‘How could you, you didn’t even know she existed.’ He was very serious now, his expression grim. ‘Beth had been an invalid for the last twenty years, confined to a wheelchair. I think she was glad to go,’ he added tautly.
‘Oh, surely not! Alex, you can’t mean that?’ she said gently.
‘But I do.’
‘But surely her husband—’
‘Has not always been the paragon he should have been,’ Alex snapped. ‘But you don’t want to hear my family history,’ he said briskly. ‘Laurence is returning to England to live after sixteen years of living in Switzerland. I may not agree with the way he conducted his marriage, but he is my brother-in-law, and I know Beth wouldn’t like me to ignore him. He was a good father to their son.’
Her eyes widened. ‘They have a child?’
‘He was killed in the accident that left Beth crippled. There was no possibility of another child after the accident, not that I think their relationship was all that intimate before then. James was already five, and looking like being an only child. But Laurence was driving the car when James was killed and Beth was injured, so he stayed with her.’
The picture he painted wasn’t a pleasant one, a man staying married to a woman he no longer loved because she was tied to a wheelchair and their child was dead through a mistake on his part. No, it wasn’t pleasant at all, and it had obviously had an adverse affect on Alex, was probably part of the reason he was so bitter about marriage.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said quietly.
‘Don’t be, I’m well over it now.’ He swung the Rolls into the car park. ‘But you can see why I’d be grateful for the presence of an unbiased third party.’
‘Yes,’ she nodded. Although she wasn’t really sure she was unbiased, she couldn’t help but see this from Alex’s point of view. And she hadn’t liked the implication that his brother-in-law had carried on affairs while his wife was confined to a wheelchair; it was somehow distasteful.
‘Not that Laurence hasn’t been the perfect husband for the past sixteen years,’ Alex instantly disabused her of that, almost as if he had read her thoughts. ‘But the damage had already been done. Nothing he could do could make up for the fact that he was once unfaithful to Beth.’
‘It’s a long time to bear a grudge of that kind.’
Alex turned to look at her after switching off the ignition. ‘Would you forgive and forget if your husband had an affair?’
‘I—I don’t know. I thought we’d just established that I don’t ever want to get married,’ she reminded him lightly.
He put out a hand to smooth one of her creamy cheeks. ‘We’re two of a kind, then,’ he murmured. ‘We should be good together, Lauren.’
She moved away from that caressing hand. ‘I don’t believe in affairs either.’
He raised a mocking eyebrow. ‘Do you intend remaining a virgin all your life?’
‘No,’ she answered tautly. ‘I’m not a prude, when I find a man I can love I’ll give myself freely to him. I’ve just got to meet a man I can love.’
‘And respect,’ he put in quietly.
‘And respect.’
‘That means I’m already half way there. We’ve already proved that you respect me,’ he drawled.
‘I doubt I could love you,’ Lauri said distantly. ‘Shouldn’t we be getting inside? Your brother-in-law’s flight will be arriving shortly.’
‘I suppose so,’ he sighed. ‘Although I’m sure Laurence would wait.’
As it happened the plane they were meeting had been delayed, so they had time for lunch after all. Alex seemed preoccupied and Lauri left him to his dark thoughts, warned by the deep scowl on his face not to intrude.
At the time of the breakdown of his sister’s marriage and accident he would have been about her age, very impressionable and very vulnerable. He had carried that disillusionment into adulthood, and she was sure it was the reason for his cynicism.
‘Alex,’ she put her hand on his, ‘the flight arrival has just been called.’
‘Yes,’ he acknowledged tautly, a pulse beating erratically in his clenched jaw. He stood up. ‘Let’s go.’
He walked so fast Lauri almost had to run to keep up with him, her legs a lot shorter than his. A steady stream of people were leaving the arrival section, and Lauri knew straight away which man was Laurence Daniels. Alex reached out to grasp her hand painfully in his own as a tall, loose-limbed man in his late forties or early fifties came towards them, thick reddish-brown hair with faint touches of grey, his face strong and lined, his eyes hidden beneath the tinted lenses of his glasses. He wore a casual linen suit and white silk shirt, a distinguished air about him.
‘My God!’ Alex groaned beside her, his face white, his mouth bloodless.