Pregnancy of Revenge

Jeff was right. She had hung around the hotel day and night like an idiot waiting for the phone to ring, hoping Jake would call. Well, not any more. She had another human being to worry about now.

'You're right as usual, Jeff,' she admitted with a wry self- mocking smile. 'I have been behaving like an idiot.'

'You, an idiot?Never.' A laughing voice floated over her shoulder. Charlie spun around and smiled at the big, burly grey-haired man grinning down at her. Dave had obviously just left the dining room, with his brood: Joe, eighteen, James, sixteen, and Mary, two years behind. 'You are a pearl among women, and if you would help me control this lot for the day, I'll even put it in writing,' he teased.

A day sailing was a far better prospect than moping around the hotel another minute. 'Yes, okay, Dave.' The fresh air and the company of good friends was just what she needed to help her banish the depressing thoughts about Jake. 'I'll go and change and meet you at the jetty in twenty minutes.'

'Come on, Charlie,' the boys yelled. 'The water's great, it's not like you to be the last in.'

Wearing a black bikini and stretched out on a towel placed on the fore deck of the sailing boat, Charlie was feeling surprisingly content. She grinned and waved a lazy hand. 'No, I've eaten far too much, maybe later.'

They had sailed to the southern end of the lake, and dropped anchor at a favourite little cove to have their picnic. The three teenagers all had healthy appetites, and Charlie had been no slouch.

'Very wise.' Dave flopped down beside her. 'You have to be careful in your condition.'

'Oh, God!' Charlie groaned. 'Not you as well. You only arrived yesterday, for heaven's sake. Surely the bush tele­graph isn't that fast?'

'Afraid so. Jeff told me over a couple of beers last night. He thought I should know as your team leader and more importantly as your friend, Charlotte.' Charlie knew she was in for a lecture when Dave used her full name. 'You know of course you're off the International Rapid Rescue now, but finding a replacement of your calibre is not my main worry. You are, Charlie. I've known you since the first time Lisa and I came here on holiday almost twenty years ago, and you are as dear to me as my family. And Lisa would say the same if she was still alive,' he said seriously.

She had known she would have to give up the team, but it was the sentiment Dave had expressed that made Charlie blink the sudden moisture from her eyes. Lisa and Dave had visited the hotel with their expanding family for almost as long as she could remember. And she knew how hard Lisa'sdeath from breast cancer last year had hit Dave and the children. 'Thank you for that,' she murmured.

'Yes, well, the thing is, I can't help feeling responsible for the condition you're in. If—'

'You are certainly not responsible. I think I'd know if I had slept with you,' she cut in with a cheeky grin, trying to lighten the atmosphere.

'Forget the jokes, Charlotte, this is serious. If I had never said you needed a change of scene and offered you the use of the studio, maybe you'd never have met the man who has been careless enough to make you pregnant. But that aside, the important question is, do you love each other?'

There was no point in denying the truth. Dave knew her far too well and would see through a lie in a second. 'I love Jake, but I doubt he loves me,' she said flatly.

'According to Jeff, the man is some kind of industrial tycoon who lives abroad. But you do keep in touch with him? Whether he loves you or not, you have to tell him you're pregnant. It is natural for you to have doubts in your condition, but you will probably be pleasantly surprised. Trust me, I know my own sex. Any man would be ecstatic to have a woman like you for his wife and the mother of his children.'

'Yes, sure,' she agreed dryly. At that point three very wet teenagers flopped on the deck and ended the adult conver­sation, much to Charlie's relief, for the rest of the afternoon.

It was late, almost six, when they finally tied the boat up at its mooring. The teenagers yelled, 'Race you to the hotel!' and set off at a run.

'Ah, to be thirty years younger,' Dave groaned.

Charlie flashed him a grin and raced off after the others. The day on the water had done her the world of good, but she was tired and finally had to stop and catch her breath. She looked up at the hotel with the backdrop of the woods embracing it. The grey stone walls gleamed in the evening sun, the immaculate garden stretched down to where she stood with the lake behind her, and she thought she had never seen the old place look more beautiful.

A bittersweet smile curved her soft lips. She was almost home. She placed her hand over her still flat stomach in a tender gesture of reassurance to her unborn child. 'Whatever else happens in life, you and I will always have a home here,' she said with a deep sigh of contentment.

The day out had cleared her head. She was expecting Jake d'Amato's baby, and already she loved them both. But she knew better than most there were no guarantees in life. She had lost all her family, and she had seen through her work generations of families destroyed, even whole towns. She was pregnant, and she now had the chance to build her own little family. Charlie knew with absolute certainty that she had the ability and the strength of will to give her child a good life. As for Jake, she loved him and probably always would, but whether they got together was no longer the main

issue. Her baby was her first concern, now and always.

'Age catching up with you too?' Dave quipped as he reached her, and placed a guiding hand around her waist. 'Come on, I'll help you up the hill.'

Charlie laughed. 'Shouldn't that be the other way around, old man?'

The Lakeview Hotel was a beautiful old building, in a mag­nificent setting and not at all what Jake had expected. It had to be over a hundred years old, and constructed in stone with an elegant terrace along the front. The interior was Victorian in style with stone-mullioned windows, and ma­hogany-panelled walls, the wood mellowed with the patina of years. He doubted if the place had changed much since it was built, and, glancing at the key rack while waiting forthe receptionist, he noted there were only twenty letting rooms. Hardly a big enough hotel to make much of a profit. Not surprising Charlotte was eager to contact him, he thought cynically.

He had begun to believe in the two weeks they had spent together she was not the greedy, selfish bitch he had first thought. But now he realised she was cleverer than most. She had been aiming for the jackpot, a meal ticket for life. Impatiently he drummed his fingers on the desk. Where the hell was the receptionist?

A tall thin man finally appeared. 'Can I help you, sir?'

'Yes, I want to see the owner. Charlotte Summerville,' Jake snapped. He wasn't used to waiting.

'Your name, sir?'