The Parent Test. Elizabeth Duke
Sydney flat that your father bought for you and your sister when he sold your family home and moved to the west coast is now officially yours. It’s been virtually yours anyway, I understand, since Serena married Hamish.’
Roxy frowned into her coffee. Was he hoping she’d go back to her Sydney flat and stay there? Or thinking, maybe, that she didn’t deserve a city flat of her own, since she was so seldom at home?
‘What about…Serena’s clothes?’ she asked with difficulty, without looking at him. ‘Are they still here, waiting to be sorted through?’ If Cam was using the master bedroom, he must have either disposed of them or put them aside for her to deal with.
‘Blanche went through your sister’s things while she and your father were over here for the funeral,’ Cam told her, adding almost accusingly, ‘You weren’t here, Roxy. We hadn’t even heard from you.’ Then, on a softer note, ‘Blanche said that none of Serena’s things would fit you anyway—your sister being so much taller. She bundled everything up and sent it off to a charity.’
Roxy shrugged. No doubt Blanche had taken a few things for herself or her married daughter first. Not that she minded. It would be too painful to wear any of Serena’s clothes anyway. A piece of jewellery…a few personal items…simply as a memento…that was different.
‘Raeburns’ Nest now belongs to me.’ Cam paused to take a sip of his coffee. ‘Everything else—Hamish’s share in the pharmacy and any other money or valuables from their joint estate—will be put into trust for their daughter.’ He flicked her a look, as if waiting for comment.
Roxy took a deep breath and asked, ‘Did Hamish’s will mention custody of their daughter?’
As she glanced up, she caught a glint in Cam’s eye that filled her with foreboding. He told her, in a level, velvet-soft tone, ‘My brother named me as his daughter’s guardian. It was his express wish,’ he spelt out, ‘that I have custody of Emma.’
Roxy’s hand jerked, spilling her coffee. ‘My sister specifically asked me to take care of their daughter if anything ever happened to them!’
Cam’s brow shot up. ‘I’m sure Hamish wouldn’t have named me, Roxy, without Serena’s agreement. Your sister must have changed her mind. No doubt Hamish pointed out how impractical it would be to expect you—a devoted career woman who’s away from Australia for most of the year—to take care of a young child. He must have convinced her that I’d be the best one to have custody.’
Roxy sucked in an incensed breath. ‘My sister would never change her mind! Hamish must have meant that—that he would want you to take care of Emma temporarily…just until I could come back from wherever I was and take over! Or…or he wanted you to be her financial guardian. That’s more like it! Not her permanent, everyday guardian.’
‘I don’t think so.’
His calmness infuriated her even more. ‘I’ll fight you for custody!’ she threatened recklessly.
He laughed. ‘You can’t possibly want permanent custody, Roxy. You’re never at home. You’re always hightailing off to some remote archeological dig where you don’t even get vital mail when it’s sent to you. And when you do, you trip over things and catch foreign bugs that keep you away for weeks longer!’
She winced, and jutted her chin. ‘I’ll give up my field work. Naturally.’
He shook his head, his smile almost pitying. ‘Easy to say that, Roxy…but not so easy to mean it. Sorry, sweetheart, but my brother wanted me to have custody of our niece. Your sister gave no written instructions to suggest that she disagreed.’
‘Well, she’d hardly be expecting to die at the age of twenty-four!’ Roxy snapped back. She gulped down her fury, and after snatching in some breaths of air said more calmly, ‘Surely it’s better for a baby girl to be brought up by a woman—an aunt who can be a real mother figure to her—than a phil—’ She was about to say ‘philandering’, but had second thoughts about hurling insults at this delicate stage. ‘Than a bachelor uncle. You surely must know by now how a baby ties you down.’
Her arguments failed to move him. ‘A daughter should have a father and a mother, and I intend to give Emma both—as soon as I can arrange it.’
Roxy’s heart chilled. So her father was right. Cam was planning to get married again. She felt a sharp twinge. On Emma’s behalf, she told herself frac-tiously. Poor little soul, having one of Cam’s bimbos thrust onto her.
‘Belinda, do you mean?’ she asked before she could stop herself. She clamped her mouth shut. The thought of the dark-eyed, tennis-playing brunette married to Cam and helping to bring up her baby niece made her blood boil. Never, she thought. Never!
‘Belinda?’ Cass looked amused. ‘No, it won’t be Belinda. Belinda’s gone back to her exhusband. She’s living in Melbourne now.’
Roxy felt an irrational leap of relief, before her spirits plunged again. Gone back to her husband… If wives could go back to their husbands…
‘Is your ex-wife coming back to you?’ she blurted out.
Cam laughed. A harsh, scathing laugh, his mouth twisting. ‘Hardly. My wife is happily remarried, and has a new life far more suited to her than the life I offered her.’
The mocking black eyes turned cold and flat under her gaze. Roxy swallowed, moistening her lips with the tip of her tongue. Did that biting cynicism hide a deep hurt? She felt a wave of sympathy for him.
Until she remembered what was at stake. Her niece. She reached for her coffee, hardening her heart as she gulped it down.
She couldn’t afford any weakening towards Cam Raeburn. She had to remain strong enough to fight him.
In the swirling silence a baby began to cry.
‘LET me go to her,’ Roxy offered, jumping up, her hand reaching for the big teddy bear.
But Cam was already on his feet. ‘Come with me, by all means, but I think Emma should see a familiar face first up.’
‘Oh. Yes…of course.’ Although Roxy could see the sense in that, she was only too aware that he was reminding her yet again that she was a virtual stranger to her niece. As she trailed after him to the nursery, she asked, ‘You’ve seen a lot of Emma since she was born?’ She was wondering how long Cam had been a familiar face to the baby. Only since his brother’s death?
‘Enough for her to recognise me with a big smile when I moved in here with her,’ he tossed back, and she drew in her lips. It was Cam’s fault she hadn’t seen more of her infant niece in the past seven months. She’d taken on longer field trips to avoid him.
Already she was regretting her long absences abroad. It would have been preferable to risk running into Cam occasionally than to become a virtual stranger to her baby niece.
What if little Emma wanted nothing to do with her? Roxy bit her lip, a rush of nervousness sweeping through her as she followed Cass into the nursery—a light», charmingly decorated room with a window overlooking the lush green cliffs and the deep blue ocean beyond.
Cam lifted the baby from her cot, but her high-pitched wails continued. ‘I know, I know, you’re wet and you want a clean nappy. And I guess you’re ready for your bottle, too.’ He seemed surprisingly unperturbed. ‘Let’s get you out of your wet nappy first, huh?’ He glanced round at Roxy. ‘I guess she still misses her mother, poor kid. Mary’s been a lifesaver. Emma adores her. Mary’s been like a grandmother to her.’
Roxy’s heart wrenched. She wanted Emma to adore her, not an elderly baby-sitter. But she wasn’t being fair. If Mary was like a grandmother to Emma, her niece was lucky to have such a caring