And Baby Makes Three

‘What do I get in return?’ he wanted to know.

‘All my love, now and for ever. Of course you’ve always had that-you just didn’t know it. Come to think of it, I didn’t really know it myself for a long time.’

‘I warn you, I’ll try your patience.’

‘Don’t worry. You always have. I’ve learned to cope.’

Grinning, he kissed her. But then humour faded, and there were no more words for a while.

So now it seemed that they were engaged, she mused later. Possibly the strangest proposal ever.

As they prepared to leave Jared said, ‘Can we keep this our secret for a while? There are a lot of things to be settled before the world knows.’

Mike, she thought. He must be told everything first.

‘Of course,’ she agreed.

Unusually, the next race-in Hungary-was only a week away, leaving little time for personal life. But after that there was a three-week gap, which would be their chance to think of themselves.

It would have been lovely to celebrate their engagement with another baby, and as they flew back to England from Germany she allowed herself to hope that a faint sign would turn out to be significant.

She remembered how quickly she’d become pregnant last time. One brief encounter and within two weeks she’d had the first hint. It might happen that way again, and this time she would have the pleasure of telling Jared and seeing his happiness.

But the hint turned out to be a false alarm, leaving her disappointed.

Still, I’m older now, she reassured herself. It won’t happen so quickly. We’ll get there. Be patient.

The trouble was that she didn’t want to be patient. She wanted the joy of going through a pregnancy with Jared at her side. It would happen. She promised herself that.

On the flight to Hungary she sat next to Mr Vanner, taking notes, concentrating on work.

‘I can’t tell you how I’m looking forward to three weeks after this without any races,’ he sighed.

Smiling, she nodded. She too was looking forward to those three weeks.

For the first two days everything went as they’d hoped. Jared achieved the fastest practice time, and the fastest qualifying time, beating Gary into second place on the grid.

‘Just wait until we race tomorrow,’ she heard Gary mutter. ‘Then you’ll see.’

‘Oh, leave it,’ she told him, pausing as she gathered her things.

The great hangar was emptying fast, and she hurried to leave.

‘Well, bless my soul-look who it is.’

Looking up, Kaye saw a face she recognised.

‘Hello, Tony. What brings you here?’

Tony Williams was a journalist whom she’d sometimes met, hanging around, trying to sniff out a good story, preferably a scandal. He was pleasant enough, but she was always on her guard.

‘Just seeing if there was anything interesting going on,’ he said airily.

‘Well, there isn’t.’

‘Not so sure about that. There’s a rumour going around about a certain person who had a mysterious spell in hospital a few months ago. It was a private hospital, nobody was allowed near, and no questions could be asked.’

Jared had already told her a little about this, but nothing would make her satisfy the journalist’s curiosity, so she merely shrugged.

‘It just makes you wonder,’ Tony continued, ‘why the nature of that illness is being kept so determinedly secret.’

‘Possibly because it’s nobody else’s business,’ she flashed.

‘That’s understandable. Especially if it was mumps.’

Jared hadn’t given his illness a name, had merely spoken of his swollen face. With a monumental effort of will she froze her expression and kept quiet.

‘You know what mumps does to a man, don’t you?’ Tony went on. ‘It makes him sterile. Oh, he can still take a woman to bed, give her a good time, but nothing comes of it. She doesn’t have to fear getting pregnant because he’s useless.’

‘Rubbish,’ she managed to say.

‘It’s not. I knew a man once who had it happen to him. He’d been quite a Romeo in his day, so he went round looking up old girlfriends, hoping to find that he was already a father. It makes you wonder what he told those girls.’ He struck an attitude. ‘Hiya, honey, nice to see you again. Did you by any chance have my kid? No? Oh, well, on to the next one.”

She fought to keep her smile in place, knowing that he was watching her for any reaction.

‘Sorry, Tony, but you’re dreaming.’

‘How would you know? You’re not denying that he’s Mike’s father, are you? Everyone knows that Jared turned up suddenly, and you have to wonder why?’

‘No, what you have to do is jump to a lot of glib conclusions. Jared’s an honest man. He’d never do what you’re suggesting. Vanish, if you know what’s good for you.’

‘Oh, come on, Kaye. It all fits. There’s a great story here, and we’d pay a good price for it. All you have to do is- Hey, that hurt!’

‘It was meant to. Get out, and if you print one word of this I’ll make you sorry you were born.’

‘So much for a free press-ow!’

‘Now will you go?’ she demanded.

‘Frankly, Jared has my sympathy. I can see you’re going to make him pay. All right, all right-I’m going.’

He vanished, leaving her alone, staring ahead, her mind filled with flashing, screaming images.

She would have given anything to be able to disbelieve this, but every instinct in her recognised it as the truth.

The time she’d seen Jared watching her in the car park; his sudden arrival at the pageant. Those weren’t accidents. He’d come to find her-no, he’d come to find Mike. As Mike’s mother, she was no more than a necessary extra, and Jared had done what he had to in order to secure them both.

That was all there was to it.

She forced herself to move. Outside, everyone was gathering, ready to go for a meal. Jared smiled when he saw her, the perfect picture of a man happy in love. You would believe it if you didn’t know the truth.

‘I won’t join you for the meal,’ she said. ‘I want an early night.’