Because you never gave her a chance to, you just used her, a little voice in his head said accusingly and burying his face in his pillow he began to shake again as it hit home what a total mess he had made of his life.

Chapter Forty-Three

Three weeks later, as Kathy read the letter that had just arrived from David, she began to tremble, and her hand flew to her mouth as panic set in.

Benjamin Branning, Sunday’s stepson, has just been shipped back to England suffering with battle fatigue. He was admitted to the hospital and when I saw him, I realised who he was.

If David had found Ben, would they have spoken about her? Would David have mentioned the twins? She had never told a living soul, not even her mother, who the father of the twins was, but if David had told Ben about them would Ben put two and two together and realise they were his? She had spent the first years of the children’s lives longing for him to come back and meet them and yet now she fervently prayed that he would stay away.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm down. Of course Ben would never dare to show his face here again. He would be too afraid of reprisals, surely? For all he knew Sunday could have reported him to the police and they could still be searching for him even now. She looked at the date on David’s letter. It had been posted over two weeks ago so Ben would likely be back in Britain now, in some hospital somewhere, she supposed. But what if he did come back? a nagging little voice asked.

‘Mummy … I’m clean now,’ Daisy’s voice floated to her from along the landing and bundling the letter back into the envelope she shoved it into her pocket and hurried to the bathroom.

‘Come on, sleepy head.’ Kathy smiled as Daisy clambered out of the bath and her mother dried her with a large, fluffy towel. ‘Thomas is waiting for your story and then it’s off to the land of nod for you two. It’s school tomorrow.’

Once Daisy was clad in a clean nightdress Kathy gave her a cuddle then bundled her along the landing and into the bedroom she shared with Thomas, who was already yawning.

Lifting the story book, Kathy began to read to them but before she had got to the end of the third page, they were both snoring softly so, laying the book down, Kathy smiled and tiptoed quietly from the room.