Читать книгу Charlie's Dad - Alexandra Scott - Страница 8

CHAPTER THREE

AMAZING how quickly life could return to normal. That at least was the comforting message Ellie fixed her mind on at night before falling asleep, but waking, as she did now, in the early hours brought an entirely different perspective.

Now, tossing and turning in a frustration she did not care to identify, she knew life could never be quite as simple again. That, having met Ben Congreve, it was impossible for her to convince herself as she had done before that their affair had been a pretty typical holiday romance, something which in any event would not have lasted.

And there was one vital matter she forced herself to face: She must admit at last that the blame could not be placed entirely at his door. So mad had she been for him she had assured him, quite without foundation, that there was no risk of pregnancy. Over the years she had convinced herself that he had allowed her to lie to him...well, that was what suited most men, wasn’t it?

But how frightening it had all been, finding herself alone, pregnant, deserted. Looking back, it was hard to imagine how she had pulled herself together, to plan for some kind of future. It had been her great good fortune to meet Greg Osborne and marry him, and, of course, the greatest good fortune of all was Charlie herself. Charlie, who had brought more love and joy into her life than she could have imagined. That one shining fact made any kind of regret redundant.

Only...meeting him again now threatened all the feelings and emotions kept so carefully damped down over the years. Even now, her relationship with David Merriman was a tentative, arm’s length one, no matter that he had made it clear he would like it to develop into something warmer. And Ellie was afraid even that prospect must now be consigned to the dustbin.

‘Oh...’ She groaned, put her head beneath the covers, desperately trying to restore sleep before the image of Ben Congreve intruded again, but it was impossible. For how could she pretend to herself that if they had met as strangers at the dinner date in Singapore she would not have been interested? And the fact that he had showed so clearly that he was interested too... that simply made it more difficult.

Oh, it had all been more restrained and civilised than all those years before, but that was natural—they were older, less abandoned than that group of sexually experimental youngsters had been. And it had taught her a crucial lesson: she was very much more wary, less trusting, but still... If only they had been meeting for the first time and both free... But, there, that would imply that Charlie...

Oh, it was all too tormenting and she wished they hadn’t met up after all, was glad—positively—that nothing had come of it, and... And, oh, how she longed for sleep.