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‘That’s a very cynical point of view, Alek’

‘You think so? Why, was your own childhood so happy?’ His gaze bore into her ‘Let e where everyone knew each other? A cottage with roses growing around the door?’

‘Hardly’ She gave a short laugh ‘I didn’t hteen and when I did I wished I hadn’t bothered’

His eyes had narrowed ‘Why not?’

It was a story she wasn’t proud of Correction It was one she was alical, but if you were unloved, then didn’t that automatically make you unlovable? Didn’t the fault lie within her? But she pushed that rogue thought away as she had been trying to do for most of her adult life And there was no reason to keep secrets fro to ier wanted her And if youfact—didn’t thatto be the person she thought she ought to be?

‘I’d hate to shock you,’ she said flippantly

His voice was dry ‘Believe me, I am not easily shocked’

She watched as the filiant s ‘My father was a businessman—quite a successful one by all accounts—and my mother worked as his secretary, but she was also his’ She shrugged as she met his quizzical expression ‘It sounds so old-fashioned now, but she was his mistress’

‘Ah,’ he said, in the tone of aa subject on which he was already an expert ‘His mistress’

‘That’s right It was the usual thing He set her up in a flat He bought her clothes and in particular—underwear They used to go out for as eupheather didn’t make her very popular back at the office Soet away for part of a weekend with her, though of course she was always on her own at Christht when she’d been drinking’

‘So what happened?’ he questioned, diplo the sudden tre?’

Caught up in a tale she hadn’t thought about in a long tiyptian cotton felt soft as she rested her palainst it and met the cool curiosity in Alek’s eyes ‘She wanted hi her that he’d have to wait for his children to leave hoive hiement’

‘And she got pregnant?’

‘She got pregnant,’ she repeated and saw the look on his face ‘And before you say anything—I did not set out to repeat history BelieveI wanted was to recreate my own childhood What happened between us was—’

‘An accident,’ he said, alhly ‘Yes, I know that Go on’

She’d lost the thread of what she’d been saying and it took her a couple of seconds to pick it up again ‘I think shea baby That he ht even be pleasedevidence of his virilitythat kind of thing But he wasn’t He already had three children he was putting through school and a ith an expensive jewellery habit He told her’

Ellie’s voice tailed off She reht of her birthday when her in and started blubbing—telling her stuff which no child should ever hear She had buried it deep in the recesses of her own mind, but now it swaed too long

‘He told her to get rid of it Or ratherto get rid ofas her mother’s words reverberated round her head And I should have listened to him! If I’d knohat lay ahead, I daht he’d change histhe rent on my mother’s apartment and told his wife about the affair—thus effectively curtailing any thoughts of blackmail Then they moved to another part of the country and that was the end of that’

‘He didn’t keep in contact?’

‘Nope It was different in those days, before social media really took off—it’s easy to lose touch with someone There was no maintenance—and my mother was too proud to take him to court She said she’d already lost soher begging She said ould e just fine, but of course—it’s never that simple’