‘I was still fighting it, it’s as simple as that,’ Janis replied. ‘What it took to finally decide me was getting pregnant. I hadn’t looked as far ahead as bringing up the children I didn’t yet have in Austria. With a foetus now inside me, I have to think of that. It made me think of Howard, who had no choice, his child was already in Germany and of course he now has another. To inflict the tensions I couldn’t live with myself on my kids is something I just can’t do.’

‘Kurt loves you, I’m sure he’d do anything rather than lose you,’ Marianne said quietly, ‘including making his life in England.’

‘No need to tell me that. But supposing things don’t go right for him here, Marianne? He has a place waiting for him in Vienna, after doing his post-grad course, that will assure him a consultancy eventually. Given the state of the National Health Service, shortage of money for research and all that, he could be old and grey by the time he makes it and there’s no guarantee that he’ll have done so, even then.’

‘What you’re saying is that his brains and his parents’ contacts combine to ensure his future.’

‘In a nutshell, yes. Why should someone of Kurt’s ability go to waste because of me? He means too much to me for me to let him make that sacrifice.’

‘But the choice should be his.’

‘I’ve already made it for him.’

Marianne surveyed the girl’s fragile beauty, seeming the more so when tragedy had overtaken her. Tragedy of her own making. How more selfless could love be than hers for Kurt?

‘What shall you give as a reason for breaking your engagement, Janis?’

‘One lie is as good as another, and only you will know it is one.’ Janis got up and kissed Marianne. ‘Thank you for listening. I had to tell someone.’

‘In return I want you to promise me that the abortion necessary for this deception will be done competently.’

‘I shall make use of some of the money left to me by my mother.’

Who would turn in her grave if she knew that, thought Marianne. Another secret in the family, and one that will go with me to my own grave.

Chapter Fifteen

Janis wasted no time in putting her plan into operation. Her little sister, much recovered but still easily distressed, had today gone home from school with her friend Val and was spending the night there. Jeremy was safely out of the way in Oxford. Only her parents and Kurt were seated with her at the dinner-table when she aimed her verbal dagger at her lover. But there is no way to do this kindly, she thought in the silence that followed.