Secretary on Demand (20 page)

‘Y
OU
are the most exquisite creature in the world.'

Shannon looked drowsily at Kane and smiled. She watched as he tenderly picked up the eight-pound-three-ounce baby girl sleeping in the crook of her arm and watched as the tiny newborn figure stirred and stretched with closed fists and made small gurgling sounds before settling back into her new sleeping position.

She felt as fragile as a piece of china, Kane thought as he circled the small hospital room with his baby in his arms. A family. Eleanor, Sophie, Shannon and himself. Nothing else mattered.

For years work had been his driving force but now that he'd delegated much of it to his various directors it seemed natural to slide into a less frantic schedule. In a short while he would drive back to the house to collect Eleanor so that she could meet her sister for the first time, and as soon as Shannon was ready they would be moving out to the country and leaving London to the Londoners. He looked at his wife and felt a burst of gratitude and love.

‘Have you called everyone on the list?' Shannon asked, and he went to sit by her on the side of the bed.

‘You forget that you're speaking to the most organised person in the world.'

‘Oh, is that right? Would that be why you forgot my overnight bag when I went into labour?'

‘Ah, but you have to admit that I made sure it was packed weeks in advance.'

‘How was Mum?'

‘A bag of nerves,' Kane said drily, ‘as you can imagine. They're all coming over tomorrow, so expect a hectic day of showing off our daughter. Your mother will be in her element considering you deprived her of a big, white wedding…'

‘My mother has ample opportunity for big, white weddings with my sisters. Not that she's a big, white wedding kind of lady. Anyway, she said that she couldn't have hoped for anything more. Family only for the register office and then a reception in the grandest hotel in Dublin…'

Shannon closed her eyes and knew that even if the photographer hadn't been present, recording everything from every angle, she would still hold that memory in her heart for the rest of her life. The joy as she'd turned to Kane and kissed him chastely for the first time as his wife, her mother dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief, Eleanor bursting with the thrill of it all, and then the reception in Dublin where every friend and relative had showed up with good wishes on their lips.

She'd had her cream silk dress dry-cleaned and one day soon she would sit Eleanor down and tell her how much it meant to her, how powerful a symbol it would always be of her great happiness. When she looked at Kane, she saw him smiling at her, understanding what was going on in her head, the way he always did.

He placed the baby back with Shannon and watched in fascination as Sophie uncurled her fists and wriggled about. ‘Now, reds, I feel you should get some rest before Eleanor comes to visit.' He leant over and kissed her on the tip of her nose. ‘She's bursting with excitement at the thought of seeing you and our baby. Not forgetting your family…'

‘They did kind of adopt her, didn't they?'

‘They certainly did, Mrs Lindley.'

‘Mrs Lindley.' She savoured the words and smiled at him. She wondered whether it would take her a lifetime to adapt to the fact that dreams could come true.

‘My Mrs Lindley.' He raised her hand to his mouth and kissed it. ‘And I would be no one without you.'

‘Good,' she said comfortably. ‘Because you're always going to have me.' She kissed their baby's downy head and thought how their love would only grow stronger over the years, a safe, secure haven she would never leave.