Chapters (53)
- Cover
- About Alison Stuart
- Also by Alison Stuart
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Author’s Note
- Acknowledgements
- Preview of The Goldminer's Sister
She bit her lip, but the tears came again. Twisting Caleb’s sodden handkerchief in her hand, she continued, ‘He had sailed before I realised I may be with child but I had the hope that on his return we could face my father together and we would be wed and all would be well.’ She swallowed and continued. ‘Then came the news came that the ship had gone down with all hands. I knew my father would be—angry would not even begin to describe his reaction were he to find out my condition—so I left the house with Netty and my mother’s jewellery. I knew I had to get as far away from my father as I could, so I sold some of the jewellery to buy our passage to Australia and I became the newly widowed Mrs Greaves. Danny was born just after we docked in Melbourne. No one knew … no one guessed … no one questioned.’ She looked up at him. ‘I made a good life for us, I—’
‘So why are you marrying him?’
‘It was my chance to put everything right. Give Danny the life he deserves, the life he should have been born into but that—’ she pointed at the paper on the table, ‘—that changes everything.’
Caleb stood and held out his hand, pulling her up. ‘One thing it doesn’t change, Adelaide. He is Danny’s father.’
She nodded.
‘You don’t have to marry him, Adelaide. If that letter is real then you and Danny can have that comfortable life without tying yourself to a man you don’t love.’ He grasped her arms, forcing her to look up at him. ‘And you don’t love him, do you?
‘I don’t know. I did once, but it was a young girl’s love and I have thought him dead for all these years. When I saw him get off that coach I just wanted to turn and run. What am I to do, Caleb?’ She willed him to fold her in his arms again and kiss her, tell her it would be all right.
Instead, he released her and took a step back, his eyes dark, unreadable pools in the soft light. ‘This is between you and Barnwell, and only you can decide what to do with the information.’
‘I think you should leave, Caleb,’ she said. She wouldn’t beg or plead or make a scene. She would let him walk out of her life. She deserved nothing else.
At the door, without looking back at her, he said, ‘Thank you, Adelaide. I appreciate your confidence and you have my word as a gentleman that it will go no further.’