‘You have a visitor.’
Alexandra groaned. ‘Tell Bernard I can’t see him. The doctor said I have the stomach flu, so I don’t want to give it to anyone, especially him.’
Bernard was to leave for the overseas tour in six days’ time. He would never choose to see her if he thought she had something contagious.
‘It’s not Bernard; it’s your father.’
She flopped back and covered her face with a pillow. ‘Tell him I don’t want to see him.’
‘You will have to try harder if you want to drive me away, Alexandra.’
She removed the pillow from her face and sat up, hating to think how she must look, with puffy eyes and a pale, drawn face.
‘Where is Elizabeth? Is anyone else at home?’ Alexandra asked the housekeeper, who was wringing her hands as she stood in the open doorway.
‘No one is here, only me.’
Her father began to close the door, and Alexandra forced herself to sit up properly in bed.
‘How long have you been unwell?’ he asked, sitting on the chair across the room from her.
‘I’m fine. Please don’t worry about me.’
‘You know your mother was ill from the moment you were conceived,’ he said.
Alexandra knew her face was burning, but she tried to keep her expression neutral.
‘The doctor has confirmed that you’re pregnant?’
She couldn’t see the point in lying—there was only so long before she would have to confess her secret to everyone, unless she chose to find a doctor who assisted in ridding women of unwanted pregnancies. But she knew in her heart that simply wasn’t an option.
She nodded, maintaining her father’s stare.
‘You will leave with me today, without question,’ her father said, standing and pacing to the window. He parted the drapes slightly and looked out, sending more light into the room. ‘We shall tell everyone that you have gone to a Swiss finishing school for young ladies, which will explain your absence. In the meantime, I shall finalise your engagement, and we will plan for you to meet your intended as soon as the baby is put up for adoption.’
‘Adoption?’
‘There is a place that takes in unmarried women here in London, and they guarantee absolute discretion. I’m certain you will be most comfortable there until the baby is born.’
Alexandra felt as if a knife had been plunged into her stomach. ‘No,’ she croaked, tears welling in her eyes, her throat thick with emotion. ‘I have a boyfriend, I have my own plans for the future, I have—’
‘Tell me, this young man of yours, thisboyfriend,’ her father said, slowly beginning to pace again. ‘He has means? He could support you and your child? He has expressed a desire to marry you in the very near future?’
Alexandra hated him. She hated him so much she wished she could strangle him with her bare hands. And how did he even know that such a place existed? Had he sent one of his own lovers there to have his child?
‘Bernard would never see our baby given away! He loves me,’ she cried, at the same time as a sense of dread began to encircle her.
‘You truly believe that this young man would give up his own dreams to save a girl he mistakenly got pregnant? And if he did, you think he wouldn’t end up resenting you for ruining his life?’
She was about to answer, but her father barely paused.
‘Your young gentleman, he is a musician, is he not? A cellist?’
Alexandra didn’t even think to ask him how he knew. What did it matter anyway?
‘Would you expect him to give up what he loves in order to provide for his family? To find a home to house you, to look after a wife and child when he hasn’t even proposed marriage to you? His love would quickly turn to hate, for the life he wanted to live but was curtailed from enjoying. You would be like a ball and chain following him around. Is that what you want to be?’
Tears ran freely down her cheeks then. Was he right?WouldBernard feel that way about her if he found out that he was to be a father?
