Mother's stomach bellied out like a sail. Young, she was unable to say no to anyone who asked her to make love. Her reasons for her behaviour were all her own; never, after she'd had me did she allow another man to enter her; my birth was her real marriage. And when I was six, she shut herself away entirely. It happened in the Chalet, on a ski holiday. Perhaps the cold weather. She knew she had probably made a mistake with her contraceptive, but went ahead, alive to the risk. They did it quickly, against a wall. She had known him years before; it hadn't been a grand passion, more like a baby grand. I think she half wanted a baby..