His Secretary Mistress(47)

‘You have an incredible talent,’ Alex said seriously, and she flushed with pleasure. ‘Why did you never finish your degree?’

‘Debt,’ she answered bluntly. ‘Lee, my ex-husband, liked to live beyond our means. When he left he took the car, the expensive stereo, and anything else that wasn’t nailed down. He allowed me to keep the credit card bills he had run up in our joint names. I trusted him,’ she confessed wryly. ‘I was so blinded by love, or rather what I believed was love, that I went along with whatever he wanted. At the back of my mind I suppose I always knew he didn’t love me—the only person Lee has ever loved is himself—but I was alone and pregnant, my parents had worries of their own, and I was just grateful that he agreed to stand by me.’

‘Even so, it must have been tough,’ Alex murmured, glancing at the photographs on the mantelpiece that depicted a younger-looking Jenna, a woman barely out of her teenage years, who looked swamped by the responsibility of her new baby.

‘I got by,’ Jenna replied, with a shrug that denounced any hint of self-pity. ‘In many ways it was easier after Lee left—at least then I could control my outgoings.’

She thought back to the days when she had tried to care for Maisie while at the same time struggling to finish a poorly paid home job of wiring plugs by the hundred. In the evenings Nora had babysat, so that she could work an evening shift in a supermarket, and the memory of the mind-numbing monotony of shelf-stacking still made her shudder. Determined to create a better life for her and her daughter, she had signed up for a home study course in business and secretarial duties, and the early hours before Maisie awoke had seen her hunched over the computer, sleep deprivation a small price to pay for the chance to improve their lives.

‘You should be very proud,’ Alex said sincerely. ‘Maisie is a beautiful little girl.’

A child who had in one day already stirred his protective instincts, he thought ruefully. In all honesty he had taken little more than a cursory interest in his sister’s two boys. He enjoyed their company when he visited, and was happy in his role as uncle for a few hours, but children were an unknown entity he vaguely imagined for his future. If he hoped for any kind of relationship with Jenna he would have to accept that she would always put the welfare of her daughter before any other consideration.

‘Does Lee see much of Maisie?’ he asked curiously.

Jenna shrugged, her smile fading as old worries resurfaced. ‘Sporadic visits every few months,’ she admitted. ‘He hoped for a boy—someone he could take to foot-ball—but instead Maisie was a small, colicky baby, who screamed constantly for the first three months. He once said she cramped his style, but the truth is I think we both did. The novelty of having a wife and child soon wore off, he accused me of being frigid, and to be honest sex was the last thing on my mind when I crawled into bed. It didn’t take him long to seek pleasure elsewhere.’

She hesitated, compelled to confide in Alex about Lee’s newfound interest in his daughter, and more importantly his plan to use Maisie as a pawn in his plan to marry his rich girlfriend. But it was too much, too soon, she decided. Alex had only just learned that she had a child. To involve him in her legal wrangles with her ex-husband would be unfair, and secretly she was afraid that he would lose interest in her. He had accused her once before of having too much baggage. Now was not the time to reveal that she had a cargo plane full.

Her ex-husband sounded an utter bastard, Alex brooded as he shifted his position on the sofa to make room for Jenna next to him. Until now he had held the opinion that couples often divorced too hastily, to the detriment of their children, but who could possibly blame Jenna for leaving a man who had been at best uninterested and at worst violent towards her? She was a devoted mother, who had sacrificed her youth and her undoubted artistic talent to care for her daughter, but the years had changed her, he realised as he glanced again at the photo of her as a young girl and compared it with the woman she was today. The innocent optimism of youth had been replaced with a determined air that was almost tangible. She was a survivor, and more than that, she was a fighter—no weak victim of her circumstances, but a woman determined to provide the best for her child. Along the way she had learned to be wary, to believe that mistrust protected her from hurt, and somehow he would have to prove that he was nothing like Lee and that she would be safe, in every sense of the word, with him.

‘Are you tired now?’ he asked lightly, and she shook her head, puzzled by the question.

Was he looking for a reason to leave? She had invited him to lunch and he had stayed for the rest of the day, accompanying her and Maisie to the park and taking it in his stride when the little girl had bestowed on him the honour of carrying her favourite teddy home. Maybe he had overdosed on domesticity? she thought dismally, her breath catching in her throat when he bent his head and brushed his lips over hers.