‘You mean a baby?’ Keilly gasped, paling.
Kathy’s hand shook as she moved it to her hair. ‘Yes. He didn’t use anything, and I—I suppose he assumed I was on the pill.’ She gave a harsh, humourless laugh. ‘I’m sure he didn’t intentionally run the risk of a paternity suit being brought against him,’ she derided bitterly, her gaze suddenly clashing with Keilly’s stricken one. ‘I’m sorry, love, but now you know why I’m not entitled to wear that white gown Mum insisted I buy, why I’m not a suitable wife for Peter.’
Keilly didn’t know what to say, what words of comfort could help her cousin through this crisis in her life. Kathy had only confirmed to her what she had known all her young life, men were takers, thought nothing of deliberately lying to get a woman into bed with them. Rod Bartlett was the one who should have felt guilty, not Kathy!
‘Sleeping with one man, because you thought you loved him, doesn’t make you promiscuous, Kathy,’ she spoke softly. ‘I’m sure Peter is understanding enough, mature enough, to realise that.’
Dark brown eyes shadowed over. ‘You think I should tell him?’
She shrugged. ‘He’s going to know tonight anyway,’ she sighed.
‘But I would be married to him by then!’
‘And guilt-stricken, as you are now,’ Keilly reminded gently. ‘You have to tell him, Kathy, and now, before the wedding this afternoon.’
‘So that he has a chance to back out,’ Kathy groaned miserably.
‘I’m sure he won’t do that.’ Peter Carmichael was one of the kindest, most understanding men Keilly had ever known, and he loved Kathy enough to forgive her anything.
‘Are you?’ Kathy said bitterly.
‘Darling, you were deceived,’ she soothed, feeling the elder one at that moment. ‘Rod Bartlett lied to you just to get you into bed with him. You can’t be punished for that.’
‘Do you really think Peter will see it that way?’ she asked uncertainly. ‘I couldn’t bear it if I lost him now.’
‘Talk to him,’ she encouraged, completely confident of Peter’s reaction.
Kathy had telephoned Peter and arranged to meet him immediately, and when Keilly saw the adoration glowing in Peter’s eyes as his bride walked down the aisle towards him she knew she had been right to trust in him, that he had understood.
The young couple had shared a very happy marriage the last six years, had five-year-old Heather as living proof of their love. That Rod Bartlett should now upset the even tenor of Kathy’s life again ten years after treating her so callously was despicable.
‘He may not even remember you——’
‘Is that supposed to console me?’ Kathy snapped. ‘Oh I suppose you’re right,’ she sighed. ‘Why should a man like that remember one little virgin he seduced ten years ago? But I remember him, Keilly, if he should remember me…’ she trailed off worriedly. ‘He could make things very uncomfortable for me.’
‘I’m sure Peter would stand by you, after all, he knows there was someone in your past.’
Kathy’s gaze was suddenly evasive. ‘Keilly, I—I never told him about Rod,’ she said in a rush. ‘He doesn’t know there was ever anyone else.’
‘But——’
‘I faked it,’ Kathy told her heavily.
‘F… faked it?’ she echoed dazedly.
Kathy’s beautiful face darkened with irritation. ‘It’s quite easy to do. And stop looking at me like that, Keilly,’ she flushed. ‘I couldn’t tell him. I met him that day, and the first thing he told me was how much he loved me, how proud he was that I was going to be his wife. I couldn’t tell him after that, I couldn’t lose his respect.’
‘But to pretend——! Kathy?’ She gave a pained frown.
‘I know, I know,’ her cousin sighed. ‘I’ve had to live with it for the last six years. Oh I didn’t think about it every day,’ she dismissed. ‘I’m not neurotic about it in that way. But I have had to live with my lie. It hasn’t always been easy. Peter is such a wonderful man, and I love him so much, but surely you can understand what it would do to our marriage if he knew I had surrendered myself to a man who probably doesn’t remember me among the hundreds of women who have shared his bed?’ She shuddered at the thought. ‘I won’t lose him or Heather because of one silly mistake in my past.’
‘Peter would never——’
‘No, he wouldn’t,’ Kathy agreed heavily. ‘But a scandal like that about his wife could force us apart. You know his family never really approved of him marrying the daughter of a local hotelier, and a lot of people in this town are just waiting for something like this to happen to our marriage.’
This was the real problem, of course. Peter’s family owned most of the town and surrounding land, and when Peter and Kathy had fallen in love nine years ago his family had far from approved of the match. Most of them now accepted the marriage, although as Kathy said, they were just waiting for her to make such a mistake. The fact that Kathy had once had an affair, no matter how briefly, with a ‘film star’ would certainly cause enough of a scandal to put severe strain on their marriage. Damn Rod Bartlett!
She shook her head. ‘I can’t say I approve of the fact that you lied to Peter,’ she said softly. ‘Although in a way I can understand it. But what are we going to do now?’ It was her turn for uncertainty. ‘What if Rod Bartlett does come back here?’
‘Maybe he won’t.’
‘But if he does?’
‘Couldn’t you ask this last reporter?’ Kathy frowned.
‘Rick?’ her mouth suddenly felt as dry as her throat, her voice coming out as a nasal rasp.
‘Mm,’ Kathy seemed unaware of Keilly’s unnatural pallor. ‘Maybe he’s heard something else since he’s been back in London. Why don’t you telephone him?’
Misery from the flu and the absence of Rick’s telephone call settled heavily on her shoulders. ‘I don’t have his number,’ she mumbled.
‘Oh,’ Kathy still seemed oblivious to Keilly’s feelings in her own disappointment. ‘Then I suppose we’ll just have to sit here and wait,’ she sighed.
‘Yes,’ she gave in to the urge to sneeze, burying her face in a fistful of tissues.
‘You poor love,’ her cousin sympathised, handing her the nasal spray. ‘I shouldn’t be bothering you with my problems when you’re like this. I’m sure it will all work itself out,’ she dismissed confidently.
But no matter how easily Kathy seemed to dismiss the subject of Rod Bartlett Keilly knew her cousin was more deeply affected than she cared to admit. And no wonder, with the admissions she had made! Kathy had been very silly to deceive Peter the way she had, especially after deciding and intending to tell him the truth. For the last six years Keilly had thought the other woman had done exactly that, and it came as a shock to her after all this time to know that she hadn’t.
‘Why should he want to come here anyway?’ Kathy added crossly. ‘Selchurch is hardly teeming with the sort of excitement he’s used to,’ she derided.
She huddled down in the bed, beginning to feel ill again. ‘I think that’s his main reason; he’s taking a holiday, a quiet holiday, for the first time in five years. Let’s