Of all the ways that she had thought he might react, total silence wasn’t one Melissa had even considered, and it unnerved her. She sat still, her hand protectively on her stomach, hardly daring to breathe. Her smile had slipped now and she bit her lip as she waited for his judgement.

Ray looked first at her face and then down to her newly growing bump as if he couldn’t believe what she had told him. When he looked up again, though, there was the faintest of smiles, which blossomed into a wide grin. Melissa felt herself sag with relief.

‘That’s incredible!’ he said finally. ‘I can’t believe it, but it’s amazing news.’

‘You’re not angry, then?’ Melissa asked, relief making her ask the question even though she didn’t really want to hear if he was.

He shook his head. ‘I’m surprised,’ he said. ‘Shocked, even, but angry? No! We’re going to have a baby.’ Then doubt started to flicker across his features. ‘You do want to have it, don’t you?’

Melissa nodded frantically before he got the wrong end of the stick. ‘Yes!’ she said. ‘I want to have it more than anything.’

‘Then that’s what we’ll do.’ He nodded decisively as if he were agreeing with some voice inside his head. ‘God,’ he added, rubbing his big hand over his chin thoughtfully, ‘this is not how I saw my evening panning out. How amazing. And complicated.’

For a moment he seemed lost in his own thoughts again. Melissa just sat and watched as he processed the information. Finally, he turned back to her. ‘And how about you?’ he asked tenderly. ‘Are you okay? No morning sickness? Swollen ankles? Cravings for coal?’

He was laughing now and Melissa knew everything was going to be all right.

And things had been all right, so far.

‘Does she sleep through the night?’ Auntie Kathleen asked, pulling Melissa back to the here and now. ‘If not, you’ll be wanting a little bit of porridge in her milk. Or whisky.’

‘They don’t do that any more, Auntie Kathleen,’ replied Melissa. ‘It’s nothing but milk until she’s six months.’

Kathleen shook her head. ‘Six months? The poor mite’ll be starved by then. And does your mother know?’

She dropped the question in so casually that it threw Melissa for a moment. She could feel the old lady’s keen eyes on her, searching her face. Melissa looked down and began to straighten Leah’s dress so that she didn’t have to meet Auntie Kathleen’s gaze.

‘I wrote to her,’ she said. ‘It’s hard to ring with neither of us having a phone, like, but I sent a card to the last address I had.’ She didn’t say that she hadn’t put a stamp on the envelope. Her mother wasn’t worth the price of one.

‘And?’ asked Auntie Kathleen, her tone gentler.