Free 1848453051 by Linda Kavanagh

you’ll be staying on?’
    ‘Of course!’ Laura assured him. ‘You know I love my job, and as long as you’re willing to keep me on, I’m happy to be here!’ She smiled, willing him to smile back. ‘And when I come back after maternity leave, I’ll be able to use the university crèche.’
    Darren nodded, but there was no smile forthcoming. ‘I wish you well, Laura,’ he said solemnly. ‘I hope that everything works out according to plan.’
    He wished he could appear more enthusiastic, but there was a lump in his throat that he simply couldn’t dispel. He’d already seen the bruises on her face, and Timmy had approached him with his suspicions too, wondering if there was anything they could do. Now Laura’s pregnancy was another unwelcome surprise, and Darren was finding it impossible to be anything other than worried. Lately, Laura seemed to be rushing headlong into life-changing situations without much thought.Or was it simply because he was jealous of the man who’d had the courage to woo and win her?
    No matter how hard Darren tried to dismiss it, the quotation: ‘Faint heart never won fair lady’ kept circling around his brain. Maybe, if he’d had the courage of his convictions, Laura would now be safe, and expecting his baby, not another man’s.
    Laura looked at her boss tentatively. It was clear that Darren had terminated their discussion, and she felt disappointed by what she sensed was his disapproval. Why couldn’t he be happy for her? Why couldn’t everyone be happy for her?
    As she left his office, she felt tense and stressed. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. People were supposed to be pleased when someone became pregnant. But even Maria, Timmy and Greta had been less than enthusiastic when she’d told them in the canteen a little earlier. Was it because they suspected that Jeff had hit her? She’d explained away her bruises as an accident, but she’d seen the knowing looks on her colleagues’ faces, as though they’d seen straight through her lie.
    She sensed that Kerry had reservations, too. Well, she’d prove them all wrong! She and Jeff would live happily ever after, and this child of theirs would put the final seal on their happiness.
    Returning to her office, Laura sat down at her desk and surveyed the pile of essays that needed marking. Try as she might, she couldn’t focus her mind on them. She managed to struggle through the first few papers before deciding that it wasn’t fair to the students since her mind was on other things.
    She turned to the window in her office and gazed out across the campus to the sports fields in the distance. She felt very much alone. Somehow her marriage and pregnancy were isolatingher from her colleagues; yet, in another sense, she’d always felt alone, ever since the death of her parents and brother.
    But then she smiled, patting her belly. ‘At least I have you, little person,’ she whispered. ‘So I’m not really alone any more.’

C HAPTER 14
    S ylvia Thornton was emptying the pockets of her husband’s suits as she prepared to take them to the dry cleaners. Suddenly, her fingers closed around a rolled-up piece of paper. Curiously, she opened it, and discovered that it was a receipt from a well-known firm of London jewellers, and the item purchased had been a very expensive diamond and gold ring.
    For a moment, Sylvia’s heart stood still, and she found herself considering, for the first time ever, if Alan could be having an affair. The thought of him with another woman was sheer torture – surely he’d never do such a thing to her?
    Since she and her husband maintained a glittering social calendar, and every day he was at the factory, she’d assumed he’d have little time for dalliances elsewhere. Now she wondered just how naïve she’d been.
    Clutching the receipt, Sylvia mentally ran through the list of her friends … well, if she was honest, they were really only acquaintances – women from the same wealthy circle whom