Christmas Secrets Collection. Laura Iding

It was a good job that she’d had years of practice at hiding her feelings from her manipulative sister. Even so, she needed a moment or two to compose herself, grateful for the time it took for her mother to walk across the room to join her father. Then he tapped the edge of his glass to attract everyone’s attention. He beckoned Zara and Daniel to join the two of them in front of the fireplace before he cleared his throat portentously.

       ‘Friends,’ he began.

       ‘Romans and countrymen,’ added one of Zara’s modelling friends with an inebriated giggle, only to be hushed by one of the older, more sober guests.

       ‘Friends, as you all know, this is a very special occasion,’ Frank Walker began again as Zara finally met Sara’s gaze and she saw that, oh, so familiar smug expression followed by a cuttingly dismissive glance from head to toe that told Sara as clearly as anything that her sister had deliberately neglected to tell her about the purpose of this evening’s gathering for exactly this reason.

       If ever there had been a moment that demonstrated how different the two of them were it was this one, with Zara … flawless, beautiful Zara … the centre of everyone’s admiring gaze while she was purposely relegated into the background, not even afforded the courtesy call that would have allowed her to look her best. No one would be left in any doubt why Dan would choose Zara over her dowdy, less-than-perfect twin.

       ‘Audrey and I are delighted to welcome you all this evening to celebrate the engagement of our beautiful daughter Zara to this handsome chap here.’ There was a muted cheer and happy laughter from a small group who could only be Dan’s family—not that she’d ever had the chance of meeting them before. ‘In case you haven’t heard all about him yet, he’s Dr Daniel Lomax, and I have no doubt at all that he’ll soon be a consultant in emergency medicine at one of the top hospitals in the country. So, I’d like you all to raise your glasses to wish them both every happiness. To Zara and Danny!’

       With all the glasses being raised and the voices echoing her father’s words, the fact that she hadn’t been given a glass shouldn’t have been noticed, neither should the small detail that she was totally unable to utter a word, her eyes burning with the threat of tears. But Zara noticed, and once more smiled like the proverbial cat that had got the cream.

       Then Daniel noticed too, his slightly dazzled expression replaced by a puzzled frown when he caught sight of her standing alone just inside the door with her hands hanging heavily by her sides.

       Then Zara noticed the focus of her new fiancé's attention and put an immediate end to it, reaching up to cup his cheek with a hand that glittered with a million points of fire as the light caught her engagement ring, then she leaned possessively against him to give him a prolonged kiss that had the room hooting encouragement and left him branded with her scarlet lipstick.

       This time when her gaze met Sara’s from the circle of Daniel’s arms her expression screamed just one word—mine.

      ‘Relax. The baby’s fine,’ soothed the technician as she slid the probe through the gel on the pale curve of Sara’s exposed belly. How few weeks ago it had been that she’d celebrated the fact that she was actually beginning to look pregnant. ‘Look, Sara, you can see the heart beating for yourself and there is absolutely no sign of an abruption or any other sort of a bleed in there. Now, did you want me to print an extra copy for you? I might even be able to get a shot that tells you whether you’re having a—’ Her cheerful patter halted abruptly as she leant forward to take a closer look at the screen then moved the probe to change the angle of the view. ‘What on earth …?’ she muttered under her breath.

      ‘What? Rosalie, what’s wrong with the baby?’ Sara demanded, the pain in her head intensifying with her fear for the life of the child. ‘Is it something to do with the accident? Was the baby injured or …?’

      ‘Not at all! There is absolutely nothing wrong with your baby,’ the young woman announced as she turned with a wide grin on her face. ‘In fact, there’s nothing wrong with either of them. Look, Sara … it’s twins! There are two heartbeats!’

      Suddenly, Sara didn’t know whether to laugh hysterically or cry. As if her life wasn’t in enough of a tangle already. Now she was going to have to tell everyone that it wasn’t just one baby she was carrying but two. Both sets of future grandparents would be ecstatic, without a doubt, but Dan would be the only other one in the family who would understand just how much more perilous this pregnancy had become.

      As if thinking his name had finally conjured him up, there he was, standing in the doorway with an expression Sara had longed to see on his face for so long … concern for her welfare. Or was it, as ever, concern for the pregnancy?

      ‘What on earth have you done?’ he demanded as he strode in, grabbing her case notes as if he had every right to examine them, and she realised that nothing had changed. Any concern he felt was obviously for his precious offspring.

      Disappointment made her headache even fiercer and lent an acid edge to her tongue.

      ‘Don’t worry, Danny, the baby’s fine. In fact, you could even say you’re getting a genuine bargain—buy one, get one free.’

      ‘What on earth are you talking about?’ he snapped, and turned towards the startled woman standing in front of the high-tech control panel. ‘Has she been concussed?’

      ‘No, I’m not concussed,’ Sara insisted before Rosalie could even draw a breath to answer, completely ignoring the fact that she’d apparently been unconscious among a stack of soggy cardboard boxes for the better part of half an hour before anyone had found her after the accident. ‘In fact, according to everybody, I’ve been extremely lucky. My foot slipped on the wet cobbles as I tried to turn away from the impact to protect the baby, so I only sustained a glancing blow from the car.’ She ticked her injuries off on her fingers, a slightly difficult feat with one arm strapped across her body.

      ‘I’ve had a couple of stitches and got a goose egg on my forehead and I’ll probably end up with one or even two black eyes; I dislocated my shoulder, but that’s been put back where it belongs—hence the strapping; my hip is black and blue where it hit the granite cobbles, but even without X-rays of the region the orthopaedic consultant’s almost certain I didn’t break anything there and he says the cracked fibula should heal without any complications. Oh, and apart from that, I feel as if I’ve lost several yards of skin from various portions of my anatomy.’

      She’d been glaring at him throughout her recitation and couldn’t help feeling a little remorse when she saw the colour swiftly drain from his face. Not that she intended letting him off the hook. After all, it wasn’t Sara, the person, that he was worried about, it was Sara, the person who had been systematically browbeaten by her family into agreeing to carry a surrogate baby for Dan and her inexplicably infertile sister.

      ‘So, let’s get to the really good news,’ she continued bitterly, with a gesture towards the image frozen on the screen between them. ‘Exhibit A is the scan that not only confirms that there is no evidence of injury to the brood mare’s procreative organs, but also the fact that she’s carrying not one but two babies. Congratulations, Dannyboy! You hit the jackpot first time!’

      And even though it brought tears of agony to her eyes to force herself to turn away from him, she made herself to do it, unable to bear looking at those heart-stopping green eyes any longer.

      ‘Are you sure you don’t want to change your mind about the pain relief?’ Rosalie murmured, startling Sara into the realisation that the young woman was still standing there. She’d been so focused on her acrimonious conversation with Dan that for a moment she’d completely forgotten that there was anyone else in the room with them. Not only had the technician heard her swiftly muffled groan of pain when she’d turned away from the man but she’d had a ringside seat for every word that had gone before it. Now, the fact that she was pregnant by her sister’s husband would be food for gossip right around the hospital.