‘Heaven knows what Briony is going to have to say about all of this,’ she told Marcus breathlessly a couple of hours later as he smoothed her hair off her face and kissed her gently. He had been a little reluctant at first to make love with her—because of the baby—but Polly had assured him robustly that there was no danger, adding with innocent persuasiveness, ‘And I want you so much, Marcus. All this is so new to me…I never knew before…Richard and I…I was just a girl and he was a boy.’
She had told him simply, ‘What we shared was good and loving, but it wasn’t love. It wasn’t a tenth of what I feel for you. I can’t believe how foolish we’ve both been, wasting so many years. I thought you didn’t like me. You always seemed to be so critical of me.’
‘So critical that I could hardly bear to let you out of my sight, never mind my life,’ Marcus groaned self-critically.
‘I thought that was because of Briony.’
‘I do love Briony,’ Marcus told her. ‘And I always will. I hope this new baby is a boy, Polly, but not because I share Bernstein’s desire to found a dynasty. It’s just that Briony has always been so special to me, I’d be worried that another girl couldn’t, wouldn’t…’
‘That you might love your own child more?’ Polly suggested softly for him, but immediately Marcus shook his head.
‘I couldn’t love any child more than I love Briony. No, I was thinking that another daughter, a second daughter,’ he emphasised with a small smile, ‘might feel that she is second best, whereas a boy…a son…’
‘Oh, Marcus, I can’t believe we’ve been so lucky…and to think it’s all because of Suzi and Phil. How could you think I could possibly want Phil?’ she reproached him.
‘How could you think I wanted Suzi?’ Marcus retorted.
‘But surely you guessed how I felt when…’
‘When we made love?’ Marcus supplied for her. ‘I know you were responsive to me. My God, how I knew that, and you’ll never know how much I wanted to capitalise on that, Polly…how much I wanted to steal you away somewhere and keep you there in my bed until you were forced to capitulate and admit that you loved me.’
‘You actually contemplated doing something like that?’ Polly asked him, round-eyed.
‘Well, not exactly,’ Marcus admitted, ‘But I certainly fantasised about living in a world where I could have done so, although in all honesty there was no way I could ever compel you to do or give anything you didn’t want me to have willingly.’
‘Briony is going to be dreadfully shocked. She wanted you to marry Suzi,’ Polly told him.
‘Mmm…She did rather get it wrong, didn’t she?’ Marcus agreed. ‘She warned me that you were in danger of making a fool of yourself over Bernstein and asked me to keep an eye on the situation because she was afraid his intentions towards you weren’t entirely honourable…’
‘She did what?’ Polly protested indignantly. ‘So that was where you got the idea that I was going through some sort of mid-life crisis, was it? Just wait until I speak to her…’
‘Briony, darling, how nice. We…I wasn’t expecting you to come home this weekend,’ Polly told her daughter as she went to hug her, hoping as she did so that Briony hadn’t noticed how flustered she sounded.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see Briony, it was just that she and Marcus had planned to spend the day shopping for things for the nursery, and then they were going to have dinner out to celebrate their future together, Marcus had told her. They had already decided on a very quiet family wedding and Polly had a sneaking suspicion that tonight Marcus intended to present her with an engagement ring, an old-fashioned courtesy which wasn’t perhaps necessary in their circumstances but which she found touching nonetheless.
They had had official confirmation that she was pregnant now. Marcus was over the moon, and so protective of her health that Polly couldn’t help but be tenderly amused.
She—they—had every intention of telling Briony, of course, but she wanted time to find the right words, the right way.
‘How are the plans coming along for the wedding?’ Briony asked conversationally after she had hugged her mother.
‘The wedding…? Oh, we’ve…’ Guiltily Polly bit her lip. Briony meant Suzi and Phil’s wedding, of course. ‘Oh well, Marcus has decided that we really can’t accommodate all Suzi’s requirements and I think they’ve decided to get married in the Caribbean now after all…’