Sins

‘I don’t want cocoa,’ Emerald objected. ‘I—’

‘Perhaps not, but Jay and I do.’

Whatever it was that had brought her eldest daughter here at this time of night it was obviously important–at least to Emerald herself.

Jay, who had been out with his dog, looked as astonished as Amber had when he came back into the kitchen and saw Emerald there.

Her smart London clothes looked out of place in the hom

ely warmth of the kitchen, just as Emerald herself did, but then Emerald had never thought of Denham as home, despite the fact that she had lived there for so long. No, Denham wasn’t good enough for a girl whose father was a duke, or so Emerald had always claimed. Would her daughter be happy now that she had her prince and his title? For Emerald’s own sake Amber hoped that she would. She suspected that to Emerald, happiness would always have a different meaning than it ever had done to her.

‘I want to speak to my mother alone,’ Emerald told Jay arrogantly. She didn’t want her stepfather there to defend and protect her mother as he always did. She would have a far better chance of getting the truth out of her without Jay around.

She saw the look that her stepfather gave her mother and the small nod she gave back to him. She saw too that he was not happy about leaving them together. Emerald had never been able to see or understand why people treated her mother the way they did, fussing over her and going out of their way for her.

‘Emerald, what is it? What on earth has brought you here at this time of night?’ Amber asked quietly as soon as they were alone.

‘I need you to tell me the truth. Who was my father?’

Chapter Twenty-Five

‘Not still taking those ruddy pills, are you?’

Ella shot Oliver Charters a bitter look. ‘What if I am?’

‘Then you’re a fool,’ he told her bluntly, ‘and I never had you down as that.’

Guilt and chagrin fuelled Ella’s antagonism towards him. She’d got a new prescription from Dr Williamson, but she’d cut down to just one of the pills a day instead of the two she had been taking. Well, at least some days she only took one.

The fashion editor’s PA came into the small cramped office, bringing a halt to their conversation as she riffled through some papers on one of the desks and then made a triumphant sound, having found what she was looking for before exiting the office, leaving Ella stuck by her own desk whilst Oliver lounged against the door.

Removing a pack of cigarettes from the pocket of his jeans, he flipped it open and offered it.

‘Smoke?’

Ella shook her head. Why didn’t he go away and do what he was best at, ogling the models, she thought nastily, instead of standing here in her space as though he had all the time in the world? She tried desperately hard not to look at him but somehow her gaze had a will all of its own, and as he drew on his cigarette and then exhaled with a slow sound of pleasure her eyes flew to his face as though magnetised.

‘There’s nothing quite like that first drag,’ he said, adding in a deliberately mocking tone, ‘Well, almost nothing. Stop taking them, princess,’ he told her in a far more abrupt voice. ‘Take my advice and go and do what you were born to do.’

‘Meaning what, exactly?’ Ella challenged him.

‘Meaning, leave this place, get married, go and live in the country and have a couple of kids.’

‘That’s the last thing I want to do,’ Ella snapped defiantly.

‘Suit yourself.’ Oliver finished his cigarette and then slouched out of the office without even saying what he had come in for in the first place.

Ella fumed as she took out her feelings on her typewriter, thumping down the keys as fiercely as though against Oliver Charters’ flesh.

In the corridor outside Ella’s office, Oliver cursed himself under his breath. What the hell was the matter with him? Why should he care what kind of mess she made of her life? Just because he had kissed her didn’t mean he had to take ruddy responsibility for her, like she was a helpless kid or something and he was the only person around to watch out for her.

Emerald and Amber looked at one another.

She hadn’t meant to say it like that, Emerald admitted to herself as she waited for her mother to answer her. But not to spare her mother’s feelings; far from it. Rather she’d planned to lead more carefully into it before she sprang the trap so that her mother wouldn’t have any warning and thus be able to avoid it and lie to her.

Amber had to sit down. Somehow she had known always that this would happen eventually.

She took a deep breath and simply said, ‘How did you find out?’