The Sapphire Child (The Raj Hotel #2) - Janet MacLeod Trotter Page 0,104

have been married to this other woman. All his talk about supporting the family farm might have been fabricated to make him appear in a good light. What she did know now was that he had a wife in Ireland for whom he had such contempt that he sometimes forgot she was there. And who was it in Edinburgh that Hugh had been with when Andrew and Felicity had met him?

She was gripped with a sick fury. How had she allowed herself to be taken in by his charm and promise of marriage, which he was in no position to fulfil? He had seduced her knowing that. For years, she had chased a ridiculously romantic dream – that there was only one man for her – a handsome, sensual Irishman. She had been so certain of this that she hadn’t stopped to question why he had suddenly turned up in her life after years apart and single-mindedly wooed her. Had it been nothing more to him than an opportunistic affair while he was thousands of miles away from his wife?

And yet, his letter insisted that it was she, Stella, whom he really loved.

‘He says he still wants to be with me,’ Stella said, ‘and that he’ll divorce his wife as soon as possible.’

Esmie shook her head sadly. ‘So why hasn’t he done so before now? What if she turns out to be like Lydia and refuses a divorce? Are you prepared to put up with that? It’s not just you, Stella – you have your unborn child to consider. Do you trust that he will take on the baby?’

Esmie had never been so forthright with her; it was a measure of how upset she was. Stella could only imagine what Tom would have to say about Hugh’s deception.

Her eyes stung with fresh tears. ‘I don’t know if I do,’ she whispered.

Esmie let out a long sigh. She leaned over and kissed Stella tenderly on her forehead, like a mother would her child. ‘Try and rest for now,’ she said kindly. ‘All this upset is not what your baby needs. You and your child are what matter to us, Stella, not Mr Keating.’

She stood and lifted a small brass bell from the tea tray. ‘Ring this if you want anything. I’ll look in on you later. Sleep, dear lassie.’

After she’d gone, Stella lay staring at the fire, trying to empty her mind of everything except the dancing pattern of the flames. Her baby stirred. It felt like it was somersaulting in her womb. It brought her sudden comfort. Whatever happened after today, she would love this child of hers with her whole heart and do whatever was best for him or her.

Chapter 37

Bombay, India, January 1942

The converted troop ship dropped anchor in the night. Standing at the rail, there was little to see, but Andrew could smell India on the night breeze: warm, pungent and oily. There was general euphoria on board that the long sea voyage was over and they had safely dodged the underwater terror of the U-boats.

Yet Andrew’s pulse raced not from relief but from nerves. He had left India as a boy of thirteen, and now – eight and a half years later – he was returning as an adult. He gripped Dawan’s talisman tightly in his pocket. The last time he had been here, he had clung to his father at their emotional parting, thinking that he would only be gone for the summer holidays. How he had worshipped his father in those days.

Over the past years he’d discovered from his mother how difficult a husband Tom had been: short-tempered, neglectful and ultimately unfaithful. Lydia had been even more vitriolic about Esmie. ‘She usurped my place as your mother for years – I can never forgive her for that.’ Yet his Auntie Tibby – who always thought the best of everyone – had painted a different picture of his father and Esmie. ‘Don’t you think that the main reason they pretended to be married might have been to give you a stable, loving home?’

As a youth, smarting from discovering the deceptions, Andrew had taken his mother’s side. But adulthood had moderated his opinion. Relationships could be complicated, with no one side being completely guilty or innocent.

He let out a long breath. All those years ago, standing on the Bombay dockside, he had been embarking on an adventure with Stella by his side. If she had never gone with him, she would never have met Hugh Keating.