Page 167 of The Secrets of the Tea Garden
Adela grimaced. ‘Actually, I’m off—’ Abruptly she stopped herself. But Josey was immediately suspicious. Her eyes narrowed.
‘Off curry? Tell me, are you ...?’
Adela flushed.
‘You’re pregnant!’ Josey cried in glee.
Adela grinned and shushed her. ‘I think so. But don’t say anything. I haven’t told Sam yet and he hasn’t guessed. I want to be sure.’
Josey darted at Adela and threw her arms around her in a jubilant hug. ‘That’s the most wonderful news!’
Adela’s eyes welled with tears as she laughed and spluttered, ‘I know, isn’t it?’
Josey broke away and fished out her cigarettes. ‘Celebratory smoke?’
Adela pulled a face. ‘No thanks; I’ve lost the taste for those too.’
Josey chuckled. ‘Sweetie, it’s not going to take Sam long to work out why. Tell him.’
‘I will soon,’ said Adela. ‘When we get a quiet moment alone. We’re so busy. Jane’s only been back a week and the café business is already picking up.’
‘Leave her to it,’ said Josey. ‘You need to start putting your feet up.’
‘Not yet,’ said Adela. ‘And Joan’s gracing us with her presence this weekend. I said we’d have an early fourth birthday party for Bonnie at the café. I want to see the girl before we go – and we won’t be here in October for her birthday. Jane’s doing most of the organising but I want to help. Jane’s excited to see her niece again and determined that she’s going to keep in touch with George’s daughter.’
Josey gave a wry chuckle. ‘Except us two know that Bonnie is no more George’s daughter than she is the King’s.’
Adela gave her a warning look. ‘Which neither of us is ever going to tell.’
‘My lips are sealed, sweetie,’ said Josey with an earthy laugh, as smoke escaped from her nostrils.
With each day, Adela’s impatience to be travelling back to India grew. She knew that many people thought her and Sam mad for heading back to a country that Britain was so quickly disengaging from and where there was an upsurge in violence since Partition, but to her and Sam, India would always be home. Deep down, she also knew that she needed to get away from Newcastle and put the pain of her failure tofind John Wesley behind her. Perhaps distance would help her come to terms with the past more quickly.
Now that she was almost certain that she was pregnant again, Adela was filled with a new excitement and urgency to get back to her mother and Belgooree. It would be a fresh start for her and Sam – how pleased he would be to be a father at last – and this time she would enjoy her pregnancy. There would be no shameful hiding of her pregnant state or cruel separation from her baby. This one would be loved unconditionally. Her emotions see-sawed between tearfulness and euphoria as she contemplated the future.
Adela’s plan to hand over the café to Jane was going smoothly and it was an added joy to discover that Jane was still the caring, slightly reserved but unflappable woman that Adela remembered.
They had fallen immediately into their old friendship, though this time Jane was more ready to tease Adela back. Her cousin had grown in confidence since living away. Sam said he was struck by the family resemblance between Adela and her dark-haired cousin.
‘Mother says that we both take after our Grandmama Jane who married our grandfather, Jock Belhaven,’ Adela had told him. ‘He was the first tea planter at Belgooree. Mother has a photograph of her parents and my cousin looks very like our grandmother – more than I do.’
Adela also liked Jane’s cheerful, red-cheeked husband with his bluff Yorkshire humour. Charlie Latimer had a knack of cajoling the staff into doing Jane’s bidding in the kitchen while entertaining them with lurid catering stories from his time in the army. He had twice the patience that Adela did. She wrote to Clarrie full of confidence that the café would not only survive under its new management, but also thrive.
As Adela’s thoughts turned increasingly to India and Belgooree, she hungered for news, but her mother had not written since shortly after the Independence celebrations. Sam was reassuring.
‘Your mother will be run off her feet in the gardens at this time of year,’ he said. ‘The factory will be at full production.’
Adela put her hands around his face and kissed him in affection. ‘You sound like a tea planter already,’ she teased.
He caught her round the waist and tugged her closer. ‘I can’t wait.’ He grinned and kissed her robustly back.
On the afternoon of Bonnie’s birthday party, Adela felt even more queasy than usual. She had been busy all morning helping to decorate the café and had hardly stopped to eat or drink.
‘Sit down for a minute,’ Jane ordered, ‘and have a sandwich. You’ve lost all your colour. I hope you’re not sickening for something?’
‘Thanks.’ Adela didn’t argue. ‘Just five minutes’ rest will do it.’
They had partitioned off half the café for the birthday tea and a space had been cleared for games, which Sam was going to organise while Charlie Latimer bashed out tunes on the old piano. Adela had hoped her Aunt Olive would be persuaded out of her house but Jane had shaken her head.
