She watches Jack absorb her bombshell. A muscle ticks in his jaw. ‘He can’t have him.’

‘He’s threatened to get lawyers involved, if I won’t surrender him.’

‘But he has no firm evidence that Tom is his son.’

‘He has letters.’ Gwen’s voice fades to an ashamed whisper. She cannot look at him as she makes her confession. ‘I wrote to him … begging him … before …’

‘Oh, Gwen.’

‘I just thought if he understood all I felt he might … I never expected him to keep them all this time, not after …’ Her tears well. ‘Anyway … I told him that the letters are full of lies, that I’d been … seeing … the two of you at the same time and that I knew Tom was yours.’ She finally braves a look at Jack, but he gives nothing away. ‘He doesn’t believe me. He says there are means available to prove he’s the father.’

‘What means?’

‘He didn’t say.’

‘Have you seen a lawyer yourself?’

She shakes her head. ‘Not yet. He said a woman like me, on my own … against him … that I wouldn’t stand a chance.’

‘But I’m here now.’

‘I need you to be my boy’s father, Jack. I need you to stay … at least for a while … so there’s no room for doubt or suspicion … or gossip. I can’t lose my boy, Jack.’

Tears slide down her cheeks. She gasps for air, her chest cracked open, her heart exposed. Jack comes to her without hesitation. He gently guides her into his embrace and she surrenders willingly, surprising them both. It is what she needs in this moment. She is too tired to fight; she is too exhausted to be strong.

‘I can’t lose Tom,’ she sobs into his shoulder.

‘You won’t, lass,’ he promises her softly. ‘While there’s breath in my body, you won’t.’

Chapter Forty-Four

Jack is aware of the boy staring at him as they eat the meal Muriel has set before them, but every time he attempts to make eye contact, Tom buries his face into Gwen’s arm, earning himself a gentle reprimand, so in the end Jack ceases to try. He does not want to get the boy into trouble.