Page 87 of Wild Swimming at Croftwood Lake
‘It is enough. I don’t want to get married because of bloody traditions, either.’
‘But it’s important to you that the baby is your legitimate heir.’
Archie sighed. ‘I wish it wasn’t but it’s ingrained in me. Look, I’m not an expert in the legal side of any of this. It’s always been straightforward in my family, until now, so that’s all I know. Why don’t I take some advice on what the options are?’
‘Okay. Thank you. Are you upset that I won’t just get married and live happily ever after?’
‘Not at all, my love,’ he said, pulling her hand so that she got up and went to sit on his lap. ‘Your independence is what I love about you. I hadn’t thought through what I was actually asking of you.’
‘We were both in shock. It was a five-minute conversation in the heat of the moment that we ought to forget,’ said Nora, stroking his cheek. ‘We’re having a baby. Let’s give ourselves time to get used to the idea before we start thinking about all the practicalities.’
‘That sounds like a very sensible first step. I want to decide all of these things together, but I know I’m from a background where normal is not terribly normal so you must shoot me down if I make any idiotic suggestions. This is going to be a learning curve for both of us.’
Nora finally felt as if they were in it together. Perhaps this is where they could have got to sooner on Saturday night, not wasted the past two days, but that didn’t matter now. She sank her head into Archie’s shoulder and nuzzled his neck.
‘I think we have half an hour or so before that’s ready,’ she said. ‘Come on.’
32
ARCHIE HAD TAKEN Constance into his father’s study to let her know that he and Nora had worked things out.
‘It was wrong of me to assume she would be willing to marry just because of the baby,’ he said. ‘I think it’s likely we’ll come to some other arrangement.’
‘You will allow the child to be illegitimate? It’s out of the question,’ Constance said in a tone that said there was nothing else to be said on on the matter.
‘But, Mama. I told you that I’d proposed and that Nora had turned me down,’ Archie said in confusion. ‘You were very understanding.’
‘Yes, but I assumed she would come around to the idea. After all, what other option is there? She must understand that a child cannot be born into this family out of wedlock. It simply isn’t an option.’
Archie had kept his word to Nora and taken advice on what the legal position of the child would be whether or not he and Nora were married. It seemed that the matter of inheritance was straightforward enough; Archie could bequeath the estate to the child whether or not they were legitimate. However, the only way to pass the title down was through a legitimate heir.
He sighed. ‘Things have moved on. It’s not necessary for Nora and I to be married. A civil partnership will give us the same legal status.’
‘But you won’t have a wife, Archie. Lady Harrington will not exist.’
‘That’s the only part of it that wouldn’t be the same.’ He braced himself. ‘And that doesn’t matter to Nora and me.’
‘Archibald. If your father was here —’
‘Papa is not here,’ he said as forcefully as he could muster. ‘If he were here, I perhaps wouldn’t find myself in the position of being a single man in his forties who’s been stuck on an estate in the middle of Worcestershire for twenty years.’
Constance’s eyes filled with tears.
‘I’m sorry, Mama. That was uncalled for.’
She dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief and sat down in the window seat. ‘Your father would be proud of you. You’ve kept the estate running and looked after your sister and me exactly as he would have done. I know it has curtailed your life. Meant you had to make sacrifices and carry burdens that aren’t yours to bear. But if you allow this chance to build a family pass you by, to fail to continue the line when the opportunity has come to you right at the very last moment, you are a fool.’
His mother’s words were like a knife to his heart. He was shocked at how black and white her view was. What did she expect him to do? Issue Nora with an ultimatum when they had only just come together again? He was fairly sure he knew which way that would go, and he wasn’t about to risk upsetting the delicate balance between them again.
‘I’m sorry you see me as a fool. But I will not issue an ultimatum to Nora which could very well result in me losing her and the child altogether. I realise that there is a way things are done, a way things have been done in the past, but that doesn’t mean that is the right way now.’
‘So you would see your child lose their right to inherit the title? See the Harrington name die with you?’
‘If that is the price I have to pay to have a family, yes.’
Constance shook her head and dabbed her eyes again. ‘I know you love Nora and I have never seen you happier, but she is asking too much of you.’
‘She hasn’t asked anything of me. I haven’t told her any of this yet.’
