‘Sit down, Helen. I’ll be back in a minute with the coffee.’
Helen didn’t sit down but went through to the bedroom to leave her suitcase. Why had Leon done such a thing, or could he be trying to stop her ‘rushing into something she would regret’? If he only knew how remote a possibility that was!
‘Did you have a nice time?’ Jenny came back with the coffee.
Helen couldn’t help smiling. ‘What a question to ask someone who’s just been to stay with a man who had designs on her body!’
‘Isn’t it wicked?’ Jenny agreed laughingly. ‘But I can’t think of any other way to ask you.’
‘In that case, yes, I had quite a nice time. It was a bit embarrassing when I met Leon’s parents, but—’
‘You met his parents?’ Jenny was astounded.
‘Mm,’ Helen grimaced. ‘Don’t get me wrong, they’re really nice people. But can you imagine the embarrassment I felt?’
‘Did they know that the two of you were living together?’
‘Oh yes, they knew. That just made it worse. But you know Leon, he couldn’t have cared less. But it’s all over now. I won’t be seeing Leon again. We’ve decided—’
‘You’ve decided,’ Jenny corrected her. ‘And I know why, don’t I?’
‘What exactly did Leon tell you on the telephone? It sounds as if it was some conversation,’ Helen derided.
‘Oh, it was. I think he was hoping I might be able to talk some sense into you. But I can’t, can I?’
‘No,’ Helen confirmed.
‘But Leon doesn’t know the reason, does he?’ said Jenny with certainty.
‘No again.’
‘But it was never certain, Helen. You could have an examination, tests. They may find—’
‘No!’ Helen said sharply. ‘No examination, no tests. They’d tell me I have a chance, knowing full well I don’t, and I’d marry Leon believing them because I want to believe them. I can’t do that to him, Jenny. He loves children,’ she added bitterly. ‘And his parents—they’re just longing for the time they can hold his child in their arms.’
‘You’re admitting defeat without even putting up a fight. The man loves you, he wants to marry you. He wouldn’t be marrying you just to have a family, he’d be marrying you for you.’
‘It’s no good, Jenny, I won’t change my mind. And Leon had no right to tell you he’d proposed to me.’
‘He sounded pretty choked when he spoke to me,’ said Jenny. ‘How can you do this to him, ruin his life without even telling him why?’
Helen sighed. ‘If I told him why he’d make me marry him anyway, and I don’t want that. Try to understand, Jenny.’
‘I understand that what you’re doing is wrong. You love him.’
‘Yes,’ she didn’t even bother to try and deny it. ‘It’s because I love him that I—’
‘Don’t kid yourself, Helen. Your motives are entirely selfish.’
‘How can you say that?’ she choked. ‘Don’t you realise what it’s doing to me, having to give up the man I love?’
‘Don’t you realise what it will do to you if one day he marries someone else?’
Pain went through her like a knife cutting into her body. ‘At least he’d be able to have the family he wants.’
‘You could—’
‘I couldn’t do anything,’ Helen interrupted. ‘Now,’ she continued briskly, ‘do I take it I wouldn’t be stepping on anyone’s toes if I moved back in here?’