Anne Mather - Savage Innocence

WHEN someone knocked at the door of her apartment that evening, Isobel’s heart leapt into overdrive. She was expecting Michelle, but it was too early for her, and she wondered how she’d explain her friend’s arrival to Jared if it was him. When she’d told him she couldn’t see him, it had been because she’d planned to spend the evening packing things that would be put into storage until she found somewhere else to live. Michelle had agreed to help her, despite her own misgivings about Isobel’s decision.

But when she eventually opened the door, she found her sister waiting on the landing outside. ‘I was beginning to think you weren’t in,’ remarked Marion tersely, brushing past her into the living room. She loosened the jacket of her black business suit and glanced about her impatiently. ‘What’s going on?’

Isobel closed the door, a frown drawing her dark brows together as she followed Marion into the room. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked, her pulse palpitating at the thought that Marion might have somehow found out about what she intended to do. A quick glance assured her that she’d disposed of all the evidence. So long as her sister didn’t go into the spare bedroom, she appeared to be safe.

‘You were going to call at the agency after you’d finished at the house,’ Marion reminded her shortly, and Isobel breathed a little more easily. After reading Robert Dorland’s letters, and the disturbing emotions aroused by Jared’s visit, she’d forgotten all about the promise she’d made to her sister.

‘I—forgot,’ she said lamely now, and Marion regarded her with scarcely concealed irritation.

‘How could you forget?’ she exclaimed, subsiding onto a braided sofa. ‘You knew I’d promised to give the keys to the estate agent this afternoon.’

‘Yes, well…’ Isobel sighed. ‘There’s a problem.’

‘A problem?’ Marion looked sceptical. ‘You haven’t found something structurally wrong with the house, have you?’

‘No.’ Isobel shook her head. ‘Why should you think that?’

Marion shrugged, and then, when it became apparent that Isobel expected an answer, she clicked her tongue. ‘If you must know, Malcolm saw Howard Goldman’s son-in-law going into the house at lunchtime,’ she said shortly.

‘Oh.’ Isobel felt the heat in her cheeks, and she turned away towards the kitchen. ‘Can I get you something to drink? Tea? Or something stronger? I think I have some sherry. And beer, of course—’

‘Nothing, thanks.’ Marion’s lips were tight. ‘You do know the risk you’re taking, don’t you, Isobel?’ She shook her head. ‘If Elizabeth Kendall finds out…’

‘She won’t.’ Isobel pushed her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. She’d had a shower when she got back from the house and deliberately changed her clothes in an effort to forget what had happened. ‘In any case, we were talking about something else—’

Marion ignored her. ‘I thought you told me you’d finished with Jared Kendall.’

Isobel felt a flare of indignation at her sister’s careless intrusion into her private affairs. She and Jared had been seeing one another for over six months before Marion had found out about their relationship, but ever since she had she’d been warning Isobel of the dire consequences, not just to her, but to Marion’s agency, if Howard Goldman discovered the truth.

‘Let’s leave it, shall we?’ Isobel suggested flatly, and, as if sensing she was on shaky ground, Marion contented herself with sniffing her disapproval. ‘I was talking about what I found in the loft.’

‘The loft?’ She had Marion’s attention now. ‘What’s the loft got to do with anything?’

‘It’s full of junk,’ said Isobel evenly. ‘At least, that’s all I thought it was.’

‘What do you mean?’

Marion looked genuinely puzzled, and Isobel walked across the room and extracted the bundle of letters from the suitcase she’d left hidden behind an armchair. Handing her sister the letter she’d seen first, she said, ‘Read that.’

Marion frowned, handling the envelope as if its evident age and discoloration offended her sensibilities. ‘What is it?’

‘Read it,’ urged Isobel, endeavouring to control her impatience, and Marion pulled a face as she extracted the letter.

‘Very well,’ she said, flicking a speck of dust from her fingers. ‘But I can’t imagine why you would think…’

Her voice trailed away as she began to read. Watching her expression, Isobel soon became convinced that what she was seeing was as much of a shock to Marion as it had been to her. Her sister looked up once, when she was about halfway through the letter, and gave Isobel a disbelieving stare, but she waited until she’d reached Robert Dorland’s signature before making any comment.

‘Do you think this has something to do with you?’

Isobel shrugged. ‘Don’t you?’

Marion looked down at the letter again. ‘How would I know? Who is this Robert Dorland? Some relation of Daddy’s, I suppose.’

‘His brother,’ Isobel told her. She flicked through the other letters she was holding. ‘I’ve read all of these, and that one was the last.’

Marion held out her hand. ‘Can I read them?’

‘Of course.’ Isobel handed them over. ‘But not now. I—well, I’m expecting somebody.’

Marion’s expression tightened. ‘Not Jared Kendall?’

‘No, not Jared,’ agreed Isobel wearily. ‘Though if he was coming here, it would be nothing to do with you.’

‘It would if his father-in-law found out I’d known about it, and done nothing to try and put a stop to it.’

Isobel caught her breath. ‘Marion, you’re not my keeper.’

‘No, but Howard and Elizabeth are friends,’ declared Marion, fitting the letter back into the envelope. ‘We’ve even had dinner with them occasionally.’

‘Very occasionally,’ remarked Isobel drily. Howard Goldman and the Rimmers happened to belong to the same golf club, and Marion had been trying for years to cultivate the right kind of social circle. So far their contact with the Goldmans had been restricted to charity dinners and the like, but Marion had ambitions.

‘Nevertheless—’

‘Nevertheless, nothing,’ said Isobel shortly. She squared her shoulders. ‘Did you know anything about this?’

‘This?’ Marion held up the letter. ‘No. How could I?’

‘You’ve never heard of Robert Dorland?’

Marion was indignant. ‘Isobel, I was only three years old when Mum and Daddy adopted you.’

‘Yes.’ Isobel acknowledged what she’d already accepted herself. ‘So what do you think I should do?’

‘Do?’ Marion blinked. ‘What do you mean? What do I think you should do? What can you do? These letters are—what? Twenty-five, thirty years old?’

‘I’m only twenty-six, Marion.’

‘Oh, yes. Right.’ Marion pulled a wry face. ‘Well, it hardly matters now.’

Isobel dropped down into the armchair opposite. ‘Don’t you think so?’

‘How could it? This man—this Robert Dorland—is probably dead by now.’

‘He might not be.’

‘No.’ Marion conceded the fact with ill grace. ‘But what are you going to do? Turn up on his doorstep and expose the secret he’s been keeping all these years: you!’

‘He is my father.’

‘Is he?’

‘Of course he is.’ Isobel stared at her. ‘Surely you don’t think he’d have gone to all that trouble if—’

‘Oh, I’m sure he thought he was your father,’ declared Marion dismissively. ‘But your mother was hardly a paragon of all the virtues, was she? I mean—’ Her lips twisted, and Isobel could almost see what she was thinking. ‘Getting involved with a married man! How do you know she wasn’t lying about your paternity in the hope of making a better life for herself?’