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But they were not in love and she had conceived his child whilst believing whilst wanting another uish, of her dread at the prospect of e to him

She was relieved when the lunch was finally over Having said goodbye to Star outside the restaurant, she and Claire were left alone together As Claire turned to her, clearly about to say so towards them, James himself at the wheel, and she froze, torn between her need to turn and flee and her knowledge that physically she felt incapable of uar stopped abruptly in front of theot out and strode towards them

Poppy winced, and she felt Jarip that she couldn’t break ‘Ja here? How did you knohere to find me?’

‘I looked in your diary,’ he told her witheringly ‘Get in the car’

‘James I’

I don’t want to go with you, she had been about to say, but he shook his head, telling her grimly, ‘Not now, Poppy; I’m not in the mood for it Where the hell have you been?’ he deuar ‘Why the hell haven’t you been in touch with me?’

As she turned towards hiames, Poppy; you knohat I mean, you knohat it is I want to know’

Just for a heartbeat Poppy contenant after all, but the ier

‘I was right, wasn’t I?’ James continued mercilessly, after he had bundled her into the car, slid into the driver’s seat and set the car in motion ‘You have conceived my child’

‘Yes,’ Poppy admitted tonelessly Why, when she kne little e feelings their relationship was, did she have this urge to cry, to turn to Ja him to stop the car and put his arms round her, hold her, make her feel safe make her feel protectedmake her feel loved?

She tensed her body, expecting his anger to accelerate at her confirnancy with the same velocity hich the car had increased speed, but instead he remained oddly quiet—so quiet in fact that Poppy felt impelled to turn her head and look at him—the first time she had looked at hirily towards her

Jaaze, his concentration appeared to be fixed on the empty road ahead of them

‘I I won’t I can’t not have ave voice to the shaky words just how strongly she already felt about her child, how protective of it, how determined always to keep it from hurt and from harm

Now James did look at her, and the look in his eyes ht for one ht This baby is ht that you’d do anything—and I doto harm it’

Poppy’s body shook as she listened to hi’ she had never doubted—he was that sort of man—but the emotion she had heard in his voice as he’d told her that the baby—her baby—was his child as well had left her lost for words, grappling with the shock of suddenly discovering a side to hiined existed

She knew, of course, how protective he could be towards his close faht extend to a child he had never even intended should be conceived

‘We’ll need to talk to your parents,’ she heard hi her, ‘and then my mother’

‘Do we are we? They’ll have to know the truth,’ she told him, unaware of how haunted and unhappy she looked as she whispered rather than stated the words

‘Yes,’ he agreed quietly ‘Or at least part of it I warn you, Poppy, that not just for your own sake but for the baby’s sake as well there is one truth that it is advisable that no one should ever know’

Poppy’s heart started to thump heavily as he turned his head to look at her

‘What what do you

‘They must never—no one must ever have any reason to think that our child our relationship is the result of anything other than love’