They stared at each other for a moment as the fire crackled and threw shadows across the wall until finally Barnaby said, ‘I know I promised you I would find her a good home and I fully intended to do it, I swear it. But then I got an urgent message saying you’d delivered a girl and I was to fetch her straightaway. Louisa was already in labour with David and so I fetched Charlotte to Louisa’s parents’ cottage. I had to tell Mrs Ruffin who she was, of course, and needless to say she wasn’t best pleased with me. But Louisa was in a bad way – a very bad way, actually. In fact, at one point, we didn’t think she was going to survive the birth. By the time David was delivered, she was almost unconscious and unaware of anything going on around her and it was then that I put the idea to Mrs Ruffin that we could tell people she had had twins. Already I couldn’t bear the thought of giving Charlotte away, you see? After all, she’s as much my child as David is, isn’t she? And once I’d clapped eyes on her . . .’

When Amber continued to stare at him in a stony silence, he licked his suddenly dry lips and went on in a quavering voice, ‘Only Mrs Ruffin and the midwife who delivered my son know of this and I bought the midwife’s silence. And that is why I thought you might like this job. Forgive me if I’ve done wrong and now that you know I will quite understand if you decide to leave. I just wanted to give you the opportunity of caring for our daughter if you so wished.’

A whirl of emotions rushed through Amber. If she were to walk away now, she could pursue her life with no ties as she’d intended. And yet as she looked back down at Charlotte her heart filled with love and she knew that if she were to go now, she might well regret it forever.

‘If you do decide to stay, which I hope you will, no one will ever be any the wiser, I promise you,’ he rushed on, sensing her indecision. ‘And who better to look after her than her own mother?’

‘I think I need some time to take all this in and make my mind up,’ Amber told him in a wobbly voice. Strangely, although she still loathed him and wouldn’t trust him as far as she could throw him, she believed him when he promised that he would never lay a hand on her again.