The Unexpected Baby Read online

  But from having nothing and no one she’d made a good life for herself. At least this time round she had a successful career to fall back on, and was carrying the child she’d begun to need so desperately.

  So, on the whole, she reasoned, wondering if she could manage a glass of water and a slice of dry toast without upsetting her unborn baby, everything balanced out and she could hack it.

  She wasn’t at all sure about that one week later, when Jed arrived with his mother.

  She hadn’t been able to think about starting a new book, and hadn’t responded to the faxes from her agent which had come chattering through over the last couple of days—apologising for interrupting her honeymoon, but apparently excited over some awards ceremony to be held in London. She hadn’t been interested. One day she’d have to read through them properly, absorb what her agent was trying to tell her and respond. But not now. Not yet.

  She’d driven down to the village and told Pilar to take two more weeks’ leave, and then had sought the solitude she so desperately needed in the hot few acres of Spanish earth that was her garden.

  She was weeding amongst the massed clumps of sweet-smelling carnations that bordered one of the twisting paved paths when she heard the car. Brushing her hands down the sides of her cotton skirt, she stood up and walked towards the house, resenting the intrusion. Resenting it to the point of internal explosion when she saw Jed handing his mother from the car.

  She couldn’t imagine what either of them was doing here, or what she could possibly say to them—especially Catherine Nolan, who was one of the nicest women to draw breath.

  Wearing a pale blue linen suit, the older woman looked less stressed out than the grieving mother she’d come to know during the two weeks she’d stayed in Netherhaye, the family home in rural Hertfordshire. Though she had perked up enormously for the quiet wedding, bossing the caterers and florists around, making sure the small reception back at Netherhaye was as perfect as it could possibly be.

  ‘Elena!’ Catherine beamed as she became aware of her daughter-in-law’s approach. ‘How good of you to agree to let me come—only for a few days, I promise. I won’t intrude longer than that!’

  So Jed hadn’t told his mother of the complications that had rendered their marriage null and void. Catherine wouldn’t be looking like a plump, slightly flustered, happy mother hen if he had. But then he wouldn’t, of course, she reminded herself, doing her best to find a smile of sorts. Hadn’t duping his parent into believing everything was blissful been one of his two main priorities?

  ‘It’s lovely to see you.’ She bent to receive Catherine’s kiss and didn’t look at Jed. He was removing luggage from the boot, just a shadowy presence in the background, and that was the way he had to stay if she was to hold onto her sanity, swallow back the scalding renewal of the pain and rage she’d talked herself into believing was over and done with. ‘I’m sure you’re ready for a drink.’

  ‘Oh, I’d love one. It’s quite a drive from Jerez airport, isn’t it? But such lovely countryside—oh, what a gorgeous courtyard—all those lilies! And will you just look at those geraniums? They never get that huge at home!’

  Barely hearing the spate of compliments on her home, Elena led the older woman into the cool, airy sitting room and watched her plop down into a deep comfy armchair with an audible sigh of relief.

  ‘Bliss! Now I can take my shoes off.’

  ‘And I can fetch you that drink.’

  Elena escaped into the kitchen. She saw Jed toting luggage up the stairs, clenched her jaw and ignored him, closing the kitchen door behind her firmly. She could have gone after him and demanded to know what the hell he thought he was doing, bringing his mother here when their marriage, so recently begun, was well and truly over, leading the poor deluded woman to believe that she, Elena, had agreed to this visit

  But she didn’t. She simply wanted to hide. During the past week she had talked herself into believing she could handle the irretrievable shocking breakdown, that when she saw him again it wouldn’t hurt because sensibly, being an intelligent adult and not a soppy child, and because she’d done it once before, she knew how to cut her losses and go on.

  But it did hurt. It hurt like hell.

  She reached for two wine glasses and a bottle of white Rioja from the fridge; she needed the stiffening, even if Catherine didn’t.

  Catherine did. ‘How deliciously cold. It hits the spot! Isn’t Jed joining us?’

  ‘He’s taking your cases up.’ And taking an inordinate amount of time about it, she thought edgily, doing her best to sound relaxed—though why should she bother, when Catherine would learn, sooner rather than later, that her new daughter-in-law was shortly to become an ex?

  While Catherine chattered about her flight out, Elena, wine in hand, perched on the arm of one of the chairs and wondered whether to break the news now. Catherine would have to know, because following Jed’s orders and pretending the marriage was fine when it wasn’t was something she was not prepared to do.

  She was trying to decide whether she should dress it up some way, and how, or whether she should come straight out with it when Catherine stopped her thought processes stone-dead.

  ‘I have to tell you—your marriage to my son was one of the happiest occasions of my life, Elena. It didn’t make up for losing Sam, nothing could ever do that, but it helped enormously—helped ease the dreadful grief and gave me something good to think about. Since I lost their father, all I’ve ever wanted is happiness for my boys.’

  She looked so earnest, her eyes rather too moist, tears not far away, because she was still trying to come to terms with the worst thing that could happen to a woman: the loss of her child. Elena felt her stomach give a sickening lurch. She didn’t want to hear any more, but short of walking out of the room she couldn’t avoid it.

  ‘Like any mother, I wanted my boys settled with a good woman, happily married with children of their own. I’d begun to despair of it ever happening.’ She gave Elena a soft, shaky smile. ‘Sam—well, he was like a will o’ the wisp, impossible to pin down or keep in a settled place, and Jed—well, he was too settled, too much a workaholic bachelor, wedded to the business. But when Jed invited you to stay at Netherhaye, after the funeral, it was like a blessing. Just to watch the two of you gave me joy—and hope for the future. I could see what had happened, any fool could. I watched the pair of you holding your feelings back—not only because to hurl yourselves into each other’s arms might have seemed crass, in view of the circumstances, but because you were obviously making sure you got to know each other before you made any commitment. Though of course Jed and I already felt we knew you very well, through what Sam had told us.

  ‘Knowing that my one remaining son had found the perfect love at last was the only thing that kept me going through those dark days. So when he phoned a few days ago, to check I was all right on my own, I asked if I could come on a short visit. I hadn’t meant to,’ she said earnestly, ‘it just came out. I know you’re on your honeymoon, but I suppose I needed to see you both to restore my faith in God, to remind myself He can dish out the good as well as the hard to bear.’

  Her smile was now so loving and peaceful it made Elena’s heart bleed. How could she spill out the truth and ruin this good woman’s precarious contentment? Plunge her back into the dark abyss of grief where there was no glimmer of consolation to be found?

  Jed had decided on the pretence of marital bliss because he had known what the truth would do to his grieving parent, and Elena could understand that, sympathise. His harsh dictates, so coldly spelled out for her, became more the reasoned decisions of a man who knew his duty.

  He would hate the idea of putting on a front as much as she did, but felt, because of the tragic circumstances, that it was the only right thing to do.

  She didn’t want to understand, and heaven knew she didn’t want to sympathise. She wanted to cut Jed right out of her life, never see or hear of him again, carry on with the long haul of forgetting
the pain, the terrible slicing pain of seeing his precious love turn to hatred.

  Not knowing what to say, she refilled Catherine’s glass and took a gulp of her own as yet untouched wine, and Jed said from the doorway, ‘Should you be drinking that?’

  The sound of that cool voice with undertones of condemnation made her heart clench, especially when the penny dropped and she realised why he had asked that question. Alcohol and pregnancy didn’t mix. Sam’s baby was another of his priorities, another duty of care.

  ‘Don’t be so stuffy! It’s almost suppertime. We’re not hitting the sauce before breakfast! Come and join us.’ Not knowing his reason for the criticism, Catherine turned to her son, raising her glass, proud maternal love in her eyes.

  Putting her own glass down on a side table, aware that her hands were shaking, that every darn thing inside her was shaking, Elena risked an under-lash look at her husband.

  He sauntered casually into the room, with a smile for his mother, hands stuffed into the pockets of his close-fitting dark trousers, the silk of his white shirt falling in fluid folds from his wide shoulders.

  Yet there was strain there, there in the deepening of the lines that bracketed his beautiful, passionate male mouth, the tell-tale pallor beneath the olive tones of his skin. The past week had been tough on him, too.

  But it was all entirely his own fault. She quelled the momentary surge of compassion. If he had given her the basic human right of being heard. If he’d given her the opportunity to tell him about the clinic treatment then he would have believed her when she’d told him that she and Sam had never been lovers.

  ‘Now, you two...’ Catherine beamed at them both indiscriminately, and Elena wondered if her mother-in-law was so blinded by what she wanted to believe that she couldn’t sense something was wrong. ‘I didn’t invite myself here just to play gooseberry. There’s something I need to discuss with you both. I could have said it on the phone, or written, but I wanted to see you...’

  As the older woman’s voice trailed uncertainly away Elena knew her present contentment was a fragile thing, with dark grief lurking beneath the surface of her courage, waiting for the opportunity to reclaim her.

  ‘We’re delighted you came,’ Jed put in swiftly, briefly squeezing his mother’s plump shoulder as he walked past to stand by Elena. ‘We haven’t done any sightseeing at all, so your being here gives us the ideal opportunity—we can do it together. I know Elena’s anxious to show us her favourite places.’

  Elena knew no such thing! Playing the devoted ecstatic wife for an audience of one while they trotted round the countryside would kill her! And when Jed went on to ask, ‘So, what was it you wanted to discuss, Ma?’ Elena shot to her feet and grabbed the first excuse to get out of there she could find.

  ‘It’s time I made a start on supper. You must be hungry, Catherine. You can tell us what’s on your mind while we eat.’

  She took her wine and fled, closing the kitchen door behind her, her heart punching against her breastbone. Catherine had mentioned staying a few days. Not long. But it would be purgatory. How could she pretend she and Jed were devoted newlyweds? Yet how could she do anything other? She couldn’t heap more misery on that poor woman’s head!

  She and Jed would have to find a way out. She didn’t know how, but she’d come up with something. She’d have to. The present situation couldn’t be borne.

  Tiredly, she carried her glass to the sink and tipped the wine away. Jed had been right, of course. Pregnancy and alcohol didn’t mix.

  His cool voice slid over her. ‘I’m glad you agree I’m right.’ He took the empty glass from her nerveless fingers and watched the last of the wine drain away.

  Elena shuddered. She hadn’t heard him follow her, and the coldness of his voice made her feel as if a wave of icy water had washed over her. How could he have forgotten everything they’d been to each other so completely and so callously?

  Yet hadn’t she, over this last endless week, been trying to do the same?

  It was probably the only way, she conceded now, and turned away from him. ‘Of course you were right. But you’re not always, and you’d do well to remember that.’ And he could ponder that, or not, as he chose. He had refused to hear her side of the story, walked all over her attempts to explain. She wasn’t going to put herself in the position of being humiliated all over again. ‘Why don’t you go and entertain Catherine? Leave me to make supper.’

  There were things she needed to say to him, but they would have to wait. Right now she wanted him and his icy voice and his tight-boned face well away from where she was. Her emotions had been in a mess ever since she’d discovered she was pregnant, and his return—with Catherine—had sent them skittering around, completely out of control.

  She couldn’t handle it, and didn’t even want to have to try.

  But Jed had other ideas. ‘She’s on the patio, soaking up the sun and the rest of the wine. She’s not as young as she was and travelling tires her.’

  ‘Then she shouldn’t have come!’ Elena bit out as she swung round to face him. ‘What do you think I felt like when I saw you arriving together? The least you could have done was phone and warn me!’ The moment the words were out she wished she could swallow them back. The poor woman had only made the journey to reassure herself, remind herself that there were things to be happy about. This situation with Jed had got her so she didn’t know what she was saying or thinking.

  ‘I didn’t know you were so selfish.’ Cold eyes raked her with glittering dislike. ‘But then there were other things you made sure I didn’t know.’ His mouth twisted bitterly, his eyes continuing a brutal assessment. ‘You look a mess. Freshen up while I make a meal. And behave yourself in front of Catherine. If you upset her I’ll make you wish you’d never been born.’

  Elena stalked out before she exploded. By the time she reached the relative sanctuary of her room her heart felt big enough to belong to an elephant, big enough to burst. How dared he treat her as if she were scum? How dared he?

  She kicked her shoes into a corner, dragged the faded old cotton skirt and gardening shirt from her quivering body and stamped into the bathroom. Ten minutes later, wrapped in a towel, she knew what she had to do. For her unborn child’s sake she had to stay calm. And to have any hope of achieving that she had to be careful not to sink to Jed’s level, not to say vile and hurtful things, and not—most definitely not—rant and rave and throw things!

  She chose a fitted silk sheath that ended a couple of inches above her knees and left her lightly tanned arms bare. The colour matched her eyes and the fabric clung to every curve. Soon now she’d start to bulge, and have to wear tents, and after the birth she’d probably turn matronly—so if she wanted to look on the cool side of sexy while she still could, who was there to stop her? Certainly not her pig of a husband.

  To counteract the sexy length of leg on view, the way the silk of her dress lovingly caressed the curve of breast, tummy and thigh, she pulled her hair back from her face in a elegant upswept style and touched her wrists with old-fashioned lavender water.

  Cool and sexy, both. And if the enigma annoyed the man she wished she’d been sensible enough not to fall in love with, tough.

  ‘My goodness—you do look lovely!’ Catherine said as Elena joined her on the patio, where Jed was putting a selection of salads down on the table.

  ‘Thank you.’ Elena managed a smile as she sank into the padded seat next to her mother-in-law. She knew Jed had turned from what he’d been doing to look at her, but refused to meet his eyes. She’d been on the receiving end of too many contemptuous looks coming from him to go looking for more.

  ‘Believe it or not, I used to have a shape! Then the boys arrived, and that was that!’ Catherine’s eyes twinkled at her, and Elena thought, My God, one day she’s going to have to know she’s going to be a grandmother. Sam’s child.

  She pressed the tips of her fingers to her temples. How would the older woman take the news? It seemed that every t
ime she took a breath another problem popped up. The decision she and poor dead Sam had taken was creating unbelievable ripples—

  ‘I nodded off for a few minutes, I’m afraid, what with the sun and the wine and the worry of flying on my own for the very first time,’ Catherine was confessing, unaware of Elena’s boiling thoughts. ‘Or I would have changed for supper. Should I trot along and tidy up now?’

  ‘No.’ She didn’t want to be left alone with Jed. She still felt too raw to cope with any more of his hurtful comments. He’d disappeared back into the kitchen, but he could be back at any moment. The negative had come out too quickly, too harshly. Making a conscious effort, Elena smiled. ‘You’re fine as you are, really. I’d much prefer you to stay and chat!’

  And chat she did, and was still at it when Jed finally appeared with a dish of pasta dressed with olive oil and garlic. ‘We seem to be running low on provisions,’ he commented mildly, not making it sound like a criticism for his mother’s benefit. ‘So we’ll make do with pasta and salads, OK?’

  It would have to be. Elena hadn’t bothered to shop, hadn’t felt like eating during the last nightmare week, and his lumping them together, making them a ‘we’ made her disproportionally annoyed.

  ‘Scandalous, isn’t it, Catherine?’ Her smile was as cool as the way she was wearing her hair, as cool as her cologne. ‘We couldn’t bring ourselves to venture out into the real world, even for food.’

  She did look at Jed then, saw that her taunt had rubbed salt into an open wound, watched his mouth tighten, his jaw clench, saw raw pain in his eyes and told herself she didn’t care. He could dish out hurt but he couldn’t take it. At least he could take it, she amended as she watched him hand dishes to Catherine, but he sure as hell didn’t like it.

  ‘Well, now,’ his mother commented comfortably, blissfully unaware of undertones. ‘That discussion I told you I needed.’ She dabbed olive oil from her mouth with a soft paper napkin. ‘As you know, Elena, your mother helped me organise your wedding reception, and I persuaded her to stay with me at Netherhaye while you were working back here before the wedding and Jed was tying up loose ends, as he called it, all over the place. And, to cut a long story short, we grew very friendly in a very short space of time. Now...’ She glanced at her son. ‘I don’t know whether I’m jumping the gun, but I rather hope you two will make Netherhaye your home, bring up your children there as your father and I did. It’s been in the family such a very long time.’