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the news, she felt vindicated. All the planning had paid off. She should give birth in July 1974. As intended, she’d make it before her thirtieth birthday on 4 September. Laura Fisher was once again in control of her life.
    â€˜So is the father going to be involved in the child’s upbringing?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Does the father even know that he is to be a father?’
    â€˜No,’ said Laura.
    She phoned Kent the next day to tell him the news. He wasn’t at his desk and rang back to her flat in the evening. She told him simply that she was pregnant.
    She could feel from his voice the way the shutters had come down, and could visualize the stony deliberate lack of reaction in his eyes. ‘Are congratulations in order?’ he asked with the minimum of intonation.
    â€˜Yes, they are.’
    â€˜Congratulations then.’ He did not ask for any supplementary information, but apologized that he was busy and would have to get on.
    â€˜Still working on the Melanie Harris case? I haven’t seen anything in the press about an arrest.’
    â€˜Working on that and others,’ he replied cagily. ‘Must go. Goodbye.’
    Laura wondered what her brother really thought about the news. But twenty-nine years of knowing Kent had taught her the impossibility of discovering what actually went on inside his mind.
    â€˜Oh, for God’s sake!’ Dennis Parker downed the remains of his Scotch in one gulp. ‘What is the point of employing bloody women? Just when they’re beginning to learn something, they get themselves bloody knocked up and suddenly it’s all “Oh, I never really wanted a career, anyway. All I really want is to be a wife and mother.”’
    â€˜That’s certainly not true in my case,’ said Laura evenly. ‘I want a career, too. I’m going to have a child and continue with my career.’
    â€˜You’ll be lucky. If you think I’m going to have you breastfeeding round the
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studio, you’ve got another thing coming.’
    â€˜That will not happen, Dennis.’
    â€˜But, look, you’re going to be out of action for years.’
    â€˜No. I’ll work up until the baby arrives and –’
    â€˜I’m not that keen on having the
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studio turned into a labour ward either, come to that.’
    â€˜I will work until the baby arrives,’ Laura repeated, ‘and then I’ll come back six weeks later.’
    â€˜You can’t leave a six-week-old baby on its own.’
    â€˜I will not leave it on its own, Dennis,’ she said patiently. ‘I will employ a full-time nanny.’
    â€˜Huh. And then every time the bloody sprog has a snuffle, you’ll be pissing off home early to look after the little bugger.’
    â€˜I will not, Dennis. I can assure you that, except for the six weeks I’m away, you will not notice any difference in the amount or quality of work that I put in on
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.’
    â€˜Hm.’ He nodded to the barman for a refill. ‘You want anything … or don’t you think you should be drinking
in your condition
?’
    She didn’t actually want a drink, but, to counter the sneer in his voice, asked for a dry white wine. It tasted oddly acid on her tongue.
    Dennis took a big swallow from his Scotch. ‘And what makes you think I’ll keep your job open for the six weeks when you choose to go off and have a baby?’
    â€˜I think you’ll find that you’re contractually obliged to, Dennis.’
    â€˜I don’t give a shit about contracts. I’m editor of
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and if I want someone off the team I get them off.’
    â€˜I’m sure you do, but you don’t want me off the team.’
    â€˜Why not?’
    â€˜Because I’m good.’
    â€˜Modest too, I see,’ Dennis snorted.
    â€˜Modesty or lack of modesty doesn’t come into it. I just have an accurate assessment of my own