Savage Innocence. Anne Mather

to be totally confidential, and it was only the fact that a new—and very inexperienced—nurse had been on duty when Elizabeth had expressed her concern about the delay, and had taken it upon herself to call the number Elizabeth had given when she’d booked in, which had given the game away. Elizabeth herself had been a little groggy at the time, or she’d never have made such a stupid mistake. She’d have waited until she was well enough to call him herself, and given some other excuse for not returning home.

      Jared didn’t know how he’d got through the rest of that day or the days that followed. His first impulse had been to pack his bags and be out of there before his wife got back, but he’d wanted to see her first, to tell her what he thought of her, and that had been a mistake. When Elizabeth had got back she’d been still weak and shaken, but not too weak to remind him of the effect his intended actions would have on her father. The infection she’d developed after the abortion meant there could be no second chances, and the thought of Howard finding out that his daughter would never give him a grandchild was not a prospect Jared had wanted to face.

      He’d been brought brutally back to earth when Howard had reminded him of the dinner he and Elizabeth were expected to attend in Alnwick the following evening. Howard had been invited, but it had clashed with another engagement he had in the city, and because these days Jared often acted as his deputy, the Kendalls had been invited in his stead.

      The arrangements had been made weeks before or Jared wouldn’t have hesitated in turning the invitation down. But to do so would have created questions he had not yet been ready to answer, and for Howard’s sake he hadn’t made any complaint.

      Only when Elizabeth had insisted on driving home after the dinner had Jared objected. Knowing he’d had a thirty-mile drive ahead of him, he had drunk tonic water all evening, whereas Elizabeth had had several glasses of wine. She wasn’t fit, he’d said coldly, expecting her to get out of the driving seat, but instead she’d started the engine, and he’d had no doubt she’d intended to leave him behind in the car park of the hotel.

      He remembered grabbing the passenger door and jumping in beside her. The alternative would have been to let her drive off, leaving him to have to explain his plight to those who had still not emerged from the hotel.

      It had been at a notorious bend in the road that the car had appeared to go out of control. Jared’s stomach still roiled at the memory of jarring gears and squealing tyres, and the horrifying image of an enormous truck bearing down on them. He’d wondered since then whether Elizabeth hadn’t had some crazy notion of killing herself and him, but he’d grabbed the wheel out of her hands and wrenched the car back from imminent disaster. Nevertheless it had lost too much traction, and he’d felt the wheels skidding over an icy patch on the road. There’d been no way to prevent the vehicle from mounting the kerb before it had lurched headlong into a ditch.

      He didn’t recall much after that, until he’d woken up in hospital the following day with two broken legs and a mild concussion. Howard had been sitting by his bed when he’d awakened, and for a moment he’d been sure the older man was there to break the news that Elizabeth was dead.

      But Elizabeth hadn’t been dead. Though she had been badly injured. Howard’s reasons for keeping vigil by his son-in-law’s bedside, however, had been to ensure that Jared would take the blame for the accident. Though he hadn’t been sure then who had been at the wheel at the time of the crash—they’d both been flung out on impact—he’d wanted to protect his daughter’s reputation. And the reputation of the firm, Jared had added silently. If Elizabeth had had to face charges of dangerous driving as well as having been drunk at the wheel, it would have proved a juicy piece of gossip for the press.