days.’ He smiled. ‘I hoped he’d marry again, but I’m afraid he’s a onewoman man.’
Which was more than could be said for his son, thought Kate with rancour. ‘I was very fond of your father.’
‘The feeling was mutual.’
She shot him a look. ‘That can’t have lasted once we split up.’
‘You mean when you took off for London rather than marry me!’ Their eyes clashed for a moment, then Jack shrugged. ‘Actually my father was a lot more tolerant than me. He told me to give you time to spread your wings. But for me it was all or nothing.’
‘You can’t say you pined for long!’
‘Actually, you’re wrong about that.’ Jack crossed his legs and sat back, surveying her thoughtfully. ‘Maybe it’s time you knew the truth.’
Kate shook her head as she poured coffee. ‘No need, Jack. I chose to leave, and you married Dawn on the rebound. These things happen.’
‘Not in the way you think.’
She gave him an assessing look, resentful that the lines on his face merely added character to the good looks of his youth. ‘I don’t think about it, Jack. It was a long time ago. No point in raking it all up again.’
‘I look on it as setting the record straight.’ He drank some of his coffee, then set down the mug.‘ After you took off for London,’ he said, with the air of a man determined to have his say, ‘I began drowning my sorrows at the Rose and Crown most nights, and Dawn Taylor offered the kind of comfort I was fool enough to accept eventually, because I was so bloody miserable without you. But when she begged me to marry her because she was pregnant, I realised exactly what kind of a fool I’d been. Dawn was very popular with her father’s punters, and Dad said I was an idiot to believe that the child was mine.’ He gave her a straight look. ‘Nevertheless, it could have been mine, Kate.’
She held his eyes. ‘What happened to the baby?’
‘Dawn miscarried soon after the wedding, eighteen weeks into the pregnancy.’ His mouth twisted.‘ My entire relationship with Dawn up to that point,including the marriage, added up to twelve weeks. You can do the maths.’
‘So who was the father?’
‘Someone else’s husband.’ Jack shrugged. ‘So in a panic Dawn told me the baby was mine, hoping to pass it off on me as premature. When it all went horribly wrong she agreed to a quickie divorce and used my one-off settlement to visit her sister in Australia. I haven’t seen her since.’
Kate digested this in silence for a while. ‘She was a very pretty girl—spectacular figure,’ she said at last, and looked at him very directly. ‘It broke my heart when you married her so soon after we split up.’
His eyes hardened. ‘You broke mine when you took off for London.’
‘Oh, come on, Jack,’ she retorted. ‘London wasn’t the moon. I could have come home to you every weekend right from the start, or you could have come to me, but not a chance. It had to be your way or nothing.’
‘I changed my mind pretty quickly,’ he said, startling her. ‘I missed you like hell. I soon wanted you back on any terms. I was about to get in touch to tell you that, but Dawn got in first with her news.’
‘You mean you expected me to rush back to you even though you slept with her the minute I left?’ Kate eyed him coldly. ‘I would have found out sooner or later. News travels fast in a small town like this.’
He shrugged. ‘Not so very fast, apparently. You didn’t know about the divorce.’
‘I was living in London then, remember. And if they knew about it, Liz and Robert never told me.’
‘Obviously not. But I’m surprised that the news hasn’t filtered through to you since.’ He smiled wryly. ‘Talking of surprises, Anna Maitland looked thunderstruck last night when I gatecrashed her party.’
Kate nodded. ‘Because you never go to parties, it didn’t occur to her to invite you.’
‘Does she know about our relationship?’
‘As from last night she does. Anna knew I’d been engaged before I met her, but not the name of the lucky man. I couldn’t believe my eyes when you strolled up at the party.’ Kate smiled politely. ‘But I’m glad you called in tonight, Jack. It gives me a chance to congratulate you on your success.’
‘Thank you. We both achieved our aims, career-wise.’ He eyed her quizzically. ‘But I’m curious, Kate. I’m told you