The Black Swan (56 page)
Authors: Philippa Carr
“You will tell her…”
“I shall just say that his foster-parents were killed. I had visited them and was fond of him and could not leave him behind. I know it will be all right. He will be like a brother to me and to Charles. I know I can rely on my parents.”
“Don’t tell them, Lucinda. Promise you won’t tell.”
“I won’t promise. But I will only tell them if it is necessary to do so.”
“But…no one must know. It would be awful!”
“I shall tell no one. I know I burst out with it…but that was to you.”
“I didn’t know he was my baby.”
“I was aware of that. The arrangement with the Plantains was between them and your grandfather’s solicitors.”
“Oh, Lucinda, it’s terrible! And I thought it was all over. What terrible bad luck.”
I could not help smiling at her. Her secret was disclosed because there was a war. I thought of Jacques Plantain lying dead in the remains of his home, and Madame Plantain’s last thoughts for the welfare of the child she loved. And this, to Annabelinda, was her bad luck.
Well, she was Annabelinda. She would see every event as it affected her. Perhaps we all did. Perhaps I should not think too badly of Annabelinda.
I said to her, “What is done is done. We just have to go on from here. Edouard will have a good home with my parents. You know my mother. She will welcome him. I will make her understand that I had to bring him.”
“And so no one need know,” said Annabelinda. “He will be just a child who lost his parents in an air raid in Belgium. And you brought him home with you because you could not leave a child.”
“It’s the truth, isn’t it?”
She nodded. “Lucinda. If it ever came out…”
“It need not,” I assured her.
“You have always been my best friend. We are fond of each other, in spite of…”
“Yes, Annabelinda, that’s true. I want to help you. You behaved very foolishly over that young man.”
“I know.”
“But it is over now. We have to forget. We shall take the baby home with us. I am sure everything will go smoothly. My parents will raise no objections. I only have to let them see how important Edouard is to me. It will all seem quite plausible because it is wartime. It is going to be all right, Annabelinda.”
She threw herself into my arms and hugged me. The baby crowed with pleasure, as though he found the scene very amusing.
I went to him and picked him up. “Look, Annabelinda,” I said. “Isn’t he a little darling?”
They regarded each other speculatively.
“Sit down,” I said. She did and I put him on her lap. He studied her with curiosity. Then he began to whimper suddenly; he turned away from her and held out his arms to me.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 1990 by Philippa Carr
All rights reserved.
Cover Design by Jason Gabbert
ISBN: 978-1480403826
This edition published in 2013 by Open Road Integrated Media
180 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.