The Chalet Girls Grow Up by Merryn Williams

Author:Merryn Williams
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: Fiction, Chalet School, Girlsown
ISBN: 9780953395200
Publisher: Plas Gwyn Books
Published: 1998-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Con in Crisis

Of course she wasn’t pleased; she was utterly appalled, and what made it worse was that she couldn’t discuss it with the obvious person, as Des was still in Florence and not expected back for over a week. She had a phone number, but that was for emergencies and this certainly wasn’t something they could discuss on an open line with the school party listening. She hadn’t an address and, anyway, they really needed to talk face to face.

Con drew a deep breath, unplugged the phone in case Felicity rang again and brewed herself a cup of black coffee. The clinic she had gone to had said something about counselling, but she didn’t see much point in that. She wasn’t a teenager, she was a mature woman who had counselled other people in her time. No, she must think this through by herself.

The first thing that occurred to her was that, even if Des got divorce proceedings moving straight away, the baby would almost certainly be born before the decree absolute. Well, she thought she could survive that. This wasn’t the nineteen fifties, but she would insist on marriage as soon as it was possible. She really didn’t think they could live together as Mr Romano, Miss Maynard and their baby; society wasn’t ready for that, and nor was she. But if he said no?

Des had never mentioned marriage, except to say that it hadn’t suited him; had never shown any interest in his daughter. The bastard, Con suddenly thought, tears starting to her eyes; if he doesn’t marry me he’s not going to go on living in this flat, I’ll have nothing more to do with him. Then she told herself her fears were running wild. It was Des she was thinking of, Des whom she loved and who loved her. She was getting absurdly emotional, no doubt because her hormones were all over the place. She went for a walk to calm herself down.

It wasn’t really hot yet. She wandered through the park, across the parched brown grass, keeping in the shade of the trees where she could. Some of them had been cut down recently because of Dutch elm disease and there were ugly gaps. She thought, she didn’t have to have this baby. She could sluice it out of her system and no one would know, not even Des because it could easily be done before he came back. It was a human right, wasn’t it? Some of Con’s friends in the media had been getting very passionate about that lately. She sat down on a bench and looked across at the small pond; a few children under school age were there with their mothers, dressed in tiny summer suits and shady hats and crumbling bread for the ducks. Better think very carefully, because she could be one of those mothers in another few years.

She realised that there was no point worrying about Des, because she had no idea how he would react when he knew; the main issue was the baby.

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