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was right behind her, so close that she brushed against him, her bump making firm and intimate contact with his body. For a moment he froze, and then his eyes dropped and he lifted a hand and then glanced back up at her, as if he was asking her permission.
    She swallowed slowly and nodded, and he laid his hand oh, so tenderly over the taut curve that was his child. Something fierce and primitive flickered in his eyes, and then he closed them, and as the baby shifted and stretched she watched a muscle jump in his jaw.
    His hand moved, the softest caress, and he opened his eyes, lifted his head and met her eyes.
    ‘I felt it move,’ he said, and there was wonder in his voice, and joy, and pride.
    And for the first time she felt the tension ease and some of the dread fade away.
    ‘It’ll be all right, Lucy. Don’t worry. I’ll look after you.’
    ‘We aren’t getting married, Ben.’
    ‘Don’t close your mind to it,’ he said softly.
    ‘It’s too soon.’
    ‘Of course it is—but it’s one of our options.’
    Ours?
    She would have moved away from him, but he had her pinned up against the sink and in the narrow kitchen there was nowhere to go. So she turned her back to him, but it didn’t help because he simply moved up closer, sliding his arms around her, resting both hands on her tummy and drawing her gently back into his warm embrace. ‘Don’t be scared.’
    ‘I’m not scared,’ she lied. ‘I just don’t like you turning up out of the blue and telling me what to do.’
    ‘Out of the blue? I hardly abandoned you, Lucy. The last conversation we had, you told me it wasn’t going to work. Too much baggage.’
    ‘And you agreed.’
    ‘So I did,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘But that was then, and this is now, and things are different. The baggage certainly is. I can’t let you face your father alone.’
    ‘And you really think you being there, telling him you’re the baby’s father, will help?’
    He sighed and moved away at last, giving her room tobreathe, to re-establish her personal space and gather her composure around her like a security blanket.
    ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘You haven’t finished your sandwich. Come and sit down and put your feet up and tell me what you were planning.’
    She laughed wryly. ‘I didn’t have any plans,’ she confessed, feeling suddenly lost again. ‘I was just winging it, getting through a day at a time. And Dad hasn’t really asked very much about the baby’s father. Just how could I have been so silly and that I’d have his support. He wants me to move back in with him, but I don’t want to.’
    ‘Lucy, you can’t stay here,’ he said, his voice appalled, and she felt her mouth tighten.
    ‘Why not? Don’t come in here and start insulting my home, Ben.’
    ‘I’m not insulting your home, sweetheart, but look at it. It’s tiny, and it’s up a steep hill and a narrow flight of stairs, with no parking outside—where do you keep your car? The surgery? That’ll be handy in the pouring rain when you’ve got a screaming baby and all your shopping.’
    She bit her lip, knowing he was right and yet not wanting to admit it. Of course the flat wasn’t suitable for a baby, and she’d been meaning to find somewhere else, but anything rented was usually in holiday lets in the summer, and she couldn’t afford those rates, not unless she went back to work, and buying somewhere in the village on a part-time salary probably wasn’t an option either.
    ‘I don’t suppose he’s any nearer to accepting that I wasn’t to blame for your mother’s death?’ he suggested, and Lucy shook her head.
    ‘I don’t think so. He wasn’t very pleased this morning when Kate announced that it was you coming.’
    A frown pleated his brow. ‘Really? But it was decided weeks ago. Kate said everyone was fine with it. I assumed he must know.’
    She met his eyes, and realisation dawned. ‘She’s worked it out,’ she said slowly. ‘She knows you’re the father. Well, at