Paddington Children's Hospital Complete Collection. Kate Hardy

that.’

      She was glad of it now.

      It was her mother.

      ‘I love this baby so much already. I don’t get how she could just leave me like that.’

      ‘Nor do I,’ he told her. ‘Victoria, I shan’t be doing the same.’

      And Glen was right; whatever happened between them, they would do what was best for the baby.

      But it wasn’t just that.

      It was a huge comfort to know her baby would have such a wonderful father, yet the fears about Dominic were not for her child now. They were for her own heart.

      The radiographer came in and he peeled off more tissues and she pressed them onto her eyes.

      ‘I’m enthusiastic to see our baby,’ Dominic said, and that made her smile. He hadn’t rushed in and said it when her eyes had pleaded for him to in the canteen.

      He said it now when he meant it.

      ‘So am I.’

      And there it was.

      All that fuss for something so small.

      Yet so beautiful and so vital and alive.

      And they weren’t really listening to dates and looking at crown rump length and things.

      Just watching the baby with its tiny arms and legs and even fingers and toes. It was just a moment they shared.

      He looked from the screen to Victoria, and there was the flash of fresh tears in her eyes. He would never leave her, yet she didn’t even know. He didn’t care if it took for ever; he would get right into that guarded heart. What had happened when their baby had been made was a rare magic; he bent over and gave her a light kiss. This man could not hold back any longer!

      ‘I love you.’

      He had sworn not to push her, but he couldn’t not say it. He did not want her to go another moment in this life without love.

      Though because he was all stoic and Scottish, and there was someone else in the room, that was all the romance she was going to get.

      It meant everything and more to hear that, but she was certain it was just the emotion of the moment. The dates matched exactly and maybe Dominic had just gotten a bit carried away.

      She lay there as his hand remained over hers but those fears in her head beat faster than the heart on the screen.

      It was like the world was all in this room—his hand, their baby—and she was scared for the lights to go on, for she would surely wake up alone.

      And then it was over.

      The images would be looked at, they were told, but everything seemed perfect, and Victoria could now get dressed.

      ‘Thank you,’ Victoria said, but she was almost scared to move because the tears were threatening.

      ‘I’ll wait in Reception,’ Dominic said, but as he turned to go she started to cry.

      ‘What are you crying over?’ he asked. ‘Your mum?’

      It would be so easy to nod and say yes and perhaps a whole lot safer too, because she was scared to reveal herself.

      Then she thought about something else that Glen had said, about not being too proud for your own good and so this woman met his eyes in the ultrasound room and made her confession and told him her truth.

      ‘You,’ Victoria said. ‘I’m crying over you.’

      ‘Cry on me, then.’

      He pulled her into his arms and held her as she wept, and she told him her fears; she had so many and he dealt with each in turn.

      ‘You might change your mind.’

      ‘Never.’ Dominic knew that he would never change his mind.

      And he sounded so sure, and here in his arms she was brave enough to voice her fears for them.

      ‘You loved Lorna.’

      ‘Not like this,’ Dominic told her. ‘I’ve never loved like this.’

      She could hear the steady beat of his heart while hers was racing, and she could feel his quiet strength.

      It wasn’t the first time she had cried but it was the first time she had cried in someone’s arms and so she voiced her deepest fear.

      ‘If there wasn’t the baby...’

      ‘Then you’d still be here in my arms.’

      And his deep voice was soft and it felt like the truth but she disputed it all the same. ‘You stayed back.’

      ‘You asked me to.’

      ‘But before you knew about the baby you didn’t make a move.’

      ‘Neither did you,’ he pointed out.

      ‘I stayed back because I don’t know how to make things work between us,’ Victoria said.

      ‘And I stayed back because I do.’

      She frowned into his chest.

      ‘Victoria, I told you at the start I was in the middle of something; I wasn’t going to land it all on us and come into a relationship jaded and bitter. I needed to sort things out properly.’

      She thought about that for a moment and then he spoke some more.

      ‘Now I have sorted it out. I’ve taken the baby a present, I’ve had a hold and I’ve told Lorna she’s very welcome in my home.’

      ‘Do you still love her?’ Victoria asked. ‘You can’t undo love.’

      ‘Believe me, you can unravel it,’ Dominic said. ‘It pretty much came undone the day I found out. Victoria, I haven’t been steering clear of Lorna because I have feelings for her. Not positive ones anyway. The last months have been hell, more over my family and brother, but I’ll tell you this, since that night, I’ve thought about you every day.’

      ‘Every day?’

      ‘Every minute of every day.’

      She looked up to him and she knew he was telling the truth. And that was what had been missing for ever, being thought of by another, every minute of every day.

      She thought of her father and his money and occasional gifts.

      And her mother who had simply walked away.

      But she didn’t just think about the bad things. Instead there were thoughts of Glen and how he carried his family in his heart throughout his working day.

      And she was starting to believe that Dominic did the same.

      ‘Go and get dressed,’ Dominic told her, and he helped her from the examination couch. ‘You need to get some sleep and so do I.’

      And so she went to the ladies’.

      Victoria was practical like that.

      And got dressed.

      Then she headed out to Reception where he was waiting and he gave her a smile as if he hadn’t just rocked her world.

      They took the scenic route and as they walked through the quadrangle it was as if the oxygen ratio in the air that she breathed was altered, a bit higher, the colours brighter, the air kinder.

      ‘Thank you for being there today,’ Victoria said as they came out to the ambulance foyer and she paused to say goodbye.

      ‘Didn’t you hear a word of what I said back in there?’ Dominic lightly teased. ‘Do you really think I’m going to let you disappear into the underground again? You’re to come home with me and I’m not taking no for an answer this time.’

      ‘What’s wrong with mine?’

      ‘I