Forbidden Surrender

‘Exactly!’ Sara said bitterly.

Michael drew a ragged breath. ‘I think Marie should be here to listen to this,’ he sighed. ‘I only want to have to say it the once. Will you go and get her, Dominic?’

‘Sara?’ Dominie frowned at her.

The man she had regarded as her enemy until a few minutes ago now seemed her only hold on reality. ‘Don’t leave me,’ she pleaded, her hand on his arm as she gazed up at him beseechingly.

His breath caught in his throat before his hand came out and grasped hers, his fingers firm and reassuring. ‘Maybe you should go and get Marie, Michael,’ he suggested quietly, still looking at Sara.

‘Of course,’ the other man agreed jerkily. ‘I—I won’t be a moment,’ and he closed the door with a decisive click.

Sara swallowed hard, shivering even though the day was warm, and removed her hand from Dominic’s. ‘I’m sorry,’ she told him softly. ‘I—I’m just so confused.’

‘It’s all right,’ he reassured her. ‘You really thought he was dead, didn’t you?’

‘Yes. You see, my mother always said—well, she said—–’

‘Michael’s told Marie the same thing about her mother.’ He shook his head. ‘It’s going to take some understanding.’

Sara didn’t think she would ever understand the cruelty of separating two babies not yet a year old. Why, she might have gone through her whole life without knowing the bond of her twin. What on earth had possessed her mother and father to do such a thing? She found it cruel in the extreme, and totally incomprehensible.

‘But, Daddy,’ Marie could be heard complaining as she came into the room, ‘I haven’t finished my make-up yet. Whatever can be so important that I can’t—Sara!’ She had turned around and seen her, and her face lit up with pleasure. ‘You came!’ She came over to take Sara’s hand in her own. ‘I’m so sorry about yesterday. I have these headaches, you see, and—– But you don’t want to hear about that,’ a beaming smile banished all thought of yesterday’s painful migraine. She turned to look at her father. ‘You only had to say Sara was here, Daddy. There was no need to be so mysterious. Don’t you think the way we look so alike is just amazing?’ She held Sara at her side for her father’s opinion.

He was obviously too choked to speak, looking at the two of them in silent wonder.

‘Daddy?’ Marie prompted impatiently.

‘You’ll have to excuse your father,’ Dominic cut in. ‘I’m afraid he’s had rather a shock.’

Marie’s gaiety instantly left her, and she went to her father’s side. ‘What is it, Daddy?’ she searched his face with a worried frown. ‘What’s happened?’ she asked sharply.

‘It’s all right, Marie, just calm down,’ her father instantly soothed. ‘You’ve just got over one attack, don’t bring on another one.’ He smoothed her hair back from her face. ‘Now, let’s all go into the lounge and then we can talk in private—and comfort.’

Michael Lindlay—for Sara couldn’t bring herself to call him her father—seemed to have regained his equilibrium, taking control of the situation now that he had himself under control.

‘Would you like me to leave, Michael?’ Dominic asked him. ‘Let you talk to the two girls in private.’

‘No!’ Sara hadn’t meant her protest to be made quite so vehemently, but she couldn’t let Dominic go. She needed him.

‘She’s right,’ Michael Lindlay told him. ‘You have a right to be here. After all, you’re almost a member of this family yourself.’

‘What’s all this about?’ even the lighthearted Marie had sensed the tense atmosphere.

Michael Lindlay bit his bottom lip, obviously having trouble knowing where to start.

‘At the beginning, Michael,’ Dominic advised him, sitting in one of the armchairs while Marie and Sara sat side by side on the sofa.

‘Yes. Yes.’ He began pacing the room. ‘Rachel and I were very young when we married, only eighteen and nineteen, too young really to know what it was all about. But nevertheless things were going well until Rachel became pregnant.’ He sighed. ‘We couldn’t afford to have a child. I hadn’t met your father then, Dominic, and I was still training to be an engineer, living on a pittance. A child was the last thing I needed at that time. But Rachel went into ecstasies about the coming baby, and for a while I think she forgot she had a husband. I’m not proud of what happened next—–’