‘Honor, you know you can’t stay here, don’t you?’ Verity asked her gently. ‘Your father—’
‘He doesn’t care,’ Honor interrupted her.
‘You know that isn’t true,’ Verity chided her. ‘He loves you very much…’
‘Like you love him?’ Honor asked her, looking her straight in the eye.
Verity opened her mouth and then closed it again. Her legs, she discovered, had gone strangely weak. She sat down and was soon extremely glad that she had done so.
Honor was rifling through the haversack she had brought in with her. Triumphantly she produced the photograph she had taken from her father’s desk.
‘I found this,’ she told Verity, watching her.
‘Oh, Honor,’ was all Verity could say as she stared at the familiar picture. She could remember the day Silas had taken it—it was the day after they had made love for the first time and Silas had told her he would always keep the photograph in memory of all that they had shared.
‘Not that I shall ever need any reminding,’ he had whispered passionately to her as he had abandoned the camera and taken her in his arms.
‘It says “To my beloved Silas, with all my love for ever and always“,’ Honor told her solemnly.
Verity looked away from her.
‘Yes. Yes, I know,’ she agreed weakly.
‘You said you didn’t know my father…’ Honor reminded her.
‘Yes. Yes, I know,’ Verity agreed again.
‘And he said that he didn’t know you, but you wrote here that you love him. Why did you stop loving him, Verity?’
‘I…It wasn’t…’ Verity shook her head. ‘It was all a long time ago, Honor.’
‘But I want to know,’ Honor persisted stubbornly.
Verity shook her head, but she sensed that Honor wasn’t going to be satisfied until she had dragged the whole sorry story out of her.
‘There isn’t a lot to know,’ she told her. ‘Your father and I were young. I thought…He said…I had to go away to New York to work and whilst I was there your father met someone else—your mother…’
Silas cursed as he found the note Honor had left for him. Angrily he picked up his discarded car keys and headed for the door. She was coming home with him right now and no nonsense, and once he got her home he was going to have a serious talk with her—a very serious talk.
Parking his car behind Verity’s, Silas got out and headed for the front door and then, changing his mind, turned to go around the back of the house instead.
The kitchen door was half open—Verity had been outside hanging out some washing when Honor had arrived. Neither of the two occupants of the room could see him and Silas paused in the act of pushing open the door as he heard Verity saying huskily, ‘I thought your father loved me. I didn’t know about your mother…I suppose I should have guessed that something was wrong when he didn’t get in touch with me, but I just thought that he…that he was cross with me because…’ She stopped and shook her head. ‘I came home to tell him how much I loved him, to tell him that he was right and that our love was more important than any duty I owed my uncle, but I discovered that your father had married your mother.’
Helplessly Verity spread her hands.
‘I thought he loved me but he didn’t really love me at all.’ Her voice shook with emotion and the cat stopped purring.
Honor looked up, her eyes widening as she saw her father standing in the doorway.
Verity turned round to see what had attracted Honor’s attention, her face paling as she too saw Silas.
For a moment none of them spoke and then Silas marched across the room and took hold of Honor’s arm, saying firmly to her, ‘Honor, you’re coming with me—right now and no arguments.’
He hadn’t said a word to Verity. He hadn’t even looked at her, Verity acknowledged as he walked Honor out of the back door, firmly closing it behind him.
She could hear the engine of his car firing. Her hand shook as she reached across the table for the photograph that Honor had left.
Tears blurred her eyes. Tipping back her head, she blinked them away. She was not going to cry…not now, not again…not ever…