Читать книгу The Parent Test - Elizabeth Duke - Страница 5

CHAPTER ONE

Оглавление

ROXY’S nerves were strung tight by the time her plane touched down in Sydney after the long flight from Los Angeles. Her emotions were swinging from joyful anticipation at the thought of seeing her baby niece again, for only the second time, to a shivery dread at the prospect of coming face to face again with Cam Raeburn, the man she was prepared to fight for custody of her niece.

Nobody was at the airport to meet her, which didn’t surprise her. Nobody but her father knew that she was arriving back in Australia today, and he was living in Western Australia now, with Roxy’s stepmother Blanche. Crabby old Blanche had wanted to live near her own daughter’s family, as far away from her husband’s family as possible.

And now that Roxy’s sister Serena and brother-in-law Hamish had tragically gone, Blanche was doing her best to sever all ties with her remaining stepdaughter—and the orphaned baby girl Hamish and Serena had left behind.

‘No, of course the baby’s not with us!’ Blanche had squawked when Roxy had called from northern Mexico after hearing the shocking news of the tragic boating accident. ‘How could I take care of a baby with my arthritis? And your father has a bad heart, remember? Don’t worry, the child’s in good hands. Hamish’s brother, Cam Raeburn, is looking after her.’

Roxy wouldn’t have wanted Blanche taking care of her baby niece anyway, even temporarily. Even Cam Raeburn was preferable to Blanche. As the baby’s uncle and godfather, Cam should at least have his niece’s best interests at heart

Roxy humphed as she hailed a cab to her Sydney flat. Best interests or not, she had to make Cam see that she was the best one to take care of their niece from now on. She was Serena’s sister—the baby’s aunt—while he was a single man…a divorcee…a womanising bachelor who surely wouldn’t want to be lumbered with a baby indefinitely.

With a bit of luck the novelty of looking after his seven-month-old niece was already wearing off.

She hoped so—fervently. It would make things so much easier and less traumatic for the baby if he would simply hand their niece over. Once she had little Emma safely back here in Sydney, she would apply for formal custody.

It didn’t take long to reach her two-bedroomed flat in suburban Coogee—the flat where she’d be bringing baby Emma soon, hopefully. As she carried her bags into her bedroom Roxy caught sight of herself in the full-length mirror.

She looked a fright. She couldn’t let Cam see her like this!

Her cotton top was like a crumpled rag. Her old faded jeans had stains from the coffee she’d spilt on the plane. And her short-cropped hair, normally sun-bleached and glowing with natural golden highlights, looked dull and drab and even more of a mess than usual.

She always wore her hair short, in a naturally tousled style—with her fine-boned face and slight build it suited her best that way and was easier to manage. But her new choppy hairstyle had short jagged bits sticking out all over. The nursing aide who’d cut it for her at the hospital in Los Angeles had called it a ‘dishevelled bob’, supposedly the latest trend in L.A. salons.

As her gaze settled on her drawn face, Roxy sighed. Normally tanned and healthy, she looked thin and pale after her three-week stay in hospital, and the long flight had left her blue eyes darkly shadowed and lacking their usual lustre.

She fingered her bottom lip tentatively. At least the surgery on her mouth had had time to heal…thanks to that ghastly virus which had kept her in hospital for an additional two long weeks. In fact, the extra time in hospital had been a blessing in another way too. It had given her time to mourn Serena and Ham-ish…time to recover from her grief and shock before coming home to face further trauma in the shape of Cam Raeburn.

Before taking a quick shower and changing into a fresh shirt and jeans, she called her father to let him know she was back and that she was planning to head down the coast to Raeburns’ Nest to claim her niece.

‘I’m home to take care of Emma now,’ she told him firmly.

‘Oh, Roxy, love, how can you look after a baby?’ Her father sounded frailer each time she talked to him. Part sorrow at losing a daughter, and part Blanche, Roxy thought with a grimace. Her stepmother would wear anyone out.

‘She’ll be better off with me than with Cam Raeburn,’ she insisted.

‘But you’re always away in some far-flung country, love. Emma would be stuck alone in your flat for months at a time and it would cost you a fortune in baby-sitters. How could you afford it? At least with Cam Raeburn caring for her, Emma will have an uncle and a live-in nanny with her all the time. And with his wealth, Cam can afford a daily housekeeper and every possible luxury.’

A live-in nanny…a daily housekeeper…every possible luxury. Roxy’s heart dipped.

‘And now that Cam owns Raeburns’ Nest,’ her father ploughed on, ‘he’s able to keep Emma in her own home, in familiar surroundings. With a rich uncle like Cam Raeburn, love, the baby won’t want for anything.’

Roxy pulled a face. ‘Anything but a mother.’

‘Roxy, love, with your field trips…’

‘I’ll give up my field work! I’ll try to get extra teaching hours at Uni. They have a creche there now.’ But the long summer break had just started at Uni and lectures didn’t resume until next March—four months away. ‘I’ll manage,’ she asserted, but her voice wavered. Whether she gave up her field work to stay at home all the time or not, how could she compete with what Cam Raeburn had to offer Emma?

‘You’d better have it out with Cam.’ Her father sighed. ‘I don’t think he’ll be prepared to give her up.’

‘Once he knows that I’m back and that I’m prepared to—’

‘He’s planning to get married again, love. He told me when I called him the other day to ask after Emma. He wants to give the baby a proper family again, he said, like she had with Hamish and Serena.’

Shock jolted Roxy into silence for several long seconds. Getting married again? Cam Raeburn?

‘He wants to marry one of his flashy bimbo brunettes?’ she finally bit out. She felt a trembling, irrational surge of fury. ‘I’ll fight him in the courts first!’

Her father gave a brief, sympathetic laugh. ‘A single, penniless female, fighting a rich industrial chemist with a highly profitable business and powerful connections? And a married man?’

‘He’s not married yet! And if I have anything to do with it, I’ll have poor little Emma out of his clutches before he is! Serena wanted me to have Emma,’ Roxy burst out. ‘She told me once that if anything ever happened to them, she wanted me to bring up their daughter!’

‘Serena—um—didn’t mention custody in her will, love…unfortunately. Look…you’d better take that up with Cam as well.’

‘Oh, I will, don’t worry.’ Her voice trembled. She’d have a lot of things to take up with Cam Raeburn when she saw him. But first she had to find out more about this woman he was planning to marry. As a married man—as a wealthy husband with a wife—he’d hold every trump card. She’d have no hope in the world of fighting him and winning.

Had he actually proposed yet? Or was he just thinking about it?

A bitter memory stirred, and she shivered. The night of her sister’s wedding…Cam Raeburn, leading her into that secluded moonlit garden…the deceptive magic in the air… She swallowed hard, remembering the way he’d kissed her, soaring her to heights she’d never known…the way he’d looked at her, gazing deep into her eyes…the way he’d murmured, in that deep rumbling voice of his, Things can happen when you least expect them to.

How prophetic his words had been! When she’d least expected it, the magic spell he’d been weaving had cruelly shattered. The moment Cam had found out that she wasn’t just a history lecturer, but also an archeologist who spent half her year out of Australia, scrabbling around in the dirt at remote digs, he’d lost interest in her. Worse, he’d dumped her for someone else. A stunning dark-eyed brunette.

Hurt, humiliated and angry, she’d been trying to avoid him ever since. They’d only come face to face once in the past year and a half…unavoidably, at baby Emma’s christening five months ago, when their niece was just two months old. In typical fashion, Cam had flaunted another raven-haired beauty in her face—a clone of the one at her sister’s wedding.

She hadn’t been back home since—until now.

Who was this girl Cam was planning to marry?

Had Cam Raeburn finally found a leggy, dark-eyed brunette who was willing to look after a home and a baby? Was he so determined to give his niece a secure, stable family life again that he’d decided to marry his niece’s nanny?

No! Roxy thought violently, her face heating. Serena’s baby is not going to be brought up by a roving-eyed uncle and some flashy bimbo who doesn’t genuinely care about her. Emma is my responsibility.

She drew in her lips, her eyes narrowing as she asked her father caustically, ‘Emma’s live-in nanny wouldn’t happen to be a young, stunning-looking brunette, by any chance?’

‘Young? A brunette? Mary?’ Her father gave a confused laugh. ‘No, love, Mary’s a widowed grandmother—a former mothercraft nurse. She used to mind the baby for Serena and Hamish when they wanted an evening out or at weekends when they went sai—’ He stopped, choking on the word ‘sailing’.

Roxy swiftly changed tack. ‘Well, I’m sure Cam won’t want to be left holding the baby for too long.’ It would cramp his style too much. ‘Not that he’ll need to, now that I’m home.’ Her spirits had lifted a little. At least it wasn’t the live-in nanny.

‘Roxy…’ It was Blanche’s voice on the phone now, sharp and impatient as always. ‘You’re tiring your father. It’s time for his rest’

‘I have to go anyway. Tell Dad to take care.’ Roxy hung up and started dialling the number of Raeburns’ Nest.

She was familiar with the number because Hamish and Serena had lived there during their idyllic, far-too-short marriage. Now Cam, it seemed, had moved back into his old family home. It belonged to him now.

She’d only spoken to Cam once since the tragedy six weeks ago, when she’d called him from northern Mexico after speaking to her father—and only after learning that Cam had temporary custody of the baby.

The line had been shocking, full of static, and she’d had to shout. ‘Cam? It’s Roxy Warren.’

‘Well…Roxy.’ She’d felt the chill in his voice even over that very noisy, distorted line. ‘You couldn’t even come home for your sister’s funeral. We thought a week’s notice would have been ample, even for you.’

A burst of ear-splitting static had muffled her indignant reply: ‘I’ve only just heard. I’ve been camping out in northern Mexico for the past—’

But Cam was speaking over her, his words cracking like gunfire down the fast-disintegrating line. ‘Your father could have done with your support at the funeral. Blanche was no—’ He swore, and gave up. ‘Look, this line’s impossible. Hang up and call your father. He’ll be back in Perth by now.’

‘I’ve already—’ But the line had gone dead.

Even now, anger surged inside her at the memory. She could have done with a little sympathy, not a barrage of unfair criticism. She hadn’t even had a chance to ask after her niece, let alone let Cam know that she was on her way home to take care of the baby.

Her unlucky accident on arriving in Los Angeles the next day—and the bug that had hit her days later in the hospital—had prevented her from making any more calls. She’d managed to send word to her father, via one of the nurses, and had eventually spoken to him herself before leaving the hospital.

But she’d made no attempt to call Cam Raeburn again until now. She hadn’t wanted to warn him that she was about to leave hospital and come home. She didn’t trust him.

She had good reason not to trust him.

The Parent Test

Подняться наверх