First Love, Last Love

So that was the reason for his sudden cruelty, for the veiled argument between Laurence and himself as they travelled back into town. ‘What a shock for you, Alex,’ she scorned. ‘To find I’m the daughter of the man you most despise. God, how ironic!’ She began to laugh, a hysterical laugh that went on and on.

‘Stop that!’ One of his hands snaked out and slapped her hard across the face.

‘Oh, I’ll stop,’ she made no attempt to touch her throbbing cheek. ‘In fact I’ll remove myself completely. And I’ll repeat to you what I told him, I don’t ever want to see either of you again!’

Her flight was one of haste, wanting only to get away, to think, to—God, it couldn’t be true, Laurence Daniels couldn’t be her father!

She walked and walked, not wanting to think and yet finding she could do little else. To think that her mother and Laurence Daniels had been lovers, that they had deceived her father, had even foisted their love-child on to him. Her father had never known of the affair, of that Lauri felt certain, he could never have been so loving towards her if he had known.

To think that her mother had been the woman Laurence Daniels deceived his wife with, that Alex had been right about its being a married woman. By the time the affair had ended there had been a child, a child whom her father had accepted as being his own. Probably because it had never occurred to him that his beautiful wife could be unfaithful to him.

Did Jane and Steve suspect anything of her parenthood? After all, they had been seventeen and eight at the time, quite old enough to realise that their brother’s wife had another man. Hadn’t Laurence said he had seen Steve a couple of times, and he couldn’t have done that unless Adele had taken him along on some of their meetings.

She knew that what Laurence Daniels had told her was the truth—and she hated him for it. But she hated Alex Blair too! He had known since their meeting on Wednesday, and that was the reason he had made no attempt to see her after that, why he had called for her last night and deliberately caused trouble with her aunt and uncle. He had decided to pay her back too for the pain his sister had suffered.

She had meant it about not seeing either of them again. She despised Laurence Daniels for his affair with her mother, and she hated Alex for what he had tried to do to her last night. If she had admitted loving him, had let him make love to her, no doubt he would then have taken great pleasure in informing her that she meant nothing to him, that he had only done it because of her relationship to Laurence. Little did he know that he still had his revenge, she was still insanely in love with him.

Jane and Robin were in the lounge when she finally arrived home, and much as she would have liked to have gone straight to her room, she knew her aunt would never let her escape that easily. If only Jane realised the shock she had received today.

Jane stood up on her entrance. ‘Lauri, I—Goodness, are you ill?’ she rushed to her side. ‘What’s happened?’

‘Nothing.’ Lauri sat down—before she fell down.

Jane’s mouth set. ‘It was Alexander Blair,’ she said grimly. ‘He said you were upset, but he didn’t say he was the cause of it.’

She gave her aunt a sharp look. ‘You’ve heard from Alex?’ That was something she hadn’t expected.

‘He came round.’

‘Alex did?’ she frowned.

‘Yes, darling,’ Jane confirmed gently. ‘He seemed—concerned.’

‘I’ll bet he was,’ Lauri acknowledged grimly.

‘What happened?’ Jane frowned. ‘Did he—’

‘Oh no,’ Lauri’s smile was bitter, ‘nothing like that. Alex Blair doesn’t use force, he has other, more subtle ways of getting what he wants. He would never hurt a woman that way.’

‘But he has hurt you, very much. I can tell that.’

Lauri shook her head. ‘Not him. At least, only partly.’

Robin stood up and came over to kiss Jane on the cheek. ‘I can see that the two of you want to talk in private,’ he said understandingly. ‘I’ll meet you tomorrow lunchtime, darling, and we’ll go and choose your ring.’

‘Fine.’ Jane returned his kiss. ‘I had a lovely weekend. I’ll write to your parents and thank them.’

He grinned. ‘I think agreeing to marry me is thank-you enough. Until tomorrow. Goodnight, Lauri,’ he added almost gently.

She forced herself to smile. ‘Goodnight, Robin.’

‘Now,’ Jane said briskly once he had left, ‘tell me what happened to upset you like this.’

In the past she had always found it easy to talk to Jane, but now she was too conscious of her own identity, feeling like an intruder, an interloper in the house that had been her home all her life. Besides, she could hardly tell Jane the truth. ‘Do I take it congratulations are in order?’ She spoke of something quite different, Robin’s remark was too obvious for him to have meant anything else.

‘Robin has asked me to marry him, yes,’ Jane blushed prettily.

‘So you met with his parents’ approval?’