His Miracle Bride

Pierce thought that of her. And she’d been stupid enough to fall…

You don’t fall in love in three days, she told herself, but what else was causing this awful, empty sensation in the pit of her stomach?

She wanted to cry. She wanted to sob into her pillow, but maybe Pierce would hear her just as she’d heard him. Knowing his sense of…what? Noblesse oblige? She’d read that somewhere, and it just seemed to fit Pierce. Honourable-except when he was talking to his friend and he didn’t think she’d hear.

He’d probably come rushing in to comfort her, and he’d…

Don’t go there. Like barging in and confronting him in fury, it might lead…It might lead…

She sniffed again, but very quietly. A girl had some pride even if she was madly in love with a guy who thought she was an irresponsible twerp.

She’d go.

She’d promised to take Wendy shopping.

Okay, I’ll do that, she told herself. And then I’ll go.

Meanwhile she had to sleep.

She shut her eyes.

The fireplace was just next to her.

Bessy stirred and whimpered, and Pierce whispered into the dark. There were a few more whimpers, a sigh and then the sounds of movement next door.

‘Don’t cry, baby.’ He might just as well have been speaking to Shanni, so immediate was his voice. ‘Hush.’

‘Hush,’ she whispered, echoing into the dark.

‘You’ll be okay,’ Pierce murmured. ‘You have two great sisters and two great brothers. That’s enough family.’

No, it’s not, she felt like yelling, but she didn’t. He didn’t want her input.

He’d kissed her.

Actually, she’d kissed him.

No matter. He’d kissed her back, and he had no business kissing her like that when he didn’t feel like she did. Irresponsibly attracted. Irresistibly attracted.

She groaned, rolled over and buried her head under her pillow.

‘Shanni?’

His voice had her sitting bolt-upright.

‘Yes?’

‘Are you okay?’

‘Why wouldn’t I be okay?’

‘You groaned.’

‘I groaned in my sleep. If you’re going to listen in on every groan…’

‘You groan in your sleep?’

‘I must do. I don’t know. I was asleep.’

‘You sound wide awake now.’

‘I was asleep.’

‘The sound travels really well through these fireplaces.’

‘It must do,’ she said acidly. ‘If you heard me groaning.’

There was a moment’s pause, then a cautious, ‘You really were asleep?’

‘You want a statutory declaration in front of witnesses?’

‘When I phoned…Did you hear…?’

‘I’m going back to sleep.’

‘But…’

‘Goodnight.’

‘Shanni…’

‘Now.’

She lay flat on her back and tugged her pillow back over her face.

Sleep. Right.

What had he said on the phone? He couldn’t remember. Had she heard?

She’d said she was asleep.

He didn’t believe her.

‘Da…’ Bessy said, and Pierce stared down at the infant in confusion.

‘The name’s Pierce,’ he said.

‘Da,’ said Bessy.

‘Pierce,’ said Pierce.

‘Some of us are trying to sleep,’ Shanni said.

‘Da…’

‘Fine,’ Pierce said bitterly, giving up. ‘Call me what you want. Bessy, you talk to Shanni. Shanni, you talk to Bessy.’

‘She’s your daughter,’ Shanni called.

‘Da,’ said Bessy, and grinned.

Help.

Things were closing around him, things he didn’t have a name for. He felt trapped.

Sleep.

Bessy was holding her arms out, pleading to be picked up. The empty fireplace loomed, almost ominously. Shanni was just through there, listening to every sound he made.

‘Okay, Bess,’ he said wearily. ‘Have it your own way. I’ll change your nappy and we’ll both get some sleep, even if it’s in the same bed.’

‘Do paediatricians advise babies should sleep in the same beds as their parents?’ Shanni asked.

‘If you’re the expert, Bessy can sleep with you.’

‘Oh, I’m not an expert,’ she said blithely. ‘I’m an independent spirit. I walk alone. Just like you did before you adopted five kids.’

‘Shanni…’

‘And I’m out of here, just as soon as I’ve taken Wendy shopping,’ she continued. ‘You won’t see me for dust. So you never have to worry about me kissing you again. Irresponsible nuisance…Huh!’

CHAPTER TEN

PLANS for the kids within the castle walls seemed flexible to say the least.

‘We have no fixed schedule,’ Susie said as they sat around the vast kitchen table the next morning. She was making pancakes. The earl was making toast. Taffy, the dachshund-cum-cocker spaniel, was cruising back and forth under the table waiting for crumbs. ‘Every kid who comes here is different and carers have different needs as well.’ She glanced at Pierce and then at Shanni. ‘You guys both look like you need a good sleep.’

‘We don’t,’ they said in unison, and Susie grinned.

‘There’s really no need to man the battlements at night,’ she said. ‘The barbarians were seen off long since.’

‘The only thing we need to guard against is pumpkin snatchers,’ Hamish said smiling at his wife. ‘How big is ours now?’

‘Three feet seven inches in diameter on the old scale,’ Susie said, with pride. ‘We grow competition pumpkins,’ she added for the benefit of the confused assemblage. ‘You want to see my pumpkin patch after breakfast?’

‘I want to go back to the beach,’ said Abby. They’d already had a pre-breakfast paddle.

‘And so you will,’ Susie declared. ‘Straight after pancakes.’

‘Shanni and I are going shopping,’ Wendy said, almost whispering, and Shanni hauled herself out of her own misery to pay attention to the kid over the table. Wendy had ceased to believe in promises, Shanni thought. This kid