“Okay,” Libby said.
“You can lean back on me. I’ve got you,” Dylan said.
Libby leaned back, cautiously at first, but then she felt Dylan’s body behind her, solid and safe, and she relaxed into him. He reached out his hand and she took it.
“You’re doing amazingly, Libby,” Frank said.
“We’re going to be at the hospital in about four minutes,” Patience said as they swerved round a corner at breakneck speed.
At that moment Libby felt another contraction hit her, harder than any so far. She closed her eyes and let out a long moan as she pushed down with all her might.
“That’s good, well done,” Nikki said, raising her voice to be heard. “Now stop and breathe.”
Libby fell back on Dylan, panting.
“You’ve got this,” he whispered into her ear, but she barely heard him for the sound of her heart hammering in her ears.
“I can see the hospital up ahead,” Patience shouted a minute later as the bus made a sudden swerve to the right. “We’re nearly there.”
“There’ll be a team waiting for us when we arrive,” Nikki said.
Frank was leaning toward Libby, his eyes fixed on her face. “You can do this, Libby. I know you can.”
Libby started to reply, then gasped as she felt another contraction rolling up. Out of the bus window, she could see a flashing light and people in blue uniforms running toward the bus, and then she threw her head back and let out a roar of pain.
CHAPTER
50
When Libby woke up, it took her a moment to work out where she was. Light was coming in through a thin curtain above her head, so it must be morning. It was quiet, unnaturally so, and when she looked to her right, she saw she was alone in the sparsely furnished room. Libby closed her eyes and leaned back into her pillow, listening to the distant sounds of traffic below.
There was a noise from outside the door, a clatter and the low sound of voices. Libby breathed deeply.
“Shhh,don’t wake her up,” said a voice coming into the room.
There was the sound of footsteps padding across the floor, and the edge of the bed creaked next to her. A second later, Libby felt something soft and warm against her skin.
“Mama!” came a high-pitched voice, and when Libby opened her eyes, a small, chubby face was pressed against her own.
“Frankie!” she said, wrapping her arms round her daughter and kissing her. “You woke me up!”
Frankie let out a gurgle of delight and squirmed out of Libby’s arms, crawling across the bed away from her.
“Morning, beautiful.” Dylan had climbed into the bed next to Libby and leaned over to kiss her. “Did you sleep all right?”
“Like a log, thanks.” She lifted up her head and Dylan stretched his arm under it so that she was nestled against his chest. Frankie had settled between the two of them and was playing with her toy bunny.
“What time did she wake up?”
“Five,” Dylan said, and Libby groaned.
“We need to get thicker curtains for her bedroom ASAP.”
“That’s top of my list of jobs, I promise.”
They’d moved into their new flat yesterday. Before that, they’d been living in a studio flat near Euston Station, but now that Frankie had turned one they needed somewhere with a second bedroom. The flat wasn’t much bigger than the studio, and the ceilings were so low that Dylan had to duck when he walked through the doors. But it had a small box room for Frankie, and with a lick of paint and some furniture, Libby was confident they could make it a proper home.
“Are you still seeing Frank this afternoon?” Dylan said, stroking her hair.
