Sweet Surrender Read Online Free PDF Page A

Paris to Disneyland this weekend.’
    ‘Greater love hath no grandparents,’ said Tom piously.
    ‘How about Jess?’
    ‘Not this time,’ said Frances, filling teacups. She smiled at Kate. ‘She confirmed last night that she’s pregnant again.’
    ‘And Lorenzo’s keeping her wrapped in cotton wool!’ Kate grinned, looked at the downy head cradled close to Gabriel’s breast, intercepted the tender look Adam gave his wife and felt a fleeting pang of envy. But dismissed it. The increasing number of her siblings’ progeny was quite high enough without adding to it herself.
    ‘How about Fenny?’ she asked. ‘Is she going to make it?’
    ‘Someone’s driving her down this evening, apparently,’ said Tom, shaking his head. ‘She won’t take her car to college.’
    ‘Because there’s always some clown on hand ready to ferry her wherever she wants to go,’ said Adam, grinning.
    ‘More than one,’ said Gabriel. ‘And she doesn’t care a fig for any of them. Just good friends, she says.’
    ‘At her age,’ Frances said thankfully, “‘just good friends” sounds very comforting to me.’
    Soon afterwards Adam and Gabriel took their son off to the Stables for his bath and supper, promising to return with him later for dinner.
    ‘Though whether Fenny will be home in time to share it is uncertain,’ said Frances, chuckling. ‘But she’ll ring at some stage. Fen tries not to worry me too much.’
    ‘Your ewe lamb,’ teased Tom.
    ‘Come over with us, Kate,’ said Adam. ‘I’ll show you the jug I found for you.’
    She looked at her mother. ‘Unless there’s anything I can do to help?’
    ‘No, darling. It’s a very simple meal tonight.’
    Adam took charge of the buggy as the three of them walked briskly to hurry the baby into the warmth of the stable block which had been Adam’s private quarters since his eighteenth birthday.
    ‘I’ll look on while you do the hard part,’ Kate told Gabriel. ‘Or is Daddy going to do bathtime?’
    ‘We share the process unless I’m late home,’ said Adam as they went upstairs. ‘Actually, I wanted a word on the quiet, Kate,’ he added, cuddling his son while Gabriel filled the baby bath. ‘I take it you weren’t too pleased to see Alasdair?’
    ‘Not at first.’ She wagged a finger at him. ‘Nor with you, either. You might have warned me! After all this time it was a bit of a shock to find him waiting for me outside school, of all places.’
    ‘He wanted to surprise you.’
    ‘I’ve never met this Alasdair, of course,’ said Gabriel,undressing her squirming baby, ‘but I gather he’s done well for himself.’
    ‘Unlike me, he’s done what everyone expected of him. And now he’s here to run the UK operation of the pharmaceutical giant who head-hunted him from Cambridge,’ said Kate. ‘Gosh, the baby does wriggle, doesn’t he?’
    ‘Terrified me the first time,’ agreed Adam, and hooked his hands under his kicking son’s armpits while Gabriel did the sponging—a process Hal objected to at the top of his voice.
    ‘Pass him over quickly,’ begged Gabriel, and hastily wrapped her son in a warm towel to cuddle him. ‘Dash down and get his bottle, darling, please.’
    ‘You’re not feeding him yourself, then?’ said Kate, mopping up splashes.
    ‘No. Not that I’m sorry. This way we can share the night-time feeds. At least that’s the theory,’ added Gabriel, chuckling. ‘But I wake up anyway.’
    ‘I bet Adam doesn’t when it’s your turn!’ Kate watched while her nephew was fastened into a stretchy sleepsuit. ‘Do you enjoy motherhood, Gabriel?’
    Her sister-in-law turned with a smile, cradling her restless son against her shoulder. ‘Just between you and me, Kate, I hadn’t thought to go in for it quite yet, but now he’s here I wouldn’t give him back.’
    ‘Neither would I,’ said Adam, as he joined them. ‘We never get enough sleep any more, but this, we’re assured, will improve with time.’ He kissed his wife