Page 28 of Prognosis So Done

Harriet gave a tight laugh. That morning seemed so long ago now. ‘Sex has never been our problem, Katya.’

‘So? What is it?’

Harriet hesitated. She didn’t know how much Katya knew or had been able to piece together about her and Gill’s problems. For all she knew, Gill could have kept everyone up to date. But she doubted it. Gill had always done a bit of an ostrich act and she was convinced, despite their year-long separation, that he had just been waiting for her to come to her senses so they could get on with their lives.

‘I want a baby, Katya.’

‘Ah.’ The other woman nodded sagely. She’d known Gill long enough to know all about his vehement stance on children.

‘He signed the divorce papers this morning.’

‘What? Katya stared at her incredulously. ‘What divorce papers?’

Harriet was surprised at her reaction. She and Gill had been separated for a year after all. Or was Katya like Gill, also just waiting for Harriet to come to her senses and resume her natural position, by her husband’s side? Did the whole team think that, too? Had their joyous celebrations when she’d come back been because they’d been relieved she’d seen the light?

‘I want a baby, Katya. He doesn’t. I can’t stay with him

and deny myself the one thing I want more than anything.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. There is more than one way to skin a cat, Harry. Just get pregnant — easy.’

Harriet’s eyes widened at Katya’s matter-of-fact solution. Although she shouldn’t have been surprised - the Russian nurse was nothing if not practical. ‘I could never do that, Katya! I could never trap him like that.’

‘Is not trapping,’ she said, being practical again. ‘You are already married.’

Harriet rolled her eyes. ‘No, Katya. I would never do that. Never! I want him to want to have a baby with me. Want it with every fibre of his being. I don’t want to accidentally fall pregnant and have to live with knowing deep down that I forced Gill’s hand.’

‘Gill would make an excellent father,’ said Katya.

‘I know, I know,’ Harriet agreed. ‘That’s what makes me so crazy. You should see him with my nephew. He’s fantastic, and little Thomas just adores him. I just don’t understand him.’

‘Sometimes men need a bit of a push.’

Harriet was horrified by the conversation. Yes, right at the beginning the same evil thought had reared its ugly head, but she hadn’t even considered it. That wasn’t playing fair and she’d refused to stoop to such lows.

And now she was having this conversation with a woman seven

years younger than her. But the really awful thing was that in her emotional state it was beginning to sound almost reasonable. She shook herself. ‘I don’t want any baby that he doesn’t want, too, Katya.’

‘So that’s it? All over, red rover?’

Harriet smiled at Katya’s use of Australian colloquialisms. It sounded strange in her accent. All over,’ she whispered.

‘You two are fools,’ said Katya. ‘Look out there.’ Her arm gestured to the great dry land. ‘Some people never get a chance at a love like yours. Isn’t that enough to keep working at it?’

Once she would have thought so but, no, just having his love wasn’t enough anymore. She placed a hand on her stomach as the dull ache continued in her abdomen.

‘No.’ She needed more...

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