tell me they would not find themselves in such a position. My sister was in her own garden, painting in the summer-house, quite alone, when she was molested by someone she had every cause to trust.'
'The more so is it a crime, my dear lady,' Sir Herbert replied gravely. 'To abuse trust is more despicable than simply to enact a violence upon a stranger.'
Julia was white. Standing in the alcove, Hester was afraid she was going to faint. She moved to intervene, to offer a glass of water, or even some physical support, and suddenly Sir Herbert glanced at her and motioned her to remain where she was.
'I am aware of the enormity of it, Sir Herbert,' she said so quietly that he leaned forward, screwing up his eyes, in his concentration. 'It is my husband who committed the offense. You must surely appreciate why I do not wish to bring the police into the matter. And my sister is sensible of my feelings, for which I am profoundly grateful. She is also aware that it would do no good. He would naturally deny it. But even if it could be proved, which it cannot, we are both dependent upon him. We should all be ruined, to no purpose.'
'You have my sympathies, ma'am,' he said with more gentleness. 'It is a truly tragic situation. But I fail to see how I can be of any assistance to you. To be with child is not an illness. Your regular physician will give you all the aid that you require, and a midwife will attend you during your confinement.'
Marianne spoke for the first time, her voice low and clear. 'I do not wish to bear the child, Sir Herbert. It is conceived as a result of an event which I shall spend the rest of my life trying to forget. And its birth would ruin us all.'
'I well understand your situation, Miss Gillespie.' He sat back in his chair, looking at her gravely. 'But I am afraid that it is not a matter in which you have a choice. Once a child is conceived, there is no other course except to await its birth.' The ghost of a smile touched his neat mouth. 'I sympathize with you profoundly, but all I can suggest is that you counsel with your parson and gain what comfort you may from him.'
Marianne blinked, her face painfully hot, her eyes downcast.
'Of course there is an alternative,' Julia said hastily. 'There is abortion.'
'My dear lady, your sister appears to be a healthy young woman. There is no question of her life being in jeopardy, and indeed no reason to suppose she will not deliver a fine child in due course.' He folded his fine sensitive hands- 'I could not possibly perform an abortion. It would be a criminal act, as perhaps you are not aware?'
'The rape was a criminal act!' Julia protested desperately, leaning far forward, her hands, white-knuckled, on the edge of his desk.
'You have already explained very clearly why you have brought no charge regarding that,' Sir Herbert said patiently. 'But it has no bearing upon my situation with regard to performing an abortion.' He shook his head. 'I am sorry, but it is not something I can do. You are asking me to commit a crime. I can recommend an excellent and discreet physician, and will be happy to do so. He is in Bath, so you may stay away from London and your acquaintances for the next few months. He will also find a place for the child, should you wish to have it adopted, which no doubt you will. Unless…?' He turned to Julia. 'Could you make room for it in your family, Mrs. Penrose? Or would the cause of its conception be a permanent distress to you?'
Julia swallowed hard and opened her mouth, but before she could reply, Marianne cut across her.
'I do not wish to bear the child,' she said, her voice rising sharply in something like panic. 'I don't care how discreet the physician is, or how easily he could place it afterwards. Can't you understand? The whole event was a nightmare! I want to forget it, not live with it as a constant reminder every day!'
'I wish I could offer you a way of escape,' Sir Herbert said again, his expression pained. 'But I cannot. How long ago did this happen?'
'Three weeks and five days,' Marianne answered immediately.
'Three weeks?' Sir Herbert said incredulously, his eyebrows high. 'But my dear girl, you cannot possibly know that you are with child! There will be no quickening for another three or four months at the very earliest. I should go home and cease to worry.'
'I am with child!' Marianne said with hard, very suppressed fury. 'The midwife said so, and she is never wrong. She can tell merely by looking at a woman's face, without any of the other signs.' Her own expression set in anger and pain, and she stared at him defiantly.
He sighed. 'Possibly. But it does not alter the case. The law is very plain. There used to be a distinction between aborting a fetus before it had quickened and after, but that has now been done away with. It is all the same.' He sounded weary, as if he had said all this before. 'And of course it used to be a hanging offense. Now it is merely a matter of ruin and imprisonment But whatever the punishment, Miss Gillespie, it is a crime I am not prepared to commit, however tragic the circumstances. I am truly sorry.'
Julia remained sitting. 'We should naturally expect to pay-handsomely.'
A small muscle flickered in Sir Herbert's cheeks.
'I had not assumed you were asking it as a gift. But the matter of payment is irrelevant. I have tried to explain to you why I cannot do it.' He looked from one to the other of them. 'Please believe me, my decision is absolute. I am not unsympathetic, indeed I am not. I grieve for you. But I cannot help.'
Marianne rose to her feet and put her hand on Julia's shoulder.
'Come. We shall achieve nothing further here. We shall have to seek help elsewhere.' She turned to Sir Herbert. 'Thank you for your time. Good day.'
Julia climbed to her feet very slowly, still half lingering, as if there were some hope.
'Elsewhere?' Sir Herbert said with a frown. 'I assure you, Miss Gillespie, no reputable surgeon will perform such an operation for you.' He drew in his breath sharply, and suddenly his face took on a curiously pinched look, quite different from the slight complacence before. This had a sharp note of reality. 'And I beg you, please do not go to the back-street practitioners,' he urged. 'They will assuredly do it for you, and very possibly ruin you for life; at worst bungle it so badly you become infected and either bleed to death or die in agony of septicemia.'
Both women froze, staring at him, eyes wide.
He leaned forward, his hands white-knuckled on the desk.
'Believe me, Miss Gillespie, I am not trying to distress you unnecessarily. I know what I am speaking about. My own daughter was the victim of such a man! She too was molested, as you were. She was only sixteen…' His voice caught for a moment, and he had to force himself to continue. Only his inner anger overcame his grief. 'We never found who the man was. She told us nothing about it. She was too frightened, too shocked and ashamed. She went to a private abortionist who was so clumsy he cut her inside. Now she will never bear a child.'
His eyes were narrowed slits in a face almost bloodless. 'She will never even be able to have a normal union with a man. She will be single all her life, and in pain-in constant pain. For God's sake don't go to a back-street abortionist!' His voice dropped again, curiously husky. 'Have your child, Miss Gillespie. Whatever you think now, it is the better part than what you face if you go to someone else for the help I cannot give you.'
'I…' Marianne gulped. 'I wasn't thinking of anything so-I mean-I hadn't…'
'We hadn't thought of going to such a person,' Julia said in a tight brittle voice. 'Neither of us would know how to find one, or whom to approach. I had only thought of a reputable surgeon. I-I hadn't realized it was against the law, not when the woman was a victim-of rape.'
'I am afraid the law makes no distinction. The child's life is the same.'
'I am not concerned with the child's life,' Julia said in little more than a whisper. 'I am thinking of Marianne.'
'She is a healthy young woman. She will probably be perfectly all right. And in time she will recover from the fear and the grief. There is nothing I can do. I am sorry.'
'So you have said. I apologize for having taken up your time. Good day, Sir Herbert.'
'Good day, Mrs. Penrose-Miss Gillespie.' As soon as they were gone, Sir Herbert closed the door and returned to his desk. He sat motionless for several seconds, then apparently dismissed the matter and reached for a pile of notes.
Hester came out of the alcove, hesitated, then crossed the floor.
Sir Herbert's head jerked up, his eyes momentarily wide with surprise.
'Oh-Miss Latterly.' Then he recollected himself. 'Yes-the body's away. Thank you. That's all for the moment. Thank you.'
It was dismissal.
'Yes, Sir Herbert.'
