She was shaking when she climbed into the car, the mixture of fear and elation that she had finally broken free from Lee causing her heart to pound. But several minutes passed and still Alex didn’t join her.
‘Alex, I think we should get Maisie home.’ She walked around the side of the house and gasped when she found Lee lying in a crumpled heap in a puddle while Alex stood over him, his fist raised. ‘No! Alex, stop—this is not the way to settle things,’ she cried, hurrying across and standing between the two men. ‘Leave Lee alone, please,’ she begged. ‘I don’t want this.’
‘I haven’t even touched him yet,’ Alex mocked disgustedly. ‘I was simply demonstrating the ease with which accidents can occur—but then you know all about accidents, don’t you, Deane?’
‘Oh, God, Lee—are you hurt? Try and stand up,’ Jenna muttered as she knelt beside Lee and helped him to his feet.
‘He attacked me for no reason,’ Lee whined, quickly realising that for some reason he had Jenna’s sympathy. He leaned heavily on her as he slowly stood up.
‘He hurt you,’ Alex growled, his expression so coldly furious that she shivered, and understood Lee’s eagerness to move out of range. ‘I saw the injuries he inflicted on you, the so-called accidents,’ he continued bitterly. ‘How can you possibly defend him?’
‘You don’t understand,’ Jenna told him urgently, hiding her contempt for the way Lee was actually cowering behind her. She had Lee where she wanted him, he had agreed that he wouldn’t fight for custody of Maisie, but if he was upset there was a danger he would change his mind and loom as an uncertain spectre on her horizon for ever. ‘I just want to take Maisie home,’ she whispered and as Alex slowly lowered his fist Lee drew himself upright.
‘Yeah, you’d better clear off before I lose my temper.’
‘Is that so?’ Alex drawled as he strode over to the car, not even waiting for Jenna to fasten her seat belt before he fired the engine, and as he drove away his expression was so forbidding that she dared not say a word.
Maisie had fallen asleep, and the journey back to London was completed in a silence that crackled with tension.
An hour later they reached Jenna’s house, but Alex still hadn’t spoken, and she sighed as she carried Maisie upstairs, quickly washing her face and popping her into her pyjamas before the little girl fell back to sleep. In the living room she discovered that Alex had taken Maisie’s presents from their hiding place in the cupboard under the stairs and arranged them beneath the tree, and she smiled softly as she imagined her daughter’s face the next morning.
‘Maisie will be so excited,’ she murmured, but Alex’s grim expression didn’t flicker.
‘I’m sure she will.’
‘She’d like you to be here.’ Jenna made the suggestion tentatively, unable to read Alex’s mood and puzzled by his transformation from gentle lover to bitter antagonist.
‘What about you, Jenna? Would you like me to be here?’
‘Of course I would. How can you even ask?’
‘Because I’ve realised tonight that I don’t really know you at all—although I have discovered one rather salient fact that makes sense of everything else.’
‘You’re talking in riddles,’ Jenna said, shaking her head. ‘What fact have you discovered?’
‘That you still have feelings for Lee. That you’re still in love with him.’
For a few seconds Jenna was rendered speechless with shock, and when she did open her mouth it was to laugh. Alex was making some kind of joke, surely?
‘Any feelings I have for Lee are unrepeatable,’ she told him firmly. ‘But if you’re sulking because I stopped your fight, then too bad. You were in the wrong. Like a Neanderthal man. You’re a barrister, for goodness’ sake—you know the law; Lee could have you up for assault.’
‘So you stopped me thumping him for my own good? Not because, despite everything he’s put you through, you couldn’t bear to see him hurt? He’s been there right from the beginning,’ Alex continued slowly. ‘From the first day we met, when you let me believe you were still married to him. Why did you do that, I wonder? Was it because in your heart you wished it was the truth?’
‘I’ve had enough of this,’ Jenna snapped, her patience at an end. ‘You know why I lied about still being married to Lee; it was because I was so embarrassed by the overwhelming attraction I felt for you. Why don’t you be honest?’ she carried on, all the tensions of the past few hours spilling over. ‘Having taken me to your parents’ house, you’ve come to realise that I don’t fit in your world. What am I, anyway, other than a single mother with a mountain of debts? We both know you would be better off with Selina—Where are you going?’ she queried frantically as she followed him into the hall.