Their Baby Bargain

CHAPTER TEN

‘YOU’VE sent him away!’

‘He left. I didn’t send him. If he’d wanted to stay then he could have. It’s his house after all.’

‘But it was you who wanted him to go.’ Shanni blazed indignation. ‘You are out of your cotton-picking mind! Of all the stupid, crazy… Wendy Maher, that man is seriously in love with you.’

‘Yes.’

The flat reply was enough to make Shanni blink. ‘You mean you know?’ Shanni was almost speechless. ‘Wendy, what is wrong with you? He’s gorgeous, he’s rich, he’s kind. He has the most beautiful baby sister. Gabbie’s half in love with him already, he owns this place, and he loves you…’

‘I don’t trust him.’

That set Shanni back. She’d driven out the day after Luke had left to find her friend staring sightlessly at Gabbie playing on the beach while Grace napped on a rug beside her. She’d never seen this look on her friend’s face, Shanni thought, and she couldn’t understand it. She looked desolate.

‘So what’s he done to make you mistrust him?’

‘I don’t know.’ Wendy closed her eyes and dug her fingers into her palms. ‘Nothing. Just been Luke.’

‘And that’s something to mistrust?’

‘He still drives that car.’

‘Oh, great. The man has an expensive car.’

‘It’s not entirely that.’ Wendy sighed helplessly. ‘How to make you see? It’s not just the car. Or the fact that he’s wealthy. It’s…it’s how he makes me feel. Like I’m out of control.’

‘Because you’re in love with him.’

‘Yes. No! I don’t know.’

‘You are,’ Shanni said, satisfied. ‘And you don’t like being not in control. You don’t like placing your trust-your heart-in someone else’s hands.’

‘I have no right to risk the children…’

‘Now, by saying that then you’re just being silly,’ Shanni said flatly. ‘You are my very dearest friend and I hate to say this but in sending Luke away you are acting like you’re a sandwich short of a picnic.’

Wendy looked at her, her eyes troubled. ‘That’s what Luke thinks.’

‘So he knows you’re in love with him?’

Wendy thought back to their night of lovemaking at the beach and despite herself her mouth twitched into the beginnings of a smile. ‘He might have guessed.’

‘I knew our baby-sitting wasn’t all in vain.’ Shanni sat back and hugged her knees. ‘How very satisfactory. So we’ve established that Luke loves Wendy and Wendy loves Luke. Now all we have to do is bang two thick heads together and make them see sense.’

‘Shanni, I am not remarrying.’ Grace stirred on her rug, and Wendy stooped to lift her into her arms and hug her. It was almost a defensive action. See me, her gesture said, I have my children. What else could I want? ‘I’ve been down that road before,’ she said drearily into Grace’s soft curls. ‘I am not travelling it again.’

‘He’s asked you to marry him?’ Shanni’s voice was an excited squeak. ‘He’s that in love?’

‘I told you-’

‘You’ve told me nothing that makes sense.’ Shanni stood up and glared. ‘You’ve been down some dangerous and eventually disastrous road with Adam, but this is Luke, Wendy. He’s a darling. Give the man some credit for being different.’

‘Shanni, leave it.’

‘You’ll be making him desperately unhappy. Does he deserve that?’

‘He’ll get over it.’

‘Will he?’ Shanni’s eyes narrowed. ‘If he’s as much in love as I think he is, he may never get over it.’

He hadn’t got over it. Not then, and not two months later.

Sure, he tried to fit back into his old life but it wasn’t what it was. Mostly because every waking minute his thoughts would flit to what would be happening at the farm. What would be happening with Wendy.

He rang once a week, from wherever he was in the world which was as far away as he could make it. He figured it was easier being in New York than Sydney-then he knew he couldn’t just get in the car and drive and be with them in hours. The temptation would be irresistible. So New York-and London and Paris-became desirable places to be and he threw himself into his work harder than he’d ever done in his life before.

Half a world away, Wendy and the kids seemed as if they were doing the same.

His weekly phone calls told him the facts, told in a formal employee to employer tone from Wendy. The house was being totally repainted inside and out. Gabbie had started school and was loving it. Grace had cut her first tooth…

The facts were recounted in a much more bouncy, excited way by Gabbie when Wendy handed the phone over-with a sigh of relief that made Luke feel ill. He had to haul himself together to respond to Gabbie.

She took some responding to, and more and more his heart went out to her. The cow in the next paddock had had a calf and Gabbie had watched. Bruce could sit for a whole count to ten, and Grace had sucked Bruce’s tail and Bruce had liked it so much he’d kept sitting beside her and wagging his tail in her face so she’d do it some more…

It made him so homesick he wanted to slam the phone back on the receiver in disgust, but he held on, soaking up every ounce of the contact that he could. And then he took his bad temper out on the futures market, and his fortune increased like it never had before because he personally was so angry he had to take it out some way. On something…

And his secretary tiptoed around him and watched him with eyes that were concerned. The middle-aged lady liked her boss, and she wasn’t stupid. She could guess what was doing this, but there was nothing she could do to help. So she protected him as much as she could and worried in private until…

The phone call came mid-morning New York time, and it wasn’t the normal sort of business call Luke received. The lady on the end sounded young and distressed and a little…desperate?

‘Is this the right number for Luke Grey-the Australian share broker?’

‘Futures broker,’ Maria corrected gently, and then softened. ‘Yes, dear, it is.’

‘This is Shanni Daniels. I’m…I’m a friend of a friend of Luke’s. The…the mutual friend is in trouble and I really, really need to speak to him.’

Maria thought of her boss, up to his ears in paperwork and she thought of her instructions. ‘Don’t put anyone through until after lunch. No one, Maria. Is that clear?’

It was perfectly clear. But… ‘Are you ringing from Australia?’ she asked, and couldn’t quite keep the note of hope from her voice.

‘That’s right.’ Shanni’s breath came out in a rush. ‘I hope the time isn’t too awful over there. I waited until really late. Nick says it’s none of my business, but, please, it’s really important.’

‘Is the mutual friend a lady?’

Silence. And then, ‘Yes,’ Shanni said flatly. ‘Yes, she is.’

‘I’m putting you through now, dear,’ Maria said calmly and flicked the switch.

Hell, this column didn’t make sense. He’d entered the figures into his spreadsheet three times and it wasn’t working. This is moron stuff, Luke told himself. Get a grip, Grey.

And then the phone went and he glared at it as if it was his personal enemy. He’d told Maria he wasn’t to be disturbed…

‘Maria!’ he roared.

No answer.

Balked, he stalked over to the door and flung it open. Maria’s desk was empty. She must have gone to the bathroom and switched the phone through to his office first-which wasn’t like her.

So let it ring!

The figures still wouldn’t add up…

The phone kept ringing.

Finally, he lifted the receiver and yelled, as if it was Maria he was yelling at. ‘What?’

‘Luke?’ The voice at the end of the line was so faint that he didn’t recognise it.

‘Yes?’ He lowered his tone a notch-but not so much that you’d notice.

‘It’s Shanni. You know, Wendy’s friend.’

‘Oh, God.’ Half a world away from her, his heart lurched into his boots and stayed. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘It’s Gabbie,’ she told him. ‘Luke, I thought you needed to know. Gabbie’s mother’s coming to take her away again.’

Gabbie’s mother’s coming to take her away… Luke’s mind went blank, fiercely rejecting what he’d just heard. No!

He couldn’t bear it, he thought, and it was a measure of his love for his whole new little family that his thoughts went first not to Wendy but to Gabbie. After what Wendy had said about her mother, to have her dragged away…

And after that, how must Wendy be feeling? Watching the child she loved being taken away to horror…

‘Can anyone do anything about it?’ Did he sound as sick as he felt?

‘Tom says not.’ His sickness was matched in Shanni’s tone. ‘Tom’s the head of the Home system here, and he’s feeling as bad as everyone about it, but she’s been through the courts. It’s supervised-our workers will be able to go in and check, but her cruelty in the past has been…not the kind that gets a kid taken away.’

‘Hell.’

‘Yes.’ Shanni’s bleakness reached him down the phone and he thought if this woman was feeling bad, how much more so must Wendy be feeling?

‘Does her mother really want Gabbie?’ he asked.

‘Wendy still thinks it’s a power thing,’ Shanni told him. ‘Sonia never tries to make any contact, but then she gets bored and angry and she feels like getting her own back on life, so she moves in on her daughter. If she knew Gabbie was living at the farm in almost permanent care…’

‘She doesn’t know that?’

‘No, and she mustn’t. Wendy’s bringing her into the Home office on Wednesday morning, so as far as Sonia knows she’s still living in a foster home. Otherwise Wendy will never get her back. Sonia will see to that. Oh, but Luke…’

There was worse to come. He could hear it.

‘Yes?’

‘Sonia’s talking about taking Gabbie to Perth-in Western Australia.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘It means if she’s placed in foster care again she’ll go into the Western Australian system. Wendy…Wendy won’t get her back.’

More silence. Luke’s mind, which had stalled into a dead halt, suddenly started up in overdrive.

‘Wednesday morning, you say?’

‘That’s right.’

It was Monday evening Australian time now. That gave him thirty-six hours.

‘Can you get me this-who did you say was in charge?-Tom’s home phone number?’

‘I…’

‘Do it, Shanni,’ he told her. ‘I’d imagine Erin will have it. Don’t tell Wendy, but let’s see if we can start some wheels spinning. I may not be able to help but-’

‘But you’ll try?’

‘With everything I have,’ he said, and he meant it.

He just wished he had more.

It was a bleak little ceremony. How could it be anything else? Wendy wondered. For most of the kids she’d cared for, a parent coming to claim them was a time of joy. For Gabbie, it meant a white face, fiercely expressionless eyes and a hand that clung to Wendy’s as if she was drowning. Her bag was packed, she was staring across the Home administration’s front desk at her mother, and her fingers pleaded with Wendy to keep her more than she’d ever wanted anything in her life.

But Wendy had to let her go.

‘Do you regard this as a long-term arrangement?’ Tom was asking Sonia Rolands. Tom Burrows, the head of Social Services for the district, was in his sixties, he’d been in this game for a long, long time but even he wasn’t case-hardened against Gabbie’s appalled face.

‘It might be,’ Sonia said airily. ‘I’ve met this new bloke over in Perth. We thought we might, you know, have a shot at a new life. The kid can come with us for a while and we’ll see how it goes. He thinks he might like a kid.’

You mean you can disrupt your child’s life with little bother to you, Wendy thought grimly. The woman had hardly even acknowledged Gabbie’s presence. She’d simply walked into the office and waited for the handover.

‘Wouldn’t it be better for you to settle into living over there first?’ Wendy suggested quietly. ‘Find a place to live, settle with your new man and have us send Gabbie to you then?’ She took a deep breath. ‘I’d cover the plane fare.’

The woman cast her a hard and suspicious glare. ‘What business is it of yours?’

Uh-oh. That had been a mistake, Wendy thought. She mustn’t let this woman see that she cared. ‘Children’s services has money for such contingencies.’ She forced her voice carefully into neutral. ‘We like to see our families settled with every possible chance of making a go of it.’

‘Yeah, well, the only thing that’d help me is a new car.’ The woman gave a hard, shrill laugh, and motioned out the window to where her ancient sedan stood in the driveway. ‘If you have any spare cash floating around you can donate it to that. You see that getting over the Nullarbor? The kid’ll have to get out and push.’

And she wouldn’t put it past her to make her, Wendy thought wearily but, as Tom shook his head, she carefully disengaged those clutching fingers and gave Gabbie a gentle push toward her mother. The law was the law and Wendy had no rights here at all. ‘Your mummy’s waiting, Gabbie,’ she said.

‘Gabbie’s been given a pup,’ Tom ventured, still caught by Gabbie’s appalled face. ‘She’s become very attached. How do you feel about taking him, too?’

‘A dog!’ Sonia’s eyes widened. ‘You have to be joking? What the hell would I do with a dog?’

‘Mummy…’ Gabbie ventured her own whispered plea. ‘Mummy, I really love Bruce.’

That was enough. Sonia’s eyes turned to flint. ‘All the better to leave it here now,’ she said flatly. ‘There’s no way I’m taking a dog anywhere and I’m not getting rid of any dog. Unless I dump it at the first corner. You lot do it.’ She grabbed Gabbie’s hand. ‘That’s all your stuff in the bag? Good! Then, that’s all I’m taking. Say goodbye, kid. With luck, you’ll never see these people again.’

With luck…

It was too much. Wendy was practically choking, trying to hold back her tears, and even Tom looked sick. Wendy turned away, and then she paused.

There were cars turning into the drive. Three cars. Who? They stopped one after another and doors opened.

Nick emerged first from his station wagon. What was Nick doing here?

A sleek black Mercedes arrived next with two men in the front seat.

And last was Luke’s Aston Martin…

They were certainly here on business. Stunned, Wendy watched as the men congregated, greeted each other and strode purposefully to the front door. They were all business-suited and they came straight in-as if they were expected-and she whirled around to find Tom’s sick look had changed to an expression of vast relief.

‘What…?’

But Tom wasn’t listening. ‘If you’d wait a moment, Mrs Rolands,’ Tom said as the four men entered. ‘These people have a proposition to put to you.’

‘A proposition?’ Sonia stared. ‘I don’t want no-’

‘Are you Mrs Rolands?’ It was Luke. He’d entered first, had cast one sweeping glance around the office, had taken in Wendy’s distress, Gabbie’s fear, Tom’s relief-and now he concentrated solely on the woman on the other side of the table. He laid down a folder and opened it wide. ‘I’m very sorry we’re late. You’ll understand we had a lot of organisation to do since we heard you were coming for Gabbie, and I’ve only just flown in from New York.’

‘New York? Who the hell are you?’

‘I’m Luke Grey.’ They might have been alone in the room together-he and Sonia. This was Luke at his businesslike best, and he was letting nothing stand in his way of his intentions. ‘I employ Miss Maher, here.’ He motioned to Wendy but he carefully didn’t meet her eyes. There was no way personal involvement could be hinted at. ‘I employ her to look after my half-sister. I’m an international businessman, and I don’t have time to care for the child myself. The pressures of work, you understand.’ He gave Sonia a brief but not unsympathetic smile. His wheedling smile. ‘I’m sure as a single mother you must feel the same.’

‘I…yes.’ Sonia was flummoxed.

‘The thing is that my small sister has taken a fondness to your Gabbie.’ He made no mention here that Grace was seven months old and took a liking to everyone. ‘As you may know, in her role as Home parent, Miss Maher has been looking after your child, too. I’m here to see if we can work out a way for that arrangement to continue-for the children to remain together long-term.’

Sonia’s eyes narrowed in distrust. ‘The kid comes with me.’

Luke nodded. ‘I can understand that as a mother you’d be very distraught to give your child up. But Mr Burrows, here…’ he motioned to Tom ‘…has indicated you’ve thought of adoption before. You’ve signed pre-adoption papers and then pulled out at the last moment-like you are now.’

‘I might have.’ Still the hard suspicion. ‘What of it? I can change my mind any time I want.’

‘But seeing you’ve left your child in care for the requisite few months before adoption can be finalised, and you’ve done this a number of times now, I wondered,’ Luke said smoothly, ‘whether there may be some way we could make your final decision easier.’

‘Such as…’

‘Such as cash, for instance?’

‘We’re not in the market of selling children,’ Tom said quickly, and Luke gave him a brief nod.

‘I understand that.’ He motioned to the men behind him-three of the solidest looking men you were ever likely to meet. ‘These men are all qualified lawyers. Nick here is Bay Beach’s local magistrate, Charles is my personal lawyer and David is specialised in family law matters. They’ve explained to me that no pre-adoption payment is acceptable. But Gabbie has been placed under foster care pre-adoptively on a number of occasions. If Mrs Rolands relinquishes her now, an offer making things easier for her in the future could be considered reasonable. It would be a personal matter between the two parties, with no bearing on the adoption.’

‘An offer? How much?’ He’d caught her now. The woman was staring at Luke as if he was holding the Holy Grail. Money…

‘Say…two-hundred-thousand dollars?’ Without further hesitation he lifted a cheque from his breast pocket and laid it on the table. The piece of paper fluttered toward her, and her eyes turned to it, riveted.

‘You’ve got to be kidding. Two hundred grand…’

‘I’m not kidding, Mrs Rolands,’ Luke said gently. ‘My half-sister needs a companion and I want her to have Gabbie.’

‘You’re crazy.’

‘Maybe. But it’s a once only offer. If you take Gabbie away now, my sister may become attached to another child and I’ll make that offer to someone else. I have the lawyers here for the necessary paperwork. Once you sign custody over to W…to Miss Maher.’

But it was a slip. The start of Wendy’s name… It made Sonia lift her eyes from the cheque and she stared from Luke to Wendy, and then they stayed on Wendy.

And it was impossible for Wendy to take the hope from her face fast enough. Oh, God…

And Sonia knew.

‘You’re doing it for her,’ the woman spat. ‘You’re doing it so she gets the kid. She wants her.’ Her vindictiveness was dreadful to see. What had happened in the past to cause this hate? Who knew, but it was there and it was real. ‘No! Two hundred thousand? I’d spend it and then what? I’d have no comeback on the kid at all. She’d be on Easy Street.’

She whirled and stared out the window. ‘And look at that?’ She gestured to Nick’s car, gleaming immaculately out in the driveway, and her vitriol was increasing by the minute. ‘We’re worlds apart and I wanted that so much! My husband promised me we’d be rich, but he couldn’t make it in a pink fit. Two hundred grand-and I’d guess it wouldn’t even buy that. You must be loaded. It wouldn’t make any difference to you at all, and the kid…’

‘You can have the car, too-if you like.’

The sudden silence was deathly. You could have heard a pin drop. The entire room held its breath.

‘You’re…you’re joking.’ Unlike the cheque, the car was a real and tangible thing, gorgeous in its enticement, and Sonia’s incredulous face told the room she knew its worth.

‘I’m not joking.’ Luke shrugged as if he was losing interest. ‘The cheque and the car can both be yours. Now. The registration forms are in the glove compartment. I’m sure with these lawyers present I can sign it over on the spot. That’s my last offer, though. Take it or leave it.’

The woman whirled to face him. Then she stared down at her daughter, and the indecision was written clearly on her face.

This wasn’t tearing affection, though. It was still a desire to hurt.

But…the expensive car. And a cheque like this…

‘If I sign…?’

‘You need to be very clear,’ Tom interrupted from behind her, and his voice was tainted with weariness-long-standing disillusionment with human nature. ‘The money and the car have nothing to do with the adoption. Because the pre-adoptive time is up, if you sign now then your daughter is legally relinquished. You can arrange supervised access, but you’ll have no further control.’

‘But…I can sign now. I can drive the car away.’

‘Yes. But you’ll drive away alone.’

The woman closed her eyes for a long moment, and there was a trace of triumph in the flush on her hard cheeks. Then she put a hand behind Gabbie’s back and shoved her forward, back to Wendy. Decision made.

‘You take her,’ she said harshly. ‘I never wanted her. I hated her father and I hate her. Just show me where to sign and I never want to see her again.’

Wendy left the men to it.

While Sonia signed form after form of relinquishment, and Luke signed over his precious car, she gathered Gabbie in her arms. She took her outside and cradled her as if she’d never let her go.

As she wouldn’t.

‘You’re to forget your mum told us any of the horrid things that were said in there,’ she said fiercely, hugging her so tight she thought she’d squash her. ‘Your mummy and your daddy fought, and she’s taking that anger out on you. But she’s done the best thing she can possibly do for you. The loveliest thing for a mummy to do when she can’t take care of you herself. She’s given you to me. Did you hear what she said in there? She’s given you up for adoption, Gabbie, and now you can be my little girl for ever. For ever and for ever and for ever.

‘I can stay with you and Grace and Bruce?’

‘You can stay with me and Grace and Bruce.’

‘And…’ Gabbie pushed herself back and gazed at Wendy with eyes that were big and bright with wonder ‘…Luke gave his beautiful car to Mummy so she’d give me to you.’

She’d understood that much. Wendy smiled at her with eyes that were glistening with tears.

‘Yes, he did.’

‘Do you think…?’ Gabbie said seriously ‘…do you think Luke loves us?’

‘I think he must,’ Wendy said tremulously. ‘I think he must a lot and a lot and a lot.’