by Anne Mather
‘Now wait a minute,’ began Dallas, as her brain began functioning again. ‘This child may be your grandchild, but it will be Jane’s child first of all.’
‘I agree. But what does a child like Jane want with a baby? Can she keep it? Can she support it? I think not, and definitely not in the way I could support it. ’
Dallas felt anger rising inside her at his arrogance. ‘Mr. Stavros,’ she said, controlling her temper with difficulty, ‘it’s not for you to decide, but Jane. Besides, I doubt whether Jane would want to leave England, to go and live among strangers, at such a time.’
‘Alone, I would agree,’ he said smoothly, ‘but I also suggested that you should accompany her. Naturally, I would not expect her to be separated from her own sister at a time like this!’
Dallas was astounded. ‘But I have a job!’ she exclaimed, angrily now. ‘I couldn’t just throw up my job and go to Greece. It’s ludicrous. In any case, I’m getting married at the beginning of August. ’
‘Indeed?’ He looked thoughtful. ‘And is your sister’s happiness at this time less important than your own?’
Dallas compressed her lips for a moment. ‘No, of course not. But that situation doesn’t arise. Naturally I, and my fiance, will take care of her, and the baby also when it comes.’
‘Your fiance, what does he do?’ queried Stavros coldly.
‘He ... he’s an accountant,’ said Dallas shortly.
‘And how will he react to this situation?’ Stavros asked sardonically. ‘Is he the kind of man to be able to accept a young sister-in-law who is in quite a dilemma? Will he be prepared to support both you and Jane, and this baby when it arrives?’
Dallas stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray. ‘That’s our affair,’ she prevaricated, unable to answer him truthfully, knowing Charles’s attitude towards Jane, and of his mother’s reactions when she heard the news.
‘I think not,’ returned Stavros icily. ‘This is my affair, also. I, as Paris’s father, have some rights.’
Dallas’s cheeks burned. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked shakily. ‘Are you threatening us? Do I take it that you will use your money and influence to overrule any decisions we might care to make?’
Stavros’s face was cold and hard as granite. ‘How dare you speak to me like that?’ he exclaimed savagely, his accent more pronounced than she had ever heard it before, outlining to her more clearly than anything that he was not coolly English, but vibrantly Greek.
Dallas felt nervously aware of her own limitations, but she refused to be intimidated. ‘Well, isn’t that what you meant?’ she countered.
‘No, damn you, it is not! Very well, Miss Collins, speak to your inestimable fiance, consider the ways and means, and I will contact you again after you have had time to come to your senses.’
Dallas made to get out, but he put a staying hand on her arm. ‘I will drive you home,’ he said, in a low, controlled voice, bur Dallas shook her head..
‘That’s not necessary,’ she said coldly.
‘I think it is,’ he muttered, and drove away before she had chance to get out of the car.
He halted at the flats, and Dallas slid out with alacrity, but he slid out too, and blocked her way for a moment.
‘Remember,’ he said quietly, ‘that your sister is not wholly to blame. I blame myself and I blame Paris, although he cannot defend himself, and that is why I am prepared to take this child away before it has a chance to spoil your sister’s life.’
‘Tell me,’ said Dallas suddenly, ‘what did Jane say when you told her?’
‘I do not recall that she said anything,’ he replied. ‘She was too ill, too distraught to think seriously. ’
‘I see.’ Dallas was allowed to proceed on her way, but she looked back at him. ‘Are you going back to Greece soon?’
‘Not for three weeks,’ he replied quietly. ‘You will have plenty of time to change your mind. ’
‘But...’ Dallas began, then changed her mind, and with a nod she left him.
CHAPTER THREE
‘But Jane, honestly, why didn’t you tell me?’ Dallas walked slowly
across the floor of the lounge, trying to compose to herself what she intended to tell Charles. ‘It isn’t as though we haven’t been close these last couple of weeks, is it? I mean, you’ve had plenty of time.’ Jane lay on the couch, sipping a cup of coffee. She looked considerably more relaxed now than Dallas had seen her for weeks, and she felt a sense of contrition that Jane should have been unable to tell her own sister.
‘I’m sorry, Dallas,’ she said, at last. ‘I wanted to tell you. That’s why I’ve been so miserable, but I thought... well, after all, you were always warning me against Paris, weren’t you, and this merely proved that you had been right all along. ’
‘Oh, Jane, not necessarily.’ Dallas twisted her fingers together. ‘I mean, did you think I would say “I told you so”?’
Jane half smiled. ‘Well, maybe. Although ...’ Her voice trailed away. ‘There’s so much more to it than this. Mr. Stavros only knows the bare facts. He doesn’t know the full story.’ Her voice broke a little and she composed herself with difficulty.
Dallas frowned, and sank down on to the couch beside Jane. ‘What do you mean, Jane? What more is there to know?’
Jane turned away, burying her face in the soft cushions. Dallas laid a hand on her shoulder. ‘Jane, Jane! Surely now you can tell me. Nothing more momentous than knowing you’re pregnant could possibly happen now.’
‘Couldn’t it?’ Jane lay back on the cushions, shading her eyes with her am. ‘I really think our positions have reversed now, Dallas. I feel so much older than you, somehow.’
Dallas felt disturbed. She had thought, before Alexander Stavros broke his shattering news to her, that things might conceivably return to normal eventually, but looking at Jane now she doubted the truth of this supposition. Even without the advent of the child, Jane had changed, in a strange, indefinable way.
Now she said: ‘Jane, please trust me. Tell me, whatever else should I know?’
Jane shook her head. ‘I didn’t say you should know. I merely think you ought to, before you start trying to make me see
anything good in having this baby. ’
Dallas shook her head now. ‘Jane, stop talking in riddles! Is this to do with Paris again?’
Jane nodded. ‘Well, go on,’ said Dallas impatiently. ‘I want to know, whatever it is.’
Jane ran a tongue over her dry lips. ‘Did ... did you think Paris and I ran away to get married?’
Dallas flushed. ‘Well, the thought crossed my mind.’
‘Did you tell Alexander Stavros?’
‘Well ... we discussed it.’
‘But surely he was less convinced than you,’ said Jane dryly. Dallas remembered Alexander Stavros’s words very clearly. Her expression revealed her thoughts very lucidly, and Jane nodded glumly.
‘Of course, he would know. He knows Paris better ... or rather... ’ her voice broke again, ‘he did know Paris better than anyone else.’ She sighed. ‘Oh, Dallas, you don’t know how difficult this is for me!’
‘I’m trying to, darling,’ murmured Dallas gently.
‘Anyway, it wasn’t marriage that Paris had in mind at all,’ Jane sniffed miserably. ‘He... well, when I told him about the baby, he said he didn’t want me! Particularly not pregnant, anyway. He already had a fiancee ... in Greece! I was terrified. I couldn’t tell you, and have you tell Charles. All I could think of was the smug look he would wear when he knew!’
‘Oh, Jane!’
‘Dallas, if it hadn’t been for Charles, I’d have told you. But you know what he’s like!’
‘Yes, I know,’ Dallas nodded, wondering what was going to happen now. What would Charles’s reactions really be? ‘Tell me, Jane, do you remember what Mr. Stavros said to you about the
baby?’
‘Some of it,’ said Jane thoughtfully. ‘He ... he suggested that he should take control of the affair. ’
‘And what was your reaction to that?’
‘At the time, I couldn’t think straight. But now I don’t know— why? Did he say more about it?’
‘Oh yes. He seems to think he has every right to take the child and bring it up as his grandson, or granddaughter, as the case may be.’
Jane nodded. ‘I know. I ... I can see his point. After all, he has lost Paris, and he was his only offspring. ’
‘Y... e ... s,’ said Dallas, rather more thoughtfully. ‘But would you want to go to Greece to live, until after the baby is born?’
‘To Greece?’ echoed Jane. ‘No! What has Greece to do with it?’
‘Well, that was Mr. Stavros’s idea, wasn’t it? He told me he wanted you to go and live on his island until afterwards. So that he can keep an eye on you, I suppose.’
‘Well, I don’t remember that. In any case, I wouldn’t go. To go and live among strangers, at a time like this. No, thanks!’
‘But he said I should go, too,’ admitted Dallas reluctantly.
‘I see,’ Jane grimaced. ‘Well, anyway, I don’t think that’s a good idea. He can have the baby, I suppose, but...’
‘Jane, don’t say things like that until you’re sure that’s what you want. This child is going to be yours as well. You may find you don’t want to give it away.’
‘I couldn’t afford to keep it, though, could I?’ said Jane glumly. ‘Oh, what a mess!’
‘Well, maybe you could keep it,’ murmured Dallas tentatively. ‘I mean, Charles and I are getting married soon. We could help you until afterwards, and then maybe support you until the child is old enough to go to a day nursery.’
Jane stared at her. ‘Would you do that for me?’
‘Of course. Oh, Jane, don’t let’s argue about this. It’s over now, there’s nothing we can do to stop it, so let’s try and accept it.’
‘I think you’re being overly optimistic, anyway,’ said Jane. ‘Charles won’t agree to that in a million years.’
‘He might.’
‘Not a chance. Anyway, you know perfectly well that what Mrs. Jennings says goes. And she hates me!’
‘She doesn’t hate you,’ protested Dallas. ‘It’s just that she is old,
she’s set in her ways. She doesn’t understand young people. . . .’
‘I know, I know. But what you can’t seem to grasp is that Charles is like her. He’s more like her contemporary than her son! Why, he even talks like she does. That’s why you worry me sometimes, Dallas. You’re only twenty-two. Can you afford to give up everything to live with Charles? Your life will become complete domination. ’
‘Oh, stop it!’ Dallas got up and walked across the room, biting the knuckles of one hand unsteadily. ‘We must work this out sanely and sensibly. There’s no earthly reason why Charles can’t help us, and I’m going to see him, and tell him everything.’
Jane shrugged, pulled a face, and stretched out fully on the couch. ‘All right, Dallas, have it your way. It just may be that I am as adept at telling your fate as you were at telling mine.’
The following Saturday evening, Charles called as usual to take Dallas down to Maidenhead. The weather was picking up now and Dallas wore a slim-fitting trouser suit belonging to Jane. It had been Jane’s suggestion, a kind of veiled attempt to dare her into rebelling against Charles’s influence on her clothes, and Dallas, wanting to appear confident, had agreed to wear the suit. It was royal blue corded velvet, with a flared line to the jacket, and suited her admirably. If anything she looked younger than her twenty-two years, despite the fact that her hair was in its usual french knot.
Charles did not say anything to her in the flat, but once in the comparative privacy of his Rover 2000 he gave vent to his feelings.
‘Have you taken leave of your senses?’ he queried coldly. ‘You know how I abhor women in trousers. Mother will have a fit when she sees you.’
Dallas straightened her shoulders. ‘It’s modern, Charles, and after all this is 1969, not the Victorian era! ’
‘You’ve never worn anything like that before. Have you bought
it?’
‘No. It’s Jane’s.’
‘Thank heaven for that!’ Charles raised his eyes heavenward for a moment. ‘You’re not the type for that kind of outfit. ’
‘What am I the type for, Charles?’
Charles was taken aback. ‘Well, I don’t know!’ he blustered. ‘I mean you’ve always looked all right before.’
Dallas stared out of the car window at the passing concrete slabs, inset with plate glass, which provided homes for thousands of people. This was hardly the way to get him into a good mood, she thought stupidly. Antagonising him from the beginning! She ought to have ignored Jane’s tormenting tongue, and dressed to please him. As it was, Jane had provided the suit, so Jane would not be in Charles’s good books. She sighed, and turned to look at him again. She might as well get it over with. It was no use waiting until they arrived when she would have to tell her story to his mother as well and suffer her critical remarks.
‘Charles,’ she began quietly, ‘I ... I have something to tell you. To ... to ask you, too.’
Charles negotiated a roundabout. ‘Oh yes?’ he said coolly.
‘Yes. It’s about Jane.’
Charles glanced at her. ‘Go on.’
‘She’s pregnant.’
A stony silence was maintained for several minutes while Dallas tried desperately to think of something to say. Anything to break down the barrier which Charles was erecting between them.
At last he said: ‘ So she is, is she? Hard luck! ’
‘Is that all you have to say?’
Charles snorted, ‘What more is there?’ He waved a car past them. ‘What’s she going to do? Have the kid adopted?’ He laughed. ‘How ironic! Her passport into the millionaire class has been denied her!’
‘That’s a hateful thing to say!’ exclaimed Dallas hotly.
‘Well, what do you expect me to say? Poor old Jane! What a pity? No fear. She’s mocked me long enough. Now it’s my turn.
And she won’t get a dime out of it!’
This seemed to amuse him, and Dallas felt furiously angry.
‘You couldn’t be more wrong,’ she said coldly. ‘Alexander Stavros wants her to go to Greece and stay with them until the baby is born.’
Charles stared at her, almost colliding with a stationary lorry.
‘What!’
‘Yes. That surprises you, doesn’t it? However, Jane doesn’t want to go, and leave everything that’s known to her at a time like this. I’ve said we’ll take care of her. After all, she is my sister-------’
‘That’s out!’ said Charles sharply. ‘I’m supporting no illegitimate kid of hers.’
‘I’m not suggesting you should,’ exclaimed Dallas angrily. ‘There’s no reason why Jane shouldn’t work as long as she can, and then there are grants, benefits, and afterwards, when the baby is old enough to go to a day nursery ... ’
‘Hold on, hold on! ’ Charles pulled off the motorway into a lay-by. ‘Where is she going to live all this time?’
‘Well, primarily at the flat, and then when we get married, with us.’
‘Oh no, she’s not.’ Charles shook his head. ‘That I will not have. I could put up with her maybe for a while in the ordinary way, but I’m having no unmarried mother living in my house. What would the neighbours think? And if the press get hold of this, as they’re bound to sooner or later, it would be murder!’
Dallas stared at him as though she had never seen him before. She had known he was conservative, but she had never thought him to be so narrow-minded, or so petty.
‘You can’t be serious, Charles,’ she exclaimed, aghast.
‘Oh, can’t I?’ Charles hunched his shoulders.
Dallas fumbled in her handbag for her cigarettes, and lit one with trembling fingers, careless of the fact that Charles disliked the car filled with smoke.
‘Well,’ she began unsteadily,
‘if you’re serious, there’s nothing more to be said, is there?’
Now it was Charles’s turn to look uncomfortable.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Simply this. Where Jane goes, I go, or alternatively where she can’t go, I can’t go either.’
‘Now, stop talking nonsense,’ exclaimed Charles irritatedly. ‘What your sister does is her concern. Besides, you haven’t given
me a chance to say anything so far as Jane’s welfare is concerned. I naturally don’t expect you to abandon her.’
‘Thank you,’ said Dallas sarcastically. ‘That’s good of you.’
‘Stop it, Dallas.’ Charles sniffed. ‘No, I think I have a plan. Jane can stay with you until our wedding, of course, but afterwards she can stay at one of these hostels until the baby is due. Then we can pay for her to go away to a nursing home and have the baby, and after it’s adopted I shall have no objections to her coming to stay with us for a time.’
‘What if she doesn’t want to have the baby adopted?’
‘What do you mean? Of course she’ll want it adopted No girl of seventeen wants to be saddled with a child and no husband. ’
‘I agree to that, but most girls find it terribly difficult to part with their children. I thought we could help her there. . . .’
Charles turned away, controlling his temper with difficulty. ‘I’m not going to have my life ruined by a slip of a girl,’ he said grimly. ‘And that’s what will happen, make no mistake about it. Mother would never agree, anyway.’
Dallas compressed her lips to stop them trembling. Like Jane she had been afraid of this, but even then she had repeatedly told herself that Charles was not as black as Jane painted him. Even now she was trying to find reasons for his attitude, but it was awfully difficult to feel anything but frustration in the face of his disregard for Jane’s feelings.
‘You’re talking as though Jane were a stranger,’ she said, biting her lips. ‘She’s my sister. I ... I can’t expect her to face this alone, without my support.’
‘Why not? She didn’t much care what you thought when she was going out with him. ’
‘I know she’s been selfish and irresponsible, but Charles, she’s my sister, and I love her. ’