‘My God, Rachel, I wanted to kill the man,’ he grated hoarsely. ‘I thought he was trying to worm his way back into your life, and worse still I thought you wanted him to. I suspected he might even pull some stunt like getting custody of Charlie.’ He groaned. ‘You have no idea what it’s been doing to me imagining…’ His dark eyes were filled with pain. ‘Why did you let me think that, Rachel?’
‘Charlie didn’t have a proper family because I was a silly, gullible girl who only saw what she wanted to. I didn’t want to do that to her again. She’s so fond of you and she kept dropping hints the size of bowling balls about us… I thought you were leaving.’ Her eyes pleaded for understanding.
‘Like Raoul left you,’ he said grimly.
‘There’s no comparison,’ she denied swiftly. ‘I’ve never loved anyone before you.’ Lovingly she took his face between her hands and spoke from the heart. ‘I didn’t have the experience to be able to distinguish infatuation from the real thing back then. I do now. Nothing,’ she said fervently, ‘is more real than the way I feel about you. I needed the excuse to drive you away because I didn’t have the backbone to do it by myself.’
‘Does Charlie know about her father now?’
‘Yes.’ She searched his face anxiously for a clue to what he was thinking. What effect had her confession had?
‘Everything?’
‘Well, I didn’t say, Your father wouldn’t have remembered my name a week after you were conceived.’
‘I can see you wouldn’t want to do that. Has he reached heroic proportions yet?’
‘You don’t mind?’ She gave a relieved sigh.
‘Mind! I mind all right. But sometimes the truth comes at too high a cost. Charlie needs to be protected from the unvarnished version of this particular truth.’
‘I was afraid you’d…’
‘I love Charlie,’ he said quietly. ‘Of course I care about what that bastard did to you! I’d like to climb onto the proverbial old white charger and right all the wrongs that have been done to you if I could. That’s what you’ve done to me, woman.’ He shook her gently. ‘And if you tell anyone I admitted that I’ll never forgive you.’
‘My lips are sealed…’
‘To every other man but me,’ he agreed complacently. The expression on his face as his glance dwelt on the passion-swollen pink outline made her tremble.
‘When I think of what you must have gone through. This time it’ll be different,’ he vowed.
‘You want a baby?’ She knew she was smiling in a dopey, foolish way, but he didn’t seem to mind.
‘Don’t you?’
Rachel gazed up at the big man she loved. ‘Yes, please.’
‘Let Charlie’s dad be a dashing hero; I can live with it. If you love me I can live with just about anything!’
‘I think she’s more interested in her real-life hero.’
‘And who might that be?’
‘He’s already spoken for,’ she whispered, emotion throbbing in her voice.
‘Then you’ll marry me?’
‘Yes!’
The couple twisted around at the sound of the jubilant cry.
‘Nat said you were getting married. She was right!’ Charlie was dancing around the room.
‘I’m always right,’ came the modest reply. ‘So where is the bubbly?’
Benedict looked down at his startled bride-to-be, a smile in his eyes. ‘Well, you have to say yes now.’
‘I thought I did.’
‘I might need to hear you say it more than once.’
The idea that Benedict, big, strong, confident Benedict, could need reassurance brought an emotional lump to her throat.
‘Can I have a horse? Just a small one. Ben’s got loads of money; Nat says so. Nat says—’
‘Nat says too much.’
‘Excuse my avaricious offspring.’
‘She brought me home to you; I’ll forgive her anything,’ he said with extravagant good humour.
Rachel sighed. He still had a lot to learn. ‘That statement will come back to haunt you,’ she predicted.
‘We’ve laid to rest the only phantoms that had me worried.’
Rachel returned the pressure of his fingers and nodded mutely back. ‘I should have known you were trouble the first moment I set eyes on you,’ she teased huskily.
‘Forget first impressions.’ He dismissed them with a shrug. ‘It’s lasting impressions that count. Did I make a lasting impression on you, my love?’
‘The eternal variety,’ she confirmed happily.