The Turquoise Sea Page 19

  “Kate, right from the beginning I’ve wronged you, distrusted you, never given you a chance. I wouldn’t blame you if you despised me. I thought you loved James — I knew he loved you. I thought when you left me, you would marry him. I still thought it — until just now.”

  She sat very still, just staring at him. Soon, she thought, she would wake up, find it one of her dreams.

  “Just now I asked Rosa what we would do when you got married. She said you would live with us, of course. I said how could that be — and she told me that you said ...” His voice faltered. “Did you say that, Kate? Did you mean it?” Kate found her voice. She had thought it would be a tiny squeak. Instead it was almost a shout — “Yes!”

  And then there was no need for words. He scooped her up in his arms and was kissing her – her mouth, her throat, her eyes. Murmuring all the wonderful words she had not dared put in her dreams, because somehow she could never picture Randel using them.

  But he was ... he was telling her he adored her. Making plans for them — calling her his beautiful — his beloved—

  He stopped for a second to get his breath. He smiled at her. “My darling!” he said softly.

  The door opened and there was Rosa, her face cautious. When she saw Kate in her father’s arms she ran across the room.

  Her father opened his arms, so that now he could hold the two of them close to his heart. Rosa looked at Kate. “Well?” she asked.

  Kate smiled. “It is well — darling. Very well, indeed,” she said, and bent and kissed the child.

  THE END