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  Chase felt a sharp stab of sympathy strike him, as he began to understand the haunted look of sorrow he’d noticed in her pain-filled green eyes.

  “We’d better get out of here quickly,” she said. “I don’t know how much longer we have.”

  Chase glanced at the woman, knowing she was right. Flipping off the overhead light, he put the truck in gear and took off. As they exited the parking lot, he glanced in his rearview mirror, noticing his forgotten bunch of flowers lying where he’d dropped them. The black iron gate they’d just walked through swung lightly in the breeze. They’d neglected to latch it. He didn’t think it mattered much.

  The silent occupants in the lonely graveyard wouldn’t mind.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “How much longer?” Claudia asked, gasping for breath as another pain finally eased its tenacious grip on her insides. It had been bad before; now that she was buckled into the seat and had no way to relieve the pain in her back, she felt like screaming every time the familiar tightening began.

  “At least another half an hour. But at least we’ve made it to the highway, no more twisty country roads. And once we get to the outskirts of Shelbyville, I’ll call for help. There’s no sense in trying right now; I know from past experience that my cell phone is worthless reach here in the mountains.”

  Claudia shook her head in dismay. She couldn’t stand another half hour in the cab of this truck. Stupid. She’d been so stupid! How could she have ignored what her body had been telling her all day?

  “I can’t...”

  “You can,” the man insisted. “You have to. I’m sure as hell not going to end up on the evening news as the stupid guy of the week who can’t get the woman to the hospital on time."

  Claudia smiled slightly, glad the man continued acting flippant and unconcerned. She knew he was anything but. She didn’t know who he was, where he’d come from, but she could see by the rigid set of his body, by the way he leaned forward in his seat as if urging the truck to go faster, that he was very concerned. But if he’d said that, if he’d sympathized, or panicked, or been kind and consoling, she might have given in to fear and despair. His casual demeanor, even his callousness, gave her strength, and Claudia blessed him for it.

  She didn’t bless him for long. As another contraction ripped into her she let loose a string of curse words she didn’t even know she knew, most of them directed at the man in the seat next to her who could not, would not, make the pain stop.

  She wasn’t going to make it. Chase glanced at the clock, wondering why he even bothered to keep track. The contractions were constant, rolling over her in unrelenting waves, and she was in agony. He saw her writhe on the seat, seeking relief from the pain in her back, and knew she needed to change positions. She drifted into a mild delirium with each pain. Chase suspected she would never remember some of her rantings.

  As soon as he saw the road sign indicating his own exit, Chase realized his cellular phone should be within tower range. If he called for help, maybe an ambulance could meet them halfway. At least then the woman would have paramedics to help her deliver the baby.

  “I’m going to call for help now. Hold on, all right?” he muttered as he reached around her to take the phone from the glove box. She didn’t respond as he quickly dialed for emergency services.

  “I need an ambulance to meet me on highway 28. I’m about twenty miles south of Milltown, and I have a woman with me who is about to give birth.”

  “Get me out of this truck now!” the woman next to him bellowed, causing Chase to nearly drop the phone.

  Thinking quickly, Chase said to the dispatcher, “Listen, I live just off exit nineteen. She can’t stay in this truck, and I’m about a mile from the exit. I’m taking her to my house. You can send the ambulance there.”

  Chase quickly gave his address, then dropped the phone, just as the woman breathed a deep shaky breath and sagged against his side. He curled his right arm around her shoulders protectively, wanting to give her comfort, but totally at a loss as to how to do it. He’d certainly never been in this situation before. About the closest he’d ever been to birth was watching an alley cat having kittens while curled up in a drainpipe. And that had been twenty years ago, when he was ten.

  “Where...”

  “We’re going to my house,” Chase answered feeling her body instantly stiffen beneath his arm.

  “Don’t go panicking on me, lady. I’m not kidnapping you, or anything. I just figured we’d be better off inside, where you can change positions and we can wait for an ambulance.”

  The woman nodded once, looking relieved that she would soon be out of the jostling truck. She leaned against him, absently rubbing her cheek against his shirt, as if liking the physical connection…more, needing it. Given the fact that her husband was in a grave, and she had been by herself in the middle of nowhere this late in her pregnancy, he had to wonder if she really was as alone in the world as she appeared to be.

  “What’s your name?” she asked, her voice soft and weary. “What do I call the man who’s quite possibly saving my life?”

  “My name's Chase. What about yours?"

  “My friends, all two of them, call me Claude.”

  Chase didn’t stop to wonder at her strange comment, for he suddenly heard her gasp, and felt her body twist against his side. She pulled away from him, leaning forward in the seat, shaking her head back and forth as if denying the truth of the situation.

  “Come on, Clod, you can get through this,” he urged, trying to find that spark of strength she’d exhibited so far.

  “It’s Claude, you jerk,” she managed to whisper. “But only to my friends. You can call me Claudia.”

  Chase suppressed a grin as her spunk returned, then he swung the truck off the highway toward his house. It was bad luck that Dorien was out of town this weekend. She would have been a tremendous help, and could have been waiting for them with boiling water, or alcohol, or whatever else was required for a woman about to give birth. Not to mention alcohol for a man who might be about to witness it, whether he wanted to or not.

  “We’re here, now,” Chase said as he pulled the truck into the long driveway leading up to his house. “You’re just about out of that seat.”

  She ignored him, still doing her controlled breathing to try to ride through the contraction. When he saw her breathing slow and her shoulders relax, he got out and hurried around to her door. Helping her step down, he scooped her into his arms.

  “You’re going to give yourself a hernia,” she insisted.

  “We’ve been through this. Save your strength,” Chase said as he carried her up the wide steps onto the broad front porch.

  Claudia nodded weakly, glancing at the front of his house. It was an elegant old restored Federal style home, with tall white columns across the front, and she gaped at the sight. “I would have pegged you as a cowboy,” she muttered. “Not lord of the manor.”

  Huh. Him? He was no lord of the manor…just a street rat who’d managed to straighten himself out.

  Needing a hand free, Chase let Claudia slide from his arms while he opened the door. Then he picked her back up and carried her into the house. He considered bringing her into the living room, to be close to the door when the ambulance crew arrived, but decided she’d be more comfortable in a bed. When he'd renovated the house, he’d added a downstairs master suite behind the old parlor and library to ensure privacy from the four bedrooms upstairs. It was closest.

  “How long do you think it will take the ambulance to get here?” Claudia asked as Chase carried her down the long hall running through the middle of his house.

  “There’s a fire house in Shelbyville, which is only ten minutes from here. I think they have an ambulance crew. Then they’ll have to take you all the way in to Milltown since there’s no other hospital close by.”

  Curled up in the stranger’s strong arms, feeling safe at least for the moment, Claudia calculated the timing and nodded. She knew this area. She’d gro
wn up in Milltown, after all, and had been gone less than a year. But that seemed like another lifetime, and another person.

  Her rescuer carried her into a darkened room and deposited her gently on a large bed. He flipped on a bedside lamp, giving Claudia a moment to quickly look around. She was in a very masculine bedroom, with antique oak furniture including the massive four poster bed on which she lay. The thick jade green coverlet felt like down. She weakly push at it, trying to get it away from her body. The thing probably cost more than she made in a week, and she didn’t want to risk ruining it.

  “Wait a second,” Chase said as he saw her struggling to kick the comforter out of the way. “Let me help you.”

  He gently slid the thick fabric out from under her, shoving it toward the foot of the bed where it slid with a soft whoosh onto the floor. Claudia hardly noticed when he pulled her heavy coat off her body, then drew the sheet up over her.

  For the first time, he looked unsure. Glancing at his hands, he said, “You might want...I mean, if you’d be more comfortable without the slacks...”

  “They are cutting into me,” Claudia admitted. “But I can get them.”

  Claudia pushed her pants and underwear down and wriggled out of them, kicking them out from under the sheet to the floor. There was no room for shyness, not with what she was about to go through. Then there was the fact that this stranger might be the only person here when her baby started to emerge into this world—in which case, he was going to get an eyeful. But she noted Chase’s courtesy in averting his gaze, at least for now, and genuinely appreciated it.

  Relaxing into the soft, fresh-smelling pillow, she glanced up at the dark man standing next to her. “You don’t look like a Chase,” she whispered. “More like a...Galahad.”

  A slight grin touched his mouth. Claudia watched as the strong planes of his face softened with humor. He did indeed resemble some knight of old. His chestnut brown hair was thick and swept back from his forehead, and his face was deeply tanned with high strong cheekbones and an unmarred jaw. His nose was prominent, but that just added to the overall impression of strength. His eyes...well, Claudia knew from experience that a person couldn’t conceal what was in their heart because it shone through their eyes. His were a dark, velvety brown, nearly fathomless, and kindness shone so clearly from them that she felt safe and secure for the first time in ages.

  Until another pain hit her.

  This contraction, the worst one yet, washed over her with unrelenting intensity. Claudia tried to bite her lower lip to keep from crying out, but Chase urged, “Don’t be brave. Scream if you want to. No one’s here to be bothered by it.”

  He didn’t need to tell her twice. Claudia opened her mouth, only to moan a little. But as the pain intensified, and she felt the urge to push the baby out, the moan evolved into a high pitched wavering scream.

  “It’s okay, you’re going to be okay,” Chase whispered.

  Claudia blew out the corner of her mouth at an irritating strand of hair that kept drooping over her forehead. She weakly nodded her thanks when Chase swept the hair back with his fingers. Continuing to clench his other hand in a death grip, she wondered if she was hurting him, but he never even flinched.

  “Chase, I don’t think Sarah’s going to wait for the ambulance,” Claudia panted when the pain lessened.

  “Don’t say that,” Chase insisted, a horrified grimace crossing his face. “They’ll be here any minute.”

  Claudia rolled her head back and forth, tears pouring down her cheeks, panicking at the thought that another contraction would be on her momentarily.

  “I want my doctor. I want to be in a hospital. I want drugs! My doctor promised me I could have an epidural if I needed it.”

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart, I can’t do anything for you except stay right by your side. I won’t leave you, Claudia. You can trust me. You and Sarah will be fine, even if I have to deliver her myself.”

  Claudia stopped her quiet moaning and opened her eyes, pinning him with a stare. “You promise? You won’t let anything happen to her?”

  “I promise. Your baby is going to be fine, and so are you.”

  Claudia stared at his face, which was so visibly determined, so resolute. She needed to see that strength, that determination. Needed more than anything to believe him and to trust he’d take care of this child who was so incredibly precious to her.

  “Maybe you should get some towels,” she whispered, resigned to it. She had to focus on doing whatever she could to help while she was able to keep a rational thought in her head. “And a sharp knife, and hot water?”

  He didn’t ask why, merely went to do as she’d suggested, which was pretty funny since she was operating on instinct and her memory of emergency childbirth scenes on TV shows.

  Chase returned quickly, gone only the length of one contraction—oh, she wished she could skip out on one, too. When he returned, he glanced at his watch. “It’s been nearly fifteen minutes since I called from the highway. They have to be here soon.”

  As if on cue, they heard an insistent pounding from the front door. She saw her rescuer breathe a huge sigh of relief and echoed it. “They’re here, Claudia. Just hold on, help is here.”

  Claudia nodded mindlessly, too exhausted to say a word, and didn’t pay attention as Chase ran from the room. Feeling a sudden gush of wetness, she vainly struggled to slide the clean towels over her legs. By the time Chase rushed back in, with two paramedics in tow, she was in the grips of another contraction, and was unable to resist pushing.

  “Whoa. Looks like we got here just in time,” the female paramedic said as she pulled back the sheet to examine Claudia. “No time to move her, the baby’s already crowning.”

  Chase hurried to the head of the bed and bent close to her.

  “You’re in good hands now,” he said gently.

  “I was in good hands before,” she replied, and, as if to be sure he wouldn’t leave, reached out to grasp his arm.

  “Maybe I’d better wait in the other room,” he said as he tried to pull away.

  “No. You promised. You said you’d stay.”

  Chase stared into down at the woman on his bed, her eyes glossy with tears, her face twisted with pain and fear, and was unable to refuse her. The last place he wanted to be was in this room, watching this thin woman giving birth to what must be a monster-sized baby, if her belly was any indication, but he couldn’t leave her.

  “You’re not going anywhere, Dad,” the gray-haired paramedic snapped as she pulled clean towels from the stack Chase had placed on the bed. “You stay right up there and keep Mom calm.”

  Chase didn’t even try to correct the woman’s mistaken impression. Instead he concentrated on maintaining eye contact with Claudia as another contraction came and the paramedic ordered her to push.

  “Look at me, Claudia, look at me. You’re almost there, it’s almost over,” Chase assured her, trying to keep her coherent in spite of what he was sure was unendurable pain. After tonight, he figured he’d rather get a root canal without anesthesia, from a drunk ninety-year-old dentist using rusty tools, than be a woman going through childbirth.

  “Okay, Mom,” the paramedic said, “I think a couple more pushes should do it.”

  “The baby,” Claudia panted, “is she still facing the wrong way?”

  The paramedic looked startled and assured her, “No, honey, this is the head, it’s not breech.”

  “No, no,” Claudia said. “I mean, at my last visit my doctor said she was facing front instead of back. I think that’s why I’ve been having back labor.”

  The older woman nodded, looking thoughtful, and said, “If that’s the case, I want you to be extra careful to control this pushing. You can’t just shove full strength. This little one’s face is going to come right across your pelvic bone, and you want to be gentle with that precious nose, okay?”

  Claudia nodded at the woman, looking reassured by her knowledgeable tone.

  “Have you delivered ma
ny babies before?” she asked, sounding like she wasn’t really sure she wanted to know the answer.

  “Just four of my own,” the woman replied with a rueful shrug. “But I’ve been through the training.”

  That was enough for Chase. It had to be enough. It was four more than he’d ever seen born.

  “Okay, here we go,” the paramedic said as Claudia moaned and took two deep breaths.

  Chase didn’t watch the paramedics. His eyes never left Claudia’s face as he whispered encouragement in her ear. He ignored the slight pinch in his hand as her fingernails dug into his flesh, taking it, wishing he could take more pain away from her.

  “Sit her up, Dad.”

  He helped her up until she was half-sitting, bracing her back against his arm, his face pressed into her soft, tangled hair. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” he whispered, not knowing what else to say.

  “Says you,” she snapped.

  “Here she comes,” the paramedic cried.

  Her face red, her entire body straining, Claudia screamed, pushing hard against his arm. But he never let her go. And as sudden relief washed over her face, Chase couldn’t resist glancing down, shocked, fascinated, a little overwhelmed as he watched Claudia’s daughter entering the world.

  “Stop pushing now, Mom. Just wait for one more contraction and we’ll get the rest of her; you’re almost there.”

  Claudia twisted on the bed, obviously trying to peek over her belly, trying to catch a glimpse of her child. Knowing how desperate she must be feeling, Chase touched her cheek, turning her head so she could see the mirror above his dresser, which allowed her to watch as her child was being born.

  She stared for a long moment, her mouth falling open, tears building in her eyes. “I want her. I want my baby.”

  “You’ll be holding her in less than two minutes, Claudia,” Chase insisted. “Just hang on there. You’ve been waiting nine months.”

  “Eight,” she insisted wearily. “She’s early, remember?”