“Small world isn’t it. My parents have mentioned her. They said that all her pieces are now with one private collector who has chosen to remain anonymous. Do you know who that is?”

“Yes but I must keep their anonymity. I am happy to know you Francesca. So Marcus what is it that you two want to talk to me about?”

“I’m sure you’ve noticed that Francesca is pregnant.”

“Yes I did notice that. How far along are you?”

“I am in my sixth month.”

“Congratulations. Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?”

“No. I don’t want to know.”

“Bette, Francesca and I are good friends but we were also once lovers. We both soon realized that it was mistake to cross that line, but by then she’d become pregnant. This is my baby Bette but as you can imagine neither one of us is in a position to raise a child on our own. I am leaving for two years on the group tour and Fran is returning to Italy in six months. We love each other as friends but we are not ready to have a family together. When we found out that she was pregnant we couldn’t bring ourselves to abort the baby. It goes against our beliefs so we both decided she would give birth.”

”I see.” Bette said with compassion at their predicament but she still didn’t know how she could help.

”Bette we can’t keep this baby. We are planning to give it up for adoption. The reason I contacted Peggy was to see if she would help us with the legalities of a private adoption. We don’t want the baby to be put into the system and end up with strangers. We want to make sure that he or she is well taken care of. I know Peggy has a lot of contacts and connections so I was hoping that she would help us to find a good home with a family that would provide the love and care for this child that we can’t.”

“What did she say?”

“She said that she would help of course but she wanted me to speak to you first.”

“What does she think that I can do?”

“I think she feels that maybe you would consider adopting our baby.”