To compound her fears, Dr Garland was away on holiday in Cornwall and the doddery old doctor standing in for him was as good as useless, his only advice for her to go into hospital for the remainder of her pregnancy. Allegra had refused point-blank to do that. All she wanted, now that spring had come and the trees and hedgerows were unfurling their tender new leaves, was to be alone at Winter Cottage, but Hope and Romily had begged her not to leave Island House at this crucial stage. She knew they meant well and were probably right, but their constant attention made her feel like a prisoner.
She sighed and rubbed at the small of her back, wondering miserably if there was a greater punishment for a woman than to be pregnant. There was at least one good thing in all this: Elijah hadn’t seen her in this disgustingly repulsive state. In his letters he said he would always love her, that he always had and no other woman came close. He had written of the place where he was now billeted, of the farmer’s wife who cooked for them occasionally in the evening, and of her two daughters who flirted outrageously with the soldiers while trying to teach them French.
The thought of two young, attractive girls flirting with her husband drove Allegra mad with jealousy. Would he be tempted? Miles away from home, living with the daily threat of his life being cut short, could he be trusted not to stray into the welcoming arms of some petite French tart with a flawless body, all lissom legs, a perfectly flat stomach and pert breasts?
From behind her, she heard Evelyn ask if Stanley had written to them.
‘No, and that worries me,’ answered Romily. ‘I’d just like to know that he’s all right. When he first came to us, he was covered in bruises,’ she went on. ‘I can’t bear the thought of that awful mother of his subjecting him to that all over again.’
‘I suppose there’s no reason we couldn’t visit him, is there?’ asked Hope. ‘Just to see if he’s all right.’
‘Funnily enough, I had wondered that myself,’ said Evelyn.
‘What would be the point?’ muttered Allegra, absently, still staring out of the window. ‘It would only upset the boy. Anyway, he was only ever going to be with us for a short time; we weren’t supposed to get attached.’
The room went deathly quiet. She turned around. ‘I’m just speaking the truth.’
‘Which is all very well,’ remarked Hope stiffly, ‘but knowing when to do so is something you’ve yet to learn.’
Allegra rolled her eyes at the priggish tone of her cousin’s voice. ‘Always so quick to put me right. Nothing changes, does it, cara?’
Romily raised a hand. ‘We know you’re as tetchy as a bear with a sore head, Allegra, so we’ll forgive you that comment. Come and sit down and have a cup of tea.’
‘Tea, that’s your answer to everything!’ cried Allegra. ‘As though tea is going to make any of this dreadful nightmare better! You’ll be suggesting next that we offer Hitler a cup! God, how I wish I …’ She was suddenly seized by a gripping sensation deep within her stomach, and snatched at her breath. Then to her horror, something wet and warm flooded out of her. She stared down at the floor. ‘Dio mio,’ she murmured. ‘Arriva … finalmente.’
Quick as a flash, Romily was at her side. ‘Right,’ she said matter-of-factly, ‘the baby’s decided to put in an appearance, has it? About time too.’
Allegra gave a yelp as another pain ripped through her, and with it came the enormity of what she was about to go through. ‘O Madonna,’ she cried. ‘I’m not ready! I can’t do this. I can’t be a mother! Non posso! Non posso farlo!’
Hope and Evelyn were also up on their feet now.
‘Time to get you to the hospital,’ Romily said calmly.
‘Shall I telephone for the doctor?’ asked Hope.
‘Do what you bloody well want!’ screamed Allegra.
‘That would be very kind of you,’ said Romily with a smile that thoroughly infuriated Allegra. But before she could summon the strength to make a suitable riposte, her body felt as though it was being torn in two, and she would have fallen to the floor if Romily hadn’t caught her by the arms.
‘Something’s wrong,’ she gasped when the pain had passed. ‘This can’t be right. The pain’s too awful.’
Hours later, Allegra was still calling out the same thing. ‘Something’s wrong! Something’s wrong! Why won’t the baby come?’
It was hard to listen to the poor girl crying out in such pain and distress. The longer the wait went on for Hope and Romily as they sat in the small waiting room just a couple of yards from where Allegra was struggling to bring her child into the world, the more Hope feared something might genuinely be wrong. What if Allegra’s instinct was right?
‘I feel awful now for the way I spoke to her earlier,’ she said. ‘I knew she was just being crotchety, but I couldn’t stop myself.’
Romily patted her hand. ‘I’m sure she’ll forgive you.’
‘It doesn’t exactly encourage one to have a child, does it?’ Hope said, as they listened to Allegra crying out once more.
Romily nodded. ‘It certainly doesn’t. Do you think you and Dieter would have had children?’
Hope had noticed that the better she and Romily got to know each other, the more they each asked the other about the men they had loved and lost. It was, she supposed, a bond between them. It intrigued her to hear Romily talk about a man whom Hope felt she had never really known, despite Jack Devereux being her father. It saddened her that she had missed out getting to know him properly.
‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘We planned to have a family one day. What about you and my father?’
‘Funnily enough, Allegra asked me the same question, and as I told her, it wasn’t something Jack and I ever discussed.’ Romily paused before adding, ‘But who knows, given time, it might have been something that became important to us.’
