Singled Out by Simon Brett

not having you whisking him off to bed.’
    â€˜Well, I don’t envy him whisking
you
off to bed.’ He pointed to her stomach, which trembled with yet another convulsion. ‘Honestly, however randy they were, I don’t think anyone could
find
anything very interesting under that lot.’
    Laura managed to chuckle and Rob moved away, untroubled, to fix her cab. It was all right. He had been put off the scent and their usual insulting badinage had been re-established.
    She made it till a quarter to eight, then, with a series of elaborately casual goodbyes, managed to leave the bar. In her office, hidden away from prying eyes in a filing cabinet, was the suitcase she had prepared for this moment.
    She felt more contractions in the lift on the way down. The cab was waiting. Once again she just said, ‘Goldhawk Road’. The cabbie mercifully was not one of the chatty kind. ‘Here,’ she said as they passed the gates of Queen Charlotte’s Hospital.
    It was only when she got out to pay him and winced at the pain of another contraction that the driver seemed to notice her condition. ‘’Ere,’ he asked with disappointment in his voice. ‘You’re not in labour, are you? ’Cause I could’ve really hurried, you know, if I’d known – blaring the hooter, lights flashing, the lot.’
    â€˜No,’ said Laura. ‘Just here for a check-up.’
    He looked even more disappointed.
    She checked in and was escorted directly to the labour ward. The sister who took her details tried to disguise it, but Laura was aware of a slight sniff of censure. Even in 1974 there were professionals who disapproved of single motherhood.

Ten
    He was the most beautiful baby in the world. Laura was amazed by how immediately she slipped into the cliché of every new parent. But, in spite of the instinctive, protective detachment that normally kept her at a cynical distance, she couldn’t deny it was true. Tom
was
the most beautiful baby in the world.
    Immediately after the birth, she was surprised by two things. First, by how instantly, in spite of the long hours of unprecedented pain she had just been through, how instantly she had loved him. And second, by how separate Tom seemed. He was apart from her, his little eyes looking hurt and suspicious of the crowded world into which he had so unceremoniously been dumped. Tom was an entirely new personality, for whom his mother had hitherto been simply a convenient means of transport and sustenance. Laura would have to get to know this new personality.
    With the love for her baby came a new confidence. The birth had finally laid the ghost of her upbringing. Laura Fisher was a complete person. Not only had she overcome the traumas to rebuild her own personality, she was also capable of creating new life. The mould was broken. The past was utterly vanquished; now she could look forward to the future.
    This flood of love came so unexpectedly that Laura was briefly tempted towards sentimentality. Maybe she should put her career on hold, take a few years out and be a full-time Mum until Tom went to nursery school …? For a moment she even contemplated rescinding her decision not to breastfeed him.
    But the moment didn’t last long. Laura Fisher knew she was strong enough to progress in her career and to look after Tom. On her own.
    â€˜Well, I must say I was
disappointed
.’ Rob’s lower lip jutted out in a comical
moue
. ‘I thought I was your
friend
and when I ask if there’s anything I can do to help, you don’t say, “Yes, I’m in labour – rush me to hospital.” No, it’s just – “Get me a cab, could you, love?” I feel positively
passed over
.’
    â€˜I didn’t want Dennis to know what was happening. I couldn’t have tolerated all the inevitable lines about bloody women not being able to finish anything because they’re always rushing off to have