Falling for you

‘That’s all right then.’ Visibly relaxing, Tiff turned his attention back to Sophie. ‘They’ve got a Playstation 2 on this ward, one of the nurses told me. Do you want to have a look at the tube going into my arm?’

This was the invitation Sophie had been waiting for. Next moment she was perched on the bed next to Tiff, avidly poring over the spot where the plastic tubing actually disappeared through the skin, and bombarding him with questions about how much it had hurt.

Jake drew Juliet to one side, away from the bed.

‘Damn, so that’s what I’ve been missing all these years — the ultimate chat-up accessory, an IV

drip. Think of the girls I could have pulled if only I’d known.’

Scarcely able to believe that the question of Tiff’s paternity had apparently been answered and dismissed as not terribly interesting in half a minute flat, Juliet breathed a shaky sigh of relief and leaned against Jake.

‘You didn’t do so badly.’

‘Ah, but you might not have been able to resist me in the first place if only I’d had an IV tube to enthral you with.’

Juliet smiled, enjoying the feel of his hand on her back. ‘You were pretty irresistible as it was. I just told myself that was the problem.’

‘You weren’t so shabby yourself.’ Lowering his voice further still, Jake murmured into her hair, ‘Is it time to tell them, d’you think?’

‘Tell us what?’ said Sophie immediately, her head jerking up like a meerkat’s.

Jake and Juliet glanced at each other.

‘Something soppy,’ Tiff observed with a sly smile. ‘Your dad’s got his arm round my mum.’

‘So?’ said Jake.

‘Bleeeuurrgh, gross,’ Sophie and Tiff cried in unison, breaking into fits of giggles and pointing at Juliet and Jake. ‘You’re in lo-ve, you’re in lo-ve.’

It wasn’t the first time this had happened. Any fleeting demonstration of affection between adults was routinely greeted with jeers and the same chanted accusation. As a rule, the best way for the adults concerned to deal with it was to ignore them.

‘Yes,’ Jake said simply, ‘we are.’

That stopped Tiff and Sophie in their tracks.

‘What? Are you joking?’ Sophie narrowed her eyes, suspecting a trick.

‘No,’ said Jake. ‘Deadly serious.’

‘What, you mean you really love each other?’

Jake nodded. ‘We really do.’

Juliet held her breath.

Tiff and Sophie looked at each other, then started to snigger again.

‘What’s so funny?’ said Jake.

‘You’ve been mating.’ Sophie rocked backwards on the bed, whooping gleefully into her cupped hands.

‘That’s what you do,’ confirmed Tiff. Interestedly he added, ‘If you’ve mated, you’ll have another baby. What are you going to call it?’

‘This could be one of those conversations you wish you’d never started,’ Juliet whispered in an undertone to Jake.

‘Where’s it going to live?’ Sophie’s eyes were bright with interest. ‘I know, if we give it to Mr Taylor-Trent, it can live with him. Then everyone will have a child to look after.’

‘Interesting thought,’ said Jake. ‘But we’re not having a baby. Not just yet, anyway.’

‘Right. But when you do, can we choose its name?’

Not over-keen on the prospect of any child of his being called Spiderman, Jake said, ‘Mind out of the way, the nurse is trying to get through. So are you OK with that, then? Me and Juliet, you and Tiff?

All four of us living together?’

‘Great!’ Sophie beamed as the nurse squeezed round to her side of the bed. ‘Just so long as you don’t get married, because I’m not wearing a sissy bridesmaid’s dress for anyone. Oooh.’ She leaned forward ghoulishly as the nurse unwrapped a syringe. ‘Are you going to take blood? Can I watch?’

Chapter 50

Kate was working the lunchtime shift at the Angel. Out by the pool at Dauncey House, Norris lay on his side on the sunbaked flagstones, lazily flicking his ears at passing insects and keeping one eye open should anyone feel like volunteering to take him for a walk.

Anyone being Oliver, the only human being currently on the premises. Norris sighed and closed his eyes; he wasn’t getting his hopes up.

Inside the house, Oliver was unable to relax. For the past hour he’d found himself pacing restlessly from room to room, visualising the wreckage that was his life. For as long as he could remember, he’d used his position to control people. They did what he said. If the fact that he was a powerful man didn’t intimidate them, he resorted to money instead. Whichever, he was used to getting his own way.

Until now.

Oliver paused in the doorway leading through to the drawing room. In a matter of days, his world had spun out of control. Estelle was gone, God knows where. She’d been having an affair with a younger, poorer,