Estella’s future was uncertain. For the last few months she had been able to hide her secret. She had even managed to hide the sickness that had awoken her every morning and sent her running to the bathroom with the bile rising in her throat. Yet she hadn’t minded, she had taken pleasure from it because everything from Ramon was a gift, so she cherished it. However, now her belly was beginning to swell and she found she tired easily which made her slow to complete her tasks. Señora Mariana watched her with narrowed eyes, in fact, Estella suspected she probably already knew. Señora Mariana had a sharp intuition about such things. If she could just get through the next few weeks, then Don Ignacio and Señora Mariana would return to their home in Santiago until the following summer. At least the next six months would be secure. If they discovered her condition before they left she feared she would have to leave her job and return in disgrace to her parents in Zapallar. They would be
mortified because no man would want to marry her in that condition. What man could want another man’s child? Her mother had always told her that any man worth his salt would want to marry a virgin. She was lost for sure. But as bleak as her future appeared she still believed that Ramon would return. He had not only promised, he had fervently promised as if he couldn’t live without her, and she had agreed to wait because she loved him and believed he loved and needed her too. Yes, she thought, I know he’ll come to find me.
She wandered back up the beach towards the house and remembered that time she had watched him from the shadows as he walked naked towards her. She had desired him then and she desired him now. Yet she didn’t dream about making love to him but about lying next to him with his protective arms around her, his proud hand on her belly. She dreamed about him as the father of her child. When she entered the house Señora Mariana was waiting for her in the hallway.
‘We need to have a talk, Estella,’ she said, leading her into the sitting room. Estella knew she had been discovered and the beads of sweat collected on her brow. It was all over, for sure, she thought, and her chest constricted with panic.
‘I have taken the opportunity to talk to you tonight as my husband is not here. Woman to woman,’ said Mariana, smiling kindly at the trembling girl who perched on the edge of the sofa in discomfort.
‘Sí, Señora Mariana,’ she replied obediently.
‘You are pregnant, are you not?’ she asked, her grey eyes resting on Estella’s swollen stomach. She noticed the girl lower her eyes in shame and a large tear roll down her beautiful face. ‘I’m not angry with you, Estella.’ Estella shook her head in despair. ‘Surely this young man you’ve been seeing will marry you?’
‘I don’t know, Señora Mariana, he has gone,’ she stammered.
‘Wherever has he gone to?’
‘I don’t know, Señora Mariana. He’s just gone.’
‘Might he come back?’ she asked gently, observing the girl's obvious distress and feeling her heart sag with pity.
‘He promised he would. I believe him.’
‘Well, that’s all we can do, can't we? If you believe him then so do I,’ she said and smiled sympathetically. ‘We must find someone to replace you while you have your baby. Don Ignacio and I will be leaving for Santiago in a few days and won’t be returning until October. That will be near the time when you
have your child, I imagine. Please don’t cry, dear, we'll muddle through. If he promised to come back I’m sure he will. You’re too beautiful to leave in this condition,’ she said, patting Estella’s shaking hand.
‘You were right, Nacho, she’s pregnant,’ said Mariana later when her husband returned for dinner.
Ignacio rolled his eyes and nodded. ‘So I was right,’ he said.
‘Sadly, yes,’ she replied and sighed heavily. ‘What should we do?’
‘Who’s the father?’
‘She didn’t say.’
‘Did you ask?’
‘Well,’ she shrugged, ‘I tried to.’
‘The point is will he marry her?’
‘Of course not, he’s scarpered, hasn’t he?’ she said crossly, folding her arms in front of her. ‘It’s really not fair.’
‘It’s the way it works in their world,’ he said, dismissing her class as a group of uncultivated savages.
‘It shouldn’t be. She’s so beautiful and charming, what sort of a man would do that to her then run off?’
‘It happens all the time in their world. There’s no honour among thieves.’
‘Really, Nacho, they’re not all like that.’