Country Lovers Read Online Free Page B

a girl! All safe and sound!” Then he rushed back in to eulogize the kid all over again.
    â€œIsn’t it fantastic? Have you ever seen anything as wonderful as that? Why, it’s astounding. Honest to God. A marvel!”
    â€œClean her up while—”
    â€œIt’s a girl. That’s what Nuala’s always wanted, a little girl.”
    â€œâ€”I stitch up and finish off.”
    Callum said decisively, “Right. When we’ve done, we’ll take her to Nuala to see. Her being so near the end I can do nothing but exactly as she asks. She just wants to hold her. To have a share in all this loveliness.” Callum concentrated on making the little kid as pretty as a picture for Nuala. “Her hooves, look! Aren’t they beautiful? So tiny, why, you can’t believe she’s real!”
    â€œShe is though and she won’t be the last, by the looks of Cassandra.”
    â€œBlack with these white patches, you have to agree she’s well marked.”
    Dan finished closing up Sybil, and then suggested Callum take the kid for Nuala to see. He intended staying in the kitchen and getting washed before he left, but Callum insisted that Nuala would like to see him. “She doesn’t get much company, you know. People don’t know what to say.”
    So he followed Callum into the dining room, now converted into a bedroom for Nuala. She lay in a big double bed, propped on snow-white pillows the color of her face. If it was possible, Nuala looked even more frail than the last time he’d seen her. There was no flesh on her face; it was quite simply skin stretched over bones. Once, she had been pretty, he could see that. She was wearing a bed jacket, so only her hands were visible on the counterpane, and they too, like her face, were skin and bone. Nothing more. There was such a terrible stillness about her you would have thought she was already dead.
    Callum, carrying the kid in a baby’s blanket, laid it reverently on the bed beside Nuala just where she could reach to touch it. Her eyes glowed with delight. She whispered to Callum to put the kid in her arms, so he did, protesting that it was too heavy for her. She shook her head. Taking a big breath, which ran out before she’d finished speaking, Nuala said, “I always wanted a little girl. Remember that time when…”
    Callum nodded. “What shall we call her?”
    Breathing deeply she gasped, “Carmel.”
    â€œSure, that’s a great choice. Carmel it shall be. I’m going to take her back to Sybil now; she’ll be missing her.”
    The tiny kid made a sweet attempt at an anxious bleat, so Callum scooped her up in his arms and left. Dan said, “Good morning, Mrs. Tattersall. I’ll be seeing you. Rose sends her love.”
    Nuala looked at him and whispered, “Thank you. God bless. Look after Callum for me. You know, when I’m…”
    â€œCertainly, I most definitely will. ’Bye Nuala.” He smiled at her and raised his hand in a half salute, at a loss to know what else to say. Dan found Callum seated in the kitchen watching Sybil and Carmel getting to know each other.
    â€œThat’s what we were going to call our baby that we never got to hold. Losing her broke Nuala’s heart.”
    Dan’s answer to that was to squeeze Callum’s shoulder in sympathy. “Best be off.”
    â€œThere’ll be no point in it all without her.”
    â€œI’ll call tomorrow perhaps, or better still, ring me if you need me. Right?”
    â€œRight.”
    Dan left Callum downing another whisky while he supervised Carmel having her first feed. He paused for a moment at the back door, thought about the cards life had dealt Callum, and remembered Jonathan Franklin-Brown and Rose and how happy he was by comparison.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 
    â€œY OU say Dan’s gone to Tattersall’s Cop? That’s good of him.” Joy