Clara Cartwright hurried through the sunlit park, conscious of the time slipping away from her. A voice calling out suddenly brought her up short.

"There's the lady of my dreams."

"Albert, what brings you here?" Clara smiled to herself, knowing full well why he'd just happened to be on this path. She'd been the one to casually mention she'd be cutting through this park today on her way to visiting her friends.

"Isn't every man drawn to such sweetness? How could a mere mortal like myself resist the company of an angel?" Albert teased as he stepped up beside her.

"You know I can't stay." Clara told him, but she allowed him to wrap one arm around her waist all the same.

"Not even long enough to grace me with your smile?" He steered her off the path to stop behind the bushes, and she let him. After all, it would be a shame to hurry through such pleasant surroundings, or away from such pleasant company.

Albert held her in his arms and gazed into her eyes a moment. Slowly his fingers strayed to twine in a coil of hair that had come loose near her ear. "You're the most beautiful thing that's ever walked this earth, you know that? I wish I could show you off to everyone, let them all know you're my girl."

Clara sighed wistfully. "Mr. Tremblay doesn't think much of a lady having a sweetheart, or at least, a sweetheart that isn't himself. Besides, I like having you as a little secret that's all my own."

"Your gracious employer again." Albert made a face. "There's a fine gentleman, telling a girl she can't fall in love at the same time he's trying to lure her to his bed."

"No one could lure me away from you, not for all the money to be had." Clara promised.

Albert held her a little tighter. "I must be the luckiest man in the world to have a girl like you."

Clara leaned in until they were almost cheek to cheek. "You, Albert Ross, are my lucky man." She whispered in his ear, and then kissed him firmly on the mouth. With that, she pulled free of his grasp and walked on. She stopped to glance over her shoulder, and laughed to see Albert still standing there, puppy eyes following her every move.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Sorry I'm so late, Mr. Tremblay needed me to type up the minutes from his meetings before I left work." Clara lied as she let herself into Mabel's home. Gossiping friends were well and good when they had news to share, but she wasn't about to let them air her own secrets. There was plenty of time to tell them about Albert when she was ready.

"Why don't you bring Mr. Tremblay along next time? He seems sweet enough on you." Gladys waggled her eyebrows impertinently.

"You know he's married." Clara scolded her. "Besides that, he tries his charms on every woman in Toronto. He doesn't mean anything by it."

"Never mind work, come meet Alice already," Mabel interrupted.

Clara inserted herself into the cluster of young women. Mabel sat in the center, her new born baby cradled in her lap. Alice stared up at them, tiny eyes moving curiously from one face to the other.

Mabel beamed as Clara stroked Alice's soft cheeks. "Henry's over the moon about her. He's been showing her off to all his chums since she was born. I had to stop him from taking her down to the pub today."

"Is it all right if I hold her?" Clara asked.

Mabel carefully transferred Alice over to her, and Clara folded her arms around the delicate bundle.

"Look at you with her," Mabel sighed. "You're like a mother already."

"When are you going to have children, Clara? It's the most natural thing in the world." Lillian said from Mabel's other side. "My two popped right out as easy as you like. Just think, if you had one all of us could take our lot out for play dates."

"Don't you suppose it's time you found yourself a man?" Gladys pressed. "A woman can find herself turning into an old spinster before she knows it."

"I don't think I'm so unlucky in love," Clara replied. "Besides, I believe we're here to talk about Alice." The little girl felt perfect in her arms, and Clara never wanted to let go.

"I wouldn't be sorry to have a baby of my own," She confided to Alice, and smiled as the girl blinked up at her.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Good morning, Clara," Mr. Tremblay said, tipping his hat and winking as he entered.

"Good morning, Sir," Clara replied, already seated smartly at her desk.

They played out this same routine every morning, except this time Clara had to fight a bit to hold her smile. Her stomach roiled with nausea, and her heartbeat rushed with nerves. She would have considered asking to go home, but she happened to be perfectly healthy. The doctor had been very clear as to her condition.

This wasn't a problem, she reassured herself. This was a dream come true, really. Some changes in life were for the best, especially this one, because this was something she'd always wanted. Everything was going to turn out fine.

"Clara, I believe I asked you for tea," Mr. Tremblay's slightly miffed tone reached her ears.

"Sorry Sir, I must have been day dreaming." She sprang up to attend to him.

Normally she loved her job, but today she couldn't get out of here fast enough. She needed to see Albert.

XXXXXXXXXX

Clara tapped at the boarding room door. Albert opened up immediately and swept her inside.

"You sounded pretty excited over the phone. Something about you urgently needing to see me in private." Albert put his hands around her waist and pulled her against him.

"There's something wonderful I need to tell you. I only just found out myself, and I've been keeping it secret until I could see you again. I wanted you to be the first to know." Clara told him breathlessly.

Albert stroked up her sides, working his way around to her front. "A secret just for me? What's that then?"

Clara gripped his wandering hands in her own to get him to focus. "I have a child on the way. Your child."

Albert dropped her hands and stepped back, scowling. "How could you do this?"

Clara stared at him in shock. "What do you mean, 'how could I do this'? This is our child, together. I hardly came in the family way on my own."

"I didn't force a baby on you. I have done nothing you did not want. How can you expect me to solve this for you?" Albert spat.

"I don't expect you to 'solve it', like this is some sort of problem. I expect you to marry me. That's what proper people do in this sort of situation. Albert, I love you." Clara tried to step into his arms again, but he recoiled like she was dirty.

"Don't you have any idea how hard this is on a man? I have my whole life ahead of me, and you're trying to ruin it by letting yourself get pregnant."

"I don't understand you. You'll buy me roses every week but you won't buy me a wedding bouquet?" Clara asked.

"I can't take on this kind of burden right now." Albert said.

Clara refused to let him off the hook. "I will tell people you're the father." She insisted.

Albert only sneered. "What of it, then? What good do you think that's going to do anybody? It's nothing on me. You'll just make yourself look like trash, that's all."

He grabbed her arm and dragged her to the doorway. "Don't come crawling back here." He said as he shoved her out. "You can just go deal with your own problems."

Albert slammed the door in her face, leaving her gaping in disbelief. Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes, but she brushed them away.

"Only babies cry," she told herself. "I'll have a baby of my own soon enough. There's no time for my own tears."

Lifting her head, she sailed out of the boarding house, out of Albert's life, and into her own. "Never mind about him," She whispered to her unborn child. "We'll get on just fine, you and I."

XXXXXXXXXX

Clara kept her silence in the weeks before she started to show. She went to work, helped Mabel with minding Alice, and in the mean time she gathered up what she thought her baby would need and put it away in a little trunk in her room. It all went smoothly enough until today, when she came home to find her parents waiting for her. Her little case of supplies lay open at her mother's feet.

"When you started to put on weight I didn't want to believe it," Mother reproached her the moment she sat down. "Did you mean to keep this from us indefinitely?"

Clara straightened her spine against her parents' cold stares. "I did plan to tell you, I just needed a little time to prepare, that's all."

"You should be preparing the means to fix this idiotic mistake. The reputation of the whole family is at risk because of you. What were you thinking, having a baby and not married?" Mother demanded.

Clara squirmed a little. Albert's rejection still made her heart ache, but she wouldn't let the pain show. "I wanted to marry, but he refused. He won't have anything more to do with me."

"Good heavens, child." Mother gasped. "A woman doesn't ask a man. Hint if you must, but you wait for him to do the right thing. Is it any wonder he left, you audacious thing?"

"I'll raise my child on my own if I have to." Clara said, unrepentant.

"You will do nothing of the sort," Father broke in angrily. "We will not have a bastard in this house. Find some way to be rid of it."

"I'm not going to kill my own baby. What kind of people are you?" Clara nearly shouted at them.

Her father ignored her outrage. "If not, you will have to find someplace else to stay, preferably out of town. For the love of God, don't let your grand-uncle know of this."

"I'll be leaving then," She informed them, her expression defiant. "I don't want anything to do with child-killers."

She stood, matching her parents' thunderous expressions with one of her own. "I'll retrieve my things once I've found a place, but until then it's goodbye."

XXXXXXXXXX

"You just walked out on them? You didn't discuss it at all?" Mabel frowned at her.

Clara sat on Mabel's couch; her hands clasped tightly to keep from shaking. It was only sinking into her now what she had done, but she wouldn't take back her actions no matter how hasty they had been. "I could hardly consider what they were asking of me. I'm not going to stay if that's the sort of thing they expect."

"What are you going to do now?" Mabel asked.

"I'm going to move into a boarding house, naturally. Other women live on their own these days, I can do the same. Although, I haven't had the chance to look for a place yet." Clara hesitated a moment. "Truth is, I wanted to ask if I could stay here just for tonight. I don't know any place that will rent on quite such short notice."

"I want to help, I do," Mabel said. "The thing is, Henry's only just started working at a new place, and he doesn't want to get off on the wrong foot. We can't take on that kind of scandal right now. Plus, we've only just fixed up the baby's room, we haven't got the money left for the extra expense."

"I'm not sniffing around for a free meal. I can pay my own way in the world. I just need a place to put my feet up until I get settled." Clara protested.

"I can phone a few places I know to see if any of them have rooms, and even put in a good word for you. But if I do that you have to be gone before Henry comes home for supper. He'll get out of sorts if he thinks he'll have to get tangled up in this. I'm so sorry." Mabel pleaded.

After leaving Mabel's home Clara found herself wandering the streets with nothing to her name but a rapidly dwindling list of boarding houses. She marched on, struggling to keep from worrying what might happen should she find herself still homeless past dark. The place before her now was the sort she'd have gone out of her way to avoid only yesterday. Being choosy wasn't an option anymore, so she climbed the rickety steps and knocked on the door.

The landlady stood on the doorstep and eyed her up and down. "I take it you'll be renting for two soon enough," She shot a disparaging glance at Clara's waist.

Clara swallowed her pride at the demeaning treatment. Every other place she tried the owners had taken one look at her, with growing belly and no man at her side, and taken her for a woman of ill repute. At least this landlady wasn't refusing her outright.

"I'm sure I still only count as one at the moment," Clara answered.

The landlady actually smiled a little at that. "You're a lippy thing. You'll do, so long as you pay your rent on time." She stepped inside, and Clara hurried to follow before either of them could change their minds.

"This is the room then, Miss. I expect you to keep it clean, and if you have any business in the night you'll conduct it someplace else." With that, Clara was left on her own.

She sat on the dusty bed and regarded the grimy room. She didn't see how anyone could be expected to make it dirtier. Somewhere beyond the thin walls a man and a woman screamed at each other. This wasn't the sort of place she'd thought she'd be raising her child. She'd believed that in a modern city like Toronto a woman could be more progressive. Instead here she was lumped in with the riffraff, and after today's humiliations she was beginning to doubt if she'd ever pull herself back out again.

XXXXXXXXXX

Clara slid into her seat with a groan of relief. It had been a long walk to work from her boarding house, but she could hardly afford a handsome cab these days.

"Miss Cartwright. In my office." Mr. Tremblay turned his back and marched off without giving her time to speak.

He stood by the door and shut it firmly behind her the moment she stepped through.

"What is this about, Sir?" She mentally re-catalogued all the work she'd done the past few days, looking for some mistake.

Mr. Tremblay stood away from her rigidly, his eyes flinty. "It's been brought to my attention that you've come under a bit of trouble of late."

"Trouble? No. Everything's fine." Clara said.

"Don't lie to me," Mr. Tremblay grumbled. "Even if I hadn't noticed it myself, word about you already spread. Imagine my humiliation when I learned the neighbourhood was gossiping about my personal assistant of all people. It simply won't do. You're fired."

"You can't do this, I've done nothing wrong by you or the company. I'm the best assistant you've ever had, you said so yourself." Clara protested desperately. She couldn't afford to lose this job now, on top of everything else.

Mr. Tremblay ignored her anxious tone. "That was before. I can't have a woman in your condition hanging about. Suppose people think it's mine."

"I'll tell them it isn't." Clara insisted.

"Nonsense. No one's going to take the word of a woman." Mr. Tremblay shook his head as if she'd said something foolish. "I'm a respectable man, with a reputable business, and I intend to keep it that way. You'll have to go."

He opened his door and gestured her out. Clearly he had no intention of listening to another word from her. All she could do at this point was keep her head up as she left.

XXXXXXXXXX

Clara walked out onto the street, hardly taking notice of her surroundings. Without thinking, she took out a little notebook from her handbag and crossed out her work shift. Written under that was a reminder to help set up a tea social for The Children's Benefit to keep destitute youth off the streets. It seemed ironic now that she'd donated her time and money to this function. If she didn't find some way to pick herself up her own child would be in need of charity. A promise was a promise; she'd said she'd help and she wasn't going to take it back at the last minute.

Her body followed the directions in her agenda book mechanically while her mind whirled in circles. Where was she going to find her next job? How would she support herself now? The questions repeated themselves again and again without answer. She would start over if she had to, but she didn't like her chances finding a place that would hire a woman in her state.

"You're here early," Mrs. Cutler greeted her.

Clara forced her worries aside long enough to be civil. "I found myself with some extra time on my hands today. I figured I might as well come in and help."

"Extra time," She thought to herself, "what a joke." The hours weighing on her hands were frightening in their emptiness. She had no way to pay for her room, or to feed herself, let alone the means to support a child.

"You can help me set out the tables then," Mrs. Cutler said. "It's a bit awkward now, having a tea social after all. I hope people don't take the wrong idea."

"How could anyone get the wrong idea over tea?" Clara asked, non-plussed.

"You must have heard how The Ladies Tea House closed down. It turns out it didn't go out of business for money trouble, despite what they say. The whole thing was a front for brothel, can you imagine? Why any woman would put herself in that position is beyond me." Mrs. Cutler went on.

"I'm sure some of them couldn't help it," Clara said.

"What is there to help? A girl with sense knows to keep herself out of harm's way, and that's all it takes to avoid any hardship. Some of them are shameless enough to go out onto the street crying they only did such a thing to feed their children. I ask, what were they up to having children in the first place? Any woman who lets a man have his way with her before marriage is asking for trouble, you mark my word." If Mrs. Cutler noticed the impact of her words, she gave no sign of caring.

"Pardon me, I need to step out a bit," Somehow Clara managed to keep her voice from shaking.

She couldn't hold it in any longer. She hurried out into the hallway so no one would see her. Sinking down on a bench, she clutched her handkerchief to her face to muffle her sobs.

"What's the matter, poor Dear?"

"Oh, Mrs. Walker," Clara hastily scrubbed her cheeks as the kindly old lady eased herself down beside her. "I didn't mean to make a scene. You worked so hard to arrange all this, I'd hate to spoil things."

"Come now, there's no shame in admitting to your own needs. Why don't you tell me about it?" Mrs. Walker had a gentle tone like Clara hadn't heard since she'd found out she was with child.

"I lost my job," Clara burst out, barely holding back more tears. "I lost my boyfriend, and everyone else. I don't know what I'm going to do now. I just want to keep my baby."

Mrs. Walker regarded her carefully. "Perhaps there's a way you could help me. My son, Jack, happens to be in a bit of a pinch himself, you see."