along the road with their sirens wailing. Within minutes the police were clearing the area and setting up yellow and black tape barriers to keep sightseers at bay.
Rachel hurried Jamie away, the weight of the case and the box dragging on her arms. She stopped to put them down, wondering what to do. The rain was beating down now and she didn’t relish the thought of standing around getting soaked until the trains were running again, but what choice did she have? She had handed over the keys to Aunt Edith’s house on their way here, so they couldn’t go back.
Jamie shivered, his small face pinched and wan as he stood dejectedly at her side. ‘I’m cold, Mummy.’
Rachel bent and gave him a quick hug, ‘I know, sweetheart. Maybe we can find a café and have a drink to warm us up?’
She straightened up and looked round, but the only café in sight already had a queue out of the door. Her gaze moved on over the traffic, which had been brought to a halt by the police, and she felt her heart lurch as her eyes locked with a pair of grey ones staring from the window of a big maroon Jaguar.
For a second Rachel stood stunned into immobility by the sight of Stephen, then she turned away, her heart thundering. Taking a firm grip on the suitcase and the box, she reached for Jamie’s hand. But at that moment the police sent a group of football supporters streaming noisily away from the station. Suddenly Rachel found herself caught up in the mêlée, saw to her horror Jamie being carried along with them.
‘Jamie... Jamie!’ she shouted, but within seconds the child had been swallowed up by the crowd. Dropping the case and the box, she tried to push her way through the people to get to him, but they resisted her efforts, a couple of the younger men deliberately barring her way.
‘What’s the hurry, darling? You don’t want to go rushing out of my life when we’ve only just met, do you?’
One of the men grabbed her around the waist and stared lustfully into her face while his friends laughed.
‘Let me go! Let...me...go!’ Rachel beat against the man’s chest with her clenched fists, panic eroding any caution.
The man’s smile faded, his face turning ugly. ‘Now that isn’t very nice. I don’t like people who don’t know how to take a joke...’
‘The joke’s over. Let her go.’
Stephen hadn’t raised his voice, but then he didn’t need to. Every word cut like a lash, making the younger man blanch. He let Rachel go at once, then elbowed his way into the crowd with his cronies following.
Rachel sucked in a terrified gasp but still felt breathless, her face bloodless. Stephen caught her arm, his fingers biting into her flesh through her wet raincoat.
‘Are you all right? Did he hurt you? Rachel?’
‘Jamie...!’ she managed to gasp, then saw that Stephen had no idea what she meant. ‘He...he’s caught up in that crowd! I can’t see him... I can’t see him, Stephen!’
‘I’ll get him. Stay there.’
Stephen didn’t hesitate as he pushed his way into the swell of bodies. He was a head taller than most, which was obviously an advantage. Suddenly he bent, and as Rachel watched he swung Jamie up in his arms.
He carried the child back, his powerful body forging a path through the crush of people. He set Jamie down beside Rachel then crouched down and looked sternly into the child’s frightened face.
‘You scared your mother half to death, young man. Make sure you hold onto her hand next time. Understand?’
Jamie nodded, too scared by what had happened to speak. He caught hold of Rachel’s hand and held it tightly, his eyes huge as he stared up at the man towering over him.
Rachel felt her legs go weak as reaction set in, and she swayed unsteadily. She heard Stephen utter something harsh as he slid his hand under her elbow. He retrieved her case and the box then led her to where he had left his car.
‘Get in. You look as though you’re likely to drop right where you’re standing.’
Rachel tried to pull back, but although Stephen’s grip didn’t hurt he held her firmly enough to make that impossible. ‘I’m fine. Really, Stephen, there’s no need to...’
He gave a short laugh which held scant amusement. ‘You don’t look fine. Now spare us both the indignity of a scene. Just get in, Rachel—because, believe me, I’m in no mood to persuade you politely that it is in your best interests and the best interests of the boy.’
It shouldn’t have hurt so much to hear Stephen speak like that but it did. ‘His name is Jamie! Is it so hard to remember who he is, Stephen?’
Stephen’s eyes shimmered with bitterness, and something which made Rachel want to weep. ‘No, it isn’t difficult. It’s only too easy to remember that.’
He opened the car door without another word. Rachel slid inside, watching numbly as Jamie got in the back. Just for a moment, as Stephen bent to help the child with his seat belt, their two heads were close together, one so dark and the other so fair. Then Stephen straightened, his face like stone as he slammed the door.
Rachel took a sobbing breath, feeling the anguish scoring deep inside her. What she had seen in Stephen’s eyes just now was everything she felt—all the pain, all the regret. Only it was worse for her because she knew just how different this situation might have been if she’d been able to tell him the truth! Yet how could she do that when she had no idea what the consequences might be?
If Stephen had been the boy she had fallen in love with ten years ago then she would have told him—here, now, this very second. But he wasn’t.
Stephen Hunter, the father of her child, was a stranger now. And it terrified her to imagine what Stephen might do if he ever found out that Jamie was his son!
‘Where are we going?’
It had taken some time to work their way out of the traffic. Rachel had sat silently, engrossed in her own painful thoughts, while Stephen negotiated the busy roads. Now they had left the town behind, she suddenly realised, and were heading for the open country.
Stephen barely spared her a glance as he increased the car’s speed until the hedges became just a green blur. ‘To my house. We’ll be there in a few minutes.’
‘Your house?’ Rachel could hear the shock in her voice. She glanced in panic through the window but the rain was still falling steadily, making it impossible to tell where they were. All she knew was that the last thing she wanted was to go to Stephen’s home!
‘I don’t think that’s a good idea, Stephen. Please take us back into town. Jamie and I have a train to catch and...’
‘And a long wait ahead of you by the look of it.’ He smiled thinly, his hands steady and confident on the wheel, his eyes centred on the grey ribbon of road ahead. ‘It will be hours before the trains are running again. What exactly do you intend to do until then? Stand around getting soaked?’
He shot a quick glance in the mirror at the child sitting silently in the back and his mouth tightened. ‘I suggest you think about your son. He looks in no fit state to stand around in the
