Page 96 of Daughters of Paris

Fleur sat back, crossing her arms and stared frankly at Colette. ‘I think this is something you should do alone but come and find me at the shop if you need to once you’ve told her.’

‘Thank you. I will.’

Fleur patted her hand. ‘And what about Sébastien? When will you tell him?’

Colette closed her eyes. ‘I don’t know. Soon. He’s a good man and he doesn’t deserve this.’

‘Did you do it on purpose?’

‘To trap him? Or do you mean did both of us plan to have a child?’ Colette’s mouth twisted into a grimace but seeing the way Fleur pulled away she put her hands over her face and shook her head. She wasn’t angry at Fleur. She exhaled slowly.

‘Neither. It is a complete accident.’

Fleur smiled gently. ‘Then he won’t be angry.’

Colette blinked away a tear. ‘Gunther was furious, and that time was an accident too. I don’t want Sébastien to hate me.’

‘He won’t hate youbecausehe’s a good man,’ Fleur said. Her mouth twitched sideways. ‘He probably won’t be happy, but he’s half to blame, isn’t he, so he deserves the worry as much as you.’

Colette blinked in surprise. It was the first time she had ever heard Fleur criticise Sébastien. ‘I suppose so,’ she said thoughtfully.

Fleur nibbled her lip then asked, ‘What if Sébastien wants the baby?’

Colette hugged herself, shaking her head. She’d had one brief daydream of them raising the child as a family but when she imagined them crammed into Sébastien’s room that became a nightmare. ‘I can’t imagine for a minute that he would. It isn’t as if we were planning a future together; we were just supposed to be having fun.’

‘But you’ll tell him soon? It isn’t fair not to.’

Fleur’s face was like stone, her eyes looking past Colette.

‘Yes. I will. Soon, I promise.’

She felt a bubble of nausea rising and put her head in her hands. After a moment, Fleur stroked her hair.

‘How do you feel?’

Colette sighed. ‘Terrible. Every morning I wake up feeling sick and can barely eat. Thank goodness coffee is so scarce because I truly believe that if I smelled it, I would vomit.’

Delphine’s reaction was to scream recriminations at Colette for a full twenty minutes.

‘You stupid little whore! What have I raised? To do this once was bad enough, but a second time! How many men have you gone to bed with?’

‘Sébastien is only the second,’ Colette answered quietly.

Delphine gave her a disbelieving look. ‘If that’s true you must be the most unluckily fertile woman in France.’

She flopped onto the chair and put her hands over her eyes. ‘What will your father say? What will my friends say? How are we going to dispose of this one? I can hardly send you to England again under the circumstances and who is going to take the little flea this time?’

Colette hung her head. ‘I don’t know. I’m sorry.’

‘I spit on sorry! Do you realise what sort of trouble you have caused? You’ll just have to hide in the house until you’ve had it. I suppose that means I will have to queue everywhere. And how much more do you think you will expect to eat?’

‘I don’t want to hide,’ Colette said. The thought of being imprisoned in the house for the next seven months at least was unbearable.

‘Do you want to parade your shame all over the city? Absolutely out of the question. Your father will agree with me. And speaking of fathers: who is responsible? If you’ve been fucking another German, I’ll whip the skin from your back!’

‘I haven’t!’

The tone of Delphine’s voice was appalling, but worse was the implication. Gunther hadn’t been the enemy when she had made love with him but Delphine was rewriting the past.

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