Yesterday's Sins (38 page)

Jessica turned sickly pale and Kate drew in a shaky breath as she remembered Aunt Grace's vitriolic attack. Small wonder they'd been upset at her arrival. But recalling Uncle John's defeated misery, she was filled with compassion. Why should he suffer for his daughter's greed?

Alex wanted her trust. She needed to stop the reprisals.

Today marked a new beginning.

"No Alex." She faced him squarely, holding both his hands in hers. "If this reconciliation you've set your heart on is to succeed it can't be at the expense of my only surviving relatives."

"You want me to let this mischief go unpunished?"

"I can't be happy knowing my uncle's in jail."

"How will you stop her spewing her lies to the press?"

"She won't say a word, to anyone." Kate met his eyes steadily before turning to her cousin. "Joe Kallinikos gave me a message for you, Jessica. If you talk, even in your sleep, he will hear. If you want to outlive the old gentleman I'd heed that warning."

Jessica paled in the fraught silence. Alex looked from one to the other then gave a dismissive shrug.

"Get out of here before I change my mind."

Jessica didn't need a second invitation. Gregori escorted her to the door. And Kate heard the murmur of men's voices.

When her cousin was gone, Kate she looked at Alex. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He lifted her hand and kissed it.

When Sarah tugged at her hand, Kate knew the reprieve was temporary.

Jessica was nothing. Sarah and Alex were her whole world. And Jessica, with her lies, had made this task so much more difficult.

"Are you my mother?" Sarah demanded belligerently.

Faced with the direct question she couldn't lie.

"Yes." Kate was grateful for Alex's hand on her shoulder.

"I thought you were nice."

When Sarah turned away, Kate's heart sank. Upset buy the lies and the angry voices Sarah wasn't about to trust another stranger. Kate gave Alex a helpless look.

"Do you want us to leave you?" Emily spoke for the first time.

"No." Alex raked an unsteady hand through his hair. "After that scene we need honesty among the family."

Kate glanced at him, upset by his pale, bleak expression and haunted eyes. She could never watch these people's faith in Alex destroyed. Such damage may never be repaired. It was long overdue for the past to be forgotten and forgiven.

She laid a hand on his arm and gave an infinitesimal shake of her head, her eyes pleading with him to let her handle this. She walked to a sofa and casually sat down and the other adults followed her lead.

Kate watched Sarah, defensive and spoiling for a fight. She glared at Alex. "You said Kate was a friend of my mother's."

Despite the gravity of the situation Kate couldn't help chuckling. Sarah turned on her. "You lied to me."

"What was a lie, Sarah?" she asked keeping a straight face. "What have I told you that was a lie?"

"The music box."

"It wasn't a lie,
caraid,
your music box belonged to my mother and when she died my father gave it to me. And your father gave it to you. How is that a lie?"

"You said your family died in a car crash."

"Sarah," Alex said warningly. "Watch you manners."

Kate waved aside the interruption. "I wish with all my heart, that was a lie, Sarah. But my Daddy and my twin brother did die in a car smash and are buried not far from your cousin Marcos."

"Why did you abandon me?"

Bloody Noni. I'll give that woman a piece of my mind.

Let me get this right
, Kate prayed silently. "He found you under a bush?"
 

"You know he didn't, silly," Sarah responded scornfully. "I was in a funny crib at the hospital."

"Dear me, what a careful place to abandon a baby."

Sarah glared at Kate, her bottom lip jutting out pugnaciously. "I'm lucky I had daddy."

Kate took her time answering. She could almost feel the other adults holding their breath.

"No, you weren't lucky." Kate looked at Sarah but never attempted to touch her. "I deliberately left you with Alex."

"Oh." Sarah chewed her bottom lip, and then demanded, "Are you really married to my daddy?"

"Yes."

"Why did you leave him? Didn't you love him either?"

Kate winced at Sarah's bluntness. There was a lot of Alex in her. "Things are not always simple between adults. When you're older you'll understand better. When I left, it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. My father and brother had been killed, your father and I had been unhappy for a long time and then you were born too soon, a tiny delicate baby. You were so tiny—you looked like a pound of butter with arms and legs. I was too sick to look after myself, let alone look after a baby. It was best for you that you stayed with your Dad."

"Kate was very ill, Sarah," Alex said quietly. "And grieving the loss of her family."

He held out a hand and Sarah took it moving closer to his knee. Her little face puckered in a frown.

"But why did you stay away?" Sarah wasn't completely mollified.
 

Kate stared at her hands, trying to find an answer when help came from an unexpected source.

"People who have experienced something as bad as Kate did, develop an illness called depression." Luke leaned forward until he was close to Sarah. "It can take years before that person is well enough to cope with normal living."

"Were you ill?" Sarah's gaze swivelled towards Kate.

"Yes." Kate gave Luke a grateful smile. With swift understanding he had pinpointed the dreadful malaise that dogged her for years. It was Alex's intervention that ensured she'd healed. "But because of the help I've had from you all, I'm nearly better."

"Are you going to live with us again now you're better?"

Kate hesitated. Was she ready to begin living with Alex again?
 

"That's for Kate to decide," Alex said firmly, gathering Sarah into his arm and giving her a hug.

"Do you want me to?"

"Would I have to share Daddy with you?"

"Of course." Kate struggled to hide her amusement at the possessive question. "Would you mind?"

"Yes." Sarah looked from Kate to Alex, her eyes rebellious, her bottom lip jutting out.

"Oh dear, that's a real shame," Kate said gravely, glancing at Alex and catching the slight tremor at the corner of his lips. She heard the small choking sound Gregori made the heroic effort to disguise as a cough.

"Why?" Sarah demanded, curiosity winning out over her belligerent stand.

Kate didn't want to air her suspicion here but knew it may be her best chance of winning over Sarah.

"It seems we have a problem." Kate held Alex's eyes steadily, silently willing him to understand. "If you won't share Alex with me, it makes it difficult for me to share your new baby brother or sister with you."

Alex stiffened, surprise making his eyes flare wide. Their gazes clashed and held.

"That does present a problem," he managed with very creditable aplomb.

"Are we going to have a baby?" Sarah left Alex's side and ran across to Kate her eyes shining with excitement.

Kate nodded, watching Sarah. "It's such shame you won't be able to share it. You could get quite lonely while Alex visits me and the new baby at my house."

Like that's ever going to happen. No way would I feel safe in my house after today.
 

No one spoke as Sarah struggled valiantly to maintain her desire not to share Alex with Kate and yet have a share in a new baby.

"Why don't you negotiate a compromise, Sarah," Gregori suggested evenly, breaking the taut silence. He pulled a pen out of his pocket and withdrew a note book. "Let me draw up a schedule of times that Alex and Kate can enjoy alone, and times that you and Alex can enjoy alone and times when you all share. Does that sound fair?"

Sarah nodded, giving a huge relieved sigh as Gregori gave her a face saving way out of her dilemma.

"Alex and Kate?" Gregori asked, according Sarah the courtesy of formally hearing them voice their consent.

"That's fine," they spoke together. "I'll draw up discussion papers for you all look at. Okay?"

"Noni will be surprised," Sarah informed them artlessly. "She said my mother would never return and never have another baby."

"Did she now?" Kate's eyes gleamed with a militant sparkle. "We'll see about that."

She leapt out of her chair and strode across the room opening the door yelled for Noni at the top of her voice in a stream of fluent, gutter Greek.

She shut the door and waited.

Gregori and Alex sat staring at her their mouths hanging loose with shock.

"You called me?" Noni stuttered as she opened the door, her eyes nearly popping out in shocked disbelief, uncertain she was hearing correctly.

"I did." Kate savoured the moment of victory.

Noni was the prime impetus for her learning Greek. She'd put her time with Joe Kallinikos to good use, vowing she would never again be disadvantaged by not knowing what was being said in her presence.

"You knew Alex and I were married so why did you cause mischief with my cousin?"

Noni looked thoroughly discomforted, her jet eyes darting from Alex to Gregori to Kate, then she saw Emily and paled visibly.

"You've been with this family a very long time," Kate switched back to English, underlining her proficiency in Noni's mother tongue, "but there can only be one mistress in any household. If you want to make a fight of it, remember Alex is my husband and I have weapons you can never use. I can and I will."

"There will be no fight, Noni, will there?" Alex said very quietly, every word laced with steel.

"No." Noni shrunk visibly, looking what she was, an old woman.

"Later, you and I will discuss your dealings with Jessica Howard." Alex fixed his old nurse with a hard look.

With each word, Noni shrunk further and further into herself. Watching, Kate was filled with an overwhelming surge of pity. The Korda family was this old woman's whole life.

Without them she had no one.

"Then we understand each other," Kate's voice softened. "There's no reason why you can't rock the cradle for the next members of the family. Why don't you go upstairs with Noni after breakfast, Sarah, and help her get the cradle. It probably needs refurbishing."

Noni's jet eyes snapped from Kate to Alex and her old seamed face creased into a wide delighted smile and her spine stiffened. Animated, she looked ten years younger.

Sarah skipped off happily with Noni asking in fluent Greek, "What were those words Kate used?"

"No self-respecting lady uses words like that. If I catch you I'll wash your mouth out with soap," Noni snapped, glaring over her shoulder at Kate. "If I hear your mama using them again I'll wash her mouth out too."