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‘My aunt,’ Lucy told him, thinking how worried her aunt and uncle would be when they woke up and found her missing. What would have happened to her if Saul hadn’t appeared? If she had fainted when she was alone… But if Saul hadn’t turned up she probably would not have fainted in the first place, she told herself staunchly. It was the shock of seeing him that had brought on her paralysing weakness.
Saul! Where was he now? He must not find out she was pregnant.
‘I’ll leave you now,’ the doctor told her briskly. ‘I advise you to try and get some sleep if you can. I’ll pop in and tell your aunt what’s happening on my way past. Now remember… no worrying.’
She heard the doctor’s footsteps dying away, and then the slam of his car door and the rev of an engine as he drove away.
All around her she could hear the familiar creaks and groans of the house, so familiar that she was only half aware of them. Where was Saul? What on earth would he say when he learned she had to stay here… at least until this afternoon? She should have told the doctor it wasn’t possible, but she had been so concerned about the safety of her baby.
The door opened and Saul walked in carrying a cup of tea. ‘Ellis said you could have this,’ he told her abruptly, placing it down within reach of her hand, but then instead of leaving he walked over to the window, staring out of it for several seconds, with his back to her, before swinging round to face her. His forehead was creased in a frown, his eyes sombre and dark grey.
‘Lucy, we have to talk,’ he announced curtly.
Panic and fear curled protestingly through her stomach. She didn’t want to talk; she wanted to run away… To… But no, she had to face up to him.
‘What about?’ she asked coolly, turning her head slightly away from him as she added half under her breath, ‘I thought you’d already said it all.’
‘Lucy, you know I… What’s past is past,’ he told her in a different, colder tone. ‘And you know damned well what we have to talk about, so stop playing games, and instead start thinking about the future of our child.’
The harshness in his voice grazed her oversensitive nerves. She wanted to deny his words, to tell him that the baby was hers, and hers alone, but she was too shocked by what he had said. How had he discovered?
‘Don’t bother denying it,’ he continued. ‘When Ellis said you were pregnant, I knew immediately the baby must be mine.’
‘Must it?’
His eyes grim, he said cruelly, ‘Unless by some miracle you’ve persuaded Neville to take you to bed, then yes, it must.’
His voice warned her that he wasn’t going to believe any lie she might try to spin him about Neville being the father of her child. Her head lifted proudly as she met his glance head on.
‘Very well then, Saul,’ she agreed tightly. ‘The baby is yours—inasmuch as you’ve fathered it—but you needn’t worry that I shall be making any claims on you, either now or in the future.’
‘You won’t have to,’ he told her tightly. ‘I’ll be right there alongside my son or daughter watching him or her growing up. You’ve two courses Lucy; either you agree to marry me, or I take you through every court in the land to prove that I can give our child a far better life than you could ever manage.’
The shock of it brought her close to fainting again, but somehow she held on to full consciousness, her voice so frail she could barely hear it herself as she demanded huskily,
‘But Saul, why? There’s no reason for you to make yourself responsible for… for what happened. And if you’re so desperate to have children you…’
‘Lucy, we’ve got to try and talk sensibly about this. Ellis has told me about your vitamin deficiency.’ He saw her expression and said harshly, ‘For God’s sake, do you want to lose the baby?’
Her face gave her away, and she turned her head so that he wouldn’t see the weak tears flooding her eyes.
She had not wanted Saul to know she had conceived his child, but she had never, ever dreamed he would react like this, or that he would propose marriage. Pain tightened round her body, encircling her with tormenting fingers. Less than a month ago she would have been overjoyed to receive his proposal, but now… He didn’t want her, he just wanted… What? His child?
‘You need proper care and looking after. Living alone…’
‘I won’t be living alone.’ She saw the colour drain out of his face, a murderous expression darkening his eyes.
‘If you think I’m going to let Summers raise my child…’
