Chapter 11

Deborah rang Paul Martins, the senior paediatrician, as soon as she reached her office. He teased her for a moment but then gave her a slot at eleven. "My coffee break," he grumbled good-naturedly.

Deborah saw him in his office. She told him how Annette had come to her and told her what her father had done to her, of the divorce, of her protecting Annette, of Richard persuading her to give Annette more freedom and how she had blossomed.

Paul interrupted her. "Do the police know about this?" he asked.

"My ex is now in prison."

"Ah! Carry on."

Deborah told him of the Ronny incident, which did not excite him. "Rite of passage, I'm afraid. She seems to have dealt with it pretty well and one can understand her wanting to come home."

"Things have now come to a head from a completely different direction." She told him of Harry and her own feelings of guilt.

"First of all," said Paul, "you need have no feelings of guilt. You and your husband have actually done very well indeed and her recovery is excellent. I could put you in touch with a counsellor/therapist but that actually might put Annette back by placing to much emphasis on the business. I accept that she is mature beyond her years but her hormones will be the same as any other girl in her age group. As a result she will get violent mood swings and she will have extremes of emotion. I suggest you talk it through with her and do your best to persuade her that she is not dirty. I suspect that an underlying aspect may be that she is physically attracted to Harry but is worried by the possible outcome. That worry, in her circumstances, is probably more pronounced than for a girl who had not suffered such an experience with her father. At the same time, her more mature mind is telling her that if she does not respond to his advances he may reject her and that she will lose a special friend. You might like to try talking that over with her so that she becomes clearer about how she is going to deal with it. And it is going to have to be she who deals with it for her own eventual peace of mind. Does that help?"

"Yes, Paul, it does; enormously. Thank you so much."

"Good. Let me know how things go. I'm always learning," he smiled.

Deborah got home to find Annette up and about and seemingly normal. Richard was closeted with a client so Annette sat at the kitchen table while her mother ate.

"Sharon must have had a pretty rough childhood," she said.

Deborah looked enquiringly at her.

"Her father dying and then her horrid uncle taking over her mother without marrying her and then raping Sharon when she was only fourteen."

Deborah nodded.

"It seems from what she said that a lot of that sort of thing went on. I'm glad for both her and Louise that they went to live on their own after Louise's dad left them."

"So am I. What else did she tell you?"

"That I never did anything wrong. I let him do wrong because he was my father and I had to do as I was told. She also said that I wasn't dirty. Any of his dirt had been washed off me and the only person who did anything dirty was him. She said I was pure and clean as a whistle."

"Quite right. Happier?"

"Yes, Mum. Much!

"Well that's good and that makes me happy too."

Annette smiled at her.

"So, my sweet, what about Harry now?"

Annette's brows drew in. "I don't really know. I really, really like him and miss him when we're not together but..."

She floundered for words.

Deborah waited a few seconds but there was nothing more forthcoming. Annette was still stuck: stuck for words to express her feelings and stuck about how much she could tell her mother.