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