satiated by food and wine, by sun and sex, by coming alive as a woman.
Seton found it hard to take his eyes off her, she looked so beautiful. And she looked as if she had been well and truly loved; it showed in the languid hand she trailed in the water, in the intimate smiles she gave him with languorous eyes, in the way her mouth curved and her lips parted in remembered pleasure. Just looking at her like that was an aphrodisiac, made him want her yet again.
‘Do you remember,’ he said, ‘when I told you I wanted you? Before—well, before the wish came true, I started to say that it wasn’t just making love that I wanted.’
‘Just making love?’ She smiled at him teasingly.
He grinned back at her, the triumph of winning her and of giving her such pleasure obvious in his face. ‘I know. A stupid way of putting it.’ His voice becoming earnest, he went on, ‘But I do want more, Lucie. I want to be with you, know that you’re mine. I dream of coming home to find you waiting for me. I long for the time when I won’t have to drive away and leave you at the end of an evening together.’ His voice grew husky. ‘That tears me apart, having to leave you.’
She thought he was asking her to let him stay at the flat with her that night so that they could make love again. So she said, ‘I want that too. I want you to stay whenever you can.’
They came to the boatyard and Seton concentrated on taking them neatly up against the mooring, on tying the boat up. Helping her out, he said in her ear, ‘You have grass in your hair.’
‘Oh.’ Lucie laughed as she combed it with her fingers, and threw him a pert glance that was full of new-found confidence. He had given her femininity, and an assurance of her power to arouse him.
Collecting their picnic things, they strolled back to his car and loaded them into the boot. Seton opened the sun-roof to let the heat out and they drove to a pub and sat on the terrace overlooking the river for a drink. Over it, Seton said, ‘I will stay tonight, of course, but that wasn’t what I meant.’ Taking her hand, he said, ‘I’m head over heels in love with you, Lucie. I want to be with you for always. I want you to marry me, my darling, just as soon as we can arrange it.’
Lucie stared at him in stunned surprise, her mind whirling. ‘But I—I thought you just wanted...’
‘Oh, Lucie, how could you be so blind? Surely you must know how much I care about you?’
She pulled her hand away, a stricken look in her eyes. ‘But it’s too soon. We’ve only known each other a few weeks.’
‘But what difference does that make? I know you love me; today proved that. Can you deny it? Can you, Lucie?’
Slowly she shook her head, knowing that to pretend would be useless. But she repeated, ‘It’s too soon.’
Lifting a hand to stroke her face, Seton said, ‘I know what you’re saying, but you’re all wrong, my darling girl! I fell in love with you almost from the first moment. To me it was a miracle—a very wonderful miracle. And I know that there’s no way in the world that I could ever stop loving you. Nothing you or anyone else can do could possibly make me change the way I feel. I’m not going to grow out of it and nor are you. Believe me, Lucie, this is for keeps.’
She stared across at him. ‘You—you’ll go on loving me, no matter what?’ she said faintly.
Seton smiled, his eyes so full of warmth and tenderness that she knew she would hold this moment in her heart for ever. ‘No matter what,’ he agreed. ‘Fate has thrown us together in the most remarkable manner and there’s no way I’m ever going to let you go now that I’ve found you at last.’
Making one last, desperate effort, she said, ‘We could live together, if you like. I’d give up my job and the flat and come to live with you, or else you could move in with me.’
Seton’s hand tightened for a moment and there was a glow in his eyes as he said, ‘I appreciate that, I really do, but what’s the point? If we’re going to live together, if we’re so committed to each other that we want to be together all the time, then why not get married? And remember I’m nearly thirty years old. I need to get started.’
‘Started on what?’
‘Married life. A family.’ To his delight she blushed. ‘Oh, Lucie. My darling girl.’ His voice softened.
‘You’ve trusted yourself to me today, Lucie; won’t you trust yourself for the rest of your life?’
For a moment a bright dream of happiness unfolded before her, so strong, almost within her grasp. ‘I want to,’ she said on a sigh. ‘I really want to.’ But her heart was troubled and she knew she had to try to be honest with him. ‘But—some years ago—’
Immediately he put his fingers over her lips, silencing her. ‘That was in the past. Forget it! It’s only the future that matters. Our future. Are you afraid to grasp it?’
She stared at him, dimly knowing that he was wrong, that you could never entirely blot out the past, but he was so forceful, so convincing that he carried her along with him on a tide of optimism and confidence. ‘No,’ she said, on a high of courage. ‘I’m not afraid.’
A great light of happiness came into Seton’s eyes. ‘Then, will you marry me, my darling, my love?’
Lucie nodded, her voice too choked up to speak. And silly tears came into her eyes before she was finally able to say, ‘Yes.’ Then more firmly she said, ‘Yes, I will marry you.’
But in the dawn of the following morning, when Seton had left her bed and Lucie was alone, when she no longer had his strength and will-power to carry her along on a tidal wave of optimism, then all the doubts and fears came crowding back. Because she hadn’t told him the truth about her past—not all of it. She hadn’t told him that she had been to prison. For three long years. And now she was terribly afraid that one day he might find out, that the past might come back to haunt her.
CHAPTER ONE
AS LUCIE sat on the terrace watching her son as he played in the garden, the sun warm on her face, her thoughts drifted back to that summer five years ago when she and Seton had met. Now she could laugh at the fears she’d had then, knowing that marrying Seton was the best thing she’d ever done.
They had been such happy years; she knew herself to have grown in confidence, to have blossomed in the certainty of Seton’s love for her. At first she had been almost afraid to trust this happiness, so many bad things having happened to her in the past that she’d felt it too good to be true, had been petrified that something would happen to take it all away from her. But as time passed, when Seton didn’t suddenly change, when his parents were so warm and welcoming, treating her like a loved daughter, when she met his friends and found they accepted her as one of themselves, and—most of all—when she soon became pregnant and gave birth to Sam Lucie finally put aside her fears and became the happy, contented woman she now was.
During the first year of their marriage, she and Seton had lived in London, in his old flat which was within easy reach of his chambers, but they’d begun house-hunting as soon as she’d become pregnant, spending their weekends driving around the countryside, and had found this house almost by accident.
It was an old dower house that had been
