Page 77 of Midnight Surrender to the Spaniard

The cars were all ready and Carmen had arrived by the time they got back.

‘You said we were meeting at five!’ she accused.

‘The cars are at five. You were to be here at four.’

Anna stood a little apart from everyone, and when Alejandro guided her into a car, he pointed to a different one for Sebastián.

It was a difficult day for so many reasons, yet there was so much happiness too as they all stood looking through the glass at the newest addition to their family. The incubator had been moved closer to the window, and Sebastián heard José’s cry of delight at the sight of his granddaughter.

Even Maria, who lacked a single maternal bone in her body, let out a sob when she saw the tiny girl. ‘Oh,bebita...’ she crooned. ‘She needs a name, Alejandro.’

‘I think she might have one,’ Sebastián said.

For although he was mildly enthralled with his niece, his sharp eyes had been drawn to the embroidered blanket that had been carefully hung over the incubator. The machinery on view was softened by it, and there on the delicately embroidered blanket was the date of her birth and the tiny little girl’s name:Josefa Romero Jacobs.

‘Josefa,’ Sebastián said, pronouncing itHosefa.‘The female for José.’

He looked quickly back to the baby as his father started to cry—a familiar sound and one he had hated all his life. But he reminded himself that today these were happy tears.

Even though to him they sounded the same as the ones from his childhood.

‘Anna made it,’ Emily told the little gathering. ‘It’s taken her months. She added the name this week.’

‘You surely didn’t have her sewing on her holiday?’ Maria sounded appalled at the notion, and for once she almost put a smile on her eldest son’s face.

He had known, of course, that Anna had a secret, but her hiding something and returning to the villa occasionally made better sense now.

He had to fight not to turn his head and give Anna a smile...not to put his arm around her and pull her in and compliment her work. He had to stand still and not react. Because if he did, then he would break his word to her.

He would also be revealing something of himself. Because he did not do affection, or handholding, or anything of the sort. Not in public, and up until now not really in private either.

He could hear the sound of his father’s tears as he looked at his tiny granddaughter. ‘Josefa...’ he kept saying, over and over.

Sebastián stared ahead as Emily gently told the fragile man that they had asked permission for him to hold the baby. ‘Alejandro has given up his turn this afternoon.’

‘Oh.’ Maria sighed excitedly. ‘Please let me hold her!’

‘Just Papá,’ Alejandro said. ‘She’s too little to be passed around.’

‘But surely just one little cuddle...?’ Maria pouted.

Now Sebastián turned around. ‘Just Papá.’

Anna blinked at the tone in Sebastián’s voice.

It wasn’t loud, or harsh, or anything like that, but it was still the sound of a final decision.

One with which no one would argue.

She couldn’t help but wonder if he was being a bit harsh on his mother. She was attention-seeking, yes, but she’d been kind about Emily—and José did seem thrilled and deeply in love with his wife.

‘We’ll go to the waiting room,’ he said now, and put his hand on his father’s shoulder. ‘Congratulations, Papá...’

It was a private moment for José, so Anna went into the waiting room along with Sebastián and Carmen—who was still smarting that her mother was present at all.

‘“Oh,bebita”,’ she mimicked savagely, and then translated for Anna. ‘It means baby girl. I doubt she was so overcome when she sawme.’

‘Carmen!’ Sebastián said.

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