She had paused at her typewriter before beginning a new chapter, noticing the first touch of pink, a sign of approaching summer, on the cherry tree, when Janis appeared outside the window.

‘Why didn’t you ring the doorbell?’ Marianne said with a smile.

‘I know your study is at the back and thought it’d be less bother for you to let me in through the patio door, like you have.’

‘I could use some tea. You’ve come at the right time, Janis.’

‘No time’s the right time for you when you’re working, Marianne, and we all know it. But I need to talk to you.’

Janis said as they went to the kitchen, ‘This is something I can’t discuss with Laura.’

Marianne put the kettle on to boil. How often had she done so in similar circumstances? When she’d lived up north, too, and this was the same kettle. What a tale it could tell.

‘I’m pregnant, Marianne.’

Old-fashioned girls were the kind who still got pregnant by accident. ‘Why can’t you tell that to Laura? And leave dealing with your dad to her—’

‘I’m thinking of having an abortion, and she’s dead against it.’

For highly personal reasons, thought Marianne.

‘I couldn’t tell her even if she weren’t,’ Janis went on. ‘She wanted another child so much and it didn’t happen. How can I say to her that I want to get rid of one?’

Janis burst into tears and Marianne gave her a paper tissue, and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

‘I don’t want to get rid of my baby, Marianne—’

‘Are you absolutely certain you’re pregnant?’

‘The result of my test was positive. I got it today.’

‘Why can’t you and Kurt bring forward the date of your wedding? You wouldn’t be the first couple to marry while you’re still students and you finish your courses this year—’

‘Kurt knows nothing about this and you must promise me that you’ll never tell him.’

Marianne’s reaction was, ‘I’d advise you, love, not to start out on your married life by trying to hide from him what you’ve told me.’

‘I’m not going to marry Kurt. He doesn’t know that yet, either.’

Marianne made the tea and brought it to the window alcove where Janis had seated herself.

‘If ever there were a love match it’s you and Kurt,’ she declared. ‘What on earth’s gone wrong?’