The Baby Who Saved Christmas. Alison Roberts

heavy silence fell but Alice didn’t dare look back at him.

      Had the baby died as well? Had they both recently lost their only living relatives? Not that there was any real comparison. He’d known his sister and she’d only lost the potential of knowing her father. But she knew what it was like to lose the person who was the emotional touchstone in one’s life. Her mother had seemed far too young to be taken but how old had Julien’s sister been? Probably only in her thirties, as he looked to be himself.

      This was a tragedy in anybody’s terms and Julien clearly blamed her father and hated him for it. She had come here claiming a close relationship to André so it was no wonder she wasn’t welcome. Had André been as reckless on public roads as he’d been on a racing circuit? That would give credence to the idea that the crash had been his fault but Julien had said his sister had died in childbirth months ago. How could André be blamed for that?

      A cold chill ran down Alice’s spine. Had it been an abortion that had gone horribly wrong? That was part of her own history, in a way. The only reason she existed had been because her mother had refused to go along with what had been deemed compulsory.

      The silence grew heavier. And more awkward.

      And then it was broken by something totally unexpected.

      The wail of a baby.