She didn’t have an answer for that. Through the fog of her shock, though, one thing started to become increasingly clear. She swal owed, twisted her hands together. ‘I don’t want to terminate my pregnancy.’
Her doctor smiled.
The answering smile that rose up through her suddenly froze. ‘Oh, but I’ve been drinking tea first thing in the morning and again at lunchtime and—’
‘You don’t have to give up caffeine altogether. Are you exceeding more than three cups a day?’
‘No.’
‘Then that’s okay. Alcohol?’
She winced. ‘I usual y have a glass on Friday and Saturday nights.’
‘Any alcoholic binges in the last three months?’
‘No.’
‘Then there’s nothing to worry about.’
‘I haven’t been taking folate.’
‘You can start that today.’
Kit leaned forward. ‘You real y think my baby is okay?’ She couldn’t stand the thought that she might have somehow hurt her unborn child.
The doctor patted her hand. ‘Kit, you are a healthy young woman. There’s absolutely no reason to suppose your baby isn’t healthy too.’
She let the doctor’s words reassure her. Final y, that smile built up through her again. ‘I’m real y pregnant?’ she whispered.
‘You real y are.’
‘But that’s lovely news.’
Alex Hal am wouldn’t think it was lovely news.
The doctor laughed. ‘Congratulations, Kit.’
Who cared what Alex Hal am thought? She was through thinking about him, remember? She beamed back at the doctor. ‘Thank you.’
Pregnant!
Kit left the surgery and turned in the direction of the train station. When she arrived there she couldn’t remember a single step of her journey.
Pregnant? A tentative excitement wrestled with her apprehension. One moment joy held sway. In the next, anxiety had gained the upper hand. An unplanned pregnancy? She gulped. It sounded so irresponsible. Irresponsible people shouldn’t be al owed to raise children.
She hugged her handbag. No. She hadn’t been irresponsible. She and Alex had taken precautions. It was just that sometimes, obviously, accidents happened.
She frowned over that word—
Alex wouldn’t think their baby lovely. He’d definitely think it was an accident, a mistake. She closed her eyes. It was pointless tel ing herself now that she was through with thinking about Alex. They were having a baby. That changed everything.
Her hand moved to her abdomen, cradled it. She imagined the tiny life inside and her mouth went dry.
How on earth would Alex react when she told him the news?
Nausea swirled through her. Her eyes stung.
Would Alex reject their child as ruthlessly and dispassionately as he had rejected her? Her throat thickened and then closed over completely. When her train arrived she boarded it like an automaton, found a window seat and concentrated on her breathing.
A baby deserved a mother
The rush and clatter of an oncoming train as it sped past her window made her flinch and then sit up suddenly straighter. What was she doing? She couldn’t control how Alex would react, but she could control how she dealt with the news. She had a miracle growing inside her and she wanted this baby with every atom of her being. The weight pressing down on her shoulders melted away. A sm
visit free books ile built up
inside her.
She was having a baby!
The minute Kit entered her apartment she let out a www.dpgroup.org
whoop, shrugged her arms out of her coat and threw it up in the air. She was going to have a baby! And then she danced around the coffee table before fal ing onto the sofa and grinning at the blank screen of her television, at her sound system, at the magazines scattered on the coffee table.
She was going to be a mother.
Her hands formed a protective cocoon across her abdomen. ‘I’m going to be the best mother that ever walked the earth,’ she vowed, making the promise out loud to her unborn child.
