made her feel...special?
More than that...it reignited that sensation in her belly and gave her a disturbing flashback to that moment when her fingertips had touched his hand. This had to stop, right now. It was worse than simply finding a man attractive. This Ryan was a doctor and that put him completely out of her league even if she was prepared to consider getting close to someone. She’d been taught that lesson long ago. And she wasn’t interested in getting close to anyone, anyway. So much safer not to.
But she couldn’t look away from this someone, despite her best efforts. This was her first proper glimpse of the man in strong lighting and it stole her breath away. Tanned skin on muscled forearms was dusted with golden hair and there were matching streaks of gold on his head. He looked like someone who spent all his spare time on a beach, which was not unlikely given that he had come from Australia. Something like surfing was probably a normal hobby over there. He had blue eyes, she noticed as he turned back to the table. Very blue eyes...
With an actual, physical wrench, she dragged her gaze away from him. It snagged on the empty box that had been the baby’s only shelter from the chilly autumn night. Except...it wasn’t quite empty, was it?
‘There’s a note in the box,’ Evie said.
Only Janine glanced in her direction. Ryan and Susie were completely focused on the baby, checking her out from head to toe.
‘What does it say?’
‘“Please help my baby. Find her a mum who can look after her because I can’t.”’ Evie’s voice choked up. ‘It looks like it was written by a kid... Oh, I hope she’s okay...’
‘They’ll find her,’ Janine said. ‘Or maybe she’ll come back to find us.’
Evie swallowed. ‘I don’t know about that. How desperate would you have to be to leave your baby and run away?’
She put the note back with the box and the hoodie—the only items they had that might provide a clue to the mother’s identity and perhaps her whereabouts. Where had she given birth? And had she been all alone? How frightening would that have been?
Evie took a step closer to the table where the doctors were examining the tiny baby. She was so tiny. Naked and vulnerable. She had stopped crying for the moment and, while her body was squirming under the attention of professional hands, her eyes seemed to be trying to focus on the nearest face—as if she was searching for someone she recognised.
‘I can’t see any obvious major abnormalities,’ Susie said. ‘But I’d only give her an Apgar score of about six. Seven at the most. Her respiratory effort is down and her colour’s off. Look at her legs.’
Evie looked as well. While the baby’s upper body was quite pink, her legs were very pale and the tiny toes had a distinctly bluish tinge.
‘Differential cyanosis,’ Ryan nodded. ‘Let’s check the peripheral pulses.’
His hands looked huge against the tiny body under the warmth of the lamps. Clever-looking hands, Evie thought, and so gentle as he felt for the different pulses. Brachial at the elbow, radial in the wrists and femoral in the groin.
Janine, standing close to Evie, let her breath out in a sigh. ‘Poor little mite,’ she murmured. Oh... I’d better call the police, hadn’t I? And Social Services?’
‘It can wait for a bit. I want to know what’s going on here.’ Ryan’s face was creased with concentration and then his frown deepened. He put his fingers on the baby’s chest, very softly, and he closed his eyes for a moment. Was he feeling for the way the heart was moving?
His eyes snapped open. ‘Stethoscope?’
Susie pulled hers from around her neck and handed it to him. Evie caught the glance she gave Janine that suggested they might be lucky in having a cardiac specialist on hand.
‘Femoral pulse is absent,’ Ryan said, as he warmed the bell of the stethoscope in his hand. ‘And the radial is weak.’
It had to be hard to hear any heart sounds with the warbling cries the baby was making again. Maybe that was why Ryan cupped the tiny head with one hand, his thumb offering a comforting stroke over the whorls of dark hair. Watching him do that melted something deep inside Evie, maybe because it was so tender and suggested a concern that went beyond anything purely professional. Then he nodded once and straightened and it was clear that his only thoughts were clinical.
‘Systolic murmur,’ he said.
‘Congenital heart condition.’ Susie nodded. ‘What’s your guess? A ventricular septal defect, maybe?’
‘Could be. Or a hypoplastic left heart. Or coarctation of the aorta. We need to get some ECG dots on and do an ultrasound.’ He looked down at the baby and his mouth curved in a poignant smile that made Evie’s heart skip a beat on top of that melting sensation.
‘You’re having a bit of a rough start at this game of life, aren’t you, sweetheart?’
‘She needs a name,’ Janine said. ‘Even if it’s just temporary.’
‘Grace...’
Everybody’s heads turned and Evie blushed. The name had just popped out before she’d stopped to think.
‘It was my mum’s name,’ she added. And she’d been thinking of her mother just before she’d found the baby, hadn’t she? Her mother’s necklace, anyway.
‘I like it,’ Susie said. ‘Grace it is.’
‘Can she stay here?’ Ryan asked. ‘What’s the protocol at Hope Hospital for treating abandoned babies?’
‘I have no idea. It’s not something you expect to happen, is it?’ Janine shook her head. ‘I’d better get hold of Theo and let him know what’s happening. He might not have left the gala yet and he’d better be the one to handle police involvement and any media coverage, etcetera.’
‘I could do that,’ Evie offered.
‘Oh, please do,’ Janine said. ‘You’ll know all the numbers needed. But don’t you need to get home to the kids?’
‘I’ll call and make sure everything’s good. And then I’ll stay as long as I can.’ Evie took one more look at the baby. She didn’t want to leave.
What she really wanted to do was to pick up this baby and cuddle her—more than she’d ever wanted to cuddle any of the babies here.
She’d found this one. And she’d named her.
The feeling of connection was rapidly getting stronger.
Ryan seemed to sense her hesitation. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said softly. ‘We’ll take good care of her while you’re gone.’
As if to underline the promise, he touched baby Grace’s hand with his forefinger and she saw the tiny fingers curl around his. That image stayed in her mind with startling clarity as she headed out to the reception area and the phones she needed to use.
* * *
There was so much to do to stabilise this baby’s condition and
