Starting Over

'Mmm... Well, if you're not sure we should...'

Olivia responded huskily.

As he brushed his lips against hers, Caspar smiled.

He had never felt more sure of wanting anything or anyone than he felt right now.

'Now it feels like I've come home,' he whispered softly to her as he drew her even closer.

It was like recapturing the magic of their early days together, Caspar recognised as he luxuriated in Olivia's response to him and his own fierce desire for her.

Their hunger for one another took them both off guard, keeping the intensity of their lovemaking at the kind of peak Caspar had thought was in their past.

It was almost dawn when Olivia finally fell asleep in his arms, her mouth still curled in the smile she had given him when he had told her how much he loved her.

'HURRY UP, you two, otherwise you're going to be late for school....'

Over Amelia's and Alex's heads, Caspar and Olivia exchanged rueful looks. Both of them knew how close they had come to oversleeping this morning and why!

There were still things they needed to discuss—they both knew that—but lying in each other's arms they had made themselves and one another a vow that from now on their lives together would come first.

'I could work part-time,' Olivia had suggested hesitantly as they lay entwined together, their bodies heavy with satisfaction.

'You don't have to do that for me, Livvy,' Caspar had protested.

'It wouldn't be for you,' Olivia had corrected him.

'It would be for us, for all of us...you, me, the girls and whatever other children we might have.'

'Other children?' Caspar had demanded bemused.

'Mmm... Two more, perhaps,' Olivia had told him dreamily. 'Well, three is an awkward number and if we have them close together... It would be nice to have boys this time as well, although I don't really mind.'

These last few days at home with her father had given her time to think not just about the past but about the future as well. She was sure now just what she wanted from life for herself and, more importantly, what she wanted for those close to her, the children they already had and those she hoped she and Caspar would have.

'Have you thought about how we're going to finance this extended family?' Caspar had demanded ruefully.

Reaching up to wrap her arms around him and kiss him Olivia had told him happily, 'Oh, we'll find a way.'

As he had held her, Caspar could have sworn he almost saw a small dark shadow melt away and that he was seeing Olivia as he had always dreamed she could be, free of the pain of the past, free to share his love. Now as he waited for Amelia and Alex to gather their school things together he thanked fate for ensur-ing that he could meet the love, the second chance Olivia was offering him, openly and honestly without any hidden secrets between them and equally silently he thanked Molly as well.

As she handed the girls their coats Olivia put on her own, too.

'I'm coming with you,' she told Caspar with a warm smile.

'Now we're like a proper family,' Alex beamed as they all left the house together.

A proper family! As she tucked her hand through Caspar's arm, Olivia thought how good those words sounded.

BEN'S FUNERAL CORTEGE made its solemn way towards the church. It had been agreed that none of the younger children of the family should be at the grave side and Olivia had given Jenny a look of liquid love and gratitude when the older woman had asked her if she would mind staying at Queensmead with all the little ones.

'Thank you for that,' Olivia had told Jenny gratefully. 'I don't think I could have borne to be there, Jenny. It would have felt too hypocritical. I can't grieve for him—not really, and...'

She had stopped speaking, shaking her head, knowing that Jenny understood.

Jack, seated inside one of the cars, tensed and leaned closer to the window as they drove through Haslewich. He knew it was unlikely that he would see Annalise. She would be at school, but still his heart hammered against his ribs. He had tried to ring her several times but she had never answered either his calls or his letters. He ached with the pain of losing her and with the pain of wanting her.

ANNALISE KNEW all about Ben's funeral. His death had been the talk of the town. Unable to concentrate on her schoolwork, she gazed out of the classroom window. Jack would be here at home in Haslewich now. Tears filled her eyes. Angrily she brushed them away. She wasn't going to cry over him. He wasn't worth it. Not after the way he had lied to her and she was never, ever going to fall in love with or trust a man again. Never...

BEN'S HALF-BROTHER, Saul and Nick Crighton's father, Hugh, read Ben's will. There were bequests to all of Ben's grandchildren and Jon mentally gave a small prayer of thanks as he remembered the furious battle he had had with his father to ensure that Olivia was included along with his own daughters.

Louise and Katie would not have minded a single jot if they had not inherited anything but Olivia would have taken it as yet another rejection which in effect it would have been.

There was a bequest to Ruth, Ben's sister, of some family archives and she flashed Jon a brief rueful look and shook her head as though chiding him. There were various other small bequests, but the bulk of his estate Ben had left to his eldest son David...with the exception of Queensmead, which he had willed to his grand-son Max.

Jon could almost feel the collective sigh of relief from the assembled listeners as this last bequest was read out, but instead of looking relieved Max was frowning and standing up, holding up his hand in a request for silence before beginning, 'I'm sure it's no secret to most of you here that prior to his death Ben had made it plain that he no longer wanted to leave Queensmead to me. I was, after all, only his second choice. In reality he wanted Queensmead to go to his elder son and I'm afraid that I infuriated and antagonised him so much towards the end of his life that he had decided to leave Queensmead to charity—any charity rather than to allow me to have it. The fact that he died before he could make any such arrangements does not alter my view that he wished to make them and I believe that it would be morally wrong of me to accept his bequest under such circumstances.

'However, my wife Maddy loves this house.' His voice dropped, his eyes shadowing. 'In the circumstances, what I would propose to do is to have Queensmead independently valued and provided I can afford to do so, buy it and pass the sale money over to Ben's estate.'

He stopped as David stood up and walked over to him telling him firmly, 'Thank you, Max. We all ap-predate your honesty, but when it comes to moral obligations—' he gave Max a brief smile '—all of us here know just how much my father was morally obliged to Maddy and everything that she did for him.'

As everyone started to murmur their assent and nod their heads, David's smile widened.

'What Max says about my father's desire to change his will, though, is quite correct and therefore...I think the fairest and most just course of action would be—'

he paused and looked first at Max and then at Jon

'—would be for the deeds of Queensmead to be trans-ferred into Maddy's name and the house and its contents to be handed into her safe keeping.'

For a moment there was silence and then someone—David didn't know who—started to clap and within seconds the whole room was clapping and c

heering. And Max, who was standing less than three feet away from him, looked at him with his heart in his eyes as they filled with unashamed tears.

Beside him Jon was thumping him on the back and declaring with delight, 'David that was a decision worthy of Solomon,' whilst Jack was watching him with pride and love.

'A decision worthy of Solomon indeed,' Honor agreed lovingly later when he described the scene to her.

David returned her smile as he drew her closer to him. They had heard the previous day that as far as this test could indicate, their baby was healthy and sound.

NICK PUT DOWN the glass of wine he was holding without tasting it. Nothing in life had any taste for him any more...without Sara. He woke up at night reaching for her, aching for her, and the wound that had supposedly been healing so well had developed a sec-ondary infection which had caused his doctor to frown and make worried comments about the efficiency of his immunity system.

A heavy-duty course of antibiotics had routed out the infection but nothing could remove the pain from his heart.

'If she matters so much to you, why the hell don't you do something about it?'

Nick tensed as Saul confronted him.

'You don't know what you're talking about,' he told his brother rudely.

Saul refused to take offence.

'You don't think so?' he countered. 'I've been there before you, Nick,' Saul told him.

'You don't understand,' Nick told him bitterly.

'I understand that you're sick with love and too much of a coward or a fool to do anything about it,'

Saul returned with gritty asperity.

Saul knew he was taking a dangerous risk, but Nick was his brother and he couldn't simply stand to one side and watch him suffer out of some idiotic stubborn pride.

Saul saw from the hot flash of anger illuminating Nick's eyes that he had hit a nerve. He watched him anxiously as he turned on his heel and walked away.

'Any luck?' Tullah asked her husband as she came over to join him.