Two Weddings and a Baby (9 page)

‘Oh God, what’s that?’ said Tamsyn, as Jed revealed the baby’s tummy and a stump of something fleshy appeared above the nappy. ‘Oh no, is it hurt, did I do that?’

‘You don’t know much about babies, do you?’ Jed shook his head.

‘I don’t really see a lot of babies in my line of work,’ Tamsyn said. ‘I see quite a lot of small dogs in handbags, but it’s not quite the same thing.’

‘Well, anyway, that is the umbilical cord, or the end of it. The mother must have known enough to sever and tie it off, hopefully using sterile equipment. It looks like a pretty good job, but it needs to be checked by a doctor.’

‘So that’s normal, then?’ Tamsyn asked him, wrinkling her nose. ‘The stump?’

‘Yes, and in a few days it will go black and drop off and leave a tummy button.’

‘Ew,’ Tamsyn looked appalled. ‘How do you know so much about babies, anyway? Have you got a harem in the vicarage, and dozens of secret children living in Poldore?’

Jed laughed. ‘No, no children yet. I’d like to be a father one day, if I meet the right person. Before I came to Poldore I worked abroad a lot. I spent some time in Rwanda, rebuilding an orphanage that had been destroyed. It was an all-hands-on-deck sort of thing; we were literally building around the children. I learnt a lot there about childcare.’

‘That’s an amazing thing to have done,’ Tamsyn said.

‘Not really,’ Jed told her. ‘It was my job. And now, the moment of truth. Which I think is an honour that should be down to you.’

‘What? Tamsyn asked.

‘The nappy, if you can call it that. It seems to be more of a sort of tea towel …’ Jed peered at the curious bundle that had been secured about the baby with a safety pin. ‘This little one needs a fresh nappy, and I think it’s only right that you are the first to find out if we have a little girl or boy on our hands.’

‘Me?’ Tamsyn stared down at Mo, who was sucking hard on a fist, and was clearly hungry.

‘Yes, look at the poor little scrap. Come on, let’s get him or her changed and dressed and then he or she can have a bottle.’

‘Right,’ Tamsyn said. ‘I mean, it’s only a nappy, right? I’ve seen worse. I’ve seen purple and green polka dots in the Spring-slash-Summer season. This can’t be worse than that.’

Steeling herself, she held her breath and opened the improvised nappy.

‘A girl,’ she smiled. ‘I knew Mo was a girl.’

‘You checked already, did you?’ Jed asked her.

‘No, I just … I just knew, I suppose,’ Tamsyn said. ‘I mean, look at her, she looks like a girl, doesn’t she?’ The two of them looked down at her red, wrinkled face, framed with fine, black, newborn hair, and Tamsyn did have to admit that her certainty must have been based on something other than aesthetics. Newborn babies were surprisingly unappealing to look at, especially considering their fragility, and even just looking at the tiny pink and red little person awakened something inside her that she had never felt before; a primeval urge to protect her. Jed handed her a baby wipe, and trying to look much more confident than she felt, Tamsyn dabbed the wipe on Mo’s cheeks.

‘Um,’ Jed repressed a smile. ‘It’s for the other end. The other cheeks.’

‘I knew that,’ Tamsyn said, applying the same technique to Mo’s bottom. Taking the new nappy, she carefully lifted Mo’s chubby legs, and, sliding the nappy underneath, did it up with the sticky bits of tapes, sitting back on her heels to admire her handiwork.

‘To think,’ she said. ‘I once sewed six thousand crystals on a princess’s wedding dress, and changing a nappy was a million times more nerve-racking that that, but I did it!’ She beamed at Jed, who returned her smile. ‘You can dress her, though. I don’t want to break her now.’

She watched as Jed tucked Mo’s little arms and legs into the Babygro, which was far too big, tying knots on the ends of the legs and rolling up the sleeves as much as possible.

‘Here we are!’ Lucy appeared in the doorway and handed Tamsyn a small bottle of formula, and put a plate with a large piece of coffee and walnut cake on it on a small table that was piled with thick novels. ‘I tested it, it’s the right temperature.’

‘Well, what do I do with it?’ Tamsyn asked her, getting to her feet and sitting back in the chair.

‘You stick it in one end. I’ll leave you to guess which one,’ Lucy chuckled.

‘But what about Mo?’ Tamsyn asked. ‘She’s a beginner too, will she know what to do?’

‘She’ll know,’ Jed smiled as he placed the dressed baby back in Tamsyn’s arms.

Nervously Tamsyn took the bottle and rather gingerly placed the tip to the baby’s lips. Amazingly, she seemed to know exactly what it was for, taking the teat between her lips and beginning to suckle.

‘There you go, Mo,’ Tamsyn found herself cooing. ‘That’s better, isn’t it? Bet you were starving.’

‘There, you’re both naturals,’ Lucy said.

‘I’m not sure about that,’ Tamsyn said. ‘There must be about a dozen people in this building better qualified to take care of this poor child than me.’

‘Nonsense,’ Jed said. ‘You’re the one that found her, the one that saved her.’

‘Well, you could argue that that was Buoy.’

‘True, but he would be worse at nappy changing than you,’ Jed said. ‘And there is one really good reason why you are the best person to take care of Mo.’

Tamsyn waited.

‘You’re the only one that thought to name her.’

‘Vicar!’ Sue’s unmistakable clarion call echoed down the hallway outside the door. ‘Vicar, are you free to minister?’

‘I’ll check back on you two later,’ Jed said. ‘Right now I am being called to a higher purpose.’

‘I’d better go too,’ Lucy said. ‘Sue’s got me and Mum on sandwich duty. I’ll let everyone know Mo’s a girl!’

‘Alone at last, hey, Mo?’ said Tamsyn, watching as the baby’s eyes closed while she sucked. ‘Look, I’ll be straight with you. I’ve got no idea what to do with a baby. I stayed away from the twins until they were potty-trained and could behave reasonably well in a restaurant. But I do get it, I do get that for whatever reason you are alone in the world and you need a person to be on your side. Well, I will be that person, OK? Until we find your mum, until the water recedes and the roads are open again, I’ll be your person and you’ll be mine. And I will try really, really hard not to drop you.’

Just at that moment the door was pushed open and Buoy trotted in, looking the very definition of dog-tired. He took a moment to snuffle at Mo, checking that she was OK, and then settled at Tamsyn’s feet, drifting quickly into a deep sleep. It seemed as if Tamsyn wasn’t looking after Mo all alone after all, and she found the thought deeply comforting.

Mo was asleep, her rosebud lips parting as Tamsyn withdrew the empty bottle. Dimly remembering something about burping babies so that they didn’t get colic, she carefully lifted the little girl onto her shoulder and rubbed her back, and was rewarded after a few seconds by a surprisingly sonorous burp that had Tamsyn feeling rather triumphant about her childcare skills. That was until she felt the warm trickle of a little regurgitated milk make its way down her back.

‘Goodness, I’ve seen everything now,’ her mother said as she opened the door to the snug.

Tamsyn started; she must have drifted off for a moment, the weight of a dozing baby on her chest soothing her to sleep in the warmth and comfort of the snug. Panicking a little, she looked down and found Mo still sleeping peacefully, her face turned towards Tamsyn’s chest.

‘A baby suits you. You should get one of your own.’

‘Mum, really?’ Tamsyn said wearily, sitting up a little. ‘You’re going to give me the “Why are you still single and childless” talk now? You do know that we live in the twenty-first century, right? A woman is not defined by the man in her life, but by her own achievements, and I’ve actually had quite a few of those.’

‘I do know that, and I’m proud of you, and the life you’ve made for yourself in Paris,’ Laura told her daughter. ‘I just want you to be happy.’

‘I am happy,’ Tamsyn said, wondering if that was really true. She was busy, but her work never gave her a moment to pause and properly take in everything that she had achieved. She knew a great many people that she wouldn’t exactly call friends, but with whom she spent a great deal of agreeable time, and then there was Bernard. And Bernard made her feel things that were probably best not to dwell on, not when her mother was in the room, and even though none of those things could exactly be called happiness, they were surely enough. If she thought about it, she was more than content with her life. Happiness, well, that was a negligible concept, a fleeting state of affairs that could only ever slip away. It was much better to have the kind of life that she had, one that was so much less likely to disappoint. One that was … satisfying.

‘Well, it’s mayhem out there! Sue and your brother have brought half the town here, by the looks of things, most of them sick with this horrible bug thing. Looks like we are bunking in with Cordelia. She’s put the boys in with Sue’s children. Apparently they are having some sort of sleepover, although there doesn’t seem to be much sleeping going on. She’s even found an old Moses basket for the little one.’

‘Oh,’ Tamsyn looked down at Mo. ‘Given that her first experience of a Moses basket was a near-death one, I’m not sure she’ll feel like giving it another go. And she really seems to like cuddles.’

‘All babies like cuddles,’ Laura said. ‘You were the same, the worst out of all of you for not wanting to sleep on your own. Honestly, I think you’d have still been sharing my bed by the time you were sixteen if I hadn’t put my foot down.’

‘Sorry, am I interrupting?’ Alex said, as she came in. ‘Thought I’d see how you were holding up in here.’

‘We’re fine,’ Laura said, keeping up the habit of a lifetime of answering for her children.

‘Are you OK, dear?’ Laura asked Alex. ‘Not exactly the sort of drama a young bride-to-be needs.’

‘Oh, I’ll worry about that when the sun rises,’ Alex said. ‘Right now I’m just pleased that we’ve got most people who needed help to safety, and everyone seems pretty well, although Catriona is very poorly. The vet is looking at her now, and then she’s coming to check on the baby.’

‘The vet?’ Tamsyn asked. ‘Vicky the Vet?’

‘Our GP is on holiday, so she’s the nearest thing we have to a medical expert,’ Alex explained. ‘Sergeant Dangerfield wants a word too. And I’m glad to see Buoy is nicely ensconced in here with you. I think the younger dogs were starting to annoy him, and he does seem to be attached to the little one.’

‘We’re calling her Mo,’ Tamsyn said. ‘She’s a girl baby.’

‘That’s nice,’ Alex grinned. ‘Not sure if I should congratulate you, or something.’

‘Well, we are all set up upstairs for you when you are ready,’ Laura told her. ‘Cordy’s prepared a few feeds for you and the bottle warmer is out in the kitchen. Follow the sound of children refusing to sleep and you’ll find us.’

Laura bent down and kissed Tamsyn on the cheek.

‘I am proud of you, and everything you’ve done in Paris, but you know what? I don’t think I have ever been more proud of you than I am tonight.’

‘Well?’ Sergeant Dangerfield asked Vicky Carmichael as she took the stethoscope away from Mo’s chest. ‘How’s the little mite doing?’

‘Well,’ Vicky said. ‘I’m obviously not a paediatrician, but I’ve delivered a lot of baby mammals in my time, and I’m a mum, so I know a healthy, content baby when I see one. Temp normal, colour good, she’s feeding well, she’s had a wet nappy. Her weight is good, too; a little over seven pounds according to these kitchen scales. I’d say she was less than a day old, probably, certainly very lucky that you found her when you did. I think that for now she’s safe and well cared for, and in about as good a shape as she can be, considering what she’s been through.’

‘Right then, I’ll just radio through to social services and see what’s what,’ Dangerfield said. ‘Back in a mo, Mo.’

He chuckled to himself as he left. ‘Mo, Mo.’

‘You must feel a bit shell-shocked,’ Vicky smiled at Tamsyn. ‘It’s not every day you find a baby floating down the road.’

‘I haven’t really had time to think about it,’ Tamsyn said. ‘I expect I’ll be freaked out at some point; well, more freaked out, anyway …’

‘Well,’ Vicky knelt down next to Buoy and stroked his side. ‘If you’ve got this old trooper keeping an eye on you, you’ll be fine. I’d thought I’d lost him, you know, after he went into the water with Alex and your brother, but this is a dog that would not die.’

Vicky bent over Buoy and kissed the top of his head, before pressing her ear to his side for a moment and then kissing his ear.

‘Now then, Buoy,’ she whispered. ‘You know that Alex wants you walking down the aisle with her, don’t you? You hang in there, OK? Rest and stay well, you’ve got things to do.’

‘Is he …?’ Tamsyn couldn’t say the rest of the sentence.

‘He’s in pretty good nick,’ Vicky said. ‘But I’d be happier if he’d slow down a tad in his old age. Not even a dodgy leg and one eye can stop him performing his heroics.’

‘I am pretty sure the baby wouldn’t have made it without him,’ Tamsyn said.

‘There’s life in the old dog yet.’ Vicky smiled. ‘And lots of cake too, after all the treats he got in the kitchen.’

Sergeant Dangerfield returned. ‘Tamsyn, I’ve spoken to a lady at social services, and she’s running a background check on you as Mo’s temporary carer.’

‘Wait, what?’ Tamsyn said.

‘Well, someone needs to be officially in charge of her until we can get to the proper authorities. So I’ve named you, as you found her, and the Reverend Hayward, as she was found in the church, and he’s a very capable man, pillar of the community and all that. I’m sorry, I assumed that you were willing to take care of her. Hopefully it will be just overnight.’

‘Oh I am, but I thought of it more like babysitting,’ Tamsyn said. ‘I wasn’t expecting a police check.’

‘Got a criminal past to hide?’ Sergeant Dangerfield asked her, and Tamsyn chuckled until she realised that the question was serious.

‘No, of course not, well, not unless you count the lemon kick-flares I designed for my end-of-year show. And there was this one time I shoplifted some lipstick from Mr Figgs … Oh, and I got brought home by a policeman when I was sixteen for being drunk and … let’s just say, singing Meatloaf a little bit too loud in a residential area at two in the morning, but I don’t think any of that went on my record. Maybe the fire, the fire might have done. But it was mostly an accident, so probably not.’