Penny Jordan (28 page)

'Yes,' Jon began to reply. 'He—'

'No. Don't tell me. I don't want to know.' Olivia stared at him bleakly. 'Why should I? He didn't want to know about us...about me. I was just the daughter he never really wanted. The only people
he
ever cared about were himself, Ben and Max, with himself first and foremost.'

'Livvy, that just isn't true,' Jon protested.

'Your father has changed...suffered—'

'Suffered! How, by not having access to rich clients' bank accounts? What has he been doing for money? Did he tell you?'

The bitterness in her voice didn't surprise Jon, but it distressed him. He had been hoping to find some small chink in her protective armour that would allow him and, through him, David, to persuade her to at least listen to what her father wanted to say, but now...

'I don't want to see him, Uncle Jon,' she announced suddenly. 'I won't see him.' When Jon said nothing, she continued passionately, 'Have you
any
idea what it's like being his daughter?

How it feels to know that I carry his genes in my blood, to know that no matter how hard I work, how much I prove myself, people will always wonder if, at some point, I'm going to show my true colours, if I'm going to turn out to be a thief?'

Jon was too shocked by her outburst to control his expression or his reaction. Immediately, he went over to her and tried to take hold of her, but she evaded him, turning to stand in front of the window with her back to him.

'Livvy, my dear,' he begged. 'I can understand how hurt you must have been...must
still
be by your father's behaviour, but to think...to believe... I can promise you that of the few people who
do
know the truth about events leading up to your father's disappearance, none of us believe for one minute that you would...' He found himself unable to finish. He was still battling against the shock her outburst had caused him and trying to find the right words to reassure her. It was like traversing a verbal minefield. This kind of situation needed Jenny's gentle, sure touch, not his clumsy, heavy-handed directness.

'All
of us in the family share the same gene pool, Livvy,' he pointed out reasonably. 'If what you have just said is applicable to you, then it is equally applicable to any and all of us. What your father did was wrong—no one is trying to suggest otherwise—but to think you fear that you might somehow, as his daughter—'

'It's all very well for you to say that now,'

Olivia charged wildly. 'But I've seen the way the others sometimes look at me. Luke... Saul.. .Max...

they're just waiting for me to fall flat on my face.'

Jon was appalled. It had never occurred to him that Olivia felt this way and it was, he was sure, very significant that it was only her male family peers she referred to. Olivia was not the only woman in the family to have a career—far from it—and it disturbed Jon to have to acknowledge that her state of mind could be so dangerously off balance.

The words 'paranoia' and 'obsession' sprang uncomfortably into his mind, but he quickly dismissed them. Olivia was just suffering from shock and the pressure of the workload she had under-taken to carry.

'Livvy, all your father wants is a chance to talk to you...to apologise...to see his grandchildren,'

Jon told her gently.

"No!' Olivia spun round to face him, her eyes black with bitterness. 'No way. My father is
never
going to be allowed anywhere near the girls. The rest of you can pretend that nothing ever happened if you want to,' she added scornfully, 'but there's no way
I'm
going to.'

'Olivia...' Jon protested unhappily.

She shook her head. 'I've got to go. I'm in court after lunch. A divorce case—' she gave him a bitter little smile '—and I intend to make sure my client gets what's due her. My father isn't the only man who's a liar and a cheat—unfortunately.'

'YOU'RE LATE
,' Jenny commented when Jon walked into the kitchen later that evening.

'Yes, I'm sorry. I went straight to Queensmead from the office to see Dad.'

'Have you told him about David?'

'Yes,' Jon acknowledged.

'And how did he take it?'

'Very well. He behaved as though he'd known all along that David would come back. In fact, it was almost as though David had simply been away on holiday he took it so calmly.'

'And Olivia?' Jenny asked quietly. 'Did
she
take it calmly?'

Jon gave her a tired smile. 'I think you already know the answer to that one.' Without waiting for her response, he continued, 'She flatly refuses to see David and, in fact—' he took a deep breath

'—she seems to have this...this blinkered belief...a fear that because she's David's daughter and because she's a woman, we're all waiting for her to...' He shook his head. 'She worried me, Jenny. I had no idea... Did you know?' he asked when she remained silent.

'Maddy
did
mention that Caspar had complained that Olivia was obsessed by the problems she'd had when she was growing up,' Jenny admitted. 'I'm afraid, though, that I put it down to a bit of marital discord rather than... She
was
very upset when what David had been doing came out, I know, but then we all were. Perhaps in the rush to sort out the practical problems he caused and to keep the truth from Ben, we none of us paid enough attention to what she was actually going through. Then she and Caspar got married and the children arrived.' She frowned. 'What do you plan to tell David?' she asked quietly.

'What
can
I tell him other than that she doesn't want to see him,' Jon responded unhappily.

What he hadn't yet told Jenny and what he didn't know how he was going to tell her was that just before she left for court, Olivia had come back into the office to tell him in a blank, over-controlled voice, 'And one more thing, Uncle Jon, whilst the rest of you are running about making plans to welcome the family's black sheep back into the fold, since I
don't
have any intention of seeing or speaking with my father and since you obviously do, I think it's best that I don't visit Queensmead...or you and Jenny.'

Her voice had faltered a little over her last few words, but her body had remained stubbornly taut.

'Livvy,' he had protested, but she had shaken her head.

'No...I'm not going to turn myself into a hyp-ocrite and if he ever sets foot into these premises, then I shall walk out, and I mean that. The rest of you might be planning to let bygones be bygones and welcome him back with the traditional fatted calf, but I
never
will.'

Olivia's declaration had shocked Jon, leaving him feeling anxious and concerned for her but unable to find a way to reach across the barrier she had raised between them.

How could he turn his back on David and refuse to allow him a second chance? He couldn't.

But to lose Olivia, who was so very dear to him...

'I doubt that David will want to come here' was all he had managed to say.

'He may not want to,' Olivia had retorted, 'but Ben will certainly expect him to.'

After she had gone, Jon realised that what she had said was probably true. However, David had made it clear he had no intention of returning to the practice, which would in any case have been impossible.

But he said nothing of this to Jenny who was bustling about the kitchen, looking tense and not at all like his normally relaxed, beloved wife.

'Jenny,' he commanded, reaching out to put his arm round her and draw her closer. 'Come and sit down. Relax.'

'I can't,' she returned shortly. 'Maddy was here this afternoon. She said that Max has been like a bear with a sore head. Oh, and Saul rang to ask if it was true that David was back. He said he'd heard the news from Katie and—'

'Jenny, Jenny...' Jon sighed. 'Something's wrong. What is it?'

'Do you really need to ask?' Jenny demanded crossly. 'David's back and suddenly everything's topsy-turvy. Everyone is on edge, and you, just like you always did, are taking his side, making everything easy and comfortable for him, putting him first.'

'Jenny, that isn't true,' Jon protested.

'Yes, it is,' she contradicted him flatly.

'Jenny,' Jon said gently, 'surely you of all people agree that David has a right to have a second chance. We're his
family,'
he persisted when she refused to respond or look at him. His expression changed to one of concern as she turned to face him and he saw that her eyes were full of tears.

'Jenny, my love, what is it?' he asked anxiously as he went to take her in his arms.

'I'm just so...so afraid that somehow things will change now that David's back,' Jenny confessed. 'We've been so happy these past few years, Jon, and I don't want—'

'David's coming back isn't going to change any of that,' Jon assured her. 'How can it?'

'I don't know,' Jenny admitted, but even though Jon was holding her and even though the warmth from the Aga was filling her kitchen, she still felt a sharp, prescient chill brushing warningly over her skin.

'You're still in shock,' Jon said soothingly.

'We all are. I had been going to suggest that we might ask David round for supper this weekend, have a bit of a family get-together sort of thing, to break the ice, but if you'd prefer not to...'

'No.' Jenny shook her head. 'Nothing can alter the fact that he
is
back and sooner or later everyone is going to know and want to see him. Oh, I do wish that Ruth wasn't in America. If she was here... What will we do about inviting Olivia and Caspar, though?' Jenny asked suddenly. 'I know you said Livvy wasn't prepared to talk to David.

I'll give her a ring,' she decided. 'Have a talk with her.'

A T QUEENSMEAD
, Maddy and Max were also in their kitchen.

'I swear if Gramps mentions David's name one more time...' Max protested in exasperation.

Maddy gave him a sympathetic look. 'He is very cock-a-hoop about him coming back,' she agreed.

'Cock-a-hoop!' Max gave her a telling look.

'To listen to him, anyone would think we'd kept him incarcerated in a dungeon and that David had had to call out the troops to free him.'

Maddy couldn't help laughing. 'You've been watching too many cartoons with the children,'

she teased him, then admitted, 'Ben
is
being a bit naughty.'

'A
bit
? I could have strangled him when he started telling me how Dad had never come up to matching David's intelligence or his sporting skills. Doesn't he realise...?' He shook his head.

'I've nothing against David
per se,
but if anyone thinks I'm going to stand back and let him walk all over Dad—'

'If you really want to do some hero stuff, then I think it's Jack and Olivia—especially Olivia—

who will be most in need of your support and protection,' Maddy told him seriously.

'Olivia! She and I have never really hit it off, and as for Jack—'

'This is bound to be a very difficult time for both of them, Max, and in very different ways.

No matter how little David himself may want it and no matter how much we all know it isn't deserved, nothing's going to stop Gramps from lauding David to the sky.'

'OLIVIA, WHAT THE DEVIL
is going on?' Caspar demanded in some alarm as he walked into the bedroom to discover the bed strewn with Olivia's clothes and a suitcase on the chest at the foot of the bed.

'What does it look like?' Olivia responded waspishly. 'I'm packing.'

'Packing?' Caspar's heart sank. They hadn't been getting on well recently. He realised that and knew both of them were inclined to be very stubborn, each refusing to compromise or give in, but the thought of Livvy's leaving him brought him out in a cold sweat of panic.

'Yes, packing. Isn't that what one normally does when one is going away?' Olivia asked ac-idly. 'How cold exactly is Philadelphia at this time of year, Caspar? I'm not sure which of these three outfits will be best for the wedding, and if we're touring afterwards—'

'You're packing for
Philadelphia
,' Caspar exclaimed in relief, his face breaking into a wide smile as he crossed the bedroom floor and, ignoring Olivia's objections, picked her up in his arms, swinging her round.

'No, not on the bed, Caspar,' Olivia protested as he lowered her towards it and tried to kiss her.

'I've just ironed these clothes.'

'You're coming with me!' Caspar exclaimed, ignoring her protests. 'Oh, God, Livvy...Livvy...'

He tried to kiss her again, but she moved her head and pushed him away from her, then got up off the bed.

His reaction to her change of mind was making her feel both irritated and guilty. It infuriated her to think that he believed she had given way and that he had won, but these were not ordinary circumstances. Jenny had rung earlier to explain that she was giving a weekend supper party for David, and Olivia's fingers had curled around the receiver in protest as she listened to her.

'I won't be here, Jenny,' she had said with a cold voice. 'Caspar and I are flying out to the States with the girls on Saturday afternoon to attend Caspar's half-brother's wedding.'

She had spent what was left of the afternoon rearranging her work diary and cancelling appointments, all with a steely determination that she didn't allow anything to shake. If her father was going to be at Jon and Jenny's, then she wasn't. It was as simple as that!

'MAX, WHAT ARE YOU DOING
here?' Olivia demanded sharply as she answered the front door to find her cousin standing outside.

'Oh, I was just passing, so I thought I'd call in.

Ma said you and Caspar are leaving for America this afternoon—a family wedding.'

'Yes,' Olivia acknowledged tersely as Max followed her into the hallway.

She had never felt completely at ease with her cousin. There was a history of enmity between them going back to when they were children, fostered by Ben Crighton's very different treatment of them. In recent years, that enmity might have softened down to a more adult tolerance, but its roots were still there—for Olivia at least.

'It will do you good to get away. Dad mentioned that he was concerned about how hard you've been working.'