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Chapters (45)
  1. The Man With No Face
  2. Also by
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Epigraph
  7. Contents
  8. INTRODUCTION
  9. CHAPTER ONE
  10. CHAPTER TWO
  11. CHAPTER THREE
  12. CHAPTER FOUR
  13. CHAPTER FIVE
  14. CHAPTER SIX
  15. CHAPTER SEVEN
  16. CHAPTER EIGHT
  17. CHAPTER NINE
  18. CHAPTER TEN
  19. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  20. CHAPTER TWELVE
  21. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  22. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  23. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  24. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  25. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  26. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  27. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  37. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

She flew at him, clenched fists beating against his chest, a cry of anguish on her lips. Bannerman had not been prepared for it. The fists hurt him, tiny blows raining across his chest and shoulders and face.

He tried to catch her arms, but fear of hurting her made it hard. Finally he got his arms around her so that hers were pinned to her sides, and he hugged her, feeling the sobs that racked her body. ‘It’s all right, it’s all right,’ he heard himself saying. Then felt sick as he remembered hearing her father utter the selfsame words.

She was still struggling, but her strength was waning rapidly.

‘Tomorrow,’ he said breathlessly, ‘we’ll talk about it. We’ll work it out.’

The struggling subsided with a whimper and her head fell on to his shoulder, her face turned away from his. He rocked her gently to and fro.

‘I don’t want to hurt you,’ he whispered. ‘God knows, I don’t want to hurt you.’

Something inside him broke. A kind of iron self-control that had made him invulnerable for so long. But it had grown brittle with the years. His own voice sounded odd to him.

‘Somewhere,’ he said, ‘there’s a little girl . . . Just three or four years older than you. My . . .’ He couldn’t even bring himself to say it. ‘I’m her father. Never even seen her. I’d pass her in the street and not know it. She probably thinks someone else is her daddy. I don’t know. All I know is that somehow she’s the part of me that’s missing.’ He turned his head a little and saw that she was asleep. She hadn’t heard any of it. As no one else had, or ever would. And probably that was best.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The morning had almost gone when Bannerman turned over and opened his eyes to the sunlight that filled his room. He craned his neck around to see Tania standing by the window staring out across the rooftops. She turned and smiled.

‘Good morning,’ Bannerman said, returning her smile.

She looked vastly improved from the previous evening. He checked his watch. It was nearly midday.

‘Jesus! I’ve been asleep for hours!’ He sat upright. ‘Have you been awake long?’ She shook her head and held up one finger. ‘An hour?’

She nodded. She was dressed and there was a little colour in her cheeks.