It was going to be fine.
This wisdom was going to be the one bonus to being an older mother.
Finally, the scan was over and when a relieved Sam had emptied her bladder, sitting on the loo till she thought she’d welded herself to it, she and Ted waited again to see her obstetrician.
Dr Laurence looked the way she always did at first: glasses on, eyes focused on notes as if she was about to diagnose something dreadful.
‘Yes,’ said the doctor finally. ‘Baby’s doing well. Might have been in the breech position but has shifted back. I know you’re worried about your age.’
Sam nodded.
Ted squeezed her hand.
‘We’ve gone through so much fertility-wise over the past few years and it makes me terribly nervous to hear about the risks, even though I do need to know them.’
‘But you and your baby are going to be fine from the looks of this scan,’ said the obstetrician. ‘Baby’s progressing well, in the correct percentile growth-wise, all good.’
‘Yes,’ said Ted, squeezing her hand, again. ‘Fine. That’s wonderful news, thank you.’
As they walked out of the clinic, they both sent joyful text messages: to Sam’s father, to her sister Joanne, to Ted’s mother. They spread the news wherever it needed to go. Seconds later the phone rang.
‘Darling Sam!’ said Joanne. ‘I’m so thrilled! I was worried, I know it’s crazy – I mean, when you have to have extra scans, you worry.’
‘I am patenting worry,’ said Sam. ‘But it’s all perfect. Oh, got to go, darling Dad’s phoning.’
‘My dearest Sam, I am so pleased for you and Ted,’ said her father, delight audible in every part of his voice.
Sam could hear Ted on his phone talking to his mother and she could hear Vera’s voice excitedly saying ‘... the relief! Did you find out whether it’s a boy or a girl, because really I’d love to know what colour to knit the cardigans. I’m doing creams, whites and yellows, but it would be lovely to know either way ...’
Sam grinned. Vera was not a woman for delayed gratification.
‘We didn’t, Ma,’ said Ted.
It was a full ten minutes before they were able to progress any further and they went into a little tea shop to have tea for Sam and a strong coffee for Ted.
They held hands and smiled at each other, not needing to say anything but just happy it was working out. Miracles did happen. The phone buzzed and Sam at first thought of ignoring it. It was only half eight in the morning, she thought, looking at the number and seeing Andrew, her boss’s name on the small screen.
‘Surely he can wait?’ Ted said mildly.
‘I suppose,’ said Sam, ‘I just want to cherish this moment,’ and then normality kicked in. ‘No,’ she said, ‘I’ll answer.’ Everything was rushing through her head, the wonderful news of the scan and the sense that perhaps, just perhaps, she and Ted would have this glorious Baby Bean. Then her conscience took over – after all, she was going to be on a certain amount of maternity leave after she’d had the baby and when she had taken the job in the first place, she hadn’t been pregnant. Employers were rarely delirious with staff who got pregnant soon into a new job. Even though Andrew had been very accommodating about it, he needn’t have and ...
She picked up the phone.
‘Hello Andrew, how are you?’ she said cheerfully.
‘Sam, I need you in the office immediately,’ he said.
‘What’s wrong?’ said Sam, slipping instantly into work mode.
‘You know the south-east part of the organisation? The bit we thought had been closed off? Well, it transpires it had a special bank account with a credit card nobody knew about and, finally, the last remaining volunteer from some speck on the map called Ballyglen phoned Rosalind this morning to say she was sorry about the money and she’d pay it all back—’
‘Pay all what back?’
‘The fifty-five thousand euros of donations she’d seen siphoning off over the years.’
‘Fifty-five thousand euros? How many years?’
‘Twenty. It’s every charity’s nightmare. Sam, I’m sorry, I know you’re just about to go on leave, but I need someone with your experience to co-ordinate this. I know you’re doing a very thorough handover with Dave, but he doesn’t have your experience – and we’ll need a media strategy if it gets out.’
