Free One-Night Pregnancy by Lindsay Armstrong

must say.’ He looked fretful. ‘I’ve also got no sons to leave my estate to. So? What do you think?’
    ‘How am I supposed to prove anything to you?’ Adam asked carefully.
    ‘One surefire way.’ The old man smiled almost demonically. ‘Take a wife!’
    ‘I can’t just go out and take a wife .’
    ‘I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you could take your pick of dozens of potential wives. But I’ll tell you something: what you need to look for is a thoroughly nice girl. They’re the ones who won’t break your heart.’
    ‘Even if I were to find “a thoroughly nice girl”,’ Adam said, then paused and narrowed his eyes as the phrase struck a chord in his mind. He couldn’t place it. ‘It could take time—and I’m not saying I will,’ he added, with a slight barb in his voice.
    ‘It’s six months to the next shareholders meeting—unless they force one earlier.’
    Adam stood up. ‘Look, I’m sorry, I have to go. But I’ll come and have dinner with you on Thursday.’
    ‘But you’ll think about it?’ Julius stared up at him.
    Adam paused. ‘It’s not that I’m not grateful, but if I do ever get Beaumonts I’d rather do it on my own. I mean that, Uncle Julius. I don’t want to inherit it, in other words.’
    Julius Beaumont watched Adam leave and shook his head. ‘A dead ringer for his grandfather,’ he muttered. ‘As stubborn as a mule, yet what potential.’
    But Adam didn’t leave until he’d spoken to Mervyn, in the kitchen. Mervyn fulfilled the role of housekeeper and valet for Julius, and was a devoted employee as well as having had some medical training.
    ‘How is he at the moment?’ Adam helped himself to a slice of prosciutto that was destined to be part of the salad entrée for his uncle’s dinner.
    Mervyn removed the plate from his reach. ‘We’re a little up and down, Adam.’ He often used the royal ‘we’ when discussing his employer. ‘I had the doctor over yesterday, but he didn’t think it would do any good to send him to hospital. He was of the opinion it would upset him more than help him. But I’m keeping a close watch.’
    ‘Thank you,’ Adam said. ‘Actually, I can’t thank you enough for the wonderful care you take of him. Oh, and I’ll come for dinner on Thursday.’
    ‘I know he’ll look forward to that!’
    Adam drove away even more preoccupied than he’d been before, and pondered his great-uncle Julius’s health. Was he nearing the end? Was this concern he was showing an indication that he could feel the sands of time running out for him?
    Funnily enough, he conceded, a chilly little image had come to mind, of himself drifting down the years and ending up alone with no sons to leave his estate to. But for the rest of it…take a wife and get Beaumonts…?
    Not so simple, he thought, and recalled with a dry smile his uncle’s remark about how lucky he’d been. Yes, of course he had been lucky in lots of respects, but growing up with an older brother who’d been the apple of his father’s eye had not been easy. And had been made no easier when his grandfather had taken it upon himself to favour his grandson Adam over his grandson Henry. For some reason that had infuriated his father. Or perhaps there was no mystery to it, really.
    There’d always been deep tensions between his father and his grandfather. But, whatever the ebbs and flows of disapproval between Samuel Beaumont and his son Kevin, there’d been nothing unseen about Kevin’s preference for Henry. Not only that, they’d even looked alike—whereas Adam had favoured Samuel, and they’d had the same interests.
    Nor had it all ended there. Grace Beaumont, Kevin’s wife and the boys’ mother, had bitterly resented Kevin’s indifference to his second son and it had affected their marriage. They’d ended up virtual strangers.
    If I did ever have sons, if I did ever have children,Adam Beaumont thought, I would never favour one above the other. Come to that, I’d never make