The Doctor & the Runaway Heiress

‘There’s lots of stuff we have to figure out,’ Adam said, squaring his puny shoulders. ‘Baby first. You first. Let’s take care of you. Nothing else matters.’

And Riley looked at his daughter’s terrified face, at Adam’s terrified response-and he knew his anger at Pippa was totally unjustified.

Lucy was eighteen years old. This was her first baby. She was alone except for Adam, and Adam was scarcely older than she was.

‘Will you help us, Pippa?’ Adam asked, while Riley fought to make a recovery.

‘Of course I will,’ Pippa told him, turning stiffly away from Riley. ‘Lucy, Adam’s right. There’s no need to worry. All you need to concentrate on is welcoming your baby into the world. Do you have any good books? There’s lots of stuff to read about what to expect, and it might be fun for you and Adam to read them together. I can borrow them from the hospital.’

‘And you should learn breathing,’ Amy said wisely. ‘I bet Pippa could teach you.’

He was being excluded, Riley thought. Maybe justifiably. What the hell was he doing, putting his needs before Lucy’s?

‘We’ll do this together,’ he growled, and he spoke to Adam rather than Lucy because now that Lucy had Pippa and Amy behind her, it was suddenly Adam who was looking the most worried. ‘The hospital might be best. I can help you…’

‘We can decide that close to the time,’ Pippa said, and her tone was suddenly resolute, almost daring him to defy her. ‘I hope I’m still here to help,’ Amy said. ‘Having a baby is awesome.’

‘It doesn’t hurt at all,’ Pippa teased, and Amy giggled.

‘It does hurt a bit,’ she conceded. ‘But then you get this baby at the end of it and it’s fabulous. I’m not going to have any more until I’m about thirty but I loved it. Can I help Pippa teach you to breathe?’

‘I can breathe already,’ Lucy said, and peeped a glance at her father. Who was glaring at Pippa. ‘I’m sure I can. Why are you looking at Pippa like that?’

‘She’s organising my life.’

‘I’m not,’ Pippa said. ‘If Lucy and Adam are staying here, maybe I should go back to my hotel.’

‘No,’ Amy said, suddenly panicked. ‘You promised.’

‘I need you here,’ Lucy said, sounding even more panicked.

Maybe he should go to the hotel, Riley thought, absorbing the fact that he was in a house that had been transformed suddenly into a home-his home-and it was full of people who were depending on Pippa.

‘It’s like having family,’ Lucy said.

And he thought, Exactly.

It was exactly why he wanted to walk away right now.

Another bombshell was about to land.

Amy retired to have a nap. Pippa went back to curtain sewing and Adam put up more rods. Lucy took her father on a tour of the posters.

‘I’ll pay you for these,’ he said, trying to make up for his less than enthusiastic initial response. ‘They must have cost a fortune. Plus the sewing machine and the fabric…’

‘I didn’t pay for them.’ Lucy said. ‘I don’t have any money. Mum said if I stay with Adam then she’d cut me off with nothing. And Adam’s an art student.’

‘You’ve come to Australia with nothing?’

‘Adam sold his motorbike. That just got us here.’

That made him feel… dreadful. The money itself didn’t worry him. He had twenty years of savings, he earned an excellent wage and the overtime in the work he was doing now was truly astounding. But to have Lucy so helpless… And who’d paid for the posters?

‘So Pippa paid?’

‘It doesn’t matter to her. She says she’s not your girlfriend, but, Dad, if I were you I’d make a move. She’s funny, and she’s kind, and she’s loaded.’

‘Loaded?’

‘You didn’t know?’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘I didn’t recognise her but Adam did, as soon as he heard her full name. We got the posters delivered. She paid for them over the phone by credit card. She’s Phillippa Penelope Fotheringham.’

‘It that supposed to mean anything to me?’

‘Yeah. It is. I sort of knew about her. She’s an heiress. And we know even more, ’cos Adam read a story about her last month while I was getting tests at the hospital. Adam read the glossies while he waited. There was a piece on Pippa. He says her grandfather made millions with some food company. Her parents are socialites-worse than Mum. Even I’ve heard of them; they’re always in the news. But Pippa’s not social. The story said Pippa went nursing when she was seventeen. Her family hated it but she did anyway. She’s been quiet ever since. The article was about her grandpa saying she’s the best of his relations and he’s left the company to her. Oh, and she was going to marry the company’s chief accountant-that was what the piece was about. You know, heiress finds true love, that sort of thing. I don’t know what happened, but what I do know is that she’s seriously, seriously rich.’

Dinner was steak and salad, cooked on the barbecue. With Riley thinking Pippa had paid for the steak.

Amy and Baby Riley were asleep before the washing-up was complete. Adam and Lucy headed back to their hotel with baby books. They couldn’t get a mattress until Monday but they looked wistful as they left the house.

Riley headed out to the veranda, and Pippa followed.

She stood and watched him for a while. He watched the sea and said nothing.

‘You can take the posters down after everyone’s gone,’ she said at last.

‘Why would I want to do that?’

‘Because you like bare walls?’

‘I don’t actually like walls at all. How rich are you?’

‘Very rich.’ There was no sense in denying it.

‘So what the hell are you doing here?’

‘I’m not accepting free board and lodging,’ she said warily, because there was nothing in his voice to suggest any warmth. ‘I’m staying here because of Amy but I’m paying rent to the hospital. The same as you.’

‘That’s not what I meant. You took the job with Flight-Aid under false pretences.’

‘Under what pretences?’ she demanded, starting to feel angry. ‘Are you saying I had no right to apply? Because there’s money in my background?’

‘You can apply for what you like.’

‘Because I’m rich?’ Anger was coming to her aid now, pure and simple. ‘I didn’t pay for Coral to employ me at Flight-Aid. I was employed on the basis of my experience and my qualifications.’

‘It’s a plaything.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘You’ll do it and leave.’

‘I might,’ she said, astounded. ‘So might you. I did, however, work in the same hospital in Britain for over ten years. Match that, Dr Riley.’

‘What are you doing here?’ It was like an explosion. He turned to face her and his eyes were dark with anger. ‘What are you playing at?’

‘I’m not playing.’

‘Filling my house with… what’s the quote? A monstrous regiment of women.’

‘Like three,’ she said, gobsmacked. ‘Three!’

‘Four. Even Baby Riley howled when-’

‘When you gave her her blood test. I’d howl too if someone pricked my heel. Whatever. You’re putting her in your conspiracy theory, too? Riley Chase, his life hijacked by women. What about Adam?’

‘He’ll figure it out,’ Riley said harshly. ‘Lucy’s grandparents… her mother… they’re angry with her now but they’ll want her back. They’ll haul her back into their lives and Adam will be left on the outside.’

‘Are we talking of Adam, or are we talking about you?’