I pushed open the door and stepped into a thickly carpeted foyer. The place was decidedly warm and felt more like a comfortable private house than a clinic. There was none of that disinfectant smell that lingers in hospitals. There was a vase of chrysanthemums on a polished table and a grandfather clock ticking away solemnly. Otherwise there was no sound. I stood listening and thought I detected a distant radio. I began to wonder if I’d come to the right place. I knew I had to work fast. There were several doors around that foyer, a flight of stairs leading up to a second floor, and behind them the hall narrowed and led to the back of the building.

I had no idea where to start. Surely one of the rooms at the front of the house would be the office, while rooms for more medical purposes would be upstairs. I went to the door on my left—the room with one of the bay windows—and opened it cautiously. It was a sitting room. A fire was burning in the grate and there were sofas and armchairs arranged around it. Magazines were scattered over a low table. It looked like anyone’s sitting room and at first glance I had thought the room to be empty. Then I noticed that someone was curled up in one of the armchairs, facing out toward the fields and the sea. She was looking at a magazine and hadn’t heard me enter. I went to back out again but as I turned my overcoat sleeve must have brushed against the table, knocking a newspaper to the floor. The girl looked up and we both gasped at the same time.

It was Belinda.

Chapter 26

NOVEMBER 8

AT A CLINIC NEAR WORTHING-ON-SEA

Belinda looked pale and somehow delicate. She was staring at me in astonishment. “Georgie, what are you doing here? How did you find me?” she demanded. “I didn’t tell a soul.”

“I had no idea,” I stammered. “I came here checking on someone else.” I went over and sat down beside her. “Belinda. Why didn’t you tell me? I could see you were upset and not your normal self.”

“I didn’t think you’d understand,” she said. “I know you don’t approve of my lifestyle. You’d think I got what I deserved.”

“But Belinda, I’m your friend,” I said. “I’d have stood by you, no matter what.”

She gave me a weak little smile. “You’re a nice person, Georgie.”

“So that’s why you came home from America. You found out you were going to have a baby.” I came over to her and perched on the arm of her chair.