The Secret Child

‘This is no joking matter,’ Garth said as he closed the door with quiet finality. ‘Look, Alison, we are going to have to bite the bullet and work with Davenport…we have no alternative.’

‘You mean I’m going to have to bite the bullet,’ Alison grated angrily. She looked from Garth to her brothers, who looked slightly uncomfortable. But it was Ian, her youngest brother, who stood up for her.

‘I think Alison’s right and she shouldn’t have to see Luke Davenport if she doesn’t want to,’ he said staunchly. ‘We can do without him. If Dad were here he’d be horrified we were even thinking of getting involved with him.’

‘Dad is dead, Ian,’ Garth grated dismissively. ‘And you’re only just eighteen. What would you know about pressure and how difficult it is to start all over again if you lose everything?’

As he spoke Garth held Alison’s gaze. ‘My wife is expecting our first child any day…Michael is just getting engaged and is counting on his job here to pay his mortgage…not to mention the fact that your cottage as well as mine is tied up on this estate, Alison. If the hotel goes under we are all in trouble.’

‘Well, maybe the hotel won’t go under,’ Alison said softly.

‘No, it won’t, not if we except Luke’s offer…’

‘So what is his offer?’ Alison asked tightly.

‘I told you this morning. He’s interested in buying into the hotel; he wants to be an equal partner.’

‘And what does he want in return?’ Alison’s voice was tremulous. ‘Are you really so stupid you are willing to accept Luke Davenport at face value? Have you forgotten how he went behind our backs to buy Dad’s property?’

‘No, of course I haven’t forgotten,’ Garth said dismissively.

‘Was it you who told Luke that Nathan is his child?’

Garth had the grace to flinch.

Alison’s hands tightened into fists as they lay on the desk. ‘You had no right to do that…’

‘Maybe he had a right to know,’ Garth said defensively. ‘And anyway, it’s given him a vested interest to see that our business does well—’

‘You are such a hypocrite, Garth…you hate Luke Davenport.’

‘Well, maybe that should remain in the past, maybe I’m big enough to admit I might have been wrong.’ Garth held her eyes steadily. ‘Ring Luke and ask him to come into the business with us, Alison. Please.’

‘He’s not interested in the business, Garth…can’t you see, he’s just using it as a lever to put pressure on me, because he’s curious about Nathan?’

‘I think we should give him the benefit of the doubt,’ Garth said firmly.

Even as Alison was shaking her head, she was remembering Luke’s ultimatum and wondering what choice she had.

Luke wanted contact with his child and she knew full well he would stop at nothing now to get him. But the question that was really disturbing her was, why?

‘I’ve talked to him at length and I think he’s genuine,’ Garth said again as he met her eyes.

‘And what about his wife?’ Alison asked. ‘How does she feel about Luke’s sudden interest in our business…in my son?’

‘Luke is divorced, Alison,’ Garth told her quietly. ‘He and Bianca have been apart almost a year.’

CHAPTER THREE

NATHAN was asleep in his cot and the only sounds in the cottage were the lashing of the rain against the windows and every now and then a fierce growl as thunder tore the sky.

It was the perfect night for the devil to be out on the prowl, Alison thought, her glance moving towards the window as lightning illuminated the shapes of the trees outside the window, the perfect night for Luke’s visit.

She remembered the sound of triumph in his voice as he had answered her telephone call, the smug, self-satisfied note as he told her he would visit with pleasure that evening. ‘Probably around eight,’ he’d repeated smoothly.

She glanced at the clock on the sideboard. It was quarter past now; he was late. Was he late on purpose? she wondered, because it really was a kind of slow torture to wait like this, pacing around the small rooms of the cottage, tension rigid inside her.

Alison went across to the sideboard to pour a glass of wine and then changed her mind. She needed all of her faculties to face Luke Davenport. Instead she found herself checking her appearance in the mirror.

Her red-gold hair was pulled severely back from her face, and she wore jeans and a plain white T-shirt. There was no way she wanted Luke to think she had made any kind of an effort to look good for him, but now she wondered if that was a mistake. Maybe she needed some feminine wiles to keep a step ahead of whatever game it was he was playing. She felt sure Luke wasn’t really interested in the hotel…no matter what Garth said so heatedly to the contrary.

She thought again about the news that Luke was divorced. From what Garth had said, she calculated the marriage had lasted less than eight short months. What had happened? she wondered. Was it a case of once a womaniser, always a womaniser?

The doorbell rang and she felt her heart pumping nervously as she moved across the room to answer it.

Luke was standing in the porch. He was wearing a long, dark raincoat over a suit, but she couldn’t see his face properly because it was in shadow.

‘You’re late,’ she said tersely.

A flash of lightning lit the sky, illuminating his features for just a second; they looked harsh and ruthless somehow. ‘About two years too late, I would say,’ he said quietly. ‘But you know the old saying…better late than never.’

He brushed past her into the house and took off the sodden raincoat to hand it to her.

‘I’m glad you reconsidered.’

‘I haven’t reconsidered anything,’ she said quickly. ‘I just thought…that we should talk.’

‘Yeah, I just bet you did.’ His voice was dry. ‘Or rather the family did. Garth can be quite persuasive, can’t he, when he puts his mind to it…a bit like your old man?’

‘Just leave my family out of this, Luke. This is between you and me.’

‘I don’t think so.’ Luke grated the words sardonically. ‘I know from experience that you can’t just deal with one Trevelyan, you have to take them all on collectively.’

‘I mean it, Luke; your argument is with me, not them. And I know very well you have no more interest in our hotel than in the star-wars project. So I want you to stop filling Garth’s head with rubbish and I want you to stay away from my brothers.’

‘Still the same over-protective mother hen, I see.’ His eyes moved over her as they had this morning in the library, taking in her shapely body as if he was weighing her up in some way. ‘Just how far would you go to keep your siblings happy, I wonder?’

Something about the way he asked that question made her deeply uneasy, but she didn’t back down and she didn’t break her eye contact with him. ‘I’d go as far as it takes, Luke,’ she assured him with a cool confidence she was in reality far from feeling.

Instead of being rattled in any way Luke seemed to find her show of defiance amusing, and that made her more nervous. She turned away from him to hang his coat up behind the door; she had the horrible feeling that she had just said too much.

‘Nice place you have here.’ Luke moved away from her into the lounge, his gaze moving over the chintz furniture and the log fire that blazed in the stone grate.

Alison followed him into the room. Never had she felt so tense, so on edge; her every instinct was telling her that if she didn’t tread very carefully she was going to be in deep, deep trouble. ‘Would you like a drink?’ She forced herself to be polite.

He turned from where he stood by the fire and looked directly at her. ‘No. I’d like to see my son.’

She didn’t answer him. Now that she knew Garth had told him the truth, was there any point continuing to deny that Nathan was his? The question had plagued her all day. She knew Luke well enough to know that he wouldn’t let this drop…if she continued to fight he would insist on blood tests and that would achieve nothing except to confirm what Garth had already told him. Maybe if she just admitted the truth it would take the fire out of the situation and before long he’d get bored and leave.