spooned up their breakfast cereal.
‘Hello, darlings.’ Not wanting to get too close, she blew them a kiss.
Rachel, always the more solemn of the two, stared at her round-eyed, while Rebecca smiled and crowed and dribbled ground rice and apricots down her chin.
‘Good morning.’ Zan gave Annis a smile that stopped her breath as effectively as a silken noose. ‘How are you feeling this morning?’
‘Fine,’ she muttered untruthfully.
He set a mug full of milky coffee on the table and pulled out a chair for her. ‘You look as if you need to sit down.’
‘First I must phone the hospital.’
‘I’ve just been talking to them. Your sister-in-law is as well as can be expected. She’s suffering from shock, but they don’t think the internal injuries are too severe.’
Annis’s pale lips framed the almost inaudible question, ‘And the baby?’
‘You’ve got a brand new nephew, born safely an hour ago.’
The relief was so great that Annis sat down abruptly and burst into tears.
A folded handkerchief was put into her hand.
While she dried her eyes and blew her nose, Zan added evenly, ‘I’ve assured your brother that everything is all right at this end, so he’s going to stay at the hospital… Now, do you feel up to some toast?’
Gulping the milky coffee gratefully, she shook her head.
‘Then as soon as Mrs Sheldon arrives I propose to take you home to bed.’
‘Who’s Mrs Sheldon?’
‘She’s an ex-nurse and a very competent nanny. I’ve borrowed her from Helen, whose family, though still young, no longer really need her. She’ll look after the twins for the time being.’
‘But Linda and Richard can’t afford a nanny,’ Annis protested.
‘That’s all taken care of.’ There was a knock, and he added, ‘Ah, this sounds like her now.’
He returned after a moment or so with a neatly dressed, pleasant-faced woman in her forties.
When he’d made the introductions, Mrs Sheldon said cheerfully, ‘Now don’t you worry, Miss Warrener. I’ll take care of everything.’
Feeling like death, Annis gave in and made her way upstairs to get dressed, recognising that even if she could manage to look after the twins it was in their best interest that she shouldn’t.
But someone was paying Mrs Sheldon, and the very last thing she wanted was for any of her family to be in Zan Power’s debt.
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