Survivor by Lesley Pearse

won’t
     need to know you said anything.’
    Mog took a deep breath and then blurted
     out that she was afraid Mari had been seeing the blond sailor in secret.
    Belle turned pale. ‘Heaven help
     us,’ she exclaimed. ‘I didn’t see that one coming! I knew, of
     course, that the man had come back to Russell – you can hardly miss him – but
     Mari’s never mentioned him.’
    ‘The best
     way to put us off the scent,’ Mog sniffed. ‘But bear in mind that I
     haven’t got any proof he’s the man she has been seeing. She also said
     it’s over. But the way she was behaving yesterday, I suspect she’s
     worried about something.’
    ‘Maybe she was just afraid of him
     coming here? We all know Etienne would tear a man like that limb from limb, if he
     thought he’d taken liberties with his daughter. Do you really think they have
     been …?’ She paused, unable to finish her question.
    ‘Yes, I do think they’ve
     been doing it,’ Mog said bluntly. ‘A man of his age and type isn’t
     likely to waste time on a girl who won’t cooperate. Besides, she’s had
     something on her mind for some little while now – easily distracted, and off with
     the fairies too.’
    ‘Etienne will kill him!’
     Belle exclaimed, as all the implications sank in.
    ‘You see why I thought it would be
     a good idea to send her to London?’ Mog asked. ‘If Avril told Peggy
     she’d seen them together, you can bet she’s told others too. And that
     lout may have boasted he’d had his way with her too. You know what people are
     like around here. If this gets out – and it’s sure to – she’ll be seen
     as shop-soiled goods, and that might make her find someone even more
     disreputable.’
    Belle leaned on the cutting table, her
     head in her hands. ‘Well, I certainly know what it’s like to be the one
     everyone is talking about. Remember all the nasty stuff that was said about me when
     Etienne arrived here? Even now, donkey’s years later, some women still think
     their husbands aren’t safe with me around. Some things you just can’t
     live down.’ She looked at Mog fearfully. ‘What was she thinking
     of?’
    ‘You, of all people, should know
     that girls don’t think at such times,’ Mog said tartly.
    Belle blushed at the oblique reference
     to her affair withEtienne in France,
     while she was still married to Jimmy Reilly. ‘I thought I’d done the
     right thing by telling her the facts of life and how girls have to protect
     themselves by waiting till they get married,’ she retorted. ‘But perhaps
     I should have been like other mothers and told her sex was something to be
     endured.’
    ‘I doubt whether that would have
     made any difference,’ Mog said. ‘Mari is as hot-headed as both you and
     Etienne; she’s never listened to advice or abided by any rules. In my opinion,
     this has come about because she has too little to do. Boredom creates a fertile
     ground for wrongdoing.’
    ‘What are we to do, Mog?’
     Belle pleaded.
    ‘We can pray she isn’t
     pregnant, for a start. But I can’t see how we can keep this from Etienne. To
     do so would make Mari think we are condoning her behaviour. She has behaved like a
     little trollop, and she has to face up to the consequences of that.’
    Belle winced at Mog’s harsh words.
     ‘Oh, Mog,’ she sighed. ‘Once I’d married Etienne and we were
     all living so happily here, I really thought there would never be any bad times
     again for any of us. Now this!’
    Mog reached across the table and took
     Belle’s hand to comfort her. ‘It might not be as bad as I fear, but the
     fact remains that we must do something. If we try to keep her under lock and key
     here, she’ll just rebel. Maybe she could get an office job or shop work in
     Auckland, but she’s too young to be without some sort of
     supervision.’
    ‘You’re right,’ Belle
     agreed. ‘But England seems so drastic, and so far away. Noah and Lisette are
     ideal in so many