report if it doesn’t suit me,” she added, and laughed.
How nice to live in a world where you could ignore anything that displeased you, I thought. I was intrigued. Would I live this way for the next nine months or so?
“Now, don’t ask me specific and technical questions about it all,” she said, tightening her face into as serious an expression as she could manage. “I leave that all to the doctor to explain. I’m sure I would get it wrong, anyway. To me, it’s simply magic.”
She put her fingers over her mouth, as though she had uttered something disgusting or forbidden. Then she smiled.
“My husband hates me to say that about anything medical, because he can tell you in detail why this is that and that is this. I was never good in science. I love poetry and music. I drift; he ponders. We complete each other. It’s not good when a husband and wife are too similar, you know. There’s no… completing.”
Brilliant, I thought. Out of the mouths of babes…
“My mummy and father are certainly quite different,” I said.
“ ‘My mummy’? Oh, I love it. You must say all your English expressions whenever you want. We were in London as part of our honeymoon, but Dr. Davenport wouldn’t do tourist things, so I missed a lot of it. He had been there many times.
“Am I talking too much? I haven’t given you time to ask a single question,” she said.
“Why do you want to do this?”
She didn’t lose her smile, but there was just a slight tick of surprise. Then her eyes widened and brightened. “I am so glad that was your first question. My fear was that whoever Leo recommended might be interested only in the money she’d be getting.”
I nodded slightly. That was most of what I was interested in, but I didn’t speak, so she’d know I was waiting for real answers.
She laughed. “The short reply is I’m simply too vain. Now that there is a proven and safe medical way to have your child without going through pregnancy and having the toll it takes on your body, why not do it? That’s what came to my mind first. I’m a bit of a coward, too, I suppose. The thing is, my husband doesn’t love me any less for my faults, and to be sure, I do admit that they are faults.”
She was quiet a moment, her smile gone.
“My mother had a very troubling pregnancy,” she continued, as if any silence between us was painful. “She nearly miscarried with me twice; both times involved serious bleeding.” She paused and looked more serious than ever. “She never hesitated, nor does she hesitate even now, to tell me how much trouble I was. One result that convinces me what she says is true is the fact that I’m an only child. After going through delivering me, she was determined never to go through it again. My father was disappointed. He wanted a son. What father doesn’t?”
Oh, how true about mine, I thought. He’d have put me on the shelf.
“My husband is willing to do all this, but he insists on being in full charge of it all, meaning you would have to live with us during the pregnancy. He will have a close friend, another doctor, perform all the necessary tests and monitor you right up to the delivery and for a while after. There is one other thing, which might spook you,” she added.
“And that is?”
“As far as the world will know, I will be delivering the child. Some women can go into their seventh month without showing all that much. I will, shall we say, avoid being in public so much, if at all, during the last six weeks. Someone is going to help me look pregnant anyway, and voilà,” she said, lifting her hands, “the baby will be born at Wyndemere. No one, except very trusted employees and my in-laws, of course, will know the truth. Once you deliver and you’re done, you can bury the experience as deeply as you want. No one, you see, will reveal you did it. I imagine that might please you.”
“It was something on my mind, yes, but Leo explained that I had to keep it secret.”
“If you want, you can keep it a secret from your own family, especially since they are in England. Less ears, less tears.”
“What?” I smiled.
“My mother-in-law’s expression. She despises gossip unless it originates from her lips, which works fine for us. But don’t