Undertaking Love Page 0,98

on! Get out.’

She yanked Jonny’s door open.

‘I need you to hold my hand.’

Chapter Forty-Two

Gabe wandered along Beckleberry High Street with his head bowed against the snow and his hands shoved deep into his jean pockets.

Ahead of him loomed the boarded-over windows and smoke-damaged walls of the burnt-out funeral parlour. He couldn’t look. Melanie hadn’t only torched the bricks and mortar of his career. She’d taken with it his hopes and dreams, his achievements to date, and his plans for the future.

‘Time to grow up, Gabe.’

If nothing else, he’d certainly achieved that. Maybe not in the successful, admirable way that would have made his father proud, but his naïve, rose-tinted glasses had gone up in smoke along with his business.

He didn’t let his mind linger on the funeral parlour. He wasn’t here for that today. He turned before he reached it and walked up the chapel path instead. He wasn’t surprised to find the front door unlocked. Marla wasn’t likely to let the small matter of Christmas keep her away from work.

‘Marla?’

His voice echoed around the cold chamber of the chapel. He hesitated, and reached inside his coat to double check the small parcel was still there.

The fast click-clack of heels against stone told him that she’d heard him, but it wasn’t Marla who appeared through the stone archway seconds later.

It was her mother, dressed in a ridiculous gold dress with a look of complete panic on her face.

‘Thank God!’ she squawked, and crossed herself towards the stained glass window. ‘Who ever said this place was deconsecrated was wrong. This way.’

She turned and dashed back through the archway. Gabe glanced backwards in confusion, in case someone else had come in after him, but found no one. He scratched his head and followed her.

The reason for Cecilia’s odd behaviour became obvious when he reached the kitchen and caught sight of Emily, heavily pregnant and doubled up over the table. Relief flooded her face when she saw Gabe. Whether it was because her contraction had ended or because he was there, he wasn’t entirely sure.

‘I can’t drive her to the hospital because I’ve had a glass of sherry,’ Cecilia wailed.

Emily gulped and held up four fingers behind her back to Gabe, the almost empty bottle of sherry on the kitchen table verifying Emily’s estimations.

Great. One in labour, one half-cut, and Marla nowhere to be seen.

Gabe sighed. As usual in Beckleberry, things weren’t going to plan, but life as an undertaker had taught him to stay cool in a crisis, and Gabe could see that Emily badly needed someone to take charge. He put his arm around her shoulders.

‘How far apart are your contractions?’

He might be more accustomed to dealing with death rather than birth, but he’d grown up in a huge Irish family where pregnant women and babies were part of the fabric of life.

‘About four minutes, I think?’

‘Okay.’

Gabe thought fast. He wasn’t sure, but four minutes sounded urgent and the hospital was at least twenty minutes away on a normal day. And today wasn’t a normal day. It was Christmas Eve, and there was a snowstorm outside.

‘Do you have a car, Cecilia?’

Cecilia put down the sherry glass she’d just refilled and shook her head.

‘I do.’ Emily groaned as another contraction started to build. ‘The keys are in here.’ She shoved her handbag across the table at him.

‘Right then. Good. Here’s what were going to do. Cecilia? You lock up and fetch Emily’s coat.’

Marla’s mother shot off, and Gabe put both hands on Emily’s shoulders.

‘Okay Emily.’ He locked his gaze on hers. ‘We’re going to get you to the hospital. You just try to stay as calm as you can, and breathe through the contractions when they come.’

She nodded, and clutched his elbows as she panted through the pain.

‘Thank you,’ she managed, as the contraction eased. ‘I’m so glad you’re here, Gabe.’

He smiled and helped her put on the coat Cecilia proffered.

‘Can you walk?’

‘I think so.’

Gabe opened the back door and stepped outside, then held his hand out to help Emily down the step.

‘Careful, it’s slippery out here.’

Together they negotiated the snowy pathway. Another contraction hit as they reached Emily’s Nissan Micra.

‘That’s it sweetheart, you’re doing great.’

Gabe held her up as her fingers squeezed his hard enough to snap the bones.

‘Has anyone called Tom?’ he muttered over his shoulder to Cecilia.

‘Answerphone,’ she whispered back, with an exaggerated roll of her eyes.

Gabe thrust Emily’s bag at Cecilia as she climbed into the back of the car. ‘Emily’s mobile is in there. Keep trying. Tell