Mary confronted Rhona (Picture: ITV)

There was a massively emotional moment for Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) in Wednesday’s (December 6) Emmerdale episode, when she got to hold baby Ivy for the first time.

While she didn’t give birth to Ivy she has a strong instinct that the baby is part of her, because Ivy was conceived using an embryo that Rhona and ex-husband Gus Malcolms (Alan McKenna) had frozen years earlier – so she is biologically Rhona’s child.

The situation is even more complicated since Ivy’s birth mother Lucy died soon after the baby was born, leaving Gus grief-stricken and barely able to cope.

In this episode Rhona decides to go and visit Gus, taking a few essentials like nappies. Mary Goskirk (Louise Jameson) decided to go with her as a support.

Gus was initially hostile, but he was obviously shattered and when they offered to do a bit of a tidy round and make some bottles up while he tended to Ivy he allowed them to help.

When Gus fell asleep and Mary was busy making a casserole, Rhona couldn’t resist a peep at baby Ivy. Then she picked the baby up and settled down in a chair to give her a bottle.

‘There’s my good girl,’ she whispered to the baby as she stole a tender and intimate moment with her.

Gus is struggling with looking after Ivy and dealing with his grief following Lucy’s death (Picture: ITV)

Rhona is trying to keep things together (Picture: ITV)

When Gus woke up he was furious. ‘I knew you’d do this, try to wheedle your way into Ivy’s life,’ he said. He told Rhona it wouldn’t be happening again.

Back at home, Rhona did her best to try to focus on her family, encouraging Leo Goskirk (Harvey Rogerson) and April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) to do the magic trick she’d missed the previous day because she’d been at the hospital to see Ivy. She’d laid on treats as well, but Mary could see that her mind was far away and she was still thinking of Ivy.

Mary found her daughter crying later and suggested that she’d felt a bond when she held Ivy.

‘It was more than a bond. It took my breath away,’ Rhona told her. ‘I can’t stop thinking about Ivy, she is part of me.’ She said what scared her most was if Gus couldn’t cope, Ivy might need her and she wouldn’t know. So Mary came to a decision.

She said she would take on the responsibility of keeping an eye on Gus, realising that the only way Rhona will be able to cope with the whole situation is by keeping away and trying to put some emotional distance between herself and the baby.

In return, she made Rhona promise not to be tempted to go back and see Ivy.

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‘You can never go there again,’ she insisted.

This is going to be an impossible task for Rhona, as Zoe Henry told us.

‘I 1000% would not be leaving that alone,’ she insisted. ‘Because out there is somebody who is a part of you and you want to know that person and be there for that person. Rhona instinctively wants to be part of that baby’s life.’

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Mary tried to gain control of a difficult situation.