Free Two Weddings and a Baby by Scarlett Bailey Page A

bottles from Sue. ‘I’ll sort this out. You get dry, and get the kettle on.’
    ‘There’s a steam steriliser still in the pantry,’ Sue said. ‘Luckily I never got round to giving it away.’
    Cordelia returned. ‘Right, the boys are in the tub but they want you, Keira. I think they are still a bit shaken up by the trip up here,’ she said, dropping a bundle of clothes onto Tamsyn’s lap. ‘And here are some fresh clothes and a nappy for the little one, Tamsyn. Better get back to my charges, and I’m taking a bottle of wine, Sue. Come on, Keira, you can come too. If there’s two of us drunk in charge of children, there’s much less likely to be an accident.’
    ‘Me?’ Tamsyn looked around. ‘You want me to dress the baby? There must be someone else who can dress an actual baby. I’ve never done it before.’ She held up the Babygro, which seemed like an impossible maze of arms and legs that might have been made for an octopus rather than a human child. ‘I mean, how do you get their arms in? Are babies’ arms bendy?’
    ‘Go through to the snug,’ Sue told her. ‘You remember where it is? I made a fire in there, and it should still be going. It’s much cosier than in here. I’ll bring you some tea and cake in a minute.’
    ‘Yes, but how do you get this thing onto this thing?’ Tamsyn asked her, lifting first the Babygro then the baby.
    ‘I’m sure you can work it out,’ Sue said. ‘Aren’t clothes your job?’
    Tamsyn looked around, but everyone was busy with some sort of preparation, and even as she wondered about how a person was supposed to stand up while there was another very small person in her arms, the first set of refugees arrived through the door, shepherded by her brother, a gale blowing in after them.
    ‘Catriona,’ Jed rushed to support a woman in her forties, who stumbled against him. ‘When did you come down with this?’
    ‘I don’t think she’s that chatty,’ Ruan said. ‘We brought her up in one of the boats, lucky really. Her front door was open; she’d collapsed in the hallway. Loads of people have come down with it, so we’d better try and find a place for them away from everyone else so as not to spread it around.’
    A young woman threw up noisily into a plastic bag that the man she was leaning on held for her.
    ‘Yes, they need beds at once,’ Sue said. ‘Rory, Catriona looks like she can hardly walk. She can go in your study, onto the sofa bed. It’s about time it was used as a force for good. Mabel, James, Dinah and the others can go in the old nursery suite. Fortunately I’ve been getting ready to move Meadow down there, now she’s getting so grown up. That will take six of them at least, and if any more of the sick turn up, well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Go on then, Rory!’
    Tamsyn noticed the exchange between the husband and wife, but didn’t really have time to think about it. Jed and Ruan helped the sick woman to Rory’s study, and Rory led the others up the stairs.
    ‘Do try not to throw up on the Axminster!’ Sue called out after them.
    Feeling a little queasy herself, Tamsyn got to her feet gingerly and went to find the snug.
    It was a reassuringly warm little room, lined with books and piles of old board games. Family photos dating back at least fifty years crowded every surface, and best of all, the one tiny, vaulted window overlooked the courtyard, shielding the room from the worst of the weather. Tamsyn found that she was still terrified, even though they were now in relative safety. Then again, maybe it wasn’t the storm that frightened her so much; maybe it was the baby itself that she seemed somehow to be in charge of, despite her lack of any sort of qualification in that area.
    ‘I had a hamster once, you know,’ she told Mo as she lay the baby down on a rug at what she judged to be a safe distance from the embers of the fire. ‘It died.’
    For several minutes she looked at the Babygro, turning it this