Free Dance with the Devil by Sandy Curtis Page A

depth of feeling, the immediate physical response, the urgent desire to cherish.
    Or the helpless sense of frustration that nothing he could do or say would prevent her from walking out of his life as soon as she could arrange it.
     
    The pendulum clock in the living room struck three o'clock. Drew flung down the magazine he was reading. Damned if he knew how fathers waited through the long drawn-out process of childbirth! This wasn't even his child and he was anxious to have the pain and fear finished with.
    Mary's fear had permeated them all. Despite Emma's reassurances that everything was going well, Mary queried every change in the labour, desperately afraid her drug-taking had somehow caused problems with the developing foetus.
    Drew had looked in on the struggling trio half an hour earlier. Tom's face had reflected his apprehension; Mary was worn and exhausted, but determined not to give in to the demands of her body for a quick fix to the pain.
    His heart had scrunched in his chest at the sight of Emma, patiently massaging Mary's back to help ease her pain. Drew had never seen soldiers under siege before, but he imagined they would exude that same quiet resolute air of purpose he felt coming from Emma. That same acceptance of the fact there was a long battle ahead and only the steadfast would survive. Panic was not an option.
    Suddenly a faint mewling cry sounded from the room. He walked to the doorway, hesitated, unsure if they would feel he was intruding.
    Emma was cleaning blood from a tiny baby, while Tom wiped perspiration from Mary's face with a damp cloth. Emma looked at Mary and Tom, and smiled.
    'All the fingers and toes,' she said. 'She's a beautiful little girl - a bit small, but we were expecting that.'
    She wrapped the baby in a light cotton blanket, then handed her to her parents. Relief, joy, and an almost palpable bond of love seemed to surge from the young couple as they gazed in awe at their daughter.
    Drew had friends who had children, but this was the first time he had been so close to a birth. He looked at the diminutive scrap of life, the dark hair damp on the reddened scalp. A tiny fist pushed into the air. Slowly the fingers uncurled.
    Drew stood, unmoving, fascinated. Each little fingernail was so minuscule yet so perfect. The dainty hand pulled at her eye, rubbed against the whisper of eyelash on the delicate cheek.
    An overwhelming sense of the mystery of life flooded through Drew. And a sudden unexpected longing for a child of his own. Without him being fully conscious of it, a smile of wonder and hope spread across his face. For a few more seconds he looked at the baby, then he glanced at Emma.
    She was looking at him, her expression unfathomable. He returned her gaze. He watched her eyes widen and flare with emotion, with acknowledgment of the need flowing between them. A powerful, intense need, primitive in its depth. On a sexual level it hit him hard, tightening his loins with a fierce heat; but emotionally he felt as though he'd been punched in the heart. His breathing seemed to stop.
    The baby cried. Emma stiffened, focused on Mary, on the job she had yet to complete.
    Drew walked back into the living room, into a reality that no longer seemed real. Only Emma, and the deep sense of longing flowing between them, were real.
     
    Emma waited until six o'clock before she felt confident she could leave Mary and the baby. Although exhausted, Mary was recovering well from the labour. Emma told Tom to note if the baby was irritable or jittery as this could indicate an addiction problem, but she reassured him it was highly unlikely and that the infant appeared quite healthy.
    Tom pressed Emma to stay, but she explained the horses and dogs would need feeding. Above all else, Emma was exhausted. Physically and emotionally. Although she had presented a calm, confident facade to Mary and Tom, she had been desperately worried about Mary's ability to cope with a long labour. She assured Tom she would