Free Survivor by Lesley Pearse

occasions!’
    ‘Not often
     enough,’ he said, sliding his hand inside her dressing gown and caressing her
     breasts.
    ‘We came up here to talk,’
     she said reprovingly, but she didn’t move his hand. ‘Mog and I think
     this all came about because Mari was bored. She wanted some excitement and she found
     it in him. Even if she isn’t pregnant, this sort of thing could happen again
     as she hasn’t got enough to occupy her.’
    ‘I hope to God she isn’t
     pregnant, because then all the things we wanted for her won’t happen,’
     Etienne sighed. ‘I’ve known folk who pass off their daughter’s
     baby as their own, but we couldn’t do that here, we’re too close to
     people.’
    ‘Unless we all went to England,
     and then came back with the baby,’ Belle said with a giggle.
    Etienne laughed too.
     ‘England’s a bit drastic! Just going down to the South Island would make
     more sense.’
    Belle looked thoughtful. ‘I was
     only joking, but it’s not such a bad idea. No one but us would know it
     wasn’t ours. Women of forty-three do still have babies.’
    ‘What has Mog suggested?’
     Etienne asked. ‘She’s usually good at coming up with
     solutions.’
    ‘Well, that’s what made me
     mention England. Before we thought Mari could be pregnant, Mog had suggested we send
     her to Noah. He is her godfather, after all, and there would be more opportunities
     for her there.’
    ‘There are even more opportunities
     to go wrong there too,’ he said.
    ‘That’s exactly what I said.
     But with you suggesting we make out the baby is ours, maybe it would be a good idea
     for all of us to go back? We’ve got that money from Annie; we could even write
     to people back here and say: guess what? We’ve had another baby! When we got
     back, Mari could do whatever she wanted with her life, but her baby would be safely
     here with us.’
    When Etienne
     didn’t answer, Belle thought he disapproved of that idea.
    ‘But I’m going to pray hard
     that she isn’t having a baby,’ she added. ‘We are too old to be
     parents again.’
    He sighed deeply. ‘Remember how
     overjoyed we were when we realized you were having Mariette? All babies should start
     life being wanted that much.’
    ‘I agree,’ Belle admitted.
     ‘But Annie didn’t want me and handed over the childcare to Mog. I turned
     out OK, didn’t I?’
    ‘Whatever happens, baby or not,
     we’ve got to make Mari take responsibility for her actions,’ Etienne
     said firmly. ‘We both know we’ll love her child – even if the father was
     a snake and we’re really too old to be going down that road again. But we
     aren’t going to tell her that, no ideas of going to England, nothing. She must
     sweat it out for a while. She needs a good fright to bring her to her
     senses.’



4
    As the days ticked slowly by, still
     without Mariette’s monthlies appearing, Belle grew ever more anxious.
     Mog’s usually smiley face had been replaced by a permanent frown, Etienne
     looked grim, and even Alexis and Noel kept asking what was wrong.
    Belle had torn into Mariette later in
     the day, after Etienne had banished Sam, delivering a bitter, angry tirade about how
     she’d let her family down and risked her whole future. When Mariette retorted
     that Belle was no better – for hadn’t she been carrying on her wedding day? –
     Belle slapped her face.
    It seemed as if Mariette couldn’t
     grasp the seriousness of her situation. She claimed she had no idea when her last
     monthly was. She had made no apologies, not even an attempt at offering an excuse
     for why she’d behaved as she did, and wore a sullen expression all the time.
     She didn’t volunteer to help out more around the house – as anyone else would
     do when they realized they were in deep trouble – and when she was asked to do
     something, she flounced around as if she thought she was above such jobs.
    ‘I can’t bear this,’
     Belle confided to Etienne one night