Grandfather's Footsteps by Gillian White

Author:Gillian White [White, Gillian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4804-0216-4
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2013-02-13T22:22:00+00:00

Chapter twenty

THERE IS MUCH GOING on, around the end of May, about which Rita does not know.

Brenda, of course, is officially two months pregnant. She went out for a meal with Jessica and Rudi in order to celebrate. Champagne, caviar—the whole works.

She is also, unfortunately, in love, a painful fact of which both Jessica and Rudi are perfectly aware, although their reactions are somewhat dissimilar.

‘You were cruel and callous to allow it to develop,’ says Jessica. ‘It makes the whole thing so much more sensitive, particularly as we have to work together. Surely you were not moved to utter any protestations of love?’

‘No, I was not. But how could I help her response?’ asks the mutinous Rudi. ‘A girl like that would have fallen in love with a duck if it had given her pleasure. The poor little sod had never reached orgasm before.’

‘Oh! And did she tell you that?’

‘Yes, when I asked her.’

‘So did you feel you needed to ask her? Were you perfectly happy to converse with the girl on that intimate level?’

‘It is hard not to converse on an intimate level in that particular situation,’ Rudi replies snappily. ‘And anyway, why should you be worried? Surely you cannot imagine that I am going to go off with a little bit of fluff like that?’

Rudi is especially buoyant these days because he has landed a part in EastEnders… this happened on the day the pregnancy was confirmed, and he links the two joyful events together in his head. ‘A lucky baby! Fate is smiling upon us and this was all meant to be!’

He has written an excited letter to Mama in Italy.

Already, in ebullient form, he has dragged Jessica round The White House linen store in New Bond Street and ordered towels, baby clothes, sheets, pillowcases and a whole drawerful of tiny bootees. ‘But this is supposed to be unlucky,’ Jessica protested.

‘No, only the pram is unlucky,’ Rudi happily assured her.

The decorators came in last week to receive the proud father’s instructions.

‘The whole flat?’ asked Jessica, laughing. ‘Is that really necessary! Does a baby need so much space?’

‘Bedroom, playroom, kitchen and nanny’s room. And this is the wallpaper, this is the material. It is perfetto—absolutely right!’

‘Oh honestly, Rudi!’ exclaimed Jessica fondly, amused by so many blue bunny rabbits and pink teddy bears. ‘I never realised you were such an old softie.’

‘Sebastian for a boy. Lola for a girl.’

‘Lola? That sounds vaguely naughty to me. Why not Jezebel?’

‘Well yes, actually, I like the sound of Jezebel…’

‘We will stick with Lola,’ said Jessica quickly. ‘But she’d better be pretty to suit a name like that.’

‘Oh, she will be.’ The conceited Rudi is also convinced that his own genes will swamp the colourless, vapid genes of young Brenda who, sweet as she is, is no oil painting. ‘But I would have liked to have met the family.’

‘Perhaps it is better that we did not.’

‘A December baby. Perhaps Noel…’

‘Sebastian has a more positive ring,’ decides Jessica, ‘and the baby may be born before Christmas.

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