A New Dream by Maggie Ford (world of reading .TXT) 📕

case,’ soothed Julia, but having no children of her own she had no idea if this was anything to worry about. She did, however, need to keep her sister calm with quiet and even words. ‘Have you still not notified the hospital?’

Stephanie shook her head and moaned.

‘Haven’t you got in touch with Edward at all?’

‘I don’t know where he is.’

‘Well, his parents then?’

But again Stephanie shook her head. ‘I was waiting for you.’

‘It’s taken me nearly an hour to get here. You mean that you’ve just been lying here, waiting for me, doing nothing, telling no one?’

‘I didn’t want to make too much of a fuss. I thought I’d wait until you came. Ooh…’

As her words broke off in a trembling cry of pain, Julia rushed to the phone in the hall, yanking it off its hook, clicking the arm rapidly up and down until the exchange answered.

‘I need the maternity hospital,’ she yelled into the mouthpiece as the operator responded. ‘I don’t know the number or the name but I think this is an emergency. Can you put me through without having a number?’

Within a minute or two she was connected. Asked the details she was told that an ambulance would be there in ten minutes or so. Returning to Stephanie she found her still curled up on the settee whimpering like a tiny child, her cheeks almost lobster red as she bore down in response to the baby’s need to come into the world.

‘I don’t know what to do!’ Her voice was tight and squeaky amid new bouts of pain. ‘It’s worse than ever it was the last time. Oh, it hurts…’

Another breech, thought Julia, the memory of the last one sending her into a cold sweat of fear for her sister and for the baby. She needed to phone Edward’s mother, but there was no getting any sense out of Stephanie, curled up and gripped by pain.

Between looking for a telephone number pad and trying to comfort her sister, she heard the ringing of an ambulance bell and offered up a prayer of thanks. Minutes later she was sitting inside it holding her sister’s hand, soon to feel the sway as the vehicle swung into the hospital forecourt. Stephanie was carried off to the maternity ward and Julia sat alone, waiting. She had no idea how to contact Edward or his parents, and her own mother still refused to have a telephone in her flat. Simon was the only person she could get in touch with.

She phoned him, loving the reassuring sound of his light voice as he undertook to alert her mother and then try to contact Edward’s office. Someone there would know where he was. She hadn’t thought of that, in all the panic of dealing with Stephanie.

She seemed to have been sitting tensely in the empty waiting room for hours, silently praying that Stephanie and the baby would be all right. The arrival of Edward was a blessed relief, but without even saying hullo he asked from the waiting room door, ‘Where is she?’ Then, noticing a nurse passing by the door, he made off after her, giving Julia no time to reply.

She had half risen from her seat at his entrance but now sat down again. After a while a worried-looking young man, obviously a father-to-be, was ushered in by a nurse who was telling him that his wife was doing well. As she made to go, Julia leapt up from her chair.

‘Sorry to bother you, nurse, but is there any news yet of my sister? She came in about an hour ago. Her name’s Stephanie Tillington,’ she gabbled on. ‘Her husband is Edward Tillington. He went out to speak to a nurse a little while ago.’

‘I’ll find out for you,’ the woman said briskly, leaving the room, the door closing behind her. Julia forced a smile at the young man but he didn’t return the smile and she fell to waiting again, fighting the fears in her head.

The nurse did return, sooner than Julia had expected, and beckoned her out to the corridor. There was no expression on her face that Julia could read and she immediately feared the worst as she followed her. It was then that Julia saw Edward coming towards them, walking quickly, his face twisted with anxiety.

Before the nurse could speak he said, ‘They’ve taken her for an operation.’ There was fear in his tone. ‘They say it’s a breech birth. They say the baby isn’t strong enough to come out on its own. They’re going to operate to save it, maybe Stephanie as well.’

Julia felt tears form in her eyes, her throat grown restricted. ‘Oh, Edward!’ she whispered, but the nurse took her arm.

‘She will be having a Caesarean section, there’s nothing to worry about. She will be fine,’ she said calmly.

Edward didn’t seem at all comforted and as the nurse left them standing in the corridor he turned to Julia, his eyes full of reproach.

‘I had no idea Stephanie had lost a previous baby,’ he said quietly. ‘She never told me. I had to learn of it from the hospital!’

It was evening before Simon could get away. Julia greeted his arrival with a flood of tears. ‘Oh, Simon, what’s happened is terrible!’ she burst out, flinging herself into his arms. ‘I’ve been here for ages on my own. I didn’t know what to do. Edward left. I don’t know where he’s gone. Stephanie had a girl, but he doesn’t know. I just couldn’t explain to you on the phone what has happened.’

Puzzled by her uncharacteristic outburst, telling her to calm herself, he listened while she composed her mind enough to inform him what had happened.

‘Edward knows about Stephanie’s other affair. He learned from the doctor that she’d had a previous baby. He didn’t know. Now he’s gone off goodness knows where.’

She clenched her fists and shook them in anger. ‘How could she not have told him? The stupid, stupid girl! The poor man had to