Read Online The Honourable Maverick / The Unsung Hero by Alison Roberts / Kate Hardy - Free Book Online

her long hair lay in limp, dark strands but the IV lines and the oxygen mask had gone and when she saw Max coming through the door, carrying her baby, her face lit up with a smile that made him catch his breath at its brilliance.
    She held out her arms and Max handed over the bundle. He hung around, though, because Mouse was crying and, well, he might be the only one who could settle her down properly. He knew this baby better than anyone, including her mother. They might need him. Just for a bit longer.
    The staff busied themselves.
    ‘She’s hungry,’ a nurse declared. ‘I’ll go and fix a bottle for her.’
    Max nodded. She
was
hungry, he could recognise the cry. He couldn’t leave yet because he’d be able to help Ellie with her first feed. He was good at bottles. He knew just how Mouse liked it to be held and how far to tip it and when. How you knew it was going well because her eyes would find yours and stare at you with that intense concentration that made you feel like the most important person in the world.
    ‘I…I thought I’d try feeding her myself,’ Ellie said.
    She must have noticed his expression because a faint blush spread over her cheeks.
    ‘I’m drug-free, and the midwife who came to see me this morning showed me how to express milk and she said it hasn’t dried up and there’ll be plenty once I start feeding. And if there isn’t…’ Ellie sounded a little defensive now. ‘I can top up with a bottle but it’s going to be good for both of us if I give it a try.’
    ‘You want some help getting her latched on?’ the nurse queried.
    ‘Um…I’d rather try by myself.’ Ellie ducked her head, embarrassed. ‘The midwife gave me the
Don’t Panic Guide to Birth
to read and it’s great. There’s a technique in it that should work just as well for a baby this long after birth as if I’d done it straight away.’
    ‘I’ve read that.’ The nurse nodded. ‘It’s about being skin to skin and letting the baby latch on by itself, isn’t it?’
    Ellie nodded, shy but eager.
    ‘That’s supposed to be between the mother and baby, unassisted, but…’ The nurse was frowning. ‘Given that you’ve just come from the intensive care unit, I’m not happy leaving you entirely by yourself with baby.’
    Mouse was crying in earnest now, sounding distressed, with a warbling cry Max hadn’t heard before. It was making
him
feel tense.
    ‘Maybe if the father stays,’ the nurse suggested. ‘That’s allowed, isn’t it?’
    Ellie was rocking the baby. ‘Shh, shh…’ she crooned. ‘It’s all right…’
    Except it wasn’t all right. Max could see his own tension in Ellie’s face and hear it in the escalatingmisery of the baby’s cry. Someone needed to sort this out.
    ‘Of course it’s allowed,’ he snapped. ‘Why wouldn’t it be? Might be a good idea if you all left us to it.’
    They went, closing the door behind them. Max drew the curtains over the windows on the corridor side of the room.
    ‘What should I do?’
    ‘Nothing,’ Ellie said. She was peeling away baby blankets. ‘I need to undress…her.’ She was fumbling with the ties on the baby’s gown but then she looked up and Max could see the tears in her eyes. ‘She hasn’t even got a name,’ Ellie choked out.
    ‘Yes, she has.’ Max stepped closer. He knew how to take that gown off. ‘She’s Mouse. Because she’s tiny and cute and sometimes she twitches her nose. Do you need the nappy off as well?’
    ‘I…I don’t think so.’
    ‘Skin to skin, right?’
    Ellie didn’t meet his eyes. ‘Mmm. I need to put her…um, Mouse, between my breasts.’
    Max swallowed. ‘OK. I’ll hold her for a tick while you sort
your
gown.’
    He was used to holding this baby when it was virtually naked. The movements of small, unfettered limbs no longer triggered alarm. He held the baby against his chest and, by some miracle, it calmed her. He could feel the rub of that tiny nose against his shirt and the high-pitched cries