She turned her gaze anxiously to Ivy. ‘Robert was adrift when he came back from Vietnam. No one wanted to know about what our soldiers suffered there. No one wanted to help them. We should never have been in that war in the first place. Robert was a conscripted soldier, sent to do his duty by his country, then treated like dirt to be swept under the mat when he returned. He found refuge in that house of free-spirited students. He tended the garden and grew vegetables for us. He wanted to nurture life, not destroy it, and we were happy there …’
Tears glittered in her eyes. She dashed them away to glare her hatred at Dick Thornton again. ‘Until his brother came, preying on Robert’s sense of family, saying he didn’t need his part of their inheritance to build a future because he was sterile and had no future.’
‘If you’d kept your big mouth shut, Sacha, Robert would have turned what our parents left him over to me and you’d have gone on your own merry way, just smelling the roses,’ he said mockingly.
Sheer rage erupted. ‘You sick bastard! You set out to make Robert feel worthless and he wasn’t. He had the right to build a life for himself and I wasn’t going to let you take the money he could buy a farm with.’
‘So you stuck your oar in and I stuck mine in,’ he retorted in a crass jeer.
‘By raping her as payback for interfering,’ Jordan inserted quietly.
‘Gave me a lot of satisfaction,’ Dick Thornton admitted with relish, then quickly checked himself. ‘Her word against mine in any court of law. Besides, it’s all water under the bridge. What counts now is you wanting to marry my beautiful daughter and me wanting a slice of her good fortune.’
‘Jordan, you cannot submit to a blackmailer,’ Nonie Powell stated in high dudgeon. ‘This marriage is clearly unsuitable. Best that you walk away from it right now.’
‘Ivy is totally innocent of any wrongdoing!’ Sacha snapped at her. ‘Can you say the same of your own daughter, Nonie?’
Although it had to be a blind hit, it caused Nonie Powell to press her lips together. She looked at Ivy in angry reproof, as though Sacha had learned of Olivia’s problems from her. Which wasn’t true. She hadn’t spoken a word to anyone about Ashton’s attempt at blackmail.
Jordan flicked a querying look at her.
She shook her head, but the implication that she might have blabbed sickened her. No relationship could work without trust. As it was, she wasn’t sure their relationship could survive tonight’s revelations.
Her mind was awash with the flood of information about both her parents and the situation which had brought them together and led to their marriage—a marriage of need and compassion and love which she hadn’t understood until now. Robert and Sacha were good people but that didn’t matter, any more than her own innocence of any wrong-doing mattered. There was no escaping the fact that she was the daughter of a rapist, and would be forever tainted by this rotten man.
Jordan sat in silence, weighing up what he’d heard so far. He had instinctively dismissed his mother’s solution—walk away from it—though that would, of course, extract him from this nasty mess. If it was only lust driving him to keep Ivy in his life … if he still actually anticipated a marriage that only lasted as long as their passion ran hot … why bother dealing with this scum?
He looked at Ivy.
She shook her head as though she’d already given up on the idea of a future together, her eyes sick and despairing, her face totally stricken by all she’d been hearing.
His heart went out to her.
He knew in that instant that this woman meant more to him than anything else in his life. No doubts. No doubts about their future together, either. Nothing on earth could make him walk away from her. He had to fight the urge to get up and take her out of all this right now. The situation had to be resolved first or she’d be haunted by it. He would not let it come between them. Ever.
He turned a stern gaze to his mother. ‘In our family, there have been private matters which we’ve preferred not to bare, Mum. Let’s not make hasty judgements on others. I see no fault in Sacha. And certainly not in Ivy. I’d appreciate it if you’d refrain from any further reactive comment and take into account the nobility of decisions made for the good of others. That deserves respect and admiration, not criticism.’
Nonie frowned at him, not used to being chastised for her behaviour and affronted that it be done in front of others, but she hadn’t given any consideration to Ivy’s feelings and it was well past time she started giving some consideration to how he felt, too.