1848453051 by Linda Kavanagh Page B

a boy or a girl yet. The doctor said that everything seems fine. I’m just supposed to take things easy for the next few weeks.’
    ‘Then maybe you should give up work?’ Jeff said hastily. ‘Standing at a lecture podium all day can’t be doing our child any good.’
    ‘Jeff, I only give two lectures a day, and they’re less than an hour each,’ Laura protested. ‘The rest of the time is spent giving tutorials or correcting exam papers – all of which are done sitting down. Anyway, the doctor says that I can continue working.’
    This last bit was a lie – the doctor hadn’t expressed any opinion – but Laura wasn’t planning on spending her pregnancy lying on a couch and being bored. She loved her job too much to stay at home.

C HAPTER 16
    W hen she missed a period, Ellie paid little attention, since it never crossed her mind that she might be pregnant. As she’d never conceived during her marriage, she’d assumed that becoming pregnant wasn’t ever going to happen for her. But when she missed a second period, she was excited and frightened all at once. Since she was now in her late thirties, she wasn’t going to miss the opportunity of having this child. And having this baby would tie her to Alan in a way that even a marriage certificate couldn’t. Giving Alan a child would put her on a par with Sylvia.
    Ellie was bubbling with a mixture of excitement and tension as she waited for her beloved Alan to arrive. She’d now passed the first trimester, and since her pregnancy was no longer in doubt, she’d decided that the time was right to let him know. She’d been anticipating this moment all day. In her own mind she’d played the scenario over and over like a continuous newsreel, and in it he’d expressed his delight and excitement at her revelation. She’d gone through the scene so often that she felt certain it would play out exactly the same way in reality.
    As she watched his car coming up her driveway, she felt her heart thumping uncomfortably in her chest. She seemed to be waiting for an eternity as he parked his car behind the house, gathered up the bouquet of flowers he often brought her, and stepped into her hall.
    She’d planned to wait until they were in bed before telling him, but she was so nervous that she blurted it out the minute he arrived. ‘I’m pregnant!’ she announced, watching his face closely to gauge his reaction. She’d hoped to see delight, but instead she saw confusion, followed by a look of guilt as he struggled to say something appropriate.
    ‘B – but I thought …’ he said at last.
    ‘You thought I was taking precautions?’
    ‘Well, yes, I assumed …’
    ‘I never managed to conceive during the years that John and I were together, so I assumed I wasn’t able,’ she told him, disappointed by his initial reaction. But she wouldn’t give up this child, even if he begged her to. She looked at him from under her eyelashes. ‘You don’t mind, do you?’
    ‘No, of course not!’ he said quickly. ‘If that’s what you want –? If you do, then that’s wonderful!’
    ‘But is it what you want? To have a child with me?’
    ‘Yes, yes, it’s just that –’
    He took her in his arms, but since she knew him so well, she was aware that something was definitely wrong.
    ‘What is it?’
    ‘You know I can’t leave Sylvia yet.’
    Ellie nodded, relieved that this was all that was bothering him. ‘Of course I understand. But this pregnancy was totally unexpected,’ she assured him earnestly. ‘I don’t want you thinking I’m putting a gun to your head. I know our time hasn’t come yet. But this impatient little person –’ she patted her stomach tenderly ‘– has moved things up a notch.’
    He still didn’t look convinced.
    ‘I know I must wait for you,’ she whispered, slipping into his arms. ‘But this may be my only chance to have a child … I’m not getting any younger, you know.’
    He kissed her forehead tenderly. ‘You’ll always be