like medical histories are discussed, aren’t they?’ he persisted lightly.
‘Sometimes I’m sure that they are.’ Henry’s reply seemed a little guarded.
‘But not in this case?’
‘No.’There was definite challenge in the other man’s expression now.
The atmosphere had changed from warmly congenial to tensely suspicious.
Why?
What did this couple have to hide?
Because they were hiding something. Nick was sure of it.
‘Oh, well—I just thought it worth asking. But I’m sure that the doctor will be able to check everything out,’ he dismissed, with a lightness he was far from feeling.
‘I must tell you about the interesting painting Nick came across a week or so ago.’ Hebe cut smoothly into the conversation, obviously changing the subject. ‘An Andrew Southern portrait. Have you heard of him?’ she prompted her parents lightly.
Nick tensed, having no idea where Hebe was going with this conversation. Surely she didn’t want her parents to know about that portrait of her? It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing you could bring home to show your family—the raw sensuality of the subject—Hebe—was all too obvious!
‘Of course we’ve heard of him, darling,’ Henry confirmed mildly. ‘One of his paintings is worth a small fortune, surely?’ He addressed this remark to Nick.
‘Oh, Nick has a very large fortune—don’t you, darling?’ Hebe prompted challengingly.
Nick had used her parents shamefully to manipulate her, and now she intended doing the same where he was concerned.
She couldn’t be sure that Andrew Southern would respond to her letter and the photograph, and if he didn’t she needed more information than Nick had given her to be able to continue her own search for the origins of that portrait. To do that she needed a piece of information Nick hadn’t yet revealed.
‘Not as large as it once was,’ Nick muttered tersely, the warning glitter in his eyes more than meeting her challenge.
Hebe turned unconcernedly back to her parents, knowing Nick was furious with her for bringing up the subject of the portrait. Well she couldn’t help that. He had asked the questions he wanted answering, without consulting her or warning her, and now she was going to do the same. Whether he liked it or not.
Because she knew that portrait wasn’t of her, even if he wouldn’t accept that it wasn’t.
‘It’s an unseen portrait the artist painted over twenty years ago,’ she confided to her parents. ‘Nick is so pleased with it—aren’t you, darling?’ she prompted, with an insincere sweetness she knew he would recognise as such even if her parents didn’t.
‘Oh, very,’ he confirmed tightly.
‘How on earth did you find it?’ Hebe’s mother smiled with interest.
‘Hidden away in a house in the north of England,’ Nick answered abruptly, obviously not wanting to pursue this subject at all.
Too bad—because Hebe did!
‘Yes. What did you say was the name of the original owner, Nick?’ Hebe prompted readily, completely putting him on the spot. The increased glitter in his eyes told her how incensed he was.
Well, so what? she thought. At the moment she was more interested in knowing who had been the original owner of her mother’s portrait than she was concerned with Nick obvious displeasure.
‘I didn’t,’ Nick came back stiffly, wondering why Hebe was asking this now. ‘And I’m sure Henry and Jean aren’t interested in this—’
‘On the contrary,’Hebe’s father interrupted. ‘It all sounds fascinating,’ the historian in him prompted inquisitively.
Hebe gave Nick another one of those over-sweet smiles, her smile turning to genuine amusement as she saw how annoyed he was.
But, no matter what he might otherwise wish, he couldn’t have things all his own way.
As he seemed used to having!
So far today he had bought her an engagement ring it would have been churlish to refuse, tricked her into what sounded like a full-scale wedding rather than the quiet affair she had been expecting, and questioned her adoptive parents about her real parents.
It was time he told her some of the things she wanted to know!
‘Not really,’ he dismissed easily now. ‘The man died, his relatives found and then sold the portrait. End of story.’
‘And are you going to put it into one of your galleries?’ her mother questioned brightly.
‘No!’ Nick came back harshly.
Hebe turned to look at him frowningly. If he wasn’t going to put the portrait in one of his galleries, then what was he going to do with it…?
‘No,’ he repeated less violently, seeming to force himself to relax, even while he frowned darkly in Hebe’s direction. ‘I happen to like this portrait and I intend keeping it for myself.’
‘But how wonderful!’ her mother came back innocently. ‘You’ll have to let us see it when we come down to London.’
Much to Nick’s discomfort and Hebe’s amusement! She had stood all the abuse from Nick she was going to with regard to that portrait. It wasn’t a portrait of her, no matter what Nick believed.
She was slightly surprised at his decision not to show the portrait, after going to all that trouble to purchase it, but perhaps he had decided he didn’t want his future wife on public display like that?
Or that it would be yet another thing to torment her with when they were alone!
Yes, that sounded more like the Nick she knew and—
She broke off those thoughts abruptly. What was the point of thinking about her love for Nick when she was obviously just another possession to him? A prize possession, because she carried his child.
Besides, she still didn’t have the answers she was looking for!
‘What makes this portrait so interesting, though,’ she continued cheerfully, ‘is that it isn’t listed anywhere as one of the artist’s works.’
Nick’s gaze narrowed searchingly on Hebe’s face. How did she know that? Unless she had been checking up on the portrait herself? Which made no sense to him whatsoever. She knew Andrew Southern had painted that portrait of her, whether it was listed or not, so why persist in pushing the subject?
‘Perhaps it’s a forgery?’ Jean mused.
‘Oh, no, Jean,’ Nick answered the older woman assuredly. ‘It’s most definitely authentic.’
‘Kept hidden away in some man’s attic for the last twenty-odd
