Catherine McKenzie strolled happily around her garden dead heading a few late roses while she waited for her daughter Kate to arrive.

Catherine loved her garden, she and her husband Joe had spent many happy hours designing and laying out the area and it had given both of them a great deal of pleasure. Catherine sighed, she always tried to be positive and to focus on the many happy memories she had of her life with Joe, the life they had had together raising Kate and the pride they had both taken in their beautiful and talented daughter. Even so thinking of Joe these days was always tinged with sadness, she still loved her husband dearly but the man she had fallen in love with was no longer there. Alzheimer's had taken her Joseph, slowly, cruelly and irreversibly.

Heading back inside the house Catherine filled the kettle and switched it on, Kate would be here shortly, she was usually very prompt. A small frown furrowed the brow of the tall elegant woman as the reached for the teapot; she had been worried about Kate over the past few months. Her daughter had been so happy in the spring, she seemed to have formed a strong attachment to the headmistress at the school where she taught, one Caroline Elliot, D Phil, M Ed no less; Catherine was impressed in spite of herself.

Kate had talked a lot about how magnificent her headmistress was, so much so that Catherine had detected very early on that her daughter was falling in love. She had truly hoped so, she wanted Kate to know again the joy of a loving and supportive relationship, the kind she herself had had with Joe. Catherine had liked Kate's husband Richard and had thought that he and Kate were well matched. But then Kate had got so obsessed about having a family and Richard hadn't been able to cope. Knowing now that Kate was more attracted to women did make Catherine wonder about the true depth of their relationship and whether it would have survived even had the circumstances been different but, that was in the past and Caroline, for a while, had appeared to be the future.

Then in the early summer everything had changed, Kate had been really miserable and although she was now putting a better face on things Catherine knew her daughter, she knew she was very unhappy and suspected it was because she had been dumped by the oh so superior Dr Elliot. Kate had never suggested in any way that this was what had happened, she had simply said they were no longer together, but Catherine couldn't think of any other logical reason.

'Hey Mum' called Kate as she came through the front door.

'Hi love, I'm in the kitchen, you want a cuppa'

'Please' said Kate entering the kitchen and giving her mother a hug and a peck on the cheek.

The two women grabbed their mugs and sat opposite each other at the kitchen table.

Kate had no doubt that she could count on her mother's love and support but even so she was nervous of breaking her news. Kate knew her mother would be both surprised and a little hurt that she had not told her what she was planning. Never before had she felt the need to withhold something like this from her mother; she had always felt able to tell her mother pretty much anything trusting to her love, to her common sense and to her open mindedness, they were indeed kindred spirits.

'How's Dad?'

'Oh, much the same, he was a bit unsettled when I saw him yesterday, not one of his better days.'

Kate leant across and squeezed her mother's hand.

'I need to tell you something'

'Mhmm?'

'I'm….er….I'm pregnant'

Catherine stared at her daughter, mouth slightly open, bewilderment evident on her handsome face.

'Say something Mum' said an even more nervous Kate

'How many weeks?'

'Thirteen'

'Kate! My God! I…..' Catherine was stunned 'You're thirteen weeks pregnant, thirteen weeks.' she repeated in disbelief 'Why on earth have you not said something before now.'

'Sorry, I am sorry' said Kate somewhat shamefacedly 'you..you know how badly I have always wanted a child. I knew time was running out and I had to have one last try before there was no chance left.'

Kate looked at her mother wordlessly willing her to understand

'I so wanted to tell you, I did, but I didn't want to add any more to your load of worry. I'm sorry if I've hurt you, I did it with the very best intentions.'

'Kate, don't treat me like a fool. The reason you didn't tell me had nothing to do with you wanting to save me worry; you are more than aware that I've now got a good six months of worry ahead of me. You didn't tell me because you were in that obsessed state about having a child that you went through with Richard. You drove Richard away with your obsession and….'

Catherine stopped in mid-sentence. Several things were all starting to fall into place. Kate watched her mother working things out and braced herself for the next question.

'Who's the father?'

'Oh Mum' a now very embarrassed Kate found it difficult to look her mother in the eye; this was something she really didn't want to have to explain.

'There is nothing between the father and me Mum, he was only a donor and wants nothing to do with bringing up the baby.'

'A donor, so….IVF?'

'No'

The final piece of the jigsaw fell into place for the older woman

'Is that why you broke up with Caroline?'

'No, no not at all…..' blustered Kate but she couldn't lie to her mother. 'Well, maybe, in part.'

'And there I've been calling a woman I've never even met, someone who is probably a perfectly lovely woman, all the names under the sun and all because I thought she had hurt my daughter.'

'She is a perfectly lovely woman' said Kate without thinking, and then blushed realising she had given her mother a very clear indication of how she still felt about Caroline.

'Kate, will you tell me what happened?' asked Catherine gently, seeing the pain in her daughter's eyes.

Kate did, she told her mother more about Caroline than she ever had before, she told her about the tender, vulnerable Caroline who had won her heart, she told her about the selfish, arrogant Caroline who had hurt her by hiding their relationship. Kate told her mother about Caroline's beauty, her brilliance, her complicated life. In every way possible without uttering the words Kate told her mother that she was still deeply in love with the magnificent Dr Elliot.

'And the baby, what happened when you started down that path?'

'I could see Caroline didn't want another child at her age, at least that's what I thought then, so when it came to it I chose the chance to have this child over Caroline. I'm not proud of some of the things I did back then, I know I must have hurt Caroline, but I know I won't regret them when I hold my child in my arms.'

Catherine loved her daughter but she had lived through Kate's obsession with having a child before and she knew how destructive it had been, if this pregnancy didn't go to term would Kate be so confident that she had made the right decisions.

'The ends don't always justify the means Kate, you know that.'

Kate was about to make some suitably childish remark about not being a child any longer when her mother asked

'What did you mean when you said Caroline not wanting another child was…what you thought then?'

'Well, she seemed very upset when I told her I was pregnant'

'When you told her you were pregnant, what on earth possessed you…?'

'She's my boss Mum, I had no choice.'

'Sorry, sorry, yes I forgot for a moment how complicated this all is.'

Catherine sat deep in thought for a while

'Why do you think she was upset?'

'I don't really know, I have been trying to fathom it out all week. It doesn't make sense unless…..'

Kate didn't finish her sentence and the two women sat in silence for a time.

'So what now love….?' Catherine eventually asked

'I'm thrilled that I'm pregnant Mum and I hope you can be happy for me?'

'Well I can't say that I'm thrilled Kate, given everything that has gone before I am obviously worried about the risk you are taking but, you know I will always be there for you.'

Then deciding that there was nothing to lose the older woman went on

'I think you still feel very strongly about Caroline. What about her, do you think she still has feelings for you?

Kate didn't answer

'When I said what now' continued Catherine 'I meant would it be worth trying to find out what she actually feels rather than just guessing?'

Under her mother's steady gaze Kate began to feel again those first stirrings of guilt about the way she had behaved but then she remembered.

'I can't go back to that life again, I can't pretend any more that I'm happy when Caroline shies away from any public recognition of how I feel, how we feel…. felt.

'Actually' said Kate allowing her exasperation to show through her outer calm ' I've never been sure how Caroline felt, she always said she needed me, she said she wanted to spend the rest of her life with me but….she never said she loved me.'

'I can't bring up a child in an atmosphere where I almost literally have to walk one step behind my partner. Plus Caroline's family is just way too complicated, I won't expose this baby to the veiled hostility Caroline's mother has never stopped giving off; I won't put up with living in some kind of weird ménage a trois where Caroline's husband is still staying in the same house. This baby needs all of my love, all of my time and all of my protection'

Defiant, chin up, eyes flashing but then…. Kate appeared to wilt before her mother's eyes.

'Besides, I think it's already too late, I think she was upset because now that she definitely knows I'm pregnant she knows she'll never be able to forget what I did or be able to forgive me, the child would be a permanent reminder of….of…..'

'Oh love' said Catherine McKenzie standing quickly to enfold her weeping daughter in her arms.