‘Is compatibility enough reason to marry?’
‘Marriages work on many levels and for all sorts of reasons.’
‘Maybe so, but I won’t saddle Stanley this way. It wouldn’t be right. I would be using him, and one day he would realise that and end up hating me. And I’d rather face my predicament alone than do that.’
Romily wagged a finger at her. ‘One thing of which I can assure you, whatever you decide to do, you will not be facing the future alone. If you keep the baby, he or she will be a part of our family, and I for one shall do all I can to help.’
Annelise turned and hugged Romily. ‘You’ve already helped by talking with me,’ she said. ‘But I want you to promise that you won’t breathe a word to anyone else. I don’t want Edmund knowing while he’s worrying about Hope. It’s a distraction he doesn’t need.’
‘I promise. And now, if you can face it, I think we should go back downstairs and join the others. If Edmund asks, you can pass this off as a tiresome monthly issue. That should keep the father and doctor within him from pressing for any more details.’
They stood up together and once more Annelise hugged Romily. ‘Thank you,’ she said, ‘for being you. For always being so practical and reassuring. What would I ever do without you?’
‘Oh, you’d manage very well. Now come on, best foot forward and let’s put Stanley’s mind at rest. Knowing what he knows, out of everyone he will be the most anxious about you.’
‘Yes, I’m afraid he will.’
‘Let him worry about you, Annelise. And in return for the promise I made you, I want you to promise me you won’t shut him out. It would break his heart if you did.’
‘All right. I promise.’
‘Good girl.’
But when they were downstairs and were entering the dining room, and Annelise saw the troubled expression on Stanley’s face – his obvious concern for her – she felt her own heart break a little.
ChapterFifty-Eight
Island House, Melstead St Mary
December 1962
Romily
That night in bed Romily lay awake unable to sleep. It had become a regular occurrence since her return from America. Initially she blamed it on the time difference, and while it was true that may have contributed to her inability to sleep well, there was more to it than that. It grieved her immensely to admit it, if only to herself, but Red St Clair was at the heart of the problem.
She had hoped, perhaps somewhat arrogantly, that he might write. But there had been nothing from him. Did she really think she had made that big an impression on him? Heavens, the man would simply have moved on to the next woman! And why on earth shouldn’t he?
The image of him that came to her, and far too frequently for her liking, was of him that night they’d gone out into the desert together. For the first time in his company she had begun to relax and enjoy being with him. It seemed a shame now that they had parted the way they had.
But what is done is done, she told herself firmly. No regrets. It was an echo of what she had whispered to Annelise when lunch was over and everybody was leaving, putting on their coats to brave the cold.
She had done her utmost to conceal her shock at Annelise’s news and had given the poor girl what she so badly needed: unconditional love and support.
People were always claiming that the times were changing, that so many of the old rules were being jettisoned. But times hadn’t changed that much for women, not yet at any rate, not when the rules that applied to men did not apply to women. Why should Annelise have to lose her position at St Gertrude’s, and very likely her reputation as a fine academic, while the man who had got her pregnant would carry on with his life as though nothing had happened?
For all her understanding of Annelise’s plight, had Romily been too insistent in advocating so strongly that she should seriously consider marrying Stanley? An answer to a prayer was often no such thing. But what if, in this instance, it could be the perfect solution? Stanley would devote himself to making Annelise happy and in time, once the child was of a suitable age, Annelise, as a respectable married woman, would be able to pick up where she’d left off with her career.
But what of love? Stanley deserved to be truly loved, not just admired or cared for in the manner of a brother. Could, as time went on, Annelise’s feelings for him develop into something deeper and more passionate?
In many ways Romily had to agree with Annelise when she’d said that if Isabella were to announce she was pregnant in the same circumstances, it would not come as so great a shock. Like mother, like daughter, some would take delight in saying, and very unfairly in Romily’s opinion. It was never as simple as that; it was much more a case ofthere but for the grace of God go I.
Nobody knew the truth of those words more acutely than Romily. Had she remained alone with Annelise any longer, she may well have shared her most closely guarded secret with her.
ChapterFifty-Nine
Tilbrook Hall, Norfolk
August 1944
