Modern Romance October 2019 Books 1-4. Кейт Хьюит

was long, and he had a lot of thick black hair, and huge navy eyes, and a dent in his chin as if an angel had stamped it there. His huge mouth let out husky and indignant cries.

      She reached out for him with a love so fierce it pierced her soul. For the baby was the perfect blend of her and Nico. She laughed as she kissed him, for after one look not a person in her family or in the village would need to ask who his father was.

      ‘He’s beautiful!’ she cried. ‘He’s perfect. My baby!’

      Her baby—and also a real tiny person, who cried and seemed soothed when she held him. His eyes seemed to recognise her, for he held her gaze and fell quiet.

      She had never fathomed that love for her son would be so immediate and so intense.

      He was worth all the pain and fear and Aurora knew she could take care of him.

      Louanna and the children came to visit her on the ward.

      ‘Oh, Aurora…’ Louanna said as she held the tiny little boy. ‘He is perfection. Have you thought of a name?’

      ‘Gabriel,’ Aurora said. ‘God-given strength.’

      ‘Have you told your family?’

      ‘Not yet.’ They could wait.

      ‘What about—?’

      ‘I just want to get used to being a mother,’ Aurora cut in. ‘I want some time with my baby and to know what I’m doing. I want my confidence back.’

      And Gabriel brought extra blessings! A little post-partum haemorrhage on the day Aurora was due to go home meant a trip to the operating theatre and staying in hospital for a few extra days.

      Which meant that Christmas was over and Louanna’s husband had gone by the time she brought her baby home.

      It was a golden time.

      The first two weeks passed by in a blur and she lived on Gabe’s schedule.

      He was such a sweet, quiet baby, and even when the husband came home Aurora did not notice as she was holed up in the summerhouse, getting to know her tiny baby.

      When snow filled the garden and painted everything white, he went to South Africa for a couple of months.

      Louanna was happy.

      Aurora could not believe her luck to have found this gorgeous family that was allowing her to provide a home for her baby.

      When Gabe—as he had become known—was eight weeks old, she walked little Nadia to school in the slushy snow, pushing the pram as Antonio skipped by its side, and then waving off the little girl.

      ‘Today,’ she said to Antonio as they walked home, ‘we will make lasagne.’

      ‘Can I roll the pasta?’

      ‘You can,’ Aurora said. ‘But you have to roll it thin and not get bored like last time.’

      Cooking always helped Aurora to think. And soon Gabe was asleep in his little bassinette and Antonio was helping to mix the dough.

      She felt as if a fog was lifting. Not that she had returned to her old self, because along with Gabe a new Aurora had been born.

      And on her next day off she would call Nico!

      It came to her like a flash, and was followed by another rapid thought.

      No, she would call Nico tomorrow. And if he wanted to meet her she would be free the next day to meet him—with Gabe.

      She would not be asking Louanna to watch her son. Nico could get used to the idea, just as she had had to.

      ‘You look happy,’ Louanna commented.

      ‘I am,’ Aurora said, and then looked up to see her employer’s pinched face. ‘Are you okay?’

      ‘Of course I am.’ Louanna smiled. ‘My husband just called—he’s coming home a few days early.’

      ‘Oh, when?’ Aurora’s voice was as strained as Louanna’s smile.

      ‘Tonight.’

      ‘Then it’s just as well I’ve made plenty to eat,’ Aurora said.

      He came through the door all smiles, and Aurora decided she must have imagined his dark moods, for he was pleasant to everyone.

      Perhaps pregnancy had made her tired and more sensitive, Aurora thought as she put little Nadia and Antonio to bed and then came downstairs, to where Louanna was serving up the lasagne that Aurora had prepared.

      ‘Eat with us,’ he insisted.

      ‘No, really.’ Aurora smiled. ‘I’m going to take my supper down to the summerhouse and settle Gabe. Have a nice evening.’

      She wasn’t avoiding him. The truth was that Aurora wanted to work out what she would say when she spoke to Nico.

      ‘Nico,’ she practised aloud, ‘there’s something I have not told you…’ Or, ‘Nico, this will come as a surprise…’

      She fell asleep, still undecided how to break it to him, and woke to Gabe’s cries at two a.m.

      ‘Hey…’ she said as she gave him his bottle.

      Aurora loved these middle-of-the-night feeds—the contented noises her baby made; the way his fat little hands held hers as she fed him. There was no time more precious to be holding her son as when the world was so peaceful and quiet.

      Except tonight the world was not so peaceful and quiet—there was a light on in the main house. Louanna and her husband must be up.

      Aurora’s heartburn returned as she lowered little Gabe into his bassinette and he slipped back to sleep.

      She should just go to bed, Aurora told herself. It was no business of hers.

      But as she listened Aurora changed her mind, and wondered if she should call the police.

      Which would have been the sensible choice.

      Except Aurora was bolshie and passionate, and she did not know how to look away…

       CHAPTER THIRTEEN

      Rome

      THE GLORIOUS SIGHT of the city at night, from the vantage point of his helicopter, did not lift Nico’s spirits and there was no sense of relief to be home.

      With wealth, Nico decided, came too much cream.

      Here in Rome the chefs had been drilled as to his preference for plain food, but it hadn’t translated so well at the Silibri site. There the chefs had seemed determined to impress, but they had failed. Oh, the food had been spectacular, but for the first time Nico had heartburn.

      Or was it more a sense of unease as he disembarked from his helicopter and saw his regular driver waiting for him?

      ‘I thought you were on leave?’ Nico said.

      His driver and his housekeeper were married, and Nico had expected a stand-in driver to greet him.

      ‘My leave starts tomorrow,’

      Nico glanced at the time. ‘It already is tomorrow.’

      ‘Perhaps, but better a familiar face to greet you than a stranger. How was the trip?’ his driver asked.

      ‘Fine,’ Nico responded. ‘It went well.’

      By all accounts it had been amazing. The new hotel was sumptuous, and naturally he had his choice of suite there, so when he visited Silibri there would be no awkward stays with neighbours.