The Secret Love-Child

'I do not!' She was taken aback by such an idea, and even more embarrassed.

'Yes, you do. But let's not fight about it in public. We'll pop in and buy another test, then go home; my place this time.' Thinking about her being turned on had turned Rafe on. He couldn't wait to get her behind closed doors again. He had a mind to photograph her as well. Afterwards. She always looked incredible afterwards. Relaxed and dreamy. He'd been wanting to capture that look with his camera for a long time. Not a nude shot. Just her face.

But she dashed upstairs for the bathroom as soon as they arrived back at his place, taking that damned test with her. A disgruntled Rafe collected his favourite camera from the darkroom, but he already knew he was wasting his time. Her mood would change once the test came back negative again. He'd been foolish to suggest the first one might have been wrong. It had just seemed logical at the time. Now he wished he'd never opened his big mouth.

Once again, she was gone ages. Lord, he hoped she wasn't up there crying again. Eventually he trudged up the stairs, not even bothering with the camera. He knew when he was beaten.

'Isabel,' he said wearily as he knocked on the bathroom door, 'please let's not go through all this again.'

The door opened and there she stood, and, yes, she was crying again, though not noisily. The tears were just running silently down her lovely cheeks.

'I should never have let you buy that bloody thing,' he muttered, hating to see her in such distress. 'Isabel, there's no need to get all upset again.'

Her smile startled him. So did the sudden sparkle in her soggy eyes.

'You don't understand, darling,' she said. Tm not upset. I'm crying with happiness. The test was positive, Rafe. We're pregnant!'

Rafe was to wonder later in his life exactly what he felt at that moment. Time and distance did fog the memory. But it had to go down as one of the great moments in his life. He'd put it on a par with their wedding day, just over a month later, even if he had been forced to tolerate Les taking a zillion photographs and both mothers hugging and kissing him all the time.

Nothing, however, would ever eclipse the magic moment when his firstborn entered the world.

Rafe would never forget the look in Isabel's eyes as she cradled her son to her breast, then looked up at him and said, 'I'd like to call him Michael, Rafe. After your father.'

Oh, yes, that was the moment he would remember above all others.

Perhaps because he was weeping at the time.