Chapter 15
FIFTEEN
There was so much more to the house than she’d already seen. Joe was as proud of the work they’d commissioned as if he’d done it with his own hands. ‘Do you see the way they’ve matched the tiles to the original? You can’t can you? It’s that seamless.’
When he’d arrived yesterday, Joe had been wearing a well-cut suit.
Today, in an open-necked shirt and linen trousers, he had the air of a man about to board his yacht.
Talking all the while, he’d led her outside the house so that he could begin his tour with the exterior.
Nodding in all the right places, she interspersed his enthusiasm about bricks and mortar with her questions about Charlotte.
‘Robert and Charlotte seem to have quite a lot to talk about. Have they been out there all morning?’
Joe was still caressing the wall like a lover.
‘Uh, maybe? I’ve been busy in the office.
I’ll show you that next. We had a picture window installed that looks up at the Castillo de Gibralfaro.
It’s like a living work of art. We didn’t have time to go inside yesterday.
Shall we take a trip up there tomorrow?’
Maybe she was imagining it, but his vague reply seemed purposefully to distract her from her questions. ‘Yes. Maybe we can go tomorrow. I was just surprised to see them so deep in conversation. Robert usually has his head stuck in a book, given half a chance.’
She finished with a little laugh to take the edge from her words. Joe held his hand out for her to go ahead of him back inside the house. ‘Well, Charlotte loves a chat. She probably didn’t give him a choice. My office is through here.’
To the right of the entrance hall, he opened a heavy wooden door onto a surprisingly wide space.
A large mahogany desk with a huge curved computer screen on the left, a dark-green two-seater sofa on the right and – straight in front of her – the window looking up at the castle.
It was beautiful. ‘Wow. You’re so lucky to have this space.
I wouldn’t ever want to go anywhere else if I lived here. ’
He grinned, clearly enjoying her praise. ‘I know. It is great. But I’m not here as much as I’d like. Nature of the job.’
She remembered his comment about his and Lucy’s relationship. ‘Lucy must miss you when you’re away?’
He laughed. ‘I’m not sure about that. She has a very full life of her own.’
Again, his choice of words seemed to hint at an unorthodox set-up. ‘I didn’t get the impression that Lucy had a job.’
‘No. Not a job as such. But she’s involved in quite a lot of women’s charities.’ He paused. ‘You look surprised.’
She hadn’t realised her face was so transparent. Of all the people she’d known over the years, Lucy didn’t strike her as the fundraising type. ‘Sorry, no, not surprised. It’s just she hadn’t mentioned it.’
He shrugged. ‘I guess it just hasn’t come up. She says it’s particularly important to her because she has daughters.’
This was the perfect way back to the subject of Robert and Charlotte. ‘It must be nice to have Charlotte here.’
His face softened. ‘It really is. She’s a lot of fun to be around. I’m very lucky really. Charlotte accepted me from day one.’
That was a strange thing for a father to say. ‘What do you mean?’
He looked surprised at the question. ‘Charlotte’s not my biological daughter. She was about a year old when Lucy and I met.’
A cold trickle moved down Ellen’s spine. Why had that not been mentioned until now? ‘I didn’t realise that.’
Joe was distracted by an email that had popped up on the screen in front of them; he clicked on it with the mouse, typed a few words and sent a reply with a whoosh.
‘Sorry, just a quick query. Yes, she was a tiny little thing. When Lucy and I first started dating, she didn’t let me meet her.
But it was clear that she and Charlotte came as a package.
I wasn’t sure how it was going to go, to be honest. I’d never really been around children.
But the moment I met her, I was smitten.
Well, she’s a mini-Lucy, isn’t she? I couldn’t fail to love her! ’
It was a beautiful sentiment, but it made Ellen distinctly uncomfortable. She did look like Lucy, but there was something else familiar about her. She swallowed, tried to keep her voice level. ‘Does Charlotte have contact with her biological father?’
Joe shook his head. ‘No. He’s never been on the scene in the whole time I’ve known Lucy. In fact, I adopted Charlotte when I married Lucy. She contacted him and he was more than happy to relinquish parental responsibility.’
In her head, Ellen was counting the months between when she’d last seen Lucy and when she must have fallen pregnant. Without knowing Charlotte’s birthday, it was impossible to be precise. ‘Tell me if I’m being nosey but I can’t help wondering if it was someone we knew from university?’
Joe looked uncomfortable. ‘Look, I probably shouldn’t be talking about it at all. It’s Lucy’s history, not mine. She always tells me off for being so garrulous. Don’t mention it to her, will you? Let her tell you about it if she wants to?’
They’d been talking about their children all afternoon while they were shopping and Lucy hadn’t mentioned once that she’d already had Charlotte by the time she met Joe. Of course, it wasn’t any of Ellen’s business, but she couldn’t imagine why she might tell her now if she hadn’t already.
But if Charlotte was the daughter of someone that Ellen might know, then why wouldn’t she want to tell her?
Unless there was a good reason.
With a creeping anxiety that she didn’t want to name, she recalled her impression that something about Charlotte was familiar.
Of Robert’s shocked reaction when she’d arrived last night.
Of her age, so close to Grace’s. That she’d overheard Lucy apologising to Robert at her arrival.
And now, that they’d both stayed home from the shopping trip and were currently locked into a serious-looking conversation.
Joe was talking about something to do with the tiled floor but all Ellen could hear was her heartbeat thumping in her ears. She didn’t want to believe it. It couldn’t be true, could it? Was she being paranoid or did this all add up?
Was Charlotte actually Robert’s daughter?