‘Are you out of your mind?’ he demanded. ‘In your condition!’
His words had the instant effect of freezing them as if in time. It was Willow who spoke first and unlocked the moment.
‘You promised you wouldn’t say anything!’ she said. ‘Youpromised!’
‘Oh, what does it matter?’ he said. ‘We couldn’t go on hiding it for very much longer, could we?’
‘Hide what?’ asked Naomi. Although she had a pretty good idea what the answer was.
‘Willow is pregnant, Mum,’ said Martha, matter-of-factly.
Willow gasped. ‘You knew?’
‘Yes, Willow, I knew. Rick told me weeks ago.’
Her eyes wide, Willow stared at him. ‘Why? Why did you do that when I said we had to keep it a secret? Oh Rick, how could you? And how could you keep that from me?’
‘Like I said, what does it really matter?’
‘It matters because … because Martha’s my sister and I didn’t want her to be upset by me being pregnant and her not. I told you that! I told you that repeatedly!’
‘Come on, Willow,’ he said, ‘see for yourself, your sister’s not upset. She’s happy for us. Isn’t that right, Martha?’
Her heart going out to her eldest daughter, Naomi wanted to intervene, to make Rick with his blithe belligerence hold his tongue. But before she could step in, he was off again.
‘The only one who is upset is you, Willow,’ he asserted, ‘and you know it’s not good for the baby for you to be all worked up like this. Don’t make a scene. People are looking.’
‘I don’t care!’ Willow’s voice had risen to a childlike squeal and Rick was right, people were glancing their way. ‘You shouldn’t have said anything,’ she persisted. ‘You really shouldn’t have.’
‘Willow, it’s okay,’ said Martha. ‘I know why you didn’t want me to know that you were pregnant, and that was really sweet of you, but the thing is,’ she exchanged a quick glance with Tom, ‘I’m pregnant too.’
‘Really?’
‘Really?’
Naomi’s voice chimed with that of Willow’s.
‘Yes,’ said Martha to them both.
The sisters stared at each other and in one of those moments so evocative of when they were children – when it was impossible to know whether their disagreement was going to escalate or fizzle out – they suddenly grinned and hugged each other.
Thank heavens for that, thought Naomi with relief. Then catching Tom’s delighted expression, she smiled at him. ‘Congratulations,’ she said.
In contrast, Rick’s expression was less easy to read. It was almost as though he were disappointed, which didn’t make sense at all.
Chapter Thirty
When the fête was over, they all pitched in to help dismantle the stalls and tidy up Jennifer Kingsbury’s garden. All the while both Rick and Tom insisted Willow and Martha left any heavy lifting to them. Afterwards, together with Mum and Ellis, they slowly meandered their way down the main street of the village back to Anchor House.
Passing the pub, and the seating area that was decorated with bunting and looked out over the harbour, Willow could see that it was packed with many who had attended the fête. Her old friend, Finn, was there too with his parents and their cute sausage dog. The pub was where Dad had always gone after the clean-up operation at Jennifer’s, whereas Mum had often preferred to go home and relax in the garden with a cup of tea before cooking supper.
A group of villagers called over to Mum to join them for a drink.
‘It’s been a long day,’ she answered with a cheery wave, ‘I’m homeward bound, thank you!’ She then turned to the rest of them. ‘But if you’d all like to go and have a drink, don’t let me stop you.’
The deliciously tantalising image of a glass of ice-cold cider and a bag of crisps popped into Willow’s head,but she knew that Rick would veto it, just as he did the glass of Pimm’s she’d earlier fancied. But then a sneaky thought occurred to her.
‘Seeing as Martha and I can’t have a proper drink,’ she said, ‘why don’t you boys go for one; you too, Ellis?’
