny wouldn’t happen to be a young, stunning-looking brunette, by any chance?’

‘Young? A brunette? Mary?’ Her father gave a confused laugh. ‘No, love, Mary’s a widowed grandmother—a former mothercraft nurse. She used to mind the baby for Serena and Hamish when they wanted an evening out or at weekends when they went sai—’ He stopped, choking on the word ‘sailing’.

Roxy swiftly changed tack. ‘Well, I’m sure Cam won’t want to be left holding the baby for too long.’ It would cramp his style too much. ‘Not that he’ll need to, now that I’m home.’ Her spirits had lifted a little. At least it wasn’t the live-in nanny.

‘Roxy…’ It was Blanche’s voice on the phone now, sharp and impatient as always. ‘You’re tiring your father. It’s time for his rest’

‘I have to go anyway. Tell Dad to take care.’ Roxy hung up and started dialling the number of Raeburns’ Nest.

She was familiar with the number because Hamish and Serena had lived there during their idyllic, far-too-short marriage. Now Cam, it seemed, had moved back into his old family home. It belonged to him now.

She’d only spoken to Cam once since the tragedy six weeks ago, when she’d called him from northern Mexico after speaking to her father—and only after learning that Cam had temporary custody of the baby.

The line had been shocking, full of static, and she’d had to shout. ‘Cam? It’s Roxy Warren.’

‘Well…Roxy.’ She’d felt the chill in his voice even over that very noisy, distorted line. ‘You couldn’t even come home for your sister’s funeral. We thought a week’s notice would have been ample, even for you.’

A burst of ear-splitting static had muffled her indignant reply: ‘I’ve only just heard. I’ve been camping out in northern Mexico for the past—’

But Cam was speaking over her, his words cracking like gunfire down the fast-disintegrating line. ‘Your father could have done with your support at the funeral. Blanche was no—’ He swore, and gave up. ‘Look, this line’s impossible. Hang up and call your father. He’ll be back in Perth by now.’

‘I’ve already—’ But the line had gone dead.

Even now, anger surged inside her at the memory. She could have done with a little sympathy, not a barrage of unfair criticism. She hadn’t even had a chance to ask after her niece, let alone let Cam know that she was on her way home to take care of the baby.

Her unlucky accident on arriving in Los Angeles the next day—and the bug that had hit her days later in the hospital—had prevented her from making any more calls. She’d managed to send word to her father, via one of the nurses, and had eventually spoken to him herself before leaving the hospital.

But she’d made no attempt to call Cam Raeburn again until now. She hadn’t wanted to warn him that she was about to leave hospital and come home. She didn’t trust him.

She had good reason not to trust him.

HER hand shook as she held the phone to her ear, waiting for an answer.

‘Cam Raeburn.’

Her stomach knotted. ‘Hullo, Cam, it’s Roxy. I’m back and I’d like to come down to Raeburns’ Nest to see Emma,’ she said breathlessly, before he had a chance to cut in.

She didn’t like the pause that followed. ‘By all means,’ he agreed finally. ‘Why don’t you pack an overnight bag and stay for the weekend? If you can spare a whole weekend with your niece.’

She gritted her teeth, even as her heart jumped in panic at the thought of staying under the same roof as Cam Raeburn for a whole weekend. ‘I have all the time in the world,’ she assured him loftily. ‘My niece is my top priority from now on.’

And I’ll stay at Raeburns’ Nest for as long as it takes to convince you of that, she added under her breath. If she hoped to convince him that she was the best person to look after Emma, she would have to use the utmost care and tact…and be prepared to stay for however long it took.

‘Is it all right if I come now? This afternoon?’ she asked in a less confrontational tone. Sleeping off her jet lag would have to wait.

‘We’ll be here. You can remember where to come?’

She scowled at the implication that she’d seldom been home to visit her family. ‘I’ll find it,’ she ground out. She’d only been to Raeburns’ Nest once before…on the day of Emma’s christening five months ago, on her last visit home. Serena and Hamish had invited everyone back to their home after the simple ceremony at their local church.