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.If I were ninety-nine and healthy, I think I might.’‘But all your friends would have gone.’ Bella seemed genuinely concerned.‘I’ve never had many friends.’‘Snap! Neither have I.It really depends on your background, don’t you think? My parents were killed in the war and I went to an orphanage.We were all in the same boat, but no one made special friends like you would if you had a home to invite them to.Like you did here, when you sent the message by Leo.I’m glad you’ve met him.Now you know why I fell in love with him.Would you think it an awful cheek if I called you by your Christian name?’‘I hadn’t realized that you didn’t.I call you Bella.’‘I can’t.I don’t know it.Leo referred to you as Miss Harding and I haven’t called you that either.’‘I’m Louisa.’‘Louisa.That’s a lovely name.It’s a real responsibility to have to think of a name for a child.It would be easier if you could look into the future and know if it was to be clever or sporty or lazy or full of life and energy.Leo isn’t lazy, you know, although David thinks he is.He never likes sitting around doing nothing.But it doesn’t suit him to go every day to the works, even though quite often he has to go out and meet clients.’ She chuckled and Louisa knew that she was imagining her beloved Leo making the most of wining or dining a client.‘At Ridgeway there’s plenty of space so he can take over a spare room and have his drawing desk and stool brought over from the works.’‘Surely he can’t keep designing new implements.A plough is a plough, a potato digger a potato digger.’‘You’d be surprised at the clever things he draws: better fittings to attach to the tractor, small tools too.I’m sure the success of Carters’ is mainly due to him.’Never had Louisa heard such hero-worship.She hoped Bella would soon suggest it was time for her to go home.The obvious thing would be to say she was tired and had promised herself an early night but, even as the thought tempted her, it was immediately crushed by another – that this childlike soon-to-be-mother hadn’t an unkind thought in her head.At the first sign that Louisa was bored she would have stood up ready to leave, feeling hurt and embarrassed; to do that to her was impossible.So Bella chattered on, satisfied with no more than the occasional comment from Louisa to prove she was awake and listening.That was the first of many visits through the next days, some no more than a quick enquiry to see if Louisa was needing anything from the village shop or, better still, if they could walk there together; sometimes with time to spare and an offer to help in the garden, polish the car, dry the dishes or share any job Louisa was doing.If Bella found out her new friend was about to drive into town to collect or return work there was nothing she liked better than to go with her.Of course, that meant phoning the house first to make sure Leo would keep an eye on his father.About four weeks before the date the baby was expected, Bella arrived just as Louisa was disconnecting the garden hose from the kitchen tap.‘You look shattered,’ was Louisa’s greeting, a tactless one to a girl who was already feeling clumsy and unattractive.‘You’ll find a cold drink in the fridge.Sort yourself out while I put the hose away.’‘I expect it’s because I’ve been hurrying.Leo’s driven to Oxford to see an agent of Carters’.Usually I’m stuck when Leo is away but this afternoon Mrs Johnson has come in to give the kitchen a thorough “scrub-up” as she calls it and she suggested I come out if I wanted to.While she’s there Dad will be fine.She chats away to him and he forgets to be scared.I’m sure that’s what’s wrong with him.He’s such a dear and I know he can’t help being like he is, but this morning wherever I went he followed.He knows he’s muddled and he’s frightened.Well, we all would be, wouldn’t we, if we knew we weren’t thinking straight.This lemonade is gorgeous.It’s so sticky hot today.Shall I pour a glass for you?’‘No.I’m just going to put the hose away and then have a very quick tub.I was hedge cutting before I watered.From the look of the sky I think I wasted my time, it’s getting very black – and, hark, isn’t that distant thunder?’‘Oh, I do hope we shan’t get a storm.I can’t bear thunderstorms; they make me feel really ill – and it’s no good telling me there’s nothing to be frightened of because it’s not that sort of fright.They’re so – so sort of … against nature.’ Bella clamped her bottom lip with her top teeth and cradled her ‘bump’ as if she were protecting it from some evil spirit.‘That’s one thing they’re not,’ Louisa replied.‘They’re nature at its mightiest.I’ll just go and put this hose away.’The wind had been gaining force while she’d been watering, but she wasn’t prepared for the sudden gust that slammed the door of the shed wide open and sent the branches of the trees into a frenzied dance.In the same second the rain started, large drops bouncing on the tarmac of the lane, then lightning and a clap of thunder getting nearer.She hung the wound hose on its hook in the shed and, despite the wind, closed and locked the door before running back across the slightly improved grass to the back door of the house.‘It’s getting closer; you must stay here until the rain stops.Mrs Johnson will have to stay at the farm too.It started so suddenly but already it’s bucketing down and the wind has blown up from nowhere.’‘I hate thunderstorms,’ Bella mumbled, keeping her eyes closed as though what she couldn’t see wasn’t really happening.Louisa had never had any patience with people who gave way to mindless fear and surely that was exactly what Bella was doing.But there was something about the girl that touched her.‘The storm may not come to much,’ she said, making sure her voice was encouragingly reassuring, ‘but the wind and rain soaks you in a minute.Look at me – I’m a drowned rat just running from the shed.’‘Leo’s driving all the way from Oxford.You can hardly see the lane even.I wish he was here.Oh!’ She gave a sharp cry, then gripped the back of the kitchen chair.‘Oh!’Louisa surprised herself.The Miss Harding of old was trying to gain the upper hand and insist the girl was behaving stupidly, but Louisa trod her down.Nature wasn’t helping though, as at that same second the lightning seemed to light up the room and the crack of thunder was almost immediate.Bella’s breathing was loud and fast, her mouth open as if she had to gasp for air.‘Come on, Bella, we’ll go in the other room.I won’t leave you down here on your own – my bath can wait.’‘I’m so frightened.I haven’t felt the baby move for hours.Is something wrong? This morning, two or three times I had an odd feeling, like the pain you get with a period but much worse, but each time it soon went and I felt OK again.When you were outside it came again, much worse; I could hardly think.I shouted for you but the wind was too loud.Then it went away and there was just the storm.Oh, Lou, it’s starting to come back, getting stronger, oh, oh,’ she panted, ‘oh, oh [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]