A Child in Need Read Online Free PDF Page B

was talking about.
    â€˜I… Yes.’
    â€˜And you’re in Bay Beach on business?’ She sounded politely interested—nothing more.
    â€˜I am.’ And then he weakened. He might as well tell her. Soon the whole district would know. ‘I’m taking over from Judge Andrews. Rotating magistrate.’
    â€˜Rotating magistrate!’ Her eyes widened, her eyes lit with pleasure and her lovely smile practically enveloped her face. ‘Then you’re not leaving. You’re here for two years. That’s fantastic.’
    He chewed that over for a bit. ‘Why is it fantastic?’ he asked cautiously, and here it came. Of course.
    â€˜Because Harry likes you.’
    â€˜Yes?’
    â€˜Yes. He does.’ Her eyes darkened and intensified. ‘Nick, you mustn’t look like that.’ She put out a hand and touched the little boy’s soft hair. Harry was dead to the world, sleeping the sleep of the exhausted as his body was cradled between them. He’d forced himself to stay awake far too late last night, he hadn’t trusted anyone, but in Nick’s arms he’d felt safe.
    â€˜Harry’s had a dreadful time,’ she said simply.
    â€˜I don’t need to—’
    â€˜He wasn’t wanted,’ she went on, ignoring his interruption. ‘His mother has two children by a previous marriageand she didn’t much like Harry’s father. Peter was landed with him at birth.’
    â€˜Peter. You mean…the father kept the baby?’
    â€˜That’s right. It was okay for a while. Peter took Harry with him everywhere, and he loved him to bits. But…almost a year ago he and Harry were in a car accident. Peter was killed. There was a little money from the sale of Peter’s house, held in trust for Harry, so Bernadette—Harry’s mother—decided she’d take Harry in again. Only…she didn’t like or want Harry for himself, and it showed.’
    â€˜You mean she mistreated him.’
    â€˜Dreadfully.’ Her luminous eyes swelled with tears in the dim light. ‘He had a smashed leg in the accident and after she took him home she never went near the doctor again. He needed physiotherapy and he never got it. If you knew the condition he was found in when Welfare finally took an interest…’ She took a deep breath. ‘Anyway, that’s in the past. He’s safe now, settled in one of the homes of the local orphanage system. And with you he seems to have finally made some contact.’
    â€˜I’m not a contactable person,’ Nick said bluntly, and Shanni stared from all of six inches away.
    â€˜Why ever not?’
    â€˜I don’t like children.’
    â€˜Come on.’ She teased him gently with her eyes. ‘You’ve let him give you a numb arm.’
    â€˜Only because I didn’t want him howling the place down.’
    â€˜Liar.’
    â€˜It’s the truth.’
    â€˜Sure.’ Her tone said she didn’t believe him, but she was moving on. She glanced at her watch and, as she moved, her arm shifted away from his. He was aware of a surge of emptiness as she did. A link broken that he’d valued… Butshe didn’t notice. ‘It’s six a.m. I wonder how the siege is going?’
    â€˜Patiently.’
    â€˜They’ll wait?’
    â€˜For weeks if need be,’ Nick told her. ‘I know our police force. They’ll wait this out.’ Please, he added beneath his breath. The thought of anyone bursting in here with guns blazing left him cold.
    But… ‘A week! We can’t live for a week on milk and fruit.’ Shanni brushed her curls back from her face and stood up, decision written firmly all over her. ‘Good morning, Len,’ she said softly, louder than she’d been talking to Nick but still not so loud that she’d wake Harry.
    Len wheeled to face them. He looked dreadful, Nick thought dispassionately. The