LITMIR.BIZ

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leave you my telephone number, if you like?’ Janey seemed reluctant to go once the time came—obviously realising Gemini was a complete novice when it came to babies, and probably fearing for Jessica’s safety.

      Which was more than could be said for Jemima, Gemini inwardly berated. She would take great pleasure in thinking of suitable retribution for her sister over the weekend; this had to be the worst thing Jemima had ever done to her!

      Well…almost, she remembered hardily.

      And as for taking care of the baby..! If Jemima thought she had landed Gemini with something she couldn’t handle, then she was going to be in for a big disappointment.

      ‘That’s very kind of you.’ She accepted Janey’s offer, putting her card next to the telephone. ‘But I’m sure I won’t be needing it,’ she added confidently.

      Four hours later she wasn’t so sure about that. It had all looked so easy when Janey had fed and changed the baby, but actually putting that theory into practice proved much more difficult to Gemini than it had looked!

      For one thing Gemini couldn’t seem to get the hang of holding the baby while trying to feed her at the same time. And then the nappy didn’t seem to want to stay on. In the end she secured it into place by the poppers on Jessica’s bodyvest.

      But finally, over an hour later—much longer than it had taken Janey Reynolds!—the baby had been fed and changed and was back asleep in her carrycot, giving Gemini the chance to catch up on some of her own chores before going to bed herself.

      But it seemed no sooner had she fallen asleep than she was woken up again by Jessica’s whimpering cry from the spare bedroom. And those slight whimpers grew to enormous proportions before Gemini could wake herself up enough to deal with it.

      How on earth did new mothers cope with this for weeks, sometimes months at a time? Gemini wondered as she stumbled about the kitchen, trying to hold Jessica wrapped in a shawl in one arm and warm the bottle with the other hand.

      Not that holding the baby stopped her crying. The noise Jessica was making now seemed to go straight through Gemini’s head, reverberating around the kitchen.

      But at last the bottle was warmed and she sat down thankfully on one of the chairs around the kitchen table to give the baby her milk. Only to find Jessica didn’t want it, pushing the bottle repeatedly from her lips with her little pink tongue, and beginning that nerve-shattering wail once again!

      Gemini’s nerves were already fraught from the crying—now what did she do. Her first instinct was to telephone Janey Reynolds and find out the answer to that. But a glance at the clock showed her it was one o’clock in the morning, hardly a very sociable time to be telephoning anyone!

      One o’clock…?

      Janey had said the baby fed approximately every four hours, and it was only three hours since Jessica’s last feed, even less than that from when she had first begun to cry.

      Was Jessica sick? Did she have a temperature? What—?

      ‘What the hell is going on here?’

      Gemini looked up with a start, staring towards the doorway, wincing as she saw her husband standing there. Just what she needed when she was so harassed, and definitely looking less than her best.

      When had he arrived home? Some time ago, by the look of him; he was obviously naked beneath the black silk robe he had belted about his waist, his dark hair ruffled from sleep.

      A robe was a luxury she hadn’t allowed herself when she’d hurried out of bed earlier to see to Jessica; she was wearing only pale grey silk pyjamas, and the baby had spat most of her milk down them in her distress!

      So much for thinking earlier that Nick would probably never know there had ever been a baby in the house!

      Gemini stood up abruptly, stilling holding the baby, whose wails seemed to have turned to hiccuping sobs now. ‘What does it look like?’ she snapped, showing her impatience with the question.

      Nick blinked, green eyes narrowing in his ruggedly handsome face. ‘It looks like a baby—but I’m sure this must all be just a bad dream; we don’t have a baby!’

      Considering that she and Nick had been married for more than a year now, and had occupied separate bedrooms from the beginning of their marriage, that was highly unlikely.

      She and Nick had what could only be termed a business marriage, a marriage that suited both of them. At least, it had a year ago. She wasn’t so sure that was the case now. For either of them. But for different reasons…

      ‘That’s very astute of you, Nick,’ she drawled mockingly. ‘Although it doesn’t help in solving the problem of how to stop Jessica crying!’ she added raggedly as the baby continued to wail. ‘I wasn’t expecting you home yet,’ she added accusingly.

      ‘I completed my business early,’ he dismissed distractedly, striding into the kitchen with his usual ease of movement, taking the baby from her unresisting hands, frowning down into the little heart-shaped face. ‘What’s the matter, Jessica?’ he murmured soothingly to the baby. ‘We can’t help you if you—’ He stopped, frowning across at the watching Gemini. ‘Have you tried changing her nappy?’

      Gemini watched in fascination as her tall, arrogant husband strolled about the kitchen carrying the slightness that was Jessica. He was one of the most handsome men Gemini had ever set eyes on, possessed of a physical magnetism that she’d been unaware of when they first married.

      When had that changed?

      She wasn’t really sure. She only knew that she felt a deep sense of dissatisfaction in their marriage now, a longing for something more.

      ‘Gemini!’ Nick prompted, impatient with receiving no response to his question of a few minutes ago.

      She bristled resentfully. ‘Janey said not to change her nappy until after the feed—’

      ‘And I’m sure that Janey—whoever she might be!—is probably correct about the usual order of things—if it weren’t for the fact that Jessica is extremely damp!’ Nick grimaced as he pointedly peeled back the shawl the baby was wrapped in to reveal her sleepsuit was soaking wet!

      Gemini felt the hot colour enter her cheeks, feeling a total sense of inadequacy where this baby was concerned. And not being in control of a situation was something she wasn’t in the least comfortable with. Especially around Nick!

      She hadn’t even thought to check the baby’s nappy when she’d got Jessica up a short time ago and wrapped her in the shawl. Instead she’d been intent only on warming the bottle so that the baby would stop crying. Except that she hadn’t..! And the reason for that was now obvious.

      It was even more so once Gemini had stripped off the wet clothing to find that the nappy she had had such difficulty with at the last feed had somehow moved sideways while Jessica slept. The nappy itself was almost dry, leaving Jessica’s clothes very wet. And the situation was made all the worse by the fact that all the time she was undressing the baby Nick was watching her actions with those mocking green eyes narrowed, making her feel more inadequate than ever.

      She would never forgive Jemima for this!

      ‘Here, let me,’ Nick muttered impatiently, obviously tired of her efforts to replace the nappy and taking over the task himself, achieving an almost perfect result within seconds. Much to Gemini’s chagrin. Was there nothing that Nick wasn’t totally competent at?

      ‘When did you get to be such an expert on babies?’ she muttered resentfully as Nick put Jessica’s clean clothes on seemingly without effort, too. The baby was clean and dry minutes later, the crying having stopped as she began to fall back to sleep cradled in Nick’s strong, comforting arms.

      ‘I’m no expert, Gemini,’ Nick drawled derisively. ‘I just used a little common sense. Besides…’ He shrugged. ‘I’m ten years older than Danny; I used to enjoy helping out with him when I was a child.’

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