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‘She looks on you as the daughter she never had, Lucy,’ he told her. ‘And as for that cat!’
If Lucy was enjoying the spoiling then so was Pasha. The Siamese had quickly discovered a devoted slave in Margaret, and one moreover who was willing to feed him on such delicacies as fresh salmon instead of the canned food which was his normal fare.
Every day he accompanied Margaret on her tour of her garden, padding delicately over the grass with a proudly disdainful air before returning to join Lucy in the study.
When it had become clear that her stay was going to be more than an overnight one, her uncle had returned to the flat to collect her papers and notebooks, and most afternoons Lucy made an attempt to get down to work, although an attempt was usually all it was.
This morning she had been ferociously nauseous after breakfast, for the second day running, and she was now lying outside in the garden, shaded by an umbrella, watching her aunt deadhead her roses.
As she eyed her aunt’s stooping back Lucy knew there was something that could not be put off any more.
When Margaret straightened and suggested, ‘Coffee?’ she held out her hand.
‘In a minute. There’s something I have to tell you first. I think I might be pregnant.’
She said it abruptly, wondering if her aunt would be as shocked as she had been when she first began to suspect the reason for her continued lassitude and sickness. She hated having to hurt her aunt with such an announcement but her own honesty forced her to admit it. She could not continue to remain under her uncle’s roof being pampered and indulged like a Victorian invalid when she was really nothing of the sort.
‘Yes, I suspected as much.’
The calm acceptance in her aunt’s voice made her lift startled brown eyes to Margaret’s placid blue ones.
‘You knew?’
‘I recognised the signs,’ Margaret told her wryly. ‘I suffered a very similar tiredness with Neville, and then again later with the one I lost.’
‘You must have wondered why I didn’t say anything, but until the other day it never occurred to me… That is…’
Her aunt sat down at her side, taking hold of her hand.
‘Lucy, you’re an adult woman, and the world has changed a good deal since I was a girl. Even so, I don’t see you as someone who would want to bring a child into the world outside marriage and with no father to help care for it.’
‘I’m not,’ Lucy agreed. ‘Much as I hate to admit it, I’ve behaved as irresponsibly as a teenager, never even giving a thought to the consequences. Worse than a teenager,’ she added wryly. ‘Nowadays I think they’re far more sensible than I’ve been.’
‘I take it that there’s no chance of you and the father…’ Margaret probed delicately, stopping when she saw the bright flash of tears in her niece’s eyes as she shook her head.
‘He knows nothing about this, Margaret, nor would he want to know. I thought he loved me, but I know now that he doesn’t; I’m on my own in this.’
‘No you’re not,’ Margaret told her gently, ‘you have your uncle and myself.’
Lucy gave her a watery smile.
‘That’s sweet of you, but I must leave now, Margaret, I can’t embarrass you and Uncle Leo by staying. There’s bound to be gossip.’
‘So what?’ The grey eyebrows arched faintly. ‘We might be getting on in years, Lucy, but we aren’t completely behind the times. An illegitimate baby these days is nothing and what gossip there is will quickly die down. You don’t think your uncle and I would let you live alone now, do you? No… you’re staying here.’
It was so unusual to hear her gentle aunt speaking so firmly that Lucy was silenced.
‘I take it that you intend to continue with the pregnancy?’
‘As opposed to an abortion? Yes.’ Right from the moment two days ago when she had realised she must be pregnant Lucy had known she would keep the child—Saul’s child. Already, despite her shock, the thought of the baby soothed the ache in her heart. Becoming pregnant was not something she would have chosen to do, but now that she was she discovered she was not as unhappy at the thought as she might have been.
‘You must see Dr Carter now,’ Margaret informed her. ‘I’ll give him a ring tomorrow and get him to come round.’
‘Margaret, before you make any plans I must tell Uncle Leo. He might not feel the same way as you do.’
‘He does,’ Margaret further stunned her by saying. ‘We’ve already discussed it, Lucy,’ she told her niece. ‘You see, almost from the start I suspected what might be wrong. Leo wants you and your baby here just as much as I do.’
