Page 84 of Wild Swimming at Croftwood Lake
‘Did you?’ Archie said, surprised.
‘It’s the first thing one thinks of when a woman has a mysterious bout of sickness. And that coupled with what you’ve told me, about her needing space. I put two and two together.’
‘I asked her to marry me.’
‘Of course you did, darling Archie. And she declined your proposal, which is where you find yourself now.’
It was odd that his mother somehow knew the whole story with no one having told her.
‘Unfortunately, it was an expectation rather than a proposal.’
‘Ah.’
‘And she asked for time to think about everything, and I went to the lake knowing she would be there. I talked things through with Seb and I have a brilliant plan, but she’s not ready to hear it.’
‘I know you must be thrilled at the thought of becoming a father, as I am about being a grandmother again but it must be an awful shock for Nora. And you must know that the way she is feeling now is probably nothing to do with how she feels about the baby. But you must allow her the time she needs, otherwise you risk driving her away.’
He nodded. ‘I know that now. I’ve left it to her to get in touch with me.’
‘That’s for the best,’ Constance said, patting his leg. ‘My darling. All will not be lost. I’m certain Nora loves you as much as you love her. She’ll come around and these few days while you’re apart will make you stronger in the long run.’
‘Thank you, Mama,’ Archie said, kissing her cheek as they stood up.
‘Archie. You understand the importance now of making things official between the two of you. It’s unacceptable to continue living as you are with a child on the way.’
For a moment, he’d thought Constance was entirely on his side, worried only about how he was feeling and how he and Nora might navigate the future. But apparently not.
‘You think I should insist on marriage?’
‘You would be happy for your child to be illegitimate? To not bear your name? Come. Let’s visit your Papa and then we can send your sister on her way and enjoy a peaceful evening together.’
Archie followed his mother out of his room wondering whether there was any solution at all that was going to suit Nora as well as satisfy everything else he had to worry about. If there was, he had no idea what it was.
31
THE NEXT COUPLE of days were busy for Nora, and a welcome distraction while she mulled over what the future might look like. Her heart had ached when she saw Archie put a brave face on her asking him for more time to think, but it was what she knew she needed. She couldn’t talk to him about the future without having some idea of how that might look.
As soon as she’d got back from the lake after seeing him, she headed to Stoke and threw herself into work. Although it was Sunday and the production line was closed, Neil was in to supervise the production kiln, which fired every day of the week. The test firings of her new pots had been successful and the glazes she had chosen worked perfectly, matching the idea she had in her head as closely as was possible to achieve. It was a relief to know that, because she’d begun working on this collection before she’d really needed to. Now it was going to help plug the gap there would be while she was on maternity leave. Aside from telling Hilary she was pregnant, she’d also told Val first thing on Monday morning. It was only fair to give her as much notice as possible.
‘Oh my god! I knew it! Didn’t I say the other week when you were sick?’
‘You did,’ Nora said, grinning at her friend’s reaction.
‘See? The pill is obviously not up to working against the quality of his sperm.’
‘Val!’
‘Well! How else do you explain it?’
Nora wasn’t about to go any further with this topic of conversation. ‘How are the Christmas lines coming along?’
‘Spoilsport,’ said Val, giving her a side-eye. ‘We’re all confirmed. Everything’s scheduled. We’re starting with your special Croftwood range just so we can get it out of the way.’
‘I love the design we settled on,’ said Nora, filling the kettle and then rummaging in the cupboard for two mugs. The midnight blue bauble had a simplistic gold outline of the Court dusted with snow — glitter would be added as a final step — its twisty chimneys radiating to the top of the bauble and meeting at the hanging point where a gold ribbon would be the final flourish. ‘And the mugs came out okay?’
‘Yep. They look so good, I wonder whether you’ll need a second run of them? Anyway, I’ve pencilled in a second batch at the end of November. If you don’t need them we’ll fill that with some extra runs of the normal Christmas mugs ready for the website rush the week or two before Christmas.’
‘Perfect.’
