‘The hell they have.’
‘Think about it, Clay,’ she said sadly. ‘Just think about it. They’re still with you, holding you back, stifling you.’
‘I don’t have to think about such rubbish,’ he bit out furiously, the cool control that he prided himself on blown to the wind. ‘The same as I don’t have to think about the motive behind that little précis of my life. It’s all with one object in view, isn’t it? A ring on your finger before you consent to sleep with me. Don’t think I’m a fool, Robyn, because I am not. I’m on to your little game.’
‘If you believe that then there is nothing else left to say,’ she said with touching dignity, her chin jerking up and her eyes flashing as she faced him head-on. His contempt had sent a rush of adrenalin surging through her veins, and she welcomed the boost of hormone from the bottom of her heart as it enabled her to confront him without flinching. ‘And you are a fool, Clay Lincoln. A blind, pathetic fool.’
‘Have you quite finished?’
She got the feeling from the ice in his eyes that if she touched him now it would be like touching liquid nitrogen, so cold was his face. ‘Yes, I’m finished,’ she said woodenly.
She turned from him, reaching for her bag at the side of the sofa, and as she did so her mobile phone began to ring. ‘Do you mind?’ She indicated the phone, the process of retrieving it out of the bag making her realise just how badly she was trembling.
He shook his head, his face saying all too clearly he didn’t care what she did as long as she was soon out of his sight.
It took two attempts before her shaking fingers could negotiate the right button, but then she was speaking her name into the phone and listening to Cass’s agitated voice. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be with you as soon as I can. Stay put and let the twins sleep till I get there,’ she said urgently after a moment.
She pressed the button to finish the call and glanced up at Clay who was staring at her. ‘I need to call a taxi,’ she said frantically. ‘It’s Cass; the baby’s coming and it’s weeks early.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
OVER the next little while Robyn saw first-hand the qualities which had made Clay into a multimillionaire in his own right, as he took charge of events with a smooth authority that was formidable.
The journey from Windsor into central London down the M4 was accomplished in half the legal time, as Clay’s car—the Mercedes this time—flashed through the night at a speed which took Robyn’s breath away.
Not that she had much breath left anyway. The caustic scene at the house followed by Cass’s distraught telephone call had settled like a hard, tight ball in Robyn’s chest, constricting her breathing and causing her to feel she was in the middle of a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from.
Fifteen minutes after speaking to her sister on the phone Robyn was holding Cass in her arms, and there was no doubt the baby was on its way, early or not. Although the contractions weren’t following any particular pattern Cass’s waters had broken.
‘There’s no need to panic.’ Now the other two were here and she wasn’t alone with the twins, Cass had visibly relaxed, the tearful face which had greeted Clay and Robyn now calmer. ‘The twins took for ever to be born. It’s just the fact that the baby is coming so early that’s worrying me.’
‘Didn’t I read somewhere that second labours are often shorter though?’ Robyn asked anxiously, and no sooner had the words left her lips than a new contraction hit with enough force to make Cass p
ant like an animal as she held on to Robyn’s hand with a grip that would have done credit to a twenty-stone navvy.
Once Clay had established Cass had contacted Guy and Guy was on his way to the airport where he’d been squeezed onto a flight leaving just before one o’clock, he popped round to pick up Guy’s brother’s wife—who would stay with the twins until Guy arrived at the hospital and Robyn could come and hold the fort with her nephews—while Robyn hastily packed her sister’s overnight case.
‘I was going to do all this in the next week or so,’ Cass said plaintively as she directed Robyn into drawers and wardrobe. ‘Oh, Robyn, the baby’ll be all right, won’t it?’
‘Of course it will,’ Robyn said stoutly. It had to be. It just had to be. ‘Just tell it to slow down a bit so Daddy can see it arrive, will you?’ she added with an attempt at lightness.
‘You were at Clay’s, then?’ Cass asked with elaborate offhandedness. ‘Had dinner there or something?’
‘Uh-huh.’ Now was not the time to tell Cass her little fantasy had come to a sad end, although Robyn had noticed that not once, since they had left Clay’s house, had he looked directly at her. It was as though he couldn’t bear to acknowledge her presence.
That Cass had picked up something too was made clear in the next moment when she said, ‘You two weren’t in the middle of a row or something, were you?’ Her tone was tentative.
‘No.’ They hadn’t been—they’d just finished. ‘I was just going to leave actually.’ It was brisk and dismissive.
‘Right.’ Robyn could tell Cass wasn’t convinced but then another contraction gripped, stronger this time, and within moments all her sister’s concentration was focused on her breathing exercises as she battled with the clamp on her belly.
By the time Clay brought Beryl in the front door Robyn and Cass were sitting waiting in the lounge and the contractions were coming every six minutes. As the three of them went to leave, Cass groaned. ‘Oh no, not another’, she said, and went to lean against the door stanchion, but Clay whisked her up in his arms, his voice not quite his own as he said, ‘Come on, come on, we need to get you to the hospital. Do that panting thing or whatever it is you do.’
He was panicking. The knowledge was so surprising that Robyn almost dropped Cass’s overnight bag. He was actually behaving like a normal human being for once. She had never thought to see the cool, smooth, controlled Clay Lincoln running to his car like a greyhound with a very rotund Cass in his arms, but she was seeing it now.
In the moment that Clay bent down and slid Cass into the back seat Robyn caught her sister’s eye, and she saw by the wry expression on Cass’s face her sister’s thoughts had been parallel with her own. And in spite of the dire circumstances—for herself as well as Cass—Robyn found herself smiling as Cass winked at her. This was very different to his business world.
They shot through the streets again but this time Robyn was sitting in the back of the car with Cass. Her sister’s fingernails were biting into the flesh of Robyn’s hands with each contraction but Robyn scarcely noticed. All her energy was directed at encouraging Cass along and keeping her eyes off the dark figure in the driving seat.