Her Royal Baby

much of anything you liked to name!

And she was so close to tears.

‘Breakfast?’ he asked, his dark eyes quizzing hers with easy laughter. ‘You’ve brought me breakfast?’

‘I thought…’

‘You thought you should do something to make up for abandoning me last night?’ he said dryly. ‘How very kind.’

‘I’m not being kind at all,’ she managed, trying to make her voice indifferent. With no success at all. ‘I just came to check on Henry.’

‘Henry’s fine.’ Then his smile faded as he searched her face. His finger came up and touched her cheeks. It came away wet. ‘Tears, Tammy?’

‘No.’ She gave her face an angry swipe. ‘Why would I be crying?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘I’m not.’

Still he searched.

‘What is it?’ he asked gently and the tears threatened to fall all over again.

‘Nothing,’ she managed, and hauled herself together. Somehow. ‘I told you. I just wanted to check Henry.’

He gave her a long look, knowing he wasn’t getting the whole truth but powerless to take it further. Finally he turned to the bed. Henry was snuggled into the pillows-a baby at peace with his world. ‘Seeing as he’s only been asleep for a couple of hours, I guess he might be fine a while longer.’

‘He…he didn’t go to sleep until late?’

‘He didn’t go to sleep until early.’ Marc’s laughter was back behind his eyes. ‘Dawn was threatening to break, and so was I. Hell, Tam, I’m no babysitter.’

‘I’m sorry.’ The use of the diminutive of her name unnerved her still more, sneaking inside her defences so much she almost gave in right then. But then she thought about it and she knew.

They belonged together. More and more she knew it. Back in Australia she’d thought her relationship with Henry was the only one possible. Now she’d grown to realise that Marc needed his small cousin as much as Henry needed Marc. She’d fallen for Henry with every inch of her being, but loving him meant doing what was best for him.

Even if it meant her loss…

Marc was waiting for her to keep speaking. What had she said? That she was sorry? ‘Actually, I’m not,’ she corrected herself. ‘I’m not sorry. Sleepless nights go with the territory of baby-care. It’ll be my turn tonight.’

‘Take him now.’ Marc’s smile was all embracing-pleading. He’d be able to get anything he ever wanted in life just by smiling like that, she thought bitterly. He lifted the mug from her and placed the tea and toast on the bedside table, then turned to smile that gorgeous smile at her from across the room. He was practically naked, she thought, a little bit desperately. Did he have any idea of the effect the sight of his body was having on her?

Apparently not. He’d moved on. ‘You’ve made your point,’ he told her. ‘I’ve cared for him all night. Now take him back.’

But she was shaking her head. She had to stand her ground. She must. ‘No.’

‘What do you mean-no?’

‘I mean it’s a twenty-four-hour thing,’ she told him. ‘You take his care for twenty-four hours. Then it’s my turn. I come on duty at dinner tonight.’

‘But…’

‘But what?’

He sighed and ran his fingers through his thatch of dark hair. ‘I can always get Mrs Burchett to take care of him.’

‘Of course you can,’ she said coldly. ‘That’s a royal thing, after all. Hand over your responsibility to the servants.’

‘He’s not my responsibility.’

‘Whose responsibility is he, then?’

That was easy. ‘Yours.’

‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘I’m here to make sure Henry’s cared for and loved. I’m not here to take on his full- time care. I’m not here waiting for you to palm off your responsibilities.’

‘I am not palming-’

‘Yes, you are.’ Somehow she managed a smile. ‘So there. I’ve delivered your breakfast and my job here is done.’

‘Your job?’ He glared. ‘You sound like Superman, who’s just saved the world as we know it. What do you mean, your job here is done?’

‘Toast and marmalade.’ She grinned again. ‘Not quite saving the world, but close.’ She had to get out of there. Now! ‘I’m glad you’re getting on so well,’ she told him. ‘Have a happy day. Leave Henry with Mrs Burchett if you must.’ Tammy knew enough of Mrs Burchett to realise that Henry would be very well cared for in that elderly lady’s arms. ‘But you must realise that he’s bonded to you.’

‘Tammy…’

‘I’m off to care for some trees,’ she told him, and kept right on determinedly smiling. ‘That’s my career.’ She motioned to the laptop on the floor. ‘Like yours. By the way, that looks like a really interesting irrigation system. I may not be too good at geography, but that water seems to be running up the mountains. Well done, you. What an engineer!’

And before he could say another word she turned and fled, leaving him staring after her, as stunned as he’d ever been in his life.

Marc ate his toast and drank his tea and watched Tammy’s slim figure through the window as she made her way back down the south lawn to the woodland beyond. She was carrying what looked from here to be a chainsaw. It was too big for such a slight girl, he thought, and then he thought of Ingrid carrying a chainsaw. He found himself wincing. The image was too ridiculous.

Tammy looked free and happy and intent on the task at hand. She didn’t look like someone who’d dumped a baby on him for effect. She truly looked as if she wasn’t going to spare a thought for him all day.

He wasn’t accustomed to women treating him like this, he decided. Women with chainsaws. Women who dumped babies on him.

Women who made him smile.

He wasn’t accustomed to women like Tammy.

Maybe there were no women like Tammy. She disappeared behind a beech grove and he felt her departure like a physical wrench.

Maybe he could wander down there some time today and see what she was doing.

No. He was going home today. He was leaving!

Or was he?

Beside him Henry slept on, blissfully unaware of the tension in the adult world. And why not? Henry was being cared for and played with and loved for the first time in his small life. Marc put a hand down to touch his tiny fingers and involuntarily Henry’s small hand curled around his. There was a clenching in his chest that was so sudden and so savage it was as if someone had kicked him.

He was supposed to be leaving! Today!

He could hand Henry over to Mrs Burchett, he thought desperately. Madge would love him to bits. Henry would be fine with Madge.

But Henry hadn’t bonded to Madge. He’d bonded to him. To Marc.

He did not want this!

What did he want?

Tammy.

Hell, and that was the way of madness.

He should go back to sleep, he thought. He’d only had two hours’ sleep. There was no reason to get up.

But Tammy was somewhere down in the woods, playing with a chainsaw.

He wasn’t going near Tammy. He was going home.