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Authors: [The Crightons 09] Coming Home
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sound. Swiftly, he withdrew into the protection of the shrubbery surrounding the lawn, watching as the car came to an abrupt halt and a young woman got out, her cap of hair shining in the sunlight.
Olivia...
David's heart skipped a beat as he watched his daughter head for the house. She looked preoccupied and much more on edge than either Maddy or Jenny appeared to be. A sharp surge of paternal anxiety plucked fiercely at his heartstrings.
Olivia was worrying about something. Why?
What?
OLIVIA FROWNED as she hurried into Queensmead's kitchen. She had come hoping to see Maddy who had obviously gone out.
'She said she'd be back, that she wouldn't be very long,' Edna Longridge, the retired nurse who came to Queensmead a couple of times a week to keep an eye on Ben, explained to Olivia.
'I can't wait,' Olivia told her. 'I've got a meeting in half an hour.'
'Oh dear, can I give her a message for you?'
Edna asked.
'No, it doesn't matter.'
Her decision to pay Maddy a call had been an impromptu one, an impulse of the moment, a need to talk over her present disenchantment with her life and her marriage with someone she knew would understand.
Maddy and Max might be happy together now, but their marriage had not always been a happy one. No one knew better than Maddy what it was like to be married to a man who didn't love you...a man who was unfaithful to you....
Olivia tensed.
But Caspar did love her and so far as she was aware he had certainly never been unfaithful to her.
Not yet! That small, sharp inner voice that had become increasingly vociferous recently berated her smartly.
Not yet...not ever. Not Caspar...
No? Then why was he so irritable with her? He might claim that it was because he felt shut out of her life, because he felt that her work had become more important to her than either he or the children were. He must know that that simply wasn't true. He must know how haunted she was by her fear that if she didn't do everything she could to prove that she was not like her father—
unreliable, selfish, incompetent, dishonest—she would be letting not just herself down but their children, as well. She would be condemning them to be tainted with their grandfather's sins. It was all very well for Jon to claim that she bore no responsibility for her father's crimes; that no one would ever think that just because her father had been dishonest she was going to be the same.
Somewhere, deep down inside herself, Olivia could not bring herself to believe him. She was scared beyond measure that Jon was lying to her, that he really didn't trust her, and that was why she drove herself so hard, why she felt compelled to prove herself over and over.
Only the previous week she had come back from an appointment out of the office to find Jon standing beside her desk. Her stomach had clenched with sick fear as she had a flashback to the day she discovered what her father had done.
Was Jon simply in her office because he needed a file, as he had said, or had he been checking up on her?
She had tried to discuss her fears with Caspar, but her pride, that same stubborn pride that had always been her major sin had got in the way.
What if Caspar shared Jon's suspicion of her?
He certainly didn't trust her to be a good mother.
Look at the way he criticised her for going back to work full time after the birth of their second child, Alex.
'I have to work,' she had told him, unable to find the words to explain the fear that had so inexplicably taken over her life. It had grown from a tiny seed of doubt, which had somehow come into being after Alex's birth, into the terrifying dark force it now was.
Only the other week, Max had remarked on the new car they had recently bought, and immediately Olivia had become agitated and anxious. Did Max think she had stolen money from their clients to pay for the car?
'You shouldn't have bought such an expensive car,' she had told Caspar critically. 'There was nothing wrong with the old
Olivia...
David's heart skipped a beat as he watched his daughter head for the house. She looked preoccupied and much more on edge than either Maddy or Jenny appeared to be. A sharp surge of paternal anxiety plucked fiercely at his heartstrings.
Olivia was worrying about something. Why?
What?
OLIVIA FROWNED as she hurried into Queensmead's kitchen. She had come hoping to see Maddy who had obviously gone out.
'She said she'd be back, that she wouldn't be very long,' Edna Longridge, the retired nurse who came to Queensmead a couple of times a week to keep an eye on Ben, explained to Olivia.
'I can't wait,' Olivia told her. 'I've got a meeting in half an hour.'
'Oh dear, can I give her a message for you?'
Edna asked.
'No, it doesn't matter.'
Her decision to pay Maddy a call had been an impromptu one, an impulse of the moment, a need to talk over her present disenchantment with her life and her marriage with someone she knew would understand.
Maddy and Max might be happy together now, but their marriage had not always been a happy one. No one knew better than Maddy what it was like to be married to a man who didn't love you...a man who was unfaithful to you....
Olivia tensed.
But Caspar did love her and so far as she was aware he had certainly never been unfaithful to her.
Not yet! That small, sharp inner voice that had become increasingly vociferous recently berated her smartly.
Not yet...not ever. Not Caspar...
No? Then why was he so irritable with her? He might claim that it was because he felt shut out of her life, because he felt that her work had become more important to her than either he or the children were. He must know that that simply wasn't true. He must know how haunted she was by her fear that if she didn't do everything she could to prove that she was not like her father—
unreliable, selfish, incompetent, dishonest—she would be letting not just herself down but their children, as well. She would be condemning them to be tainted with their grandfather's sins. It was all very well for Jon to claim that she bore no responsibility for her father's crimes; that no one would ever think that just because her father had been dishonest she was going to be the same.
Somewhere, deep down inside herself, Olivia could not bring herself to believe him. She was scared beyond measure that Jon was lying to her, that he really didn't trust her, and that was why she drove herself so hard, why she felt compelled to prove herself over and over.
Only the previous week she had come back from an appointment out of the office to find Jon standing beside her desk. Her stomach had clenched with sick fear as she had a flashback to the day she discovered what her father had done.
Was Jon simply in her office because he needed a file, as he had said, or had he been checking up on her?
She had tried to discuss her fears with Caspar, but her pride, that same stubborn pride that had always been her major sin had got in the way.
What if Caspar shared Jon's suspicion of her?
He certainly didn't trust her to be a good mother.
Look at the way he criticised her for going back to work full time after the birth of their second child, Alex.
'I have to work,' she had told him, unable to find the words to explain the fear that had so inexplicably taken over her life. It had grown from a tiny seed of doubt, which had somehow come into being after Alex's birth, into the terrifying dark force it now was.
Only the other week, Max had remarked on the new car they had recently bought, and immediately Olivia had become agitated and anxious. Did Max think she had stolen money from their clients to pay for the car?
'You shouldn't have bought such an expensive car,' she had told Caspar critically. 'There was nothing wrong with the old