“Mom, do you want a hand?” Molly stood in the doorway, watching her mother taking down the washing.

Mariah Boden glanced around at her daughter. “I thought you were playing with the children.”

“I was.” Molly did a full-body shrug. “It just that they can be a bit full-on.”

Mariah smiled, being reminded that Molly was little more than a child herself, despite what she’d been through. “Well, you can help me fold the sheets if you like.”

“Okay.” The young woman stepped out into the sunshine, squinting slightly but smiling all the same.

Sam, taking a gentle constitutional with Inara, watched the two women folding linens. “You know, we could always ask Molly to stay,” he said contemplatively.

“Really?” Inara studied the girl. “Why? I mean, she’s pleasant enough, but there might be something else she wants to do with her life.”

“I’m sure there is, but right now what she needs is some stability. Get herself back onto an even keel.”

Inara smiled. “And what’s brought on this outpouring of nautical similes? Or metaphors. I always get them mixed up.”

Sam laughed. “Me too. But it did occur to me that Molly is very good with the children, and since we’ll be meeting this new little one before long …” He caressed Inara’s stomach. “…I just thought it might be a good idea to have some help.”

“You mean like a nursery maid?”

“Something like that.” His brow creased. “Unless you think I’m suggesting you won’t be able to cope?”

“No, no, I wasn’t thinking that at all.” She patted his hand and smiled again for him. “You’ve done this before, and I have the feeling I might be needing all the help I can get.”

“I know you’ll be magnificent.”

This time she laughed quite naturally. “Sam, darling, it will be sweaty, disgusting and very time consuming. And that’s only the birth.”

He grinned, looking so unlike the staid counsellor he had once been it was as if the past had never existed. “And I can’t wait.” Something hit him on the back of the leg and he turned, looking down, t