Read Online Sara's Child by Susan Elle - Free Book Online Page A

certainly hasn’t been boring since you dropped into my life.” He smiles then, loving the pink that has crept into her cheeks. “As I’m sure you already know, I’m thirty-six years old; if I’d wanted boring I could have married one of the many suitable women in my social circle years ago.” I knew it was too good! She looks up abruptly, her eyes so brightly blue. “You goose,” he chucks her under her chin, making her smile, “I have no idea what you’ve done to me but I’m enjoying every minute of it.” Me too. I’m scared of just how much. It can’t last.
    Her smile turns wistful, and her heart begins to open to the faint possibility of a little happiness in her tired life. “Could we go for a walk,” she asks shyly, “I’d love to see your lake and the island?”
    He stands, pulling Catherine to her feet with him. “We’ve always called it Ellie’s island,” he tells her, draping a companionable arm across her shoulders as hers circles his waist. “My mother fell in love with this place primarily because of the lake and the island at its centre. The house was just a place to live, as far as she was concerned.”
    “It sounds so romantic, your dad buying Lakelands just for your mum. He must have loved her very much.” She smiles up at Logan, curious about his mother but not wanting to ask about what might still be a painful subject.
    “We both did,” he states, without sadness or grief. “We were lucky to have someone as kind and loving as my mother in our lives. She was a very special lady.” He is looking out to the island now, across a lake that lies smooth as glass. “You see that old shack,” he points at a small wood building that blends into the trees so well that Catherine wouldn’t otherwise have noticed it. She nods, a hand shading her eyes from the bright sun the better to see it. “That’s where my mother painted some of the pictures you’ll see around the house,” he tells her proudly.
    “You’re all so talented,” Catherine muses. “My mum worked on the tills at a supermarket during the day, then did a couple of hours cleaning at night. That was for me,” she adds as they sit on the grass near the lake’s edge.
    I miss you so much, mum. You would have loved it here.
    “Did that bother you?” he asks quietly.
    Catherine knows what he means, but no, she has never been ashamed of the work her mum has done. “Never!” she says adamantly. “My mum raised me on her own, worked six days a week plus two hours a night for five nights at the local school.” Catherine turns fiercely proud eyes to Logan. “She did most of that for me so that I didn’t go without. And we never owed a single penny to anyone; she was always firm on that. If we couldn’t afford to pay for it we didn’t have it – that was her philosophy all along, and one I’m proud to live by even now.” I’m sorry I was such hard work. I love you mum.
    “I’d have to say it’s a good one,” Logan nods. “It doesn’t sound like your father is around much; why is that?” Because he didn’t want us!
    Catherine hesitates, decides that if the possibility of her being a bastard in the literal sense makes him balk, then so be it. Holding her head high she says, “Apart from the donation of his genes I didn’t have a father.” The statement is a challenge and Logan knows it, but he just smiles and waits for her to continue. Eyeing him warily, Catherine does continue. “I have no idea who he is, where he is, or even if he’s still alive. And I don’t care to,” she adds defiantly. He didn’t care then and I don’t care now!
    Brows creased, Logan asks the obvious question. “You’re not even a little bit curious?”
    Catherine’s spine straightens. “Was he curious about me?” she states rather than asks. “He took off when he found out my mum was pregnant – no doubt crawled back under the same rock he crawled out of.” And bloody good riddance!
    “You sound so bitter, Catherine,”