She had been proved correct when her father had invited one of his associates around to lunch one day. It was something which happened quite often in the Campbell household, so Olivia had thought nothing of it when her father asked her to make herself presentable for their guests. However, her suspicions had been aroused when they turned up with their son in tow. With much enthusiasm, her father introduced her to Guy, and then kept casting her suggestive looks. Olivia had been polite, taken the young man’s rather limp hand and shaken it in a friendly manner. Guy, on the other hand, had been rude and sullen, barely raising a smile and making no effort to hide his feelings, and as the meal wore on, Olivia realised the reason for his frosty attitude. This was no regular business meeting, but an attempt to get her and Guy together. Olivia had been inwardly furious at her father’s audacity, but she had been well brought up, so she kept her feelings to herself. Guy, on the other hand was not quite so well mannered, as she discovered when she caught him muttering furiously to his father that he had no desire to court Olivia, and that his father had duped him into coming to lunch by misrepresenting Olivia as a trophy bride, whereas in reality she was more like a booby prize at a very low-key event! She had immediately returned to the dining room and relayed the conversation she’d overheard to her father, but William, far from being outraged by the young man’s words, had actually blamed Olivia, saying that it was her own fault for not taking care of herself properly and that had she listened to him all those years ago she would have lost the weight by now, and today’s outcome would have been very different. Decent men like Guy had standards, he told her, and you couldn’t buy their affection. She knew that her father was referring to Ted, suggesting that he had only wanted Olivia because he had hopes of getting his feet under the table.

Something in her father’s tone made Olivia question Ted’s reasons for leaving. According to her father, it was because he had discovered that she was pregnant, but how could he have done so? Olivia had made certain she hadn’t told a soul, apart from her mother, so unless one of the staff had overheard Olivia and her mother talking, there was no way he could have known. She sighed heavily. There was no point in speculating. She hadn’t seen Ted since he left so she would never learn the truth, but neither would she accept her father’s words as gospel.