Kay Thorpe - The Wedding Deception

She inclined her head in return. ‘You’re welcome.’

Politeness so often involved telling lies, she reflected when the two of them had departed. They had been anything but welcome. The strain of the last few hours was beginning to tell on her. It was all she could do to keep a sense of proportion. There were worse things which could happen.

‘So, what do you think of him?’ asked Jill anxiously.

Does it matter what I think? Claire felt like asking, but managed a faint smile instead.

‘He seems nice enough.’

‘Nice?’ Jill made it sound as if the word was an insult. ‘He’s just…wonderful!’

‘You’re the one in love with him, not me,’ Claire pointed out. She hesitated before adding softly, ‘I’d have thought the pair of you were sensible enough to at least take precautions.’

Her sister’s colour rose, the expression in her eyes closer to guilt than defiance. ‘You’d have thrown three fits if I’d gone on the pill!’

‘I don’t suppose I’d have known about it. In any case, it was as much Scott’s place to take responsibility. More so, in fact, considering other risks.’

Jill gazed at her with knitted brows for a moment before the penny dropped. ‘If you’re talking about what I think you are, Scott’s hardly in that category!’ she declared indignantly.

‘He doesn’t have to be. You’ve seen all the warnings on TV.’

‘They only apply to those who sleep around a lot. Scott isn’t like that either!’

Claire wished she could be as certain. He didn’t come across as the promiscuous type, but who could really tell these days? Jill almost certainly wasn’t his first sexual experience; according to Ross, she wasn’t even his first love. Not that she had any intention of passing on that piece of information.

She made a small wry gesture. ‘I’m sure he isn’t But neither is he blameless. From what Ross said, you were still in school when this whole thing started. Surely—’

‘It wasn’t Scott who made the running initially, it was me.’ Jill’s chin was jutting, her mouth mutinous. ‘I made sure he noticed me that very first night.’

‘In what way?’

‘I asked him to dance.’

Claire felt her lips twitch involuntarily. ‘That must have taken a lot of courage,’ she commented. ‘What did he say?’

‘That he’d be delighted.’ Jill’s tone had softened into reminiscence. ‘He’s so different from Rob, and Mark, and the others. They’d make some stupid joke if a girl asked any of them to dance.’

Claire could imagine. None of Jill’s former boyfriends was any older than she was herself, and certainly no more mature. Scott’s good looks were only a part of the attraction. He had about him that same air of confidence in himself that his brother possessed—although he lacked the other’s cutting edge.

‘Do all your friends know you’ve been seeing Scott?’ she asked.

Jill shook her head. ‘Just Lucy. I had to tell someone.’

Lucy was, and had been right since junior school, her closest friend. The two of them told each other everything. Claire wondered just how capable the other girl was of keeping mum when it came to news of this magnitude. Everyone who could count would know the truth soon enough once Jill began to show, of course, but by that time she would be married, and not open to quite the same degree of censure from those with nothing better to think about.

Local opinion was hardly the main concern anyway. What mattered most was that Jill should be certain of what she was doing. Claire doubted if she had looked any further ahead than the immediate future.

‘Do you think you’d have thought about marrying Scott if you hadn’t got pregnant?’ she said slowly, feeling for the words. ‘I mean, really thought about it.’

The answer came swift and sure. ‘Of course. He’s everything I ever dreamed about!’

‘I shouldn’t have imagined you dreamt about marriage at all at your age,’ Claire remarked mildly. ‘I know I didn’t.’

‘I’m not you,’ returned her sister with indisputable logic. ‘I never wanted a career in the first place. You were always the ambitious one.’

And ambition was something which she had been forced to put aside to a great extent, Claire acknowledged ruefully. Sales was a long way from design, even if she did have her own business. She still kept her drawingboard set up in her bedroom, and occasionally worked on an idea, but time was too limited to consider it anything but a hobby.

‘I wish you’d told me all this before,’ she said, returning that particular dream to its niche. ‘I honestly never realised how you felt about things.’

‘It doesn’t matter now, does it?’ Jill obviously felt she could afford to be magnanimous. ‘I’ve got what I want— or I shall have soon—and you’ll be able to do whatever you want without worrying about me any more.’

That aspect hadn’t occurred to her, Claire had to admit. Nor did she find it any consolation. She got up and went to draw the curtains, standing for a moment gazing out into the dusk. There was so much to be considered, so many details that Jill didn’t appear to have got round to thinking about as yet.

‘Have you discussed where you’re going to live?’ she queried, without turning.

‘Not yet.’ Jill sounded anything but concerned. ‘We’ll probably buy a house.’

Money might not be the main attraction in this relationship but it certainly had some bearing, Claire thought drily.

‘Does Ross still live at the family home too?’ she heard herself asking.

‘No, he has a flat in town.’

Claire finished drawing the curtains and briefly contemplated regaining her seat, but she was too churned up inside to spend any more time going over and over the same ground.

‘I think I’ll make some cocoa,’ she said. ‘Do you want some?’

‘No, thanks.’ Jill was lying back in her chair, eyes closed, a far-away look on her face. ‘I just want to think about Scott.’

Hair tousled, body still immature in the tight-fitting jeans and T-shirt, she looked nowhere near old enough to be having a baby. At that precise moment, Claire felt anything but benevolent towards the young man responsible.

UNUSUALLY for her, Jill was up and about by eight, impatient for the promised phone call. She would eat no more than a piece of toast for breakfast, and kept an eye constantly on the kitchen clock.

‘Surely he must have told them by now!’ she burst out when nine o’clock had come and gone. ‘I mean, where’s the point in waiting any longer?’

‘I don’t suppose his parents will be around all that early, considering his father’s condition,’ Claire suggested. ‘Give him time. I’m sure he won’t let you down.’

She mentally crossed her fingers as she said it, not at all certain that she was right. Ross had had a whole night to work on his brother. Who could tell what persuasions he might have employed?

With the sun shining outside for once, and the temperature more in keeping with the time of year, it should have been a morning for good cheer, but cheerful was the last thing she felt. Whatever happened, Jill’s whole life was going to be so different from everything she had hoped for her. Eighteen was no age at which to be landed with a child, whatever the circumstances.

‘I’m going out to mow the lawn,’ she announced, unable to bear the inactivity. ‘You could come and do a spot of weeding, if you like. You’ll hear the phone ring if we leave the window open.’

Jill shook her head. ‘I might not.’

Claire sighed and gave in. Obviously nothing was going to shift Jill far from the telephone until she had received the call. It was only to be hoped that it would come soon.