The Yuletide Child

‘Is that why you were sick when you heard the news?’ he asked, and she dropped the newspaper on the floor, angrily aware that she was still very pale and a little shaky.

‘I’m just not well today. Nothing to do with Michael getting a new partner.’

‘Tomorrow you’d better go and see the doctor, then,’ Ross said unsympathetically. ‘Alan suggested we play golf today—are you coming along? You can sit in the clubhouse with the other wives who don’t play. Give you a chance to talk to them all. We could have lunch there afterwards. That would save you having to cook.’

‘I don’t feel well enough,’ she said. Suzy would be playing with the men, of course. No sitting around drinking cocktails with other women for Suzy! She was not keen on her own sex; she liked male company—preferably not that of her husband.

‘I see,’ Ross said curtly. ‘Maybe I should have lunch there, anyway. Then you won’t have to bother to make lunch for me.’

He turned on his heel and was gone before she could answer. She winced at the slam of the front door, but felt too ghastly to care much about Ross’s temper. The sickness wore off as the morning advanced. She got up, washed and changed, and began to prepare a salad to eat with cold chicken and rice flecked with peas, sweetcorn and red peppers.

Ross returned at half past twelve and found her mowing the lawn. ‘Why didn’t you wait for me to do that?’ He frowned.

‘I’ve finished now.’ She was flushed and perspiring; it was heavy work in hot sunlight.

‘I thought you weren’t feeling well?’

‘It wore off.’

‘As soon as I’d gone, I suppose?’

She looked at him with tears in her eyes. ‘Oh, stop it, Ross! Why do you keep sniping at me? Are we going to end up like Suzy and Alan?’

His face changed. ‘I’m sorry, Dylan.’ He put an arm round her and kissed her gently on the mouth. ‘I’m still jealous of that ex-partner of yours, I suppose. The last thing I want to do is quarrel with you. Look, I’ll make some lunch for us—what would you like?’

‘It’s ready—just a cold meal. I hope you don’t mind but I wanted something very plain.’

‘That’s fine. Here, let me put the mower away and dump the grass cuttings. You go and lie down. We’ll eat in fifteen minutes, okay?’

After that, Dylan was afraid of mentioning Michael at all. How long would it take for Ross to forget his jealousy? She had married him, not Michael, had given up her whole life for him—how could he be jealous?

When he went to work on Monday morning he kissed the top of her head and reminded her, ‘You won’t forget to go and see the doctor, will you? I’m worried about you. You don’t look well.’

She was worried about herself, so she rang the local health centre, which served several villages in the area, and was given an appointment for that evening at five o’clock.

The woman doctor was young, a little harassed, but friendly. She examined Dylan, asked her a few questions, then looked at her with amusement.

‘Pretty obvious, isn’t it? You’re going to have a baby. You must have guessed!’

Dylan blushed. ‘I was beginning to wonder, but I’ve been taking the pill. We didn’t want to have a baby yet; we wanted to wait a year or two, get used to being married first.’

‘The best laid plans of mice and men,’ murmured Dr Easter, laughing.

‘Yes,’ Dylan agreed, smiling back. ‘When I kept feeling sick in the mornings, and missed a second period, obviously I did think... Are you sure, though?’

‘I can’t be certain until you’ve had a pregnancy test. Quite simple.’ Dr Easter gave her instructions. ‘We’ll soon know for certain.’

Ross rang to say he would be working late this evening. By the time he got home Dylan was in bed asleep and he didn’t wake her, he slept in the spare bedroom and left next morning at first light. She found a note from him on the kitchen table saying he might be a little late again that evening; they were very busy marking trees to be felled and planning a new plantation for the following autumn.

‘Give Suzy a ring and meet her for lunch or coffee,’ the note ended, but Dylan didn’t feel like seeing Suzy. That morning, early, she took her pregnancy test to the doctor’s surgery and was given the results later that day.

Smiling, Dr Easter told her, ‘You’re definitely pregnant. I hope you’re happy about that, even though it’s such a surprise?’

‘I’m not sure,’ Dylan confessed frankly. ‘I want children, but...oh, I’m feeling so ill, and I’m worried about coping with a baby.’

‘You can go to classes here at the health centre to show you how to cope, and the first months are the worst. Once you’re over the morning sickness you’ll feel better than you’ve felt for years. Have you told your husband you may be pregnant?’

‘Not yet.’