The Doctors’ Baby

‘We have a big house.’ He said it sort of hopefully-like an overgrown Labrador puppy might have spoken if it could speak-and Em couldn’t help but smile.

‘A big house?’ she repeated as if she didn’t understand what he was getting at. Although she understood only too well, and her heart was sinking. What had he let them in for?

But Jonas was assuming an air of innocence-and of virtue. ‘It’s a really big house,’ he said firmly. ‘Far too big for just you and me and Bernard.’

‘How did you get Bernard to his feet?’ Em asked, fascinated, and Jonas grinned.

‘The kids did that. They simply refused to take no for an answer. He’s been sighing like you wouldn’t believe, but every time he sits down the kids simply hoist him up again.’ His smile widened. ‘So you see-Bernard needs company.’ His smile faded then, assuming an air of uncertainty. ‘And I knew you’d want to look after Robby, anyway, Dr Mainwaring. So how could I not offer to look after everyone?’

Everyone. Bernard and Sam and Matt and Ruby.

And Robby.

There was the rub. Em looked at the little boy in Jonas’s arms and her heart twisted with pain for him. She was tired and confused. So much had happened. She needed space to think this through.

But Jonas was holding Robby out to her, and he was so little. He’d been so dreadfully injured, and he was so…

So much a part of her!

Help!

She didn’t mind offering to take on Anna’s children, she thought desperately, and she didn’t seem to have much choice about having Jonas in the house, but Robby was a different matter.

Robby was…well, Robby was just Robby.

Which was why she’d discharged him from hospital! Because this little one was bonding to her-and she was bonding right back. And here was Jonas stating calmly that they’d taken responsibility for him.

And for his sister’s children as well!

‘Have you contacted the head of the orphanage?’ she asked cautiously. ‘I’d assume their administration will have definite ideas on how Robby’s cared for.’

‘The other homes are full,’ Jonas told her. ‘Tom, the homes director, contacted me this morning. He says the only answer is to transfer Robby-and Anna’s kids if they need accommodation-to a home in Sydney.’

‘No!’

‘And I knew you didn’t want that,’ Jonas said blandly. ‘Neither does Robby’s aunt. She says cram him into another of the homes, but Tom refused to do that. So I thought if I offered to help you with Robby and Bernard…’

She had him worked out. ‘Then I might offer to help you with Sam and Matt and Ruby?’

‘That’s the one.’ He beamed. ‘Two days ago there was only one doctor in Bay Beach. Now there’s two doctors, but with four kids and a dog between them. Surely we can manage.’

‘And your childminding skills would be…?’

‘I can build sandcastles,’ he said virtuously, and she had to grin.

‘How about changing nappies?’

He sniffed at that. And then he sniffed again. ‘Uh-oh…’

‘Nappies aren’t your forte, then, Dr Lunn?’

‘That’s why we’re waiting on the station for you,’ he told her generously. ‘So you can share.’

‘Gee, thanks.’

‘Think nothing of it,’ he told her and handed over Robby with a promptness that made her chuckle. ‘Here’s your baby.’

Your baby.

That got to her.

She looked down at Robby, and then she looked up at Jonas. This was dangerous territory they were getting into, she thought-and she wondered if Jonas knew exactly how dangerous it really was.

He had it all worked out.

Back at the house, Em’s sometime receptionist, Amy, was waiting for them. The teenager had lunch on the table, and she smiled her welcome as Jonas ushered his brood indoors.

It was some brood. One partner and four children.

And one dog. Bernard made straight for his place under the sink and lay down. Immediately, he had two children tugging him up again.

And Amy was smiling at them all, making Em even more confused. ‘Hi.’

‘Hi, Amy. What are you doing here?’

‘Lou’s flu is better.’ Amy beamed as if that fact alone was little short of miraculous. The teenager really hadn’t enjoyed her short stint as medical rececptionist. ‘So Lou’s back at Reception and Dr Lunn knew I was out of work. To be honest, I’m happier childminding than I am waiting for someone to vomit all over the waiting-room floor. So when Dr Lunn suggested I be your short-term nanny I thought it’d be cool.’

Cool…

‘It fitted perfectly.’ Jonas beamed with the satisfaction of a man who’d just put in the final piece of a very complicated jigsaw puzzle. ‘Isn’t it perfect, Dr Mainwaring?’

‘Perfect,’ she said faintly, and his smile faded.

‘It is. It will work, Em. It must.’

‘I can see that.’ That it must.

‘Amy will be here during the day, and at night only one of us needs to be on call. So the kids can be settled.’

But Em was still holding Robby close. Robby, who had such a hold on her heart…

‘Why are you looking afraid?’ Jonas asked gently, and she knew that he saw way too much for her liking. He knew her too well. Instinctively he knew what she was thinking, and she found the sensation almost frightening.

‘I’m just trying to figure how I can let go of Robby-again,’ she murmured, and he looked at her for a long time.

‘Maybe you don’t want to,’ he said at last.

‘But-’

‘And maybe there’s no need.’ He reached forward and touched her very lightly on the nose-a feather touch that sent electric currents straight through her. ‘Have a think about that. With Amy’s help, you don’t need to. Meanwhile, if I can leave you with Amy and the kids, I really need to go to Blairglen and see Anna.’

‘Of course,’ she said.

‘This is going to work,’ he told her strongly. ‘If we make it.’ He looked at her for a long, long moment, in his eyes a question, but what he saw seemed to satisfy him. He gave a decisive nod.

‘OK, kids,’ he told his niece and nephews. ‘You know what’s happening. I’m leaving you to get settled with Dr Em and Amy, but I’ll be back tonight to tell you how Mummy is. OK?’

‘OK,’ they quavered, and Em knew they were as scared as she was.

But, like them, she had no choice.

‘Jonas,’ she said as he turned away, and he turned straight back to face her.

‘Yes?’ Their eyes met, and once again that intangible thing passed between them. That thing that scared Em so much…

‘Stay as long as you need to tonight,’ she told him. ‘Amy and I will be fine. Give our love to Anna. And…’

‘And?’

‘And I have all my fingers and toes crossed for her,’ she said simply. ‘And anything else I can think of.’

‘Thank you,’ he said. Their eyes locked above the heads of the four children and once again that silent message was passed.

They may as well have kissed…