"Look Penny, I'm bloody sorry. I have behaved so damn badly. I know it. I feel all kinds of a louse. I can only ask you to forgive me. It hasn't been too easy for me... Being away all the time, and then you did keep it from me, didn't you?" he ended stuttering.

Her dark velvety eyes looked at him stonily. She said :

"I did and I expect I was wrong. But quite honestly, if I had told you that I was pregnant at the beginning, wouldn't you have suggested I had an abortion?"

The direct question threw him off balance. He scowled and shifted from one foot...