For Our Children's Sake. NATASHA OAKLEY

up anything like this.

      She took a deep, shaking breath. ‘For a while. Come on, let’s go and meet Abby.’

      She turned the car up the wide drive and brought it to a halt outside the imposing front entrance. She’d never fit in here. Never. She hadn’t given Dominic’s financial status much thought. Her mind had been too preoccupied with everything else. But, faced with this huge chasm between them, she wished she had. What did the blasted man do anyway, to make this kind of money? She should have noticed the T-shirt he’d worn was expensive, that the fabric was thick and didn’t look as if it had been through the washing machine a couple of hundred times.

      For the first time she felt conscious of her own clothes. There were no designer labels in her wardrobe, just simple cottons and natural wool jumpers she put together in a style she hoped was entirely her own. She probably didn’t present the understated elegance he was used to. If it had been possible to turn round and run she would have done so. Instead, she helped Chloe from the car and firmly shut the door.

      A small face was watching from the window, and it made her heart pound as she caught a glimpse of dark hair before it darted away. With Chloe’s hand held tightly in hers, she walked unsteadily up the three wide steps. Please, oh, God, please let Abby like me, she prayed under her breath.

      ‘They’re here. They’re here!’ she heard as the door swung open and a small dark-haired figure darted out underneath Dominic’s arm. ‘You’re late!’ Abby stopped before Chloe. ‘You’ve been ages getting here. We’ve had your bedroom ready for hours. You’re in the blue room, next to mine. It’s a nice blue and it’s got yellow flowers on the bed. Do you like dolls? I don’t.’

      Abby didn’t seem to need to draw breath. It was like being greeted by a whoosh of water, even though all her remarks were directed at Chloe. With the complete ease of childhood the two girls decided they were friends and, with tacit agreement, Abby rushed Chloe into the house and up the stairs, their voices becoming muffled.

      ‘I’m sorry,’ Dominic said, walking towards Lucy and guiding her more gently through the front door. ‘Abby’s been up for hours and is very excited.’