‘Also,’ Nicky went on earnestly, ‘you’d have the advantage of being able to point to yourself and say—well, I was only nineteen.’
Roz sighed inwardly. But a look at Nicky’s unhappy but stubborn young face reminded her of Margaret’s prediction. ‘All right,’ she said abruptly. ‘Just don’t do anything rash in the meantime.’
‘There’s not much chance of that,’ Nicky said gloomily. ‘Even Richard …’ She stopped.
‘What about Richard?’
‘Well, he says he’d rather wait until we get everyone’s approval. But that’s impossible, because I’ve never known them all to agree on anything.’
‘What about Angelo and Amy?’ asked Roz. ‘What do they think?’
‘They can’t see anything wrong with it. They know how well suited Richard and I are.’
The next morning Roz went down to ride Nimmitabel, but found that Les was giving her the day off.
‘Anything wrong, Les?’ she asked anxiously.
He rolled his eyes. ‘No, Roz, she’s just a shade off her tucker, but that’s because we wormed her yesterday. I’m not taking any chances, though. Incidentally, she’s decided to take exception to being wormed, she played up something shocking.’
Roz laughed. ‘There are some horses who just object to having a tube stuck down their nostrils into their stomach, Les,’ she said teasingly.
‘I know it,’ he conceded, ‘but she never has before. I got the feeling she was just being capricious, if not to say downright pigheaded. Still, now we know it, we’ll either tranquillise her the next time or resort to paste. And in the meantime a day off isn’t going to hurt her, she’s coming along real well, Roz.’
Roz went back happily to the house and encountered Milly, who reminded her that she had an appointment with her obstetrician.
‘Oh,’ said Roz, disconcerted, ‘I’d forgotten—I seem to be awfully forgetful at the moment, and anyway, there doesn’t seem any point. Could you cancel it for me, Milly?’
Milly removed her glasses, a sure sign of disapproval. She was also the only person other than Adam who knew that Roz was seeing an obstetrician. ‘What do you mean, there doesn’t seem to be any point, ‘Roz?’
‘I …nothing,’ Roz said hastily.
‘He did tell you it was necessary for him to see you regularly for a time, didn’t he, Roz? And Adam …’
‘I’ll go, I’ll go,’ Roz broke in wryly. ‘Just don’t tell Nicky why I’m going to the doctor or what kind’
‘Who’s going to the doctor?’ asked Nicky, wandering into the kitchen. She looked a little pale, Roz thought, but calm.
‘I am. Just for a check-up,’ she said brightly. ‘Want to come into town with me? You could do some window-shopping and we could have lunch.’
But Nicky decided to stay at home and improve her suntan round the pool. For a moment Roz was tempted to take Milly into her confidence in case anything came up while she was away, but mainly because she had to hurry to get ready and because she couldn’t imagine what could come up, she didn’t.
* * *
Mr Mason was grey-haired and fatherly, and he went out of his way to cause her the minimum of discomfort and distress.
Afterwards he said to her, ‘Well, Roz, l think I can say now that there appears to is be no physical problem, There’s a slightly irregular pattern to your ovulation, but many women suffer that, and indeed, many. women over-estimate their fertility. Which brings us back to what might be affecting you—tension and anxiety. Are you still having the nightmares?’
‘No … at least not for a while,’ she answered, and it struck her ironically that she might have too much else to worry about at the moment.
‘That’s good. Now here’s what I’m going to suggest. No more tests, no more visits—I want you to go home and forget about getting pregnant for at least six months.’
Roz smiled faintly and he looked at her enquiringly. ‘Adam,’ she hesitated, ‘agrees with you.’
‘Adam’s been very good about it, Roz. A lot of men find it difficult to accept that they could be the cause of the problem, but he said to me that if you were prepared to go through this the least he could do was participate himself. You do realise you’re more concerned about this than he is?’
‘I … yes.’
‘And I know I’ve explained to you before about tension and anxiety, which is why I want you to go home now and really try to take my advice.’