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things didn't go the way she wanted them to!'
Cassandra couldn't imagine this nobly proud man having to deal with
emotions as basic as that, knew how he must have hated it and also
the reason he bad stood it for as long as he obviously had. There could
have been only one reason: Jonas. His younger son. A son
deliberately brought up to distrust him and resent his older brother...!
Peter shook his head with remembered bitterness. 'By the time Jonas
was eight I knew I couldn't live like that any more, felt too battered
emotionally after one particularly vitriolic outburst, over Claire's
latest lover, as I recall, to go on with it any more,' he added
disgustedly. 'But I couldn't let Jonas go and live with his mother if
there was to be a divorce; I knew she would poison his life
completely if I allowed that. And so there was a nasty custody case.'
His mouth thinned with the distaste of having to publicly reveal the
intimate details of his second marriage. 'At the worst point of the
hearing, when Claire could see she was probably going to lose, she
told the court I wasn't Jonas's father anyway, so had no right to
him...!' He shook his head with a pained wince.
Cassandra stared at him with wide eyes; Jonas wasn't his son...?
'It was a he, of course,' Peter instantly dismissed the very idea of that
being true. 'The last viperous thrust of a rattlesnake! For all her
adulterous ways once our relationship was over, I had never at any
time doubted that Jonas was my son.' He looked up and saw how pale
Cassandra had become, smiling at her without any real humour.
'Remind me to show you a photograph of Jonas's paternal grandfather
some time,' he drawled. 'Jonas is him all over again; he was an old
curmudgeon too!'"
This more than accurate description of Jonas released some of the
tension, and Cassandra found herself returning Jeter's smile with
humour now. 'I would love to see some old photographs of your
family. And Jonas,' she added huskily.
Peter leant forward to squeeze her hand understandingly. 'And so you
shall. Over a cup of tea. Once we've disposed of all of the past,' he
added grimly, sitting back in his chair once again.
She moistened dry lips. 'What happened to make Jonas go to America
twelve years ago? And what is the rift between Charles and Jonas?'
She looked at him enquiringly.
'As you've probably already guessed,' Peter sighed wearily, 'the two
are connected. The rivalry that Jonas felt towards Charles, which
Claire had instilled in him from birth, continued even after Claire had
left the house. Claire virtually disappeared from his life for years after
the divorce, and the easiest way for Jonas to deal with that was to
blame Charles and me. And maybe I was to blame.' He shook his
head. 'I certainly didn't encourage the relationship, and Claire wasn't
one for putting herself out, least of all for a child who couldn't do
anything for her in return. I'm sorry,' he winced. 'I must be painting a
very bitter picture. But --'
'It's all right, Peter,' Cassandra hastened to reassure him, having so
much more insight now into what had made Jonas the man he
was and needing to know the rest!
'He's useful to her again now, of course,' Peter rasped, eyes narrowed
angrily. 'Which is why the relationship exists, on some sort of level.'
Jonas had made no effort that Cassandra knew of to see his mother
over the Christmas holiday, or to introduce the two women. But she
did know he had invited his mother to the wedding in four days' time,
as he had said he would...
Peter shook his head. 'But all through those difficult years with Jonas,
teenage and adolescent, Claire didn't want to know, except for the
odd outing. It was because of that, I'm sure, that the relationship
between Charles and Jonas improved slightly. Charles went into
business with your father, and Jonas went on to university --'
He broke off as Cassandra gasped, looking at her enquiringly.
'It had never occurred to me before that Jonas was still in England
when Daddy and Charles formed Hunter and Kyle,' she explained
almost dazedly. She couldn't think why she hadn't her father and
Charles had been in partnership for fifteen years before they both
died.
It seemed strange to think she could have met Jonas all those years
ago, if things hadn't been so strained between him and Charles...
Admittedly, she would only have been thirteen years old when Jonas
went off to America, but just to have seen him once before whatever
rift had driven him to leave in the first place...! Perhaps, in retrospect,
he wouldn't have been all that different from the way he was now, but
it still seemed odd to think she could have met him all those years
ago...
'I should have realised.' She shook her head self- derisively.
Peter smiled. 'Jonas was wild in those days,' he recalled, as if he could
guess her thoughts of a few minutes ago. 'he was into everything. Fast
cars. Drink. Women.' His face became shadowed again. 'It's ironic
really that it was a woman who once again split the family apart. Lucy
might have been made in Claire's image,' he said grimly. 'A young,
slightly less knowing Claire. Maybe that was what attracted Jonas to
her. God knows what Charles saw in her!' He shook his head
disgustedly.
Cassandra had gone vary still, her heart pounding loudly in her ears.
A woman. Charles and Jonas had fallen out over a woman? A girl
really. It had never occurred to her that might be the reason...
Although she remembered Jonas's bitterness now about the one time
he had been in love, and also Peter's comments to Jonas on Christmas
Day concerning his reasons for marrying her.
'Charles took Lucy away from Jonas,' she realised dully. Here lay
Jonas's real reason for wanting to marry her. It had nothing to do with
her father or those shares, and everything to do with revenge for what
Charles had done to Jonas all those years ago. She felt ill...
'Not quite,' Peter answered drily, not seeming to have noticed how
pale Cassandra had become, her eyes haunted, the dark shadows
beneath them appearing even darker, her cheeks hollow. 'Lucy just
decided Charles, as the older, already established brother, was a much
surer bet than the fiery but as yet unproved Jonas. She and Jonas had
been dating for several months, but within a week of being introduced
to Charles Lucy was chasing after him unashamedly.'
But Charles hadn't had to be caught! And he had never mentioned this
girl Lucy to her. Oh, Cassandra hadn't expected him to confess to
every relationship from his past; after all, he was a lot older than her,
and of course there had been other women. But this girl Lucy had
been Jonas's girlfriend first, and was the cause of the bad feeling [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]