It was later that afternoon, after Sarah had had a much called for nap that Mary came into the room to rouse her for her pregnancy test. She was used to it by now and only took a vague interest in the stick in Mary's hands. Not until she saw Mary looking at her, wide eyed. She looked at the stick and saw the thin blue lines. She was pregnant. She was carrying Daddy's baby. The continuation of the Fitzpatrick line was in her. She felt weak and dizzy and collapsed into Mary's arms.
"I'll call your mother straight away; she'll want to be the first to congratulate you and she'll be concerned as to how you are. And I'll wait to pass on the news to Ms Staunton."
And so it was that Sarah's mother was up to the big house as fast as the taxi could carry her. She rushed to her room and enveloped her in a hug that almost cracked her ribs. She was happy and smiling and crying at the same time. Sarah finally managed to extricate herself and calm her mother down.
"But Mum, it's so very early, the earliest detection possible. Anything can go wrong at this stage, and I won't start showing for months!"
"I'm sure you'll start to notice little changes soon, you find your breasts will start to enlarge, as will your nipples and they'll become more sensitive. Some women experience an increase in libido."
"Oh my goodness! I'm not sure I'll be able handle my nipples becoming more sensitive. And if God's plan is to give me all these feeling to encourage me to have children, once I'm pregnant, surely, they are no longer required?"
"God moves in mysterious ways, Sarah, in mysterious ways."
With the fact of her pregnancy, Sarah somehow felt fully grown up, even though she was still just eighteen.
Sarah's mum insisted on staying the night and they spent the evening chatting. It seemed that with the news of her daughter's pregnancy, they related to each other as adults rather than mother and daughter, and Sarah was gratified to realise her mother could be a friend. As a consequence, she told her mum all about Marcus and Joseph and even though she left out many of the salacious details, her mum was both shocked and dismayed but at the same time hungered for more details.
It was early the next morning that Sarah received an invite to dinner with Joseph.
"Oh, I'll put him off, Mum, we can stay in and watch something on Netflix."
"No, No Sarah, you should go. You'll have less and less opportunity as time goes on. But no drinking! I'll pop back home - your father's not home so I can watch something racy on Netflix" she said with a grin.
"But you can't go back to an empty house! Tell you what, let's both go out to dinner with Joseph!"
"But I've nothing to wear!"
"Leave that to me. I'm the lady of the house now and I will get things moving chop chop. We are almost the same size, I'll sort out a dress and in the meantime, you're going to the Spa!"
With that Sarah phoned the spa. "Can I speak to Marjory, please? Yes, I understand she's busy but this is Mrs Fitzpatrick and I'd take as a great personal favour if she'd take the time to speak to me. Ok, I'll hang on. Oh Hi, Marjorie, this is Sarah Fitzpatrick here. Ok, Marge, if you will call me Sarah. Yes, I'd like to send my mother down. Yes, the whole nine yards and I'll leave it to your considered judgement. OK, she'll be down in 30 minutes."
"Mary. Mary, can you organise a car to take my mother to the spa?"
"Yes Miss, of course Miss."
"Right Mum, that's all arranged. I'll organise a dress while you're out"
"But what sort of dress?"
"It'll be a surprise, just trust me."
"Ok, dear. I must say, you've become very forceful these days."
When her mum was hustled off to the spa, Sarah got on to the dress maker who Ms Staunton had had some dresses made for her. While many of her clothes were designer label, there were also many that were custom made just for her.
Once she got the number she phoned and got on to the dressmaker straight away.
"Hi, this is Sarah Fitzpatrick. I understand Ms Staunton had you a make a number of dresses for me?"
"Yes, that's right. What can I do for you?"
I'd like you to make a dress for my mother, but it must be ready for tonight."
"What! Tonight! I'm sorry, that's completely impossible, there's measurements to be done, fitting and..."
"What I was thinking was this: My mother is virtually the same size as me. Do you remember that green silk cocktail dress? It has a generous cut that drapes the body and should be an easy fit. I'd like us to both be dressed the same. Do you still have the material?"
"Well yes, I did buy a whole bolt of that cloth but never got to use much of it; I found it rather light for what is was intended for, I was actually thinking of using it for night dresses."
"So, you could do it?"
"Yes, I suppose so, the cut is simple and if it's an exact duplicate of the one I made for you, it should be easy enough...but I'm working on another's dress at the moment."
"Excellent! Have it sent round as soon as possible; I'll pay extra for the inconvenience."
Late afternoon, Sarah's mother returned and was both happy and shy at the same time. Her hair had been restyled in a similar fashion to her daughters, her skin glowed and she altogether look almost a different woman to the dowdy mother she had always known.
"Mum! You look absolutely fantastic! What a transformation!"
