The Midwife's Secret Child--The perfect gift for Mother's Day! by Fiona McArthur

Author:Fiona McArthur
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2019-10-09T15:42:47+00:00

* * *

‘So is Italy bigger than Lighthouse Bay?’ Chloe’s question came as his daughter settled down again on the sand. They were on the beach and had made a small area their own with their things.

Raimondo liked that there was nobody else here. So strange when it was such a picturesque spot, but perhaps more families would come later.

The chairs Faith had given him to bring were set up and the umbrella she’d carried angled over them all. His daughter played at their feet with a small bucket and spade in the sand and he felt like pinching himself to be sure he wasn’t dreaming this moment in time.

He was with his family.

Every now and then his daughter would run on sturdy legs to the water’s edge and fill her bucket with water and bring it back to pour over sand so she could plaster the walls of the mound she said was a castle.

It began to take shape. He’d never made a sandcastle as a boy but could see the attraction. Perhaps he could try? To help her. Chloe began to stick shells on the walls. He glanced at Faith but she was staring out over the sea, deep in thought.

‘May I join you?’ he asked Chloe.

Chloe nodded vigorously. ‘We can make it taller.’

So, awkwardly, for he had no skills with children, he crouched down on the sand beside his daughter and began to scoop out the sand in a narrow line to build a moat, putting the sand he removed on the top of her mound. The sand was cool and damp and coarse and felt strangely comforting as he ran his fingers across its salty cleanness to smooth the new walls of the castle.

‘I see you build good castles. I am a man. We build forts. So, with your permission, I will dig a moat and build a wall to keep our castle safe from those who might attack while you make it pretty.’ Was he being too stereotypical?

She laughed. ‘The water will attack it.’

‘I will build a diversion for the water.’

Each time she patted on another handful of sand it was as if she had also found a question. He had to smile at her fertile and free-flowing mind.

He had hundreds of questions and couldn’t seem to ask any.

So instead he thought how to describe his home when she asked about it. ‘I live on the outskirts of the city of Florence. It is much bigger than Lighthouse Bay.’ He thought about his beautiful Florence and the thousands of people who lived there and the hundreds who visited every day. Unlike this tiny place. ‘Our house is part of a very old villa belonging to a nobleman many years ago but purchased by my grandfather and restored. It has several buildings and many rooms and a garden that grows olives and looks over Florence and the Arno Valley.’

He saw Faith look up at that. She raised her brows at him with shock in her eyes but he pretended not to see.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.