Free Divided Loyalties by Patricia Scanlan Page A

murmured before turning her over to him and kissing her hotly. Shauna gave herself up to the pleasure of the moment, hoping against hope that Chloe
wouldn’t wake up until they were finished. They’d been interrupted so many times since she’d been born that Greg had said irritably one night that she might as well save her money
on the Pill, since she didn’t need it. They had a method of contraception all their own called Chloe.
    The gods were kind. They even had time for a cuddle afterwards before Shauna heard her daughter call hopefully across the landing, ‘Mama? Mama?’
    ‘Perfect timing,’ she said with satisfaction.
    Greg leaned up on one arm and looked down at her. ‘You’re in a very good humour this morning,’ he said suspiciously.
    ‘Why not?’ she said lightly.
    ‘I didn’t think you were too happy last night. You gave me a few glares.’
    ‘I just wish Della and Eddie would give me a little notice when they’re staying. I could have organized a babysitter and gone out with you,’ she said mildly. She wasn’t
going to start a row about her in-laws. Soon enough they’d be far away from them and they’d no longer be a source of friction between her and her husband.
    ‘Fair point, I suppose,’ Greg conceded. ‘What about them coming for Christmas?’
    She saw the wary look in his eyes and knew he was expecting an earbashing. She had him off balance. Maybe she was a bit off balance herself, she thought ruefully, remembering her anger of the
previous night.
    ‘Mama?’ Chloe called.
    ‘Look at it this way, we won’t have to do Christmas for a while. We’ll be owed three, one with Eddie and Della, one with Carrie and Dan and one with Bobby, if he ever moves
back to Ireland,’ she said smoothly and slipped her nightdress back over her head.
    ‘Good way of looking at it,’ Greg agreed, running his hand over his stubbly jaw. ‘I thought you wouldn’t be too happy about it.’
    Oh, I wasn’t, trust me. And I would have liked you to back me up on it but that never happens,
she thought silently as she tied the belt of her dressing gown round her waist.
    ‘What’s three more mouths to feed?’ She shrugged and left her husband staring after her, not sure at all about what he was hearing.
    It’s only for one day
, Shauna comforted herself as she pushed open the door of her cherished daughter’s room and saw Chloe, blond curls in glorious disarray, her two cheeks
rosy red, standing up in her cot, arms out to be lifted.
    ‘Hello, my darling. How are you this morning?’ she asked, joy suffusing her as Chloe wrapped her two little arms round her neck and snuggled in for her morning cuddle.
    ‘’Allo.’ Kathryn padded in and Chloe completely lost interest in Shauna and tried to clamber out of her mother’s arms. Shauna laughed and put her down. The two cousins
smiled at each other and went immediately to the toys in the toy box. What an irony, she thought with wry amusement. Kathryn and Chloe were getting on like a house on fire.
    There was no sign of Della or Eddie so after she had changed Chloe’s nappy, with much protesting from her daughter who wanted to continue playing, she brought the two of them downstairs
and made their porridge and plopped a spoonful of honey in each dish. Greg was cooking the fry-up and Shauna inhaled the aroma of sizzling bacon and sausages hungrily. Kathryn was able to feed
herself and Shauna fed Chloe, who was watching her cousin intently, ready to go when Kathryn did. ‘Come on, eat up. You can go in and play when you’re finished,’ she said firmly
as Chloe wriggled in her baby chair, demanding to be let out.
    ‘Oi, you two, get yourselves down here,’ Greg yelled up at Della and Eddie ten minutes later, pouring orange juice into glasses.
    Shauna heard them moving around the bedroom and Della ambled downstairs five minutes later wearing Shauna’s dressing gown, which barely fastened over her bulge. ‘I didn’t feel
like getting dressed so