The Sun Sister (The Seven Sisters #6) - Lucinda Riley Page 0,162

I just need to be alone, okay?’

‘From the look of you, that’s the very last thing you need. Could we just sit down and talk this over calmly?’

‘As I said, there is nothing to discuss, nothing!’

‘Cecily, you are behaving like a hysterical and petulant child, not the mother-to-be that you are. If you don’t calm down, I’ll be forced to slap you to bring you to your senses.’

Cecily was breathing heavily now and felt light-headed and faint. She staggered a little and Katherine steadied her.

‘Goodness, what a state you’re in. Come on, hold on to me and we’ll get you back to the house and into bed.’

‘I don’t want to go back to the house I don’t want to go anywhere, Katherine. I simply want to die!’

‘I do understand that you’re in rather a bind, my dear, but there are always solutions,’ Katherine replied calmly as she wrapped an arm around Cecily’s waist and virtually carried her along the lake back towards the house.

‘But there aren’t! I mean, I can’t keep the baby even if I wanted to, can I? Maybe I do want to, but, oh . . . I think I’m going to . . .’

Katherine felt the full weight of Cecily’s body slump against her. She was just about to shout for help when she saw Bill in front of her, a few yards away from them.

‘Bill, thank God! Cecily’s fainted!’ she said as Bill ran towards her, took Cecily’s weight and lifted her up in his strong arms. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I followed you down to the lake – I simply couldn’t tolerate another moment in that woman’s company,’ he panted as they emerged back in the gardens of the house. ‘You run ahead and get some water. She’s out for the count.’

‘Will do,’ Katherine replied as Bill laid Cecily gently down on the bench in the shade of an acacia tree.

‘Before you go, I gather that Cecily is . . . pregnant? I overheard the end of your conversation as I was coming to find you both.’

‘Then you must swear never to tell another living soul,’ Katherine said fiercely. ‘Cecily’s reputation relies on your discretion.’

Bill watched Katherine run up to the house, then looked down at the young woman lying on the bench. He took off his hat and began to fan her with it.

‘Feeling better?’ asked Katherine as Cecily lay in her bedroom half an hour later.

‘Lots, yes. And I’m so, so sorry for being rude and ungrateful, when you’ve made the effort to drive up here with Bill to see me.’

‘Oh, don’t worry about that, Cecily. It’s quite natural under the circumstances. Shock does funny things to people.’

‘It made me shoot my mouth off to you, and you didn’t deserve it. Please, Katherine, forgive me.’

‘I forgive you, I promise.’

‘And seriously, I’m going to be fine. Kiki’s right, I just have to face my problem – after all, I have no one to blame for it except my own stupid self,’ Cecily said as she took a sip of ginger tea.

‘So whoever it was didn’t . . . force himself on you?’

‘No, but in some ways I wish he had, then I wouldn’t be feeling quite so guilty.’

‘Please don’t ever say that,’ Katherine shuddered. ‘My father had to take care of a number of young women who had been taken by force by their so-called husbands at the age of eleven or twelve. Nothing could ever be as bad as that.’

‘You’re right, of course you are,’ Cecily agreed. ‘I’m going to stop feeling sorry for myself and get on with doing what I have to do. Even though the thought of giving up my baby is so terrible.’

‘For now, all I can say is don’t think about it,’ Katherine advised. ‘The main thing is to look after yourself and the baby. Now, I know Bill is eager to get off; you know how difficult he finds your godmother.’

‘Yes, of course, and please tell him a huge thank you from me for bringing you here to see me.’

‘He said he wanted to pop up and say goodbye himself, so you can thank him then. Right.’ Katherine stood up from beside the bed. ‘Please, Cecily, promise me you’ll come and say goodbye before you leave for Switzerland.’

‘Of course I will. Do you think . . . it’s the right thing to do?’

‘No, I can’t say it’s “right”, but in practice, until this world of ours rids itself of the ridiculous stigma surrounding unmarried mothers, with