Page 51 of His Wedding Day Revenge

Their expressions and the tears on the normally cool and collected face of the housekeeper made his stomach muscles clench in anticipation. It didn’t take a genius to see that he was not about to hear good news.

It wasn’t good news and, though he had to prompt the woman, he eventually got the story.

Mattie was ill, a doctor had been called but they didn’t know when he would be here, because some form filler on the other end of the line was asking so many questions before they would confirm his attendance.

Draco walked in, and took in the scene at a glance.

The baby was crying in his crib, young Val standing beside it, tears streaming down her face, while Jane, still wearing the blue silk dress, had the phone in her hand. White-faced, she looked haunted and was visibly shaking, but there was a firm determination in her voice as she spoke.

The anger that had kept up the walls of emotional isolation he had been sheltering behind dissolved. Everything inside him ached for her. He felt her fear and desperation.

‘No, not that I am aware of. No, I am not the baby’s biol—’

‘Give it to me.’

‘Draco!’ she cried, relief in her voice as he took the phone from her limp grasp.

She took a step away, her arms wrapped protectively around herself, aware on one level that his presence could not make everything right but, oh, it was such a comfort just not to be alone.

He was speaking Italian but, unlike her, she could tell that he was in control of the conversation.

He was not begging, he was demanding, and it seemed to make all the difference. He paused occasionally, covering the receiver as he relayed a question to her in English before giving her response in Italian.

Finally he put the receiver down.

‘Marco...’ he began, pausing when she shook her head. ‘He is the head of the paediatric intensive care unit. He will come with the air ambulance, which is already in the air, and in the meantime we are to cool Mattie down, open windows, strip off his sleep suit.’

‘Thank you...oh, thank you! That is...just thank you, Draco,’ she said, looking at him with shining eyes.

Draco nodded and walked across to the cot.

Trying to be as cool and calm as he appeared, Jane went to the crib. Mattie had stopped crying and the silence was somehow worse than that awful keening sound had been.

It was like undressing a rag doll and he was so hot.

‘He is still very hot and so, so floppy.’ Her voice broke as she turned away and laid her head against the warm solidity of Draco’s chest, which was right there when she needed it.

She allowed herself the indulgence of staying that way for a few moments before she pulled herself together and stepped back.

‘Val has gone to get a fan.’

At that moment the young woman arrived without a fan, but with welcome news. ‘The helicopter is here. Oh, I am so, so sorry...’

‘No, this is not your fault,’ Jane said firmly as she clasped the younger woman’s hand.

Draco watched her take the time even in the midst of her own fear to reassure the younger woman. A small snuffly cry made him glance down to the baby lying there, his sweaty face as pale as milk, and he felt things shift inside him. ‘He looks—’

The door opened and a young man about Draco’s age appeared.

Jane watched as they shook hands but did not waste time on pleasantries.

‘Mrs—’

‘Miss Smith, Jane,’ she said.

‘Well, let’s have a look at this young man, shall we? While you tell me what happened.’

The examination was gentle but thorough.

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