Her father would be back at the studio, if he hadn't been imprisoned for reckless driving. It was just so ridiculous and she was soon too sick to bother anyway.
'I've sacked him.' Her father rang in the evening, his temper somewhat under control. 'He denied it but I sacked him anyway.'
'You,' Natalie said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry,'are a bad man.'
'Be that as it may,' he grunted. 'You're my own. I'll see you through this.'
'Thank you so much,' she said sweetly. 'You can keep handing me glasses of water to take my penicillin capsules. I've had the doctor and he assures me that your future grandson is nothing more than a virus.'
It shut him up but not for more than a second.
'If you're lying I'll know finally,' he said with a smugness that seemed to him to cancel out all his sins. 'As for Bradshaw, I couldn't stand him, never could, even when you were going out with him. That poor kid Paula was in tears this afternoon.'
'Are you surprised? You monster.'
'She should get rid of him. He's a wimp in disguise,' he said firmly, putting the phone down and leaving Natalie open-mouthed. She could imagine what sort of a scene there had been at the studio. There was nothing her father liked better than a good scene either on or off film.
The next day Ray called round to tell her all about it, his face creased with laughter.
'If you could possibly come back now, love,' he said after he had related the disgraceful affair, 'I'd be grateful. With Bradshaw gone I might just be the next in line because there's always got to be somebody to get under your father's feet.'
'Wild horses wouldn't drag me back,' Natalie assured him. 'I'm not going to have to admit that my father's a clever lunatic. From now on everybody takes care of themselves and that, mate, includes you.'
He couldn't have been gone more than half an hour before the bell rang again and it was Paula, in tears.
'It was so awful, Natalie,' she sniffed after Natalie had settled her down with a cup of tea, assured yet another person that she was not pregnant and listened to the whole story all over again.
'The worst thing was that Neil wasn't angry about your father's accusations. Of course he hotly denied it but at one stage in the row he shouted that he wished it were true.'
'Dad should never have fired him,' Natalie said, biting her lip and wondering how she was going to reassure Paula about Neil after all this.
'Oh, he didn't/ Paula looked up at her with wide blue eyes. 'It was obvious that he was going to but Neil just left. On the spot. It was while he was clearing his desk out that I knew he still loved you, knew it for sure. He was white and shaking. He kept saying "It's that bastard Forsythe!" He wanted it to be him!
She burst into tears again and Natalie sat beside her, putting her arms round the shaking shoulders. Right at that moment she could have done violence to her own father. Of course he would never have mentioned that Neil had got his resignation in first. He had meant to sack him and, in his soaring ego, he had.
'What are you going to do about Neil?' she asked softly.
'Oh, I'd already decided that really,' Paula said shakily. 'I gave him his ring back last night. I'm not happy, Natalie, but Ray's been so good to me. Ray was nice to me in Madembi and I got to seeing just what Neil was like. It's lucky we went out there, isn't it?'
'It is,' Natalie said quietly, denying it inside with all her heart. If she had never been out to Madembi she would never have met Kip and she would not now be busy just trying to get through each day. By the time Paula left, she was exhausted. She went to bed. It was the night of the television showing of their film but she couldn't bear to face it.
She dreamed of Kip. She was in his arms, warmed by his love, and the song of the rain bird drifted hauntingly towards an African dawn. When she awoke, her pillow was wet with tears.
Natalie walked towards her flat along the quiet road. The bitter cold had eased but the wind still blew strongly, scattering the bright leaves of autumn around her, producing little whirlwinds of colour that swirled around her feet and then vanished. The virus had lasted nearly two weeks and had left her more slender than ever but today she was more at peace.
She had been to the studio to collect some of her photographs that had been stored there and she held the little parcel in her hand now. They had been delighted to see her.