snugly back into his little wheeled cot. Tucked him under the sheets so he didn’t feel abandoned. His eyes were shut. Misty had put nappies and wipes and assorted linen under there in case he needed it in the room overnight and Rayne trundled the cot out the door and down the hallway, where two men were pushing a wheeled bed into the room.
His first sight of Maeve made him draw in his breath. She looked like Snow White, icily beautiful, but deeply asleep and as white as the sheets she lay on with her eyes shut. Her black hair made her look even paler and his heart clutched in shock. Unconsciously his hand went down until he was resting it on Connor’s soft hair, as if he needed the touch of his son to stay calm.
She stirred as the bed stopped against the wall of the room. Blinked slowly and then she opened her eyes, focused and saw him. Licked her dry lips. Then softly, barely perceptibly, she murmured, ‘Hi, there, Rayne.’
‘Hi, there, Princess Maeve.’ He pulled the cot up to the side of the bed. ‘Your son is beautiful.’
‘Our son,’ she whispered.
‘I love him already.’ He didn’t know where the words had come from but he realised it was somewhere so deep and definite in him that it resonated with truth and the smile on Maeve’s face as she closed her eyes assured him it was the thing she most wanted to hear.
‘Then I can leave him to you while I sleep.’
‘I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.’
‘Thank you.’ And she breathed more deeply as she drifted back to sleep.
He watched her chest slowly rise and fall. Glanced at the blood running into a vein in her left arm and mentally thanked the donor who had provided it. Checked the drugs running into a right-arm vein. Watched Misty as she straightened the IV lines, the monitor leads and the automatic blood-pressure machine, set to record every half an hour, until they were all in a position she could glance at every time she came into the room.
Rayne shifted his intended chair slightly so he could see too. Frowned over the fact that Maeve’s heart rate was still elevated, her blood pressure still low. But respirations were normal. And even as she slept just a tinge of colour was returning to her face.
He pushed Connor’s cot quietly towards the big chair beside the bed and sank back into it. Then pulled the cot halfway between the bed and the chair so that either of them could stretch out their arm and could touch their son. Then he settled down to watch Maeve.
MAEVE WOKE AND the room was quiet. It was still dark through the windows outside and her belly felt like it was on fire. At first she thought Rayne was asleep but he shifted and sat straighter when he saw she was awake and she wondered vaguely if he’d been awake all this time. Watching over her. It was an incredible thought.
‘Hi.’ She couldn’t keep a frown off her face.
‘Pain not good?’
She decided shaking her head would be too much movement. ‘Eight out of ten.’
He stood up. ‘I’ll get Misty.’ Left the room in a few long strides and she tried to lessen the tension in her body. What the heck happened to her beautiful natural birth? And how had she ended up being sore both ends? Now, that sucked. Closed her eyes and decided to worry about it tomorrow.
Misty came back in with Rayne and brought some tablets and a bottle of water with a straw.
Rayne slid his arm under her shoulders and eased her up so slowly and gently that it barely hurt to move. She swallowed the pills and savoured the water as it ran down her throat as he laid her down again.
Misty checked all her observations then Connor’s, without rousing him, and then lifted the sheets and checked her wound and her bleeding and nodded with satisfaction at both. ‘Looking beautiful.’
She heard Rayne, say, ‘You midwives are weird.’
It would hurt to laugh. Misty laughed and left the room and Maeve smiled. She turned her head carefully and looked at Connor. Sleeping like a baby. Hugged that thought to herself then looked at Rayne, who was watching her. There was something different about him.
‘You okay?’
He smiled and there was so much caring in the look he gave her that she felt herself become warm. ‘I’m okay, as long as you are,’ he said.
Meaning? ‘Been a pretty torrid day?’
He stood up. Smiled down at her. Took her hand in his and turned it over. Careful of the IV lines, she thought. It was just a hand. Then he kissed her palm and it became a magic hand.
Then he said, ‘A first for me as well. You scared the daylights out of me.’
Funnily, she hadn’t been scared. ‘I wasn’t scared. You said not to be. Thank you for being there.’
He shook his head. ‘Connor is amazing.’ He looked towards the door. ‘These people are amazing.’ He glanced at her. ‘You are beyond amazing.’ Then he leaned down. Kissed her dry lips and tucked her in. ‘Go back to sleep.’
When she woke in the morning Rayne was still there. His eyes were closed but for some reason she didn’t think he was asleep. The drips had stopped feeding blood and had changed to clear fluid, so she guessed that was a good thing.
Connor was still sleeping. She reminded herself that babies could sleep up to ten or twelve hours after the first feed to get over the birth and she didn’t need to feel guilty she hadn’t fed him again. Remembered he’d probably make her pay for it later by feeding every time she wanted to put him back in his cot. Though she couldn’t imagine wanting to put him back in his cot. It felt so long since she’d held him in her arms.
‘Good morning.’ Rayne’s eyes were open. ‘How do you feel?’
‘I must look like a dishrag.’
‘You look beautiful. A little pale and interesting as well.’
‘At least I’m interesting.’ She winced as she smiled too hard.
‘I’ll get Misty.’ He left and came back with Misty, who was almost ready to hand her over to the morning staff.
So they repeated the whole Rayne lifting her, tablet taking, observation thing, and this time she didn’t want to go back to sleep afterwards. She wanted to change out of her horrible gown and get into her nightie. Get up and shower, but she didn’t think she’d be able to do it.
Could feel herself getting cross. ‘Why don’t you go back to the manse and have a sleep?’
Rayne lifted his brows and looked at her. Smiled. ‘Later. When you have a wash, and get into your nightie, and have Connor’s next feed. I don’t know you well but I know you enough to see you want to be fresh, and hold your son, soon.’
He looked at her and shrugged. ‘I want to help you, and help the midwife helping you, and I can be the muscle so you don’t have to hurt yourself trying to do all those things.’
She
