A Lesser Evil - Lesley Pearse [196]
But her parents’ total acceptance of Dan, and indeed their affection for him, made Fifi so happy that it was impossible for her to backslide. Furthermore she found herself making a concerted effort to improve the relationship with her mother.
She’d stopped throwing her shoes down in the hall, she kept the spare room tidy, and she did a whole range of chores without being asked. She’d even got her mother to give her cookery lessons, something Clara had been telling her she needed for years and Fifi had claimed she didn’t.
Yet Fifi really wanted a home of her own again. Being looked after and feeling totally safe was good, but she felt inhibited making love when her parents were so close by.She wanted to cook for Dan, have her own things around her again, blast out music when she felt like it, and to have time alone too. There was something else as well, something Fifi hadn’t even told Dan yet. She was pregnant again.
It must have happened soon after they got back to Bristol. There had been a couple of times when they forgot to take precautions. Fifi hadn’t been the least concerned when her period didn’t arrive, as the doctor at the hospital had said the shock of all she’d been through would probably disrupt her normal cycle. But then she began experiencing over-sensitive breasts and a faint nausea at certain smells, just as she had when she was pregnant before, and she knew what was causing it.
She had kept it to herself for many reasons: being afraid she might miscarry again; because her parents might see it as irresponsibility when she and Dan didn’t have a home of their own. But mainly she felt Dan needed some respite from worrying about her. When they first returned to Bristol he’d hardly been able to let her out of his sight.
Two days ago she’d had it confirmed at the doctor’s – their baby was due at the end of June. She intended to wait till Friday to tell Dan. They were going to a special family party in the evening, and if she told him just before, then they could announce it to everyone that night.
‘Don’t you go burning those leaves!’
Dan turned at Clara’s shout from the kitchen door. He was trundling the loaded wheelbarrow towards the incinerator. ‘Where d’you want them then?’ he called back, making a comic face at Fifi.
‘On the compost heap of course,’ Clara replied. ‘But mind you cover it up again!’
Dan began transferring the leaves from the barrow to the compost heap, but the wind was getting up and blowing them around. Giggling, Fifi ran over to help him.
‘I might have known she wouldn’t trust me to light a fire,’ he said glumly. ‘I was looking forward to that part. Is she a secret pyromaniac? Will she wait till we’ve all cleared off tomorrow and then douse all this with petrol?’
‘Don’t be daft,’ Fifi replied. ‘They put all this stuff back on the garden when it’s rotted down. You should know that. I thought you were a country boy?’
‘Only when sex comes into it,’ he grinned. ‘Like rolling in the hay, or having it off in long grass.’
‘Speaking of which,’ she smirked lasciviously at him, ‘if we hurry up we could nip upstairs for a while before tea. I’ll tell Mum we’re going to have a dress rehearsal for next weekend.’
This was the party when she intended to make the announcement about the baby. Everyone, including Harry’s brother and Clara’s two sisters and their families, were having a celebration dinner at the Grand Hotel. Neither Fifi nor Dan had been up to celebrating their first wedding anniversary in September but Clara had decided they should have a big party later on to welcome Dan to the family.
It was to be quite a grand affair, the men in dinner jackets and women in evening dress. Fifi had bought a frilly pink chiffon dress which she’d put on dozens of times in the past couple of weeks, but it was only yesterday that Dan had picked up the suit he was hiring.
‘Brilliant idea,’ he agreed, his dark eyes dancing, and he rushed to collect the last heap of leaves. ‘Just make sure they don’t all come bursting in to see how we look,’ he shouted back