Matilda Next Door by Kelly Hunter

Author:Kelly Hunter [Hunter, Kelly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance
ISBN: 9781952560293
Publisher: Tule Publishing Group, LLC
Published: 2020-07-21T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

The trouble with returning to Wirralong, decided Henry as he nudged open the front door of the farm house with his shoulder, while balancing Rowan in his other arm, was that for the first time since all this began, there was no other adult to step in and help if he needed a hand. Not that he did need a hand, because he had fatherhood under control, thank you very much. Long as he kept young Rowan Aurelia Church fed, watered and dry, she didn’t fuss much. Long as he got enough sleep to stay functional, he didn’t get resentful of her presence.

She was a bright baby, or so he thought. And even if she looked nothing like him, she might be his. The paperwork said she was his. Wasn’t as if he needed to take a paternity test.

‘Hey, little girl. We’re here.’

He’d dropped Tilly at the Moore homestead yesterday and kept the car, promising to bring it over to her in the morning.

Tilly had told him she’d run him off her daddy’s property if he dared, and with her next breath told him to call her if he needed anything. Sweet, generous Tilly with the golden hair and the smiling eyes and a fondness for feeding people.

‘Look, Rowan.’ He hefted the baby a little higher. ‘This is Red Hill Station. Come and let’s find you a bedroom. I’ll even let you choose.’ The homestead had half a dozen of them, but the one closest to his room would probably be the most practical. ‘Okay, I lied. You don’t get to choose until you’re older, and by then we could be living anywhere. How about this one? No? You’re right. Hot as hell in here this afternoon. Let’s head north-east.’

The room he chose for her was across the hall from his. Set up as a visitor’s bedroom, it had a small double bed and one of his grandmother’s ‘good’ sheet sets and bedspread on it, but there was room near the window for a cot, and the bed could double as a change table if he used the portable plastic thing with buffered edges that Tilly had told him was essential.

It took an age to unload the car, primarily because he did it all one handed while carrying the baby with the other. He’d packed the pram first and therefore it was the last thing out of the vehicle, and he was never going to make that mistake again.

‘Oh, don’t you dare whinge,’ he muttered when finally he put Rowan in the pram and set about putting the porta cot up.

But Rowan did dare, and she was still screaming several hours later no matter what Henry did to try and calm her.

A walk around the house paddock hadn’t stopped the screaming, although it did help soothe his frayed nerves. Feeding time had been a debacle. He’d figured an open mouth was an invitation to put food in it, but how wrong could he be? The tiny she-devil had spat mushy apple and pumpkin everywhere and screamed all the louder.

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