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'You do look like a ship's biscuit, now I come to think of it. Some
female trouble again, I suppose?'
'So concerned and thoughtful, isn't he?' Rosie demanded of nobody in
particular, her face flushed.
'Don't tell me if you don't want to,' shrugged Buddy. 'I don't know
anything about a woman's internal workings, anyway.'
'Well, maybe I'll draw you a diagram,' Rosie said, pushing him back
into his office and following. The door shut and a moment later Suki
jumped as Buddy gave a squawk of indeterminate sound. Rosie had,
she gathered, told him.
CHAPTER SIX
WHEN she saw Buddy that afternoon, he looked like a man in a state of
extreme shock, his flyaway hair ruffled wildly, as though he had spent
most of the day tearing it with his hands. He looked at her bolt-eyed as
he flung himself into a chair in the lounge, his long thin legs moving
with his usual disjointed yet graceful energy.
'I can't get over it!'
'Aren't you thrilled?' Suki asked. 'Isn't it exciting?'
'Exciting? Suki, I don't even believe it's true yet. Every five minutes I
think: Rosie's going to have a baby, and every time I get dizzy. Out of
the blue like that, after fifteen years, it isn't easy to believe.'
'I think it's wonderful,' Suki said.
'Life's never going to be the same again,' Buddy groaned.
'Think how much fun you'll have!'
'Look, I know what happens when there's a baby in a house I've seen
it happen before. The house is turned upside down. Everything
revolves around the damned baby, nothing else matters any more.'
Suki laughed, wondering if Buddy was suffering pangs of jealousy
over the coming baby, but unable to believe such a ridiculous idea. Or
was it ridiculous? He had had Rosie's undivided attention for fifteen
years, but a baby would nudge him out of the limelight.
He put his fingers over his face, wailing behind them. 'And what's
everyone going to say? At our age? We're going to look like idiots!'
'I'd guess all the men will think you're quite a guy,' Suki said
cheerfully. 'Becoming a father at forty- four& '
'Five,' Buddy said.
'Even more impressive.'
She felt him peering at her through his fingers. 'I guess it isn't bad,' he
admitted.
'They'll all envy you. Having a baby in the house will make you feel
years younger, I'd think.'
'Starting a family at our age? You're crazy!'
'I think it's wonderful.' She smiled at him. 'Put me on the rota for
baby-sitting, won't you? I see myself as a sort of auntie.'
For a few minutes Buddy was silent, then he said: 'I keep trying to
think of a way of leading up to the subject with my friends.'
'Buy a box of the best Havanas and hand them out,' Suki said. 'Don't
apologise, Buddy boast!'
He grinned, dropping his hands. 'Now there you might have
something.' His eyes took on a visionary look. 'It'll certainly cause
something Of a sensation. Just picture their faces!'
'It will improve your image no end,' Suki mocked. 'Nothing like
potential fatherhood to give you a virile image.'
Buddy wasn't listening. 'I wonder what it'll be,' he said to himself. 'I
might not mind so much if it was a boy.'
'Well, of all the sexist remarks!'
'I'm no chauvinist,' Buddy denied. 'But I must say I wouldn't mind
having a son to take on the business when I've retired. I haven't done
too badly and there'd be quite a nice little agency for him to inherit one
day.'
'Empire-builder!' Suki mocked.
He laughed. 'I suppose I'll get used to the jokes,' he added, and she
smiled at him.
'Of course you will. The best defence is always attack, anyway, you
told me that yourself years ago when I did my first press interviews.
Don't give them a chance to make the jokes make them yourself.'
'Oh, I will,' Baddy agreed. He sobered. 'How do you think Rosie is
going to stand up to this, though? I hope she isn't going to have a bad
time with this baby. She isn't young any more.'
'Forty? That isn't the onset of senility, you know,' Suki argued. 'Lots of
women have babies at forty.'
'Do they?' Buddy looked doubtful. 'My sister had all hers while she
was in her twenties.' He grinned. 'I remember how she queened it over
Rosie when she had the last one. It made Rosie so mad I could almost
see the smoke coming out of her ears! Women can be so patronising to
each other. If Megan tries it on with Rosie now she'll get a punch in the
nose.' He got up suddenly. 'You know what? I'm going to ring Megan
now and tell her.'
'Ask Rosie.' Suki said, but she said it to an empty room. Buddy had
hurried out and hadn't heard a word.
'I don't believe it,' Rosie complained the next day. 'He's been on the
phone almost non-stop for hours. I'm surprised he doesn't ring the
White House and tell them.'Suki laughed. 'I think he's getting rather
pleased with himself. He was up very early this morning, wasn't he?'
'And bouncing about like a kangaroo,' Rosie agreed. She was just as
pale this morning, dark shadows under her eyes. 'He never even
noticed I was sick again.'
'Have you seen the doctor about this morning sickness? Can't they stop
it?'
Rosie grimaced. 'Oh, I saw him, how do you think I knew? Do you
know what I thought was wrong? I had a horrible feeling I'd got some
fatal illness it never entered my head that I was pregnant. When I
finally plucked up the nerve to go and see the doctor he did some tests
and when he told me he was grinning like a fool. I wouldn't believe
him at first. When I told him about the morning sickness he said stay in
bed and eat a couple of dry biscuits before you get up.'
'And it doesn't work?'
'Not so far. I hate dry biscuits, too.'
'Poor Rosie,' said Suki with amusement.
'I don't see anything funny about it,' protested Rosie. 'I think I could
have stood it better if Buddy had been as appalled as I'd expected, but
after his first horrified screams he started enjoying himself, and that
makes me so mad I could spit!'
'I thought you were mainly worried about his reaction. Aren't you
relieved he's beginning to be pleased?'
Rosie looked at her in a faintly sulky way. 'I suppose so, but I can't
help resenting the fact that he seems to think all the credit goes to him.
Haven't you ever noticed how infuriating it is when you're feeling grim
to have someone about who keeps seeing everything through
rose-tinted spectacles?'
'You need a holiday,' Suki told her.
'Then that makes two of us.' Rosie glanced at the door of Buddy's
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