Two Weddings and a Baby (8 page)

‘It’s an adventure,’ she told her boys, who were now both in tears. ‘Just like in your storybooks!’

‘And we are almost there,’ Jed told the boys brightly, smiling for them. ‘It’ll be a walk in the park now. A piece of cake, made by the Poldore WI, which we can all have a big piece of once we are inside, OK?’

Tamsyn saw him glance just briefly at the churchyard, which was now entirely underwater. Merryn’s headstone was probably lost in swirls of dark water, seeing as the cedar tree now lay crumpled across the path that led to the church.

‘Come on,’ he said grimly and they set off once again, veering right to take a narrow alley that cut off the corner and led to the gate to Castle House, water cascading down the steep steps like a waterfall. Tamsyn didn’t think that in all her years living next door to the fanciful Victorian ideal of a castle, she’d even noticed that the bridge that led to the entrance went over a narrow but deep moat, probably because it was now filled to the brim with water for the first time in living memory, keeping the house and grounds that lay beyond the ramparts thankfully dry.

Fortunately Sue hadn’t been mistaken when she said that the small, door-shaped gate that had been cut into the portcullis was open, and as they stepped through into the courtyard, it was as if the wind couldn’t reach them behind the high walls, and finally the ground was dry beneath their feet. Tamsyn wasn’t aware how much she had been holding her breath until she let out a long sigh of relief. They had made it.

‘I’ll get the generator going,’ Rory said, heading off at once towards an outhouse.

‘And I’ll check on the children and Granny, and then I’ll find some baby clothes and nappies,’ Cordelia said.

‘Come on, Buoy.’ Alex set the old dog down, whom she’d carried for the last few yards after his legs gave way, bending over for a moment while she caught her breath. Tamsyn noticed how he leant against her legs, rubbing his muzzle against her knee as if in thanks, while Skipper, jumping around her feet, barked in excitement as Sue’s dogs came out to greet them, yapping and baying, and suddenly the haven of the courtyard was filled with noise.

‘Hey, Skipper, it’s your mum,’ Alex said as a regal-looking poodle led the doggy delegation. ‘Come on, everyone, let’s get inside. I’ll put the kettle on.’

They had only been in the kitchen for a few minutes before the lights came on and Cordelia returned.

‘The kids are up; they weren’t scared by the storm – in fact, they’re bouncing off the ceilings with all the excitement. Rory’s mum was very pleased to see me; I think she was at the point of throwing herself from a turret. I’m going to take them some hot chocolate, maybe throw in a bit of brandy, see if I can get them settled. What about it, boys?’ She grinned at Jamie and Joe, who were drenched through and clinging onto their mother. ‘Fancy a hot bath, a warm drink and then a bed-bouncing competition?’

‘I’m tired,’ Jamie said, rubbing his fists into his eyes. ‘And so is he.’

‘You say that now, but you wait till I’ve given you a double espresso with ten sugars …’

‘Wait a minute …’ Keira said, as the boys, who were always intrigued by the idea of getting something they shouldn’t have, went to Cordelia.

‘I am joking,’ Cordelia said, as she began to lead her nephews away to get dry. ‘Or am I?’

‘Come here,’ Laura said, unzipping Tamsyn’s borrowed coat and slipping it off her. ‘Let’s have a look and see how that little one’s doing.’

Tamsyn supported the child as her mother untied the makeshift sling from her back, taking its meagre weight in her arms.

She was surprised to find a pair of black eyes, wide open, watching her as she looked at the little face.

‘Hello there,’ Tamsyn said, feeling that she should probably say something. ‘I am sorry, you’ve had a terrible first few hours, I know. But you are in a safe place now, and there will be lots of people to help you, I promise.’

‘I’ve got formula!’ Sue appeared, her hair dripping around her face, meaning it took a moment or two for Tamsyn to realise she was crying. ‘It’s awful out there, terrible.’

‘It’s OK, love,’ Rory said. ‘It’s not that bad.’

‘It is that bad.’ Sue shook herself, straightening her shoulders and stiffening her upper lip. ‘The ground floors of all the waterfront cottages are ruined, water’s rushing in from the sea and down from the hill. It’s awful. I saw your mum, Alex, she’s on her way with Ruan. She told me to tell you she put the dresses upstairs, so they should be OK. She stopped to help with the sick people. Seems like half the town has come down with some sort of stomach flu, and they can barely walk. The lifeboat crew are bringing them up here. Oh, I can’t bear it – my beautiful town being torn apart.’

‘Suddenly the dresses don’t seem important any more,’ Alex said absently.

‘But the town,’ Sue continued, her voice quivering. ‘My town … It’s mayhem. Ruan and the lifeboat boys are doing their best, bringing people in. We are going to get very busy here tonight. Brace yourselves.’

‘Here.’ Lucy took a tin of formula and two bottles from Sue. ‘I’ll sort this out. You get dry, and get the kettle on.’

‘There’s a steam steriliser still in the pantry,’ Sue said. ‘Luckily I never got round to giving it away.’

Cordelia returned. ‘Right, the boys are in the tub but they want you, Keira. I think they are still a bit shaken up by the trip up here,’ she said, dropping a bundle of clothes onto Tamsyn’s lap. ‘And here are some fresh clothes and a nappy for the little one, Tamsyn. Better get back to my charges, and I’m taking a bottle of wine, Sue. Come on, Keira, you can come too. If there’s two of us drunk in charge of children, there’s much less likely to be an accident.’

‘Me?’ Tamsyn looked around. ‘You want me to dress the baby? There must be someone else who can dress an actual baby. I’ve never done it before.’ She held up the Babygro, which seemed like an impossible maze of arms and legs that might have been made for an octopus rather than a human child. ‘I mean, how do you get their arms in? Are babies’ arms bendy?’

‘Go through to the snug,’ Sue told her. ‘You remember where it is? I made a fire in there, and it should still be going. It’s much cosier than in here. I’ll bring you some tea and cake in a minute.’

‘Yes, but how do you get this thing onto this thing?’ Tamsyn asked her, lifting first the Babygro then the baby.

‘I’m sure you can work it out,’ Sue said. ‘Aren’t clothes your job?’

Tamsyn looked around, but everyone was busy with some sort of preparation, and even as she wondered about how a person was supposed to stand up while there was another very small person in her arms, the first set of refugees arrived through the door, shepherded by her brother, a gale blowing in after them.

‘Catriona,’ Jed rushed to support a woman in her forties, who stumbled against him. ‘When did you come down with this?’

‘I don’t think she’s that chatty,’ Ruan said. ‘We brought her up in one of the boats, lucky really. Her front door was open; she’d collapsed in the hallway. Loads of people have come down with it, so we’d better try and find a place for them away from everyone else so as not to spread it around.’

A young woman threw up noisily into a plastic bag that the man she was leaning on held for her.

‘Yes, they need beds at once,’ Sue said. ‘Rory, Catriona looks like she can hardly walk. She can go in your study, onto the sofa bed. It’s about time it was used as a force for good. Mabel, James, Dinah and the others can go in the old nursery suite. Fortunately I’ve been getting ready to move Meadow down there, now she’s getting so grown up. That will take six of them at least, and if any more of the sick turn up, well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Go on then, Rory!’

Tamsyn noticed the exchange between the husband and wife, but didn’t really have time to think about it. Jed and Ruan helped the sick woman to Rory’s study, and Rory led the others up the stairs.

‘Do try not to throw up on the Axminster!’ Sue called out after them.

Feeling a little queasy herself, Tamsyn got to her feet gingerly and went to find the snug.

It was a reassuringly warm little room, lined with books and piles of old board games. Family photos dating back at least fifty years crowded every surface, and best of all, the one tiny, vaulted window overlooked the courtyard, shielding the room from the worst of the weather. Tamsyn found that she was still terrified, even though they were now in relative safety. Then again, maybe it wasn’t the storm that frightened her so much; maybe it was the baby itself that she seemed somehow to be in charge of, despite her lack of any sort of qualification in that area.

‘I had a hamster once, you know,’ she told Mo as she lay the baby down on a rug at what she judged to be a safe distance from the embers of the fire. ‘It died.’

For several minutes she looked at the Babygro, turning it this way and that, trying to fathom out what was the back and what was the front, and then once she thought she’d worked that out, she looked at the tiny child lying before her and decided that it was simply impossible to dress its little body without breaking it.

‘You could stay in those clothes,’ she suggested, staring into the bottomless black eyes. ‘Maybe when you get too big for them, you’ll shed them and grow new ones, like a snake.’

The door opened and Jed popped his head round. The dog collar had gone again and his shirt was open at the neck. He had a very nice neck, smooth and kissable.

‘Catriona looks like she needs to sleep, so I thought I’d come and see how you are doing.’

‘Well,’ Tamsyn said, ‘on a scale of one to ten, I’d give myself a minus eleven. Who’s that lady you were helping? I didn’t recognise her from the last time I was here. Are you good friends?’

‘She’s my verger,’ Jed said. ‘Lay clergy. I couldn’t run the church without her, and yes, we are close friends. She and her mum moved here from St Austell a couple of years ago. She lost her mother a few months ago and it hit her hard; they’d always lived together, you see. I’ve been keeping an eye on her, making sure she is adjusting to life on her own, but I obviously failed her tonight. Poor woman is as sick as a dog.’

‘Well, you did have one or two things on your plate,’ Tamsyn said, nodding at the baby. ‘I’m sure she’ll understand. I was very grateful you were there when we were walking up the hill. And now I’m hoping you’ll guide me through the minefield of baby clothes.’

Jed smiled, glancing at Tamsyn as he knelt on the rug beside her. ‘You look like you could use a change of clothes, too; the bottoms of those jeans are soaking.’

‘Oh … I … My suitcase! I left it at the church. It’s probably halfway to America by now!’ Tamsyn felt a moment of grief as she thought of her expensive case packed with clothes that she had carefully collected over several years, now probably all gone, swept out to sea. But they were only clothes, not people or animals. Although she did feel like she’d had one of the most meaningful relationships of her life with that vintage Dior tweed skirt and jacket.

‘Ah,’ Jed said. ‘Well … maybe Cordelia could lend you something?’

‘Oh, it doesn’t matter.’ Tamsyn kicked off the heavy boots she had borrowed and peeled off her wet socks. ‘Now tell me, how do we change this baby’s clothes without breaking it?’

Jed took the Babygro and arranged it into the shape of a baby on the floor.

‘It’s simple enough,’ he said, reaching for the child and laying its body on top of the garment. ‘First of all, we have to take these damp things off, don’t we, little one? Yes we do! Yes we do!’

Tamsyn blinked at him, the hunky vicar, talking like a loon to the tiny child whose dark eyes were now firmly fixed on his face. Unlike most of the people she met in her day-to-day life, he was very difficult to categorise. He seemed much too young to be a vicar, although Tamsyn had to admit that there probably wasn’t a lower age limit on the position, apart from being an actual adult. He was definitely too handsome, though. If there wasn’t a rule about handsome vicars, there should be. The only light in the cosy little room came from the fire, which cast his high cheekbones in bronze, finding gold highlights in the long fringe that swept over what Tamsyn had now noted were silvery-blue eyes. And he didn’t have the body of a vicar either: his shoulders were broad, his forearms, revealed as he pushed up his shirtsleeves to gently remove the layers of the baby’s clothing, were strong, muscular. And the way he had led them up the hill, utterly calm and capable, it was almost as if it wasn’t the first time he’d been caught in that sort of situation. Maybe he wasn’t a vicar at all, Tamsyn mused; maybe he was an undercover cop posing as a vicar to unearth some sort of corruption in the WI, or maybe he was both a vicar and an MI5 operative, and spent his weekends jumping out of helicopters and then skiing down mountains to tackle super-villains … And maybe she was a bit overtired and emotional.

‘Pull yourself together, Thorne,’ she told herself silently. ‘No time for bouts of mentalism in the middle of a crisis.’

‘Tamsyn?’ Tamsyn blinked, realising that that probably wasn’t the first time he had said her name. ‘See – if you pull the clothes off the limbs, rather than the limbs out of the clothes?’

‘And what if it tries to escape, when you’re dressing it? Climbs a curtain, or something. What then, a net? Mousetrap?’

‘You’re funny,’ Jed chuckled, and Tamsyn didn’t have the heart to tell him that she wasn’t entirely joking. She really had no idea what babies were capable of doing at what point in their lives. She was fairly sure that newborns weren’t that mobile, but that was about the extent of her knowledge. For example, it certainly felt like the twins had been talking non-stop since the day they were born. They were talking whenever she left them, and still talking whenever she saw them again, even if her visits to Suffolk to see her mum and sister were months apart. It was entirely possible that they were engaged in one long, mammoth conversation.

‘No, this little thing is only a few hours old,’ Jed told her. ‘Won’t be able to roll or move very much for a good few weeks yet.’ He smiled down at the baby. ‘Amazing, isn’t it? All that is going on outside, and this tiny spark of life still manages to ignite. Now this is the tricky part, but they normally make the neck of these vest things nice and wide, so that you can just ease it over their little head, thus …’