Free Least Said by Pamela Fudge Page B

you, once again, that between us, we earn far more than we ever spend? We’re never extravagant, rarely treat ourselves, when was the last time we had a good night out – a decent meal is a rarity. Even Will’s tastes are simple. In a shop the size of Hamley’s - and with Calum and I tripping over each other to spend money on him – do you know what he chose?’
    I shook my head, but I had a premonition, a horrible feeling that I wasn’t going to like what I was going to hear.
    ‘A rugby ball,’ Jon chortled, ‘a rugby ball that cost just a few quid. He couldn’t be talked out of it and he insisted there was nothing else he wanted. A rugby ball, I ask you, what on earth would make him choose something like that?’

 
    Chapter 7
     
    ‘He’s a boy ,’ Tina told me flatly, when I managed a few words with her under the guise of leaving instructions for William’s care while Jon and I were out. ‘Boys like rugby, they like football, and sometimes both. We’ve discussed this before and, personally, I would be far more worried if he’d chosen a toy gun or a knife, given the times we live in.’
    ‘But...,’ I began.
    Tina cut in before I could say more. ‘You might not like me for saying this yet again, Wendy, but there’s no one else who can. You’re letting this obsession with a long ago and meaningless one night stand take over your life,’ she continued, and her tone was quite sharp. ‘You imagine you see a man who is a virtual stranger and who – there is the slimmest chance - might be Will’s biological father, and you’re allowing the fixation you have with him to take over your life.
    ‘If you go on like this, Wendy, I feel I have to remind you that you’re in grave danger of opening up Pandora’s box and ruining a few lives in the process – not least, that of a little boy and the father who absolutely dotes on him. For God’s sake, Wendy, for once and for all, let it go.’
    I knew she was right and that I must get a grip on an imagination that had always tended to run away with me, especially where Will’s conception was concerned. I did my best, pushing my fears and concerns deep down inside of me in order to enjoy a rare night out with a husband who meant the world to me – in fact, together with our son he was my whole world. The answer, I was becoming more and more convinced, lay in me becoming pregnant again, because that alone would allay my fears regarding Will’s paternity.
    Having another child hadn’t been high on my list of priorities which was why I hadn’t really contemplated the idea seriously before, believing that if it happened that was fine, and if it didn’t that was also fine. I had always been more than grateful for the one child we had – but now my priorities had changed because there were other things to consider.
    Not only would a new baby prove, once and for all, that Jon was capable of fathering a child, but would also complete our family, give Will the brother or sister he was always asking for, and me the peace of mind that was becoming increasingly elusive since that chance face to face meeting with the guilty secret from my past. Tina might poo-poo it, but there was no doubt in my mind that the man I’d bumped into in the store that day had been no other than the one person in the world that I had hoped never to set eyes on ever again.
    Jon had always been the one to take care of contraception, which was odd, given the facts. I’d just always assumed that it had been his way of convincing himself that his fertility wasn’t really in question – despite the low sperm count verdict we’d been given. If I was honest, though, we hadn’t always been ultra careful over the years since Will’s birth but then, I reminded myself, neither had we been putting any real effort into conceiving a child. That was definitely about to change – in fact it already had, I acknowledged and smiled.
    ‘Penny for them,’ Jon said, spearing a scallop onto his fork