CHAPTER FOURTEEN

BETHANY sat on the carpeted floor and watched as Nick swung the angelic little girl in his arms round and round. She giggled and giggled, her blonde curls bouncing, her blue eyes aglow, father and daughter hugging each other as Bethany turned to look at the two boys putting the decorations on the Christmas tree. There were far too many decorations, of course, and the hanging of them was haphazard to say the least, but to her the tree looked beautiful.

‘Will Aunty Sam and Uncle Robert be here soon?’ the eldest of the two boys bounded over to demand.

He had been asking the same thing at five-minute intervals for the last half an hour! ‘Very soon now, darling,’ Bethany answered smilingly, smoothing the dark hair back from his brow, gazing up lovingly at her eldest son. Tall for his age, at only four Richard was a small replica of his father.

‘And Jamie, and Josh, and Lucy!’ Three-year-old Peter cried excitedly as he joined them.

‘What a houseful we’re going to have this year!’ Nick shook his head ruefully as he strolled over, still carrying two-year-old Beth; the little girl was in her favourite place of all. Her father’s arms.

‘No more hectic than usual.’ Bethany smiled as she stood up, still sometimes having to pinch herself at how happy she was. Whoever would have believed, when she’d gone to start her job with Samantha Fairfax five years ago, as nanny to her two children—soon to be three—that she would meet someone as wonderful as Nick? And it had all happened so dramatically too—Nick snatching her, literally, from the jaws of death when she’d run out into the road to stop the family dog from being run over.

The last five years had been good to her, and she was sure that she fell more in love with her husband every day they were together. Their home in the English countryside was always full of love and laughter, and children, and happiness.

‘Time for the angel, Mummy.’ Richard jumped up and down with excitement as he handed her the angel to place on top of the tree.

Bethany was never quite sure how this family tradition had begun, but every year it was the same, Nick and the children always insisting that she be the one to place the golden angel on top of their Christmas tree.

‘I think perhaps we should just wait a while for the other children to arrive.’ She gently tried to delay the moment.

The two families—Nick’s ex-wife and his three children, and Sam’s second husband and Nick’s business partner, Robert—always spent the holiday period together, and this year it was Nick and Bethany’s turn to play host and hostess.

‘Oh, but—’ Peter broke off his disappointed protest as the doorbell rang. ‘Here they are. Here they are!’

Nick put the baby down on the floor, he and Bethany watching as their three children rushed from the room to greet their uncle and aunty and their three half-siblings.

Nick moved to Bethany’s side, putting his arm about her shoulders to gaze down at her with adoring eyes. ‘Have I told you yet today that I love you, Mrs Rafferty?’ His mouth trailed a path of passion down her throat.

‘I believe so.’ Bethany smiled as she remembered the completely satisfactory way he had told her earlier in bed this morning that he loved her. ‘But I don’t mind in the least if you tell me again.’ She snuggled closer in his arms.

‘I love you so much, Bethany Anne Rafferty,’ he murmured huskily, looking deeply into her eyes as he cradled her face in his hands.

‘I love you too, Nick,’ she told him warmly.

He smiled. ‘I have a feeling this is going to be our best Christmas yet!’

She laughed throatily. ‘You say that every year!’

He pretended indignation at her humour at his expense. ‘And am I not always right?’

‘Invariably.’ She nodded solemnly, containing her humour with effort. ‘Actually, this year is going to be rather special.’ She looked up at him. ‘Sam and Robert have an important announcement to make.’

Nick frowned his puzzlement. ‘What sort of an announcement? It can’t be business, because Robert and I are still in the middle of this—’

‘Sam is pregnant, Nick,’ Bethany put in quietly, watching him closely.

He had been very angry and hurt when Sam had first fallen in love with his friend and business partner Robert Fairfax, but over the years, and with their own happiness so tangible, he had come to accept the situation, and he and Robert had even gone back into business together four years ago. Bethany and Sam had become very good friends—both of them being extremely happy with their respective husbands—which had made it all so much easier for the children. But, even so, Bethany wasn’t quite sure about Nick’s reaction to Sam’s pregnancy…

‘That’s great!’ Nick enthused instantly.

Much to Bethany’s relief. She had promised Sam she would break the news to Nick before the announcement was made, just so that he wouldn’t be too surprised. It was all right; she had thought it would be.

‘I know the two of them have wanted a child of their own for years.’ Nick nodded. ‘My only concern is Sam’s age…’ he added frowningly. ‘She’s thirty-nine now, and—’

‘Both Sam and the baby will be fine,’ Bethany assured him with certainty—instantly feeling a wave of déjà vu as she made the claim.

This happened to her occasionally. Her foreknowledge was always unexplainable, and she was never quite sure where her certainty came from, but it usually turned out to be correct. She certainly hoped it was where Sam and her baby were concerned; the other couple deserved the happiness of their own child.

‘My little know-all.’ Nick tapped her affectionately on the nose.

Not really, she just seemed to know some things with certainty. As she did with her love for Nick, and his love for her. It was for ever.

‘The angel now, Mummy!’ Peter demanded excitedly, once they were all standing around the tree a few minutes later, greetings kept to the minimum by the childrens’ overflowing excitement.

Bethany reached up to the very top, placing the golden-winged, golden-haired angel carefully on the highest branch, then moving back to Nick’s side as awed silence fell over them all.

‘I don’t know whether it’s my imagination,’ Nick finally murmured softly, ‘but our angel seems to glow a little brighter this year. And for a moment—’ he sounded slightly awed ‘—just a fleeting moment, I could have sworn her hair was as red as yours!’ He looked at Bethany dazedly.

She had thought the same thing herself. Only fleetingly. But, just for the briefest moment, the angel had looked a little like her.

But it looked perfectly normal again now—the same angel she and Nick had purchased from a shop together four years ago. Their feelings of it being otherwise were probably due to an overindulgence in the wine they had been sipping as they’d put up the tree and decorations!

‘I hope you all made a wish!’ she said brightly.

Her wish had been that her happiness as Nick’s wife and mother of his children would never change. And as she glanced up at the angel on top of the tree she could have sworn it smiled conspiratorially at her…

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