In the shock of hearing that Nicky had had an accident, Briony hadn’t even asked Paolo which hospital he was in, and in some distant way she felt grateful for the speed with which Kieron negotiated the traffic, without bothering her with questions.
It was only when they pulled up outside the hospital that he spoke, his voice terse and clipped.
‘I take it no one at the paper knows about this child? God, you must think a hell of a lot about Matt to keep something like this secret! You can’t believe he really cares about you? He’s given you a child and still he doesn’t divorce his wife. What are you hoping for?’
Tears welled and trickled down her cheeks. Like a child she allowed Kieron to help her out of the car, her eyes wide and blank as she followed him into Casualty.
Gina was waiting for her, her face pale and shocked.
‘It was the apple tree,’ she explained in anguish. ‘I only left him for a moment to pay the milkman and when I got back he was lying on the ground. He’s broken his arm, they think.’
It was Kieron who reassured her that the accident could have happened to the most conscientious parent.
‘You can’t watch them every moment of the time.’
Gina had left Caterina with a neighbour, and glanced uncertainly at Briony as though uncertain who needed her most. Kieron set her mind at rest.
‘I’ll stay with Briony,’ he told her. ‘You get back to your baby.’
The waiting room was empty and Briony stared at the painted walls, trying to subdue her rising hysteria. Somewhere out there was Nicky. She looked wildly at the door, half rising to go to it when it opened and a round-faced nurse appeared.
‘Mrs Winters?’ she said with a smile. ‘Your little boy’s fine. It’s a simple, clean break and the doctor has set it for him. We’re giving him a tetanus injection, just to be on the safe side. If you and your husband would like to follow me.’
Her words jolted Briony out of her nightmare. She opened her mouth to correct the girl, but she was already hurrying away. She paused once, waiting for them to catch up with her, her eyes appreciative as she looked at Kieron.
‘My, your son is like you, isn’t he?’ she commented. ‘And such a brave little scrap. He never cried once.’
Briony stopped dead, the breath leaving her lungs on a wave of panic, but a grim hand in the small of her back forced her forwards, her face pale beneath the corridor lights.
Nicky was in the children’s ward, sitting on a small bed, and his face lit up the moment he saw Briony.
‘I felled off the tree,’ he told her importantly, ‘and now my arm is being mended.’
It was obvious that he at least was none the worse for his ordeal, but Briony badly needed the reassurance of feeling his small body in her arms. He wriggled impatiently when she hugged him, his eyes sliding past her to Kieron.
‘Who’s that man?’ he demanded warily.
Kieron was staring at Nicky in total disbelief and shocked comprehension. There would be no more comments about Matt fathering her child, Briony knew.
She ignored Nicky’s question. ‘Can I take him home?’ she asked the nurse.
‘Of course. The doctor will want to have a word with you about the plaster and so on. He’s got a rather unusual blood group, did you know?’
Briony had known, and suspected that it had come down to him from his father, a suspicion which Kieron’s expression confirmed.
The nurse went to attend to a crying child, and they were alone by Nicky’s bed.
‘God, why didn’t you tell me?’ Kieron swore bitterly. ‘My child, and you keep it from me!’
‘He’s not.…’ Briony began, but the look on Kieron’s face quelled her.
‘Don’t lie to me,’ he demanded harshly. ‘That’s my child and you damned well know it. We’ve got things to talk about, you and I. You’re not simply going to walk away from this, Briony.’
The doctor’s arrival halted their conversation. It galled Briony that he should so constantly address his remarks to Kieron instead of herself. In view of the likeness between father and son it would have been pointless to deny their relationship, she realised, but she could not help reflecting bitterly on the unkind twist of fate that had brought Kieron into her office just when she was at her most vulnerable. The moment Paolo had told her that Nicky had had an accident she had simply ceased to register anything else, even the fact that she had dropped the receiver in the middle of his explanation. It was ironic to think that if it had not been for that simple mistake Kieron would never have known about his child.
The doctor had finished and Briony bent to pick up Nicky.