Edith was sitting up in bed, feeding her new little daughter milk from one of her breasts. She was anxious to save her other breast for the firstborn twin to suck. The doctor and the nurse had packed their things and left by now.

"Where is Bertie?" Edith wondered. "Didn't they tell him that he could come in now?"

"I will go and fetch him and the baby", Bertie's mother said. "But first I must tell you how much I admire you."

"Really? What do you mean?" Edith said absentmindedly. She was still worrying about Marigold.

"The calm way you took that", Patricia said.

Edith still thought about Marigold, the girl had been so angry. And Edith hadn't been very calm either. And she still hadn't had time to speak to Marigold and try to comfort her.

Edith hadn't really understood what a horrible shock the whole thing would be for Marigold. She wondered about that now - of course the girl would worry about it, that the man she regarded as her father wasn't that in a biological sense. But Edith had even thought that Marigold might be proud of being Michael's daughter.

But this was of course not what Bertie's mother was talking about, she didn't know about any of that.

"Took what? What did I take calmly?" Edith asked her instead.

"When the doctor told you that you had to give birth to another child when you thought it was all over."

"Well, I didn't have much choice, did I", Edith said with a tired smile. "I had to keep calm and just do it."

"I'm certain I would have killed the doctor if he had told me I had to give birth to a twin after Bertie was born."

"And all the good that would have done you. You would still have had to give birth to him, with no doctor to help you."

...

"I'm glad Bertie isn't twins", Edith added after a while. "I wouldn't have been able to choose between the two of them."

"Twins can be very different", Patricia said. "They are not all identical. Sometimes they are even a boy and a girl."

"Yes, of course. I guess it would be alright if Bertie had a twin sister", Edith said. "Then you would have got the little girl you told me that you always longed for."

"I have a little girl", Patricia said with a friendly smile.

Edith looked down at the baby in her arms. "Yes, of course. You have even got two of them now."

"Three", Patricia said. "Actually, I wasn't thinking of the new ones. It will be lovely to see them grow up of course, but I hardly know them yet. I was talking about Marigold. I think she is wonderful, it has been such a pleasure to have her here. I was shocked when you told me about her all those years ago, as you know. But I have loved Marigold ever since the first time I saw her..."

Edith looked at the older woman who seemed to be close to tears.

But Patricia pulled herself together. "I will fetch Bertie now. So you can get that first twin back. And he can see the second one."

And with that she left the room.

...

When Mrs Pelham got out into the corridor there was no sign of either Bertie or the baby. Well, we all know where they were, but Mrs Pelham was rather annoyed at her son.

She went back into the room where Edith was waiting.

"He is gone!" Mrs Pelham exclaimed. "I have no idea where he is. He has simply disappeared!"

And she gave Edith an apologetic look, feeling rather ashamed of her son's behaviour towards his wife.

"Perhaps he thought one baby was enough", she added before Edith had time to answer her. "He couldn't be bothered to wait for the second one. I really don't think he deserves..."

"No, don't be angry with him!" Edith said. "I think I know where he is. In fact I'm almost certain of it. He is a darling really, I know he has gone to Marigold."

Then Edith told Mrs Pelham about Marigold's reaction that morning.

"She took it almost worse than I did then", Patricia said with a frown. "But of course, she had more reason to. It is not an easy thing for a child to be told. Her whole world must have crumbled beneath her feet."

"Yes", Edith said, surprised that Patricia had understood Marigold's reaction better than she herself had done. "It really seemed to do that."

"Don't worry, I'm certain that she will get over it." Patricia added.

Edith was far from certain of that, but she preferred to kept that thought to herself.

"You can send someone there to fetch both of them", she said instead. "Or rather - all three of them."

"I will go there myself", Patricia said.

After that she left the room, leaving Edith alone with her newest daughter.

AN:Thank you for reading! Thank you so much for the kind reviews!