to spread through her. “You’ve lost your job?” She squeezed her eyes shut. Cate lived such a high-powered life. She handled incredible sums of money. Could something have gone wrong? Big mistakes happened.
“That might have been easier.” Cate impatiently kicked off her high-heeled shoes. “I can’t put off telling you—”
“But you are, dear,” Stella stressed somewhat impatiently.
Cate had seen that coming. “All right! You have to know. Of all the men in the world—you’re not going to believe this, so steel yourself—Julian Carlisle, the present Baron Wyndham, walked into the boardroom this very morning.”
Stella threw up her arms as though she were going to dive into water. “For God’s sake!” Now she bent over as if in pain, winding her arms tight around her body like some form of shield.
“Exactly,” Cate seconded grimly. Since the revelation that Annabel was her mother, not Stella, Stella’s penchant for secrecy loomed large in Cate’s mind.
“Has he come in search of you?” Stella asked, as though sensing big trouble ahead. “Has he come in search of Jules?”
“How could he? He knows nothing about Jules.” Cate was sorry for the way the colour had faded out of Stella’s face. In her early fifties, Stella was still a fine-looking woman. She had kept her slim figure; her thick dark hair was stylishly cut. She had excellent skin and lovely dark eyes. There was no physical resemblance between aunt and niece. For that matter, Cate didn’t even resemble her biological mother, Annabel. Annabel never had confessed who Cate’s father was, but he had to have been blond with light eyes. “He doesn’t know Jules exists,” Cate said so harshly, she might have been willing it to remain so. “I’m certain he hasn’t found out anything in all these years. He had his own life then. He has it now. I’ve been no part of it. Probably a vaguely unpleasant memory.”
“You hardly came from the wrong side of the tracks,” Stella burst out indignantly. “I never did understand why you didn’t tell him about us.”
“My God, Stella, that’s good coming from you.” Cate couldn’t help ramming that point home. “How would I have known about us when you told me nothing? It was as if it was none of my business.”
Stella flushed. The truth was hard to take. “I was trying to protect you.”
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