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A Heavenly Christmas
Carole Mortimer
Part of the Mills & Boon 100th Birthday CollectionOlivia drops in to see her neighbour, Ethan Sherbourne to deliver a Christmas card… but ends up staying for the festive season to help him look after a tiny abandoned baby! Ethan and Olivia are the perfect couple – but is Ethan the baby’s father? And if so, is he free to get involved with Olivia?
Carole Mortimer was born in England, the youngest of three children. She began writing in 1978 and has now written over one hundred and forty books for Mills & Boon. Carole has four sons, Matthew, Joshua, Timothy and Peter, and a bearded collie called Merlyn. She says, ‘I’m happily married to Peter senior; we’re best friends as well as lovers, which is probably the best recipe for a successful relationship. We live in a lovely part of England.’
A Heavenly Christmas
by
Carole Mortimer
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
CHAPTER ONE
‘YOU wanted me?’
Mrs Heavenly was aware of the soft, fluttering sensation behind her that told her she was no longer alone. But her attention was so intent upon the vision that she didn’t want to leave it, even for a second!
At last! She had waited a long time for this particular plea for help to come. Almost too long, she acknowledged ruefully. But at last it had come.
She looked up to smile warmly at the young angel who stood before her. Faith. Yes, she would be perfect for this particular assignment. Warm, compassionate, and with a mischievous sense of humour that had almost been her undoing a couple of times in the past. But in this particular case Faith’s qualities were more suited to the problem than the equally admirable ones of Hope or Charity.
‘Come and look at this, my dear.’ Mrs Heavenly encouraged the angel to step forward and share the vision with her. ‘It will help you to understand the problem that has—thankfully!—been presented to us.’
Faith stepped into Mrs Heavenly’s vision, eager to learn what her assignment was to be. Christmas was only two days away—always a fraught time of year for humans, when the inadequacies in their normally busy lives often became glaringly obvious. It was also a time when they often cried out for help to cope with those difficulties.
‘This incident happened a short time ago,’ Mrs Heavenly told her softly, a smile on her cherubic face.
Faith gazed down interestedly at the scene being enacted below them.
A tiny woman of about thirty—startlingly beautiful, her fine-boned body clothed in a black trouser suit and cream blouse, and with golden-blonde hair cropped close to her head—was stepping lithely out of a lift, her expression one of determination as she marched down the carpeted corridor to rap sharply on an oak door at the end of the hallway.
‘She looks rather angry,’ Faith murmured.
Mrs Heavenly nodded unconcernedly. ‘She invariably is,’ she informed Faith lightly.
‘Why—? Goodness, who is that?’ Faith gasped as the oak door swung open to reveal a man almost as handsome as Gabriel himself.
Or Lucifer, she decided as an afterthought. His hair was so dark it was almost black, his eyes so dark a brown it was difficult to see where the iris stopped and the pupil began. As for his looks—they could only be described as devilishly attractive.
‘Is he her husband?’ Faith prompted breathlessly.
‘Hardly.’ Mrs Heavenly smiled. ‘Listen,’ she encouraged softly.
* * *
‘Ms Hardy,’ the man greeted dryly. ‘To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?’
Olivia, despite the obvious derision in his tone, stared back at him unmovingly. Ethan Sherbourne had occupied the apartment directly above hers for over a year now. But apart from an occasional greeting to him—on the rare occasion they happened to get into the lift together—or to one of the constant stream of women that seemed to flow in and out of his apartment, Olivia had remained firmly detached from the man.
The only other exception being when his mail became confused with her own. Which it had already several times this Christmas.
‘Yours, I believe.’ She held up the pink envelope she carried with her.
He raised dark brows as he reached out a lean hand and took the envelope, checking the writing on the front before holding it up in front of his nose and sniffing appreciatively.
‘Gwendoline,’ he announced knowingly.
Olivia repressed a delicate shudder. ‘I didn’t realise women still did that sort of thing,’ she commented scathingly.
Neither did Olivia understand why Mr Pulman, the caretaker of this exclusive apartment building, should think she might be the recipient of a scented Christmas card!
Ethan Sherbourne gave a roguish smile. ‘Only certain women,’ he drawled huskily.
Utterly stupid ones, in Olivia’s opinion. But she was sure Ethan Sherbourne wasn’t in the least interested in her opinion. She wasn’t tall, willowy—or young!—as the majority of women trooping in and out of his apartment seemed to be.
She gave a cool inclination of her head. ‘I’ll leave you to open your card—’ She broke off with a frown as the lift doors opened down the corridor, immediately releasing the ear-splitting wail of a baby. A very young baby, by the sound of it, Olivia realised, wincingly.
She turned slowly in the direction of the cry, just in time to move out of the way of the young woman striding purposefully towards Ethan Sherbourne’s apartment.
The roguish smile had been wiped off Ethan Sherbourne’s face the moment he looked at the approaching virago. ‘Shelley…?’ He betrayed his uncertainty with a frown.
The tall, youthfully leggy blonde, looking not much more than a child herself, gave him a humourless smile, the screaming baby held firmly in her arms. ‘I’m surprised you remember me,’ she snapped. ‘We met so briefly.’
‘Of course I remember you,’ Ethan Sherbourne returned smoothly, sparing a reluctant glance for the shawl-wrapped bundle in the girl’s arms. ‘And this is…?’
Olivia stood to one side of the hallway now, an unwilling but at the same time fascinated eavesdropper on this conversation.
The girl—for, on closer inspection, she most certainly was a girl, probably no older than twenty or so—was gazing down at the screaming baby with a look that somehow managed to combine motherly love and sheer terror at the same time.
‘Here.’ She thrust the child into Ethan Sherbourne’s unsuspecting arms.
The screaming—to its mother’s obvious frustration—instantly ceased, although emotional hiccups quickly followed.
‘She obviously prefers you to me, anyway,’ the young woman choked tearfully—as if this was the final straw as far as she was concerned. ‘Her name is Andrea. Everything she needs is in here.’ She took a holdall off her shoulder and dropped it onto the floor. ‘She will want feeding in about an hour. I just can’t cope any more.’
With a last heart-wrenching glance at the baby she turned on her heel and ran back into the lift, desperately pressing the button to close the doors.
‘Shelley—!’ Ethan Sherbourne’s cry of protest died in his throat as the lift doors closed on the distraught mother, followed by the sound of its descent.
At the same time his raised voice startled the baby in his arms, and it began crying again.
Its obviously distressed cry shot through Olivia’s nerve-endings with the sharpness of a knife, and her face was pale as she grimaced painfully.
‘Where do you think you’re going?’ Ethan Sherbourne demanded grimly, his voice raised above the baby’s wail.
Olivia had turned, intending to follow the young mother’s example and escape from the situation!
She turned back to Ethan Sherbourne, her brows raised. ‘I’ve delivered your card—which I received by mistake.’ She shrugged. ‘I thought I would leave you to deal with this…second delivery of the day alone,’ she explained dryly.
Dark brown eyes narrowed icily at her obvious sarcasm. ‘Don’t be so damned stupid,’ he snapped, striding out of the apartment to move forward to the lift and press the button for its return, the pink-wrapped bundle—still crying—held awkwardly in his arms.
Olivia gave him a considering look. ‘Where are you going?’ Not too far, she didn’t think; she doubted this baby was going to wait for another hour to be fed.
‘After Shelley, of course.’ He rasped his impatience, looking more harassed by the second. The baby’s initial response to being held in his arms rather than its mother’s was definitely gone for good. ‘What the hell is wrong with her?’ he demanded exasperatedly of Olivia.
Olivia looked stunned by the question. ‘What on earth makes you think I would know?’
‘You’re a woman, aren’t you?’ Ethan’s agitation was fast reaching danger level. ‘At least…’ his gaze moved over her trouser suit ‘…I presume you are. Where the hell is the damned lift?’ he grated between clenched teeth.
‘Maybe if you stopped swearing—’
‘You think that might stop the baby screaming?’ He conveyed his doubt with another frown.
‘No,’ Olivia answered reasonably. ‘I would just prefer it if you did.’
If looks alone could kill, Olivia knew she would have been struck down in that moment. She only just stopped herself from taking a step backwards as Ethan Sherbourne took a threatening step towards her.
‘Er—your lift seems finally to have arrived.’ She pointed past him with some relief to the waiting elevator, its doors open invitingly.
He glanced from the open lift to Olivia, and back again. ‘So it has,’ he acknowledged. ‘Here,’ he offered.
And promptly deposited the baby into Olivia’s arms!
Not welcoming arms. Not waiting. Not even willing. In fact, her initial feelings of satisfaction at one of this man’s past relationships having caught up with him—with a vengeance—disappeared totally as she found she was the one left holding the baby!
‘Mr Sherbourne—’
‘I have to try and catch up with Shelley,’ he told her firmly before stepping into the lift. ‘Take care of the baby until I get back with her mother.’
Take care of—!
The lift doors closed, leaving Olivia alone in the hallway.
No, not alone…
A now silent baby lay in her arms, staring up at her with unblinking trust, Olivia realised as she reluctantly looked down at Andrea.
Olivia’s legs began to shake, quickly followed by the rest of her body, until she knew she was actually in danger of collapsing completely. But with a very young baby in her arms that was not a good idea.
The door to Ethan Sherbourne’s apartment still stood wide open. Not particularly inviting, but this baby was, after all, Ethan’s responsibility.
Olivia managed to reach one of the armchairs in the ultra-modern lounge before her legs collapsed beneath her. But only just. She was shaking all over, her breath coming in short, hyperventilating gasps.
How dared Ethan Sherbourne do this to her?
How dared he?
* * *
’Mr Sherbourne is certainly in need of a little divine intervention,’ Faith murmured sympathetically as the vision in the apartment stilled.
Mrs Heavenly straightened, shaking her head. ‘Mr Sherbourne isn’t the one requesting our help, my dear.’
Faith blinked. ‘Well, of course Shelley is very troubled—obviously overwhelmed by motherhood—No?’ She frowned as Mrs Heavenly shook her head again. ‘Surely not baby Andrea…? No, of course not,’ she answered herself. ‘But that only leaves…’
‘Olivia,’ Mrs Heavenly confirmed with satisfaction. ‘Yes, my dear, it’s Olivia Hardy who needs our help this Christmas.’
Faith glanced back to the woman stilled in the frame. Beautiful, and obviously successful, as she lived in such a luxurious apartment building; in what way, Faith wondered, did such a woman need the help of one of Mrs Heavenly’s angels?
CHAPTER TWO
FAITH continued to look at the frozen vision of Olivia. ‘I don’t understand,’ she said after some time had elapsed. ‘Olivia appears to have everything going for her.’
Mrs Heavenly gave a sad shake of her head. ‘Appearances can sometimes be deceptive, my dear.’
‘But she is successful in her career?’
‘Very. Junior partner in a very prestigious law firm.’
‘And beautiful, by earthly standards, too.’ Faith studied the image before her; to her Olivia looked very beautiful indeed. ‘Is she married?’
‘No,’ Mrs Heavenly answered slowly. ‘Nor does she have any children.’ She pre-empted what she thought might be Faith’s next question.
‘Ah,’ the young angel murmured with satisfaction.
‘Nor does she want a husband or children,’ Mrs Heavenly added pointedly.
Faith felt more puzzled than ever. ‘But she has asked for our help?’
‘Oh, yes.’ Mrs Heavenly sighed her satisfaction. ‘For the first time in ten years Olivia has sent up a prayer. And I don’t intend letting this opportunity pass us by.’
Faith felt no nearer to knowing in exactly what way Olivia Hardy needed their help, but she trusted Mrs Heavenly’s instincts implicitly. If she said Olivia Hardy had not only asked for help but was also deserving of it, that was good enough for Faith. If only she knew in what way she could help…!
‘Watch what happens next,’ Mrs Heavenly invited as she saw Faith’s continued confusion.
The frame in the vision instantly shifted, and the sound came back too—the tiny baby was hiccupping again in between drawing in shuddering breaths.
Olivia looked down at the tiny being in her arms. The baby, although still very young, looked well cared for; her cheeks were round, her skin a healthy pink, and her blue eyes gazed back unfocused at Olivia.
The pink blanket Andrea was wrapped in was clean, and she wore a pretty pink woollen suit beneath, plus a matching hat that hid the colour of her hair. If she had any!
‘You’re going to get too hot in all this wool, aren’t you, poppet?’ Olivia spoke gently to the baby even as she eased herself up out of the chair to lie Andrea down on the thickly carpeted floor and began slowly unwrapping her.
Almost like a Christmas present—except a baby was the very last thing Olivia wanted, for Christmas or at any other time!
The hair beneath the woollen hat, Olivia discovered a few seconds later, was a startling black. Exactly like her father’s, she realised with a disapproving tightening of her mouth.
