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At first she could make no sense of his words. "What?" she said in a bewildered tone.
"The princess Bea, my wife, is pregnant. She is going to have a baby. "
"You mean you've been at it with her at the same time as with me?" Ethel said angrily.
He looked startled. It seemed he had not expected her to resent that. "I must!" he protested. "I need an heir. "
"But you said you loved me!"
"I do, and in a way I always will. "
"No, Teddy!" she cried. "Don't say it like that-please don't!"
"Keep your voice down!"
"Keep my voice down? You're throwing me over! What is it to me now if people know?"
"It's everything to me. "
Ethel was distraught. "Teddy, please, I love you. "
"But it's over now. I have to be a good husband and a father to my child. You must understand. "
"Understand, hell!" she raged. "How can you say it so easily? I've seen you show more emotion over a dog that had to be shot!"
"It's not true," he said, and there was a catch in his voice.
"I gave myself to you, in this room, on that bed by there. "
"And I shan't-" He stopped. His face, frozen until now in an expression of rigid self-control, suddenly showed anguish. He turned away, hiding from her gaze. "I shan't ever forget that," he whispered.
She moved closer to him, and saw tears on his cheeks, and her anger evaporated. "Oh, Teddy, I'm so sorry," she said.
He tried to pull himself together. "I care for you very much, but I must do my duty," he said. The words were cold, but his voice was tormented.
"Oh, God. " She tried to stop crying. She had not told him her news yet. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve, sniffed, and swallowed. "Duty?" she said. "You don't know the half. "
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm pregnant, too. "
"Oh, my good God. " He put his cigar to his lips, mechanically, then lowered it again without puffing on it. "But I always withdrew!"
"Not soon enough, then. "
"How long have you known?"
"I just realized. I looked in my drawer and saw my clean rags. " He winced. Evidently he did not like talk of menstruation. Well, he would have to put up with it. "I worked out that I haven't had the curse since I moved into Mrs. Jevons's old room, and that's ten weeks ago. "
"Two cycles. That makes it definite. That's what Bea said. Oh, hell. " He touched the cigar to his lips, found that it had gone out, and dropped it on the floor with a grunt of irritation.
A wry thought occurred to her. "You might have two heirs. "
"Don't be ridiculous," he said sharply. "A bastard doesn't inherit. "
"Oh," she said. She had not seriously intended to make a claim for her child. On the other hand, she had not until now thought of it as a bastard. "Poor little thing," she said. "My baby, the bastard. "
He looked guilty. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean that. Forgive me. "
