Rebecca Winters: And Baby Makes Three

‘You’ve done me an injustice,’ Jared declared.

‘I don’t think so.’

‘I know so.’

‘Oh, yeah?’ he demanded. ‘Yeah!’

‘Yeah?’

‘Yeah!’

They met each other’s eyes, each sending a silent message of pain and farewell, so different from the laughing performance they were giving the child.

‘I think I’d better give in,’ Jared said. ‘Your mother’s a very determined lady.’ He winked at his son. ‘I’ll bet you could teach me a thing or two about that game,’ he said, ‘but now it’s time you were back in bed.’ He gave Mike a hug. ‘See you tomorrow. Goodnight, you two.’

He was gone before Kaye could say anything. She heard his footsteps going down the corridor, and his door closing.

Looking back, she could see how that evening had set the pattern. After their return to England any contact they had was all for Mike. On the night before he went back to school Jared called him, and next morning there was a text wishing him good luck.

A week later there was the Italian Grand Prix.

‘Please, Mum,’ Mike begged.

‘No, darling. It’s too soon after the start of term. I want you to concentrate on school.’

Even so, she thought she might have yielded if Jared had asked them to be there. But he hadn’t.

‘I blew it,’ she told Ethel. ‘You were right about me. I am judgemental. Otherwise we could have sorted it out quietly, he might not have had that crash, and then things would have been all right. But a curtain has come down in his mind and I can’t get past it. Perhaps because he doesn’t really want me to.’

‘Or maybe fate still has a nice surprise for you?’ Ethel suggested.

‘I don’t think that’s going to happen. Life doesn’t work that way.’

But she was wrong.

She discovered just how wrong she was on the night before the race. At first she couldn’t take it in. The implications of what had happened were so tremendous that she could only sit and stare at the wall until Ethel came in, wanting to know what was up.

Kaye told her.

‘Get going,’ Ethel said at once. ‘Call a taxi, go to the airport, catch the first plane you can.’

Dazed, she obeyed. In the early hours she was on her way to Italy, looking out of the aeroplane window at the darkness. So many nights she’d stared into that darkness in tearful despair, as much for Jared as for herself. Now she knew hope again-but with it the fear that hope might once more betray her.

‘Please,’ she whispered. ‘Please-one more chance-for his sake- please .’

Nobody knew she was coming, and at the airport she queued for a taxi and gave the address of the track.

She arrived at the same time as several members of the team, who recognised her and steered her through Security.

‘We thought you weren’t coming to this one,’ someone said.

‘Something’s happened. Where’s Jared?’

She found him in the garage, inspecting the car with his race engineer and a few mechanics. He looked up, amazed at her entrance and at the determined look on her face.

‘Is something wrong with Mike?’ he asked.

‘No, he’s fine. This isn’t about Mike. It’s about us. In fact, it’s about this.’ She held up a small plastic strip. ‘Do you know what this is? It’s a pregnancy test, and it’s positive. I’m pregnant. ’

‘You-you can’t be.’

‘Don’t tell me what I can or can’t be. I know that I am. I’ve suspected it for a few days and last night I did this test. It’s positive.’

‘Kaye-’

‘Two or three percent, eh? Well, sometimes the numbers come up, and this time they have.’ Keenly aware of the fascinated crowd gathering around them, she raised her voice. ‘That’s twice you’ve made me pregnant, and this time you’re not going to escape.’

She was watching his face, seeing every fleeting feeling from disbelief to incredulous joy.

‘Kaye-’ he whispered. ‘Kaye-don’t say it unless you’re sure-I beg you-’

She moved closer, murmuring so that only he could hear.

‘That doctor told you there was still a tiny chance. Well, the chance was on our side.’

Suddenly inspiration came to her. Now she knew what she must do. Jared had suffered in his masculine pride, and now it was in her power to give it all back to him. If she did nothing else she would do this for him.

She raised her voice again, so that the crowd could hear and understand that this was a man who still had everything-could father a child, could hold his head up among other men.

‘I’m pregnant, Jared. It didn’t take you long, did it? Just a few weeks and here we go again. Well, this time you have to make an honest woman of me. Or I’m going to make an honest man of you. Whichever is the easier.’

Cheers and applause from the mechanics. She dropped her voice again.

‘I won’t take no for an answer. I know you don’t love me, but-’

‘Don’t be so damned ridiculous,’ he roared. ‘Of course I love you. I’m mad about you. How could you be blind enough not to know that?’

‘Well, I didn’t,’ she yelled back. ‘You’ve kept it a mighty secret.’

‘Nonsense. I’ve given myself away at every turn. Everyone else knows I’m crazy about you. Why don’t you?’

‘Maybe because you didn’t want me to know?’ she accused.

‘You are one infuriating woman!’

‘I need to be to put up with you. I never know where I am.’

‘Then let’s settle it,’ he growled, and yanked her into his arms.

More cheers and applause, but neither of them heard, so totally absorbed were they in enjoying each other as they had thought never to do again. It was like being kissed for the first time, and yet being kissed by a man whose kisses she knew with every fibre of her being, and wanted to know for their rest of her life.

When they became aware of the joyful audience Jared pulled her aside into a tiny room.

‘Are you sure?’ he said urgently.

‘Quite sure. You read that strip.’

‘I don’t mean that. Are you sure I won’t harm you if-?’

‘If you marry me? You’re going to marry me. Haven’t you understood that yet? You’re mine. I claim possession. No argument. Now I’m in the driving seat-my foot on the accelerator, my hands on the wheel.’

‘We go wherever you say,’ he agreed.

‘Think you can live with that?’

‘I think it sounds wonderful,’ he said fervently, discovering to his own surprise that he meant it.

He could have trusted no other woman in the world like this. But she knew everything about him: the best-his strengths, his determination, the power of his heart-and the worst-his weaknesses, the things he feared, the things he couldn’t say and relied on her to know without words.

That knowledge gave her power over him, and he was content to have it so.

‘Love, honour and obey,’ he said, smiling faintly.

‘Think you can manage all three?’ she challenged.

‘I guess I’ll have to.’

‘Let’s call Mike.’

‘Yes, let’s. Then we’ll talk to Sam and Ethel-ask them to start looking for a house big enough for all five of us.’

She gave him a joyful kiss, and made the call. From outside came cries of ‘Why are we waiting?’ and they went out to be smothered with cheers and embraces.

It was time for the race. Jared took off around the track, driving the race of his life, and when he sped triumphantly across the finishing line he knew that his family were with him, as now they would always be.

For the first time in years he was not alone, and he would never be alone again. It was his greatest victory.