Prologue
Prologue
The envelope was lying on the floor inside the front door of my London town house. It was lavender, and sprinkled lavishly with mimosa, a scent I remembered from my younger years. The word “urgent” was scrawled upon it, underscored five times.
I smiled fondly. Barbara always tended toward the melodramatic. Although why my ex-wife would be writing…
My heart clenched. Jamie, our son. I could tell the letter had been there for some time. My lover and I had been away for the past two weeks, first to attend a wedding, and then to just spend some time together. Not a honeymoon, for we couldn’t marry, but a pleasurable twelve days with no calls made upon our time.
Dammit, I should have been home.
But surely, if anything had happened to Jamie, Barbara would have telephoned?
I started to slide a thumbnail under the flap but only succeeded in mangling the envelope. With what had she sealed the bloody thing?
“James? Give it here.” Strong hands…deadly hands—hands that could be surprisingly gentle when exploring my body—took it from me, tapped it on a palm, tore the end and tipped it over, then placed the letter into my hand.
“Thank you, sweetheart.” Barbara’s lines in the lavender ink she favoured were crossed in a tight scrawl, quite unlike her usual flawless penmanship. Hastily I scanned the page, searching for the disaster that had necessitated this missive.
“Is everything all right?”
My son was alive and well. I blew out a relieved breath and smiled at my lover. “Yes. Although Barbara is quite annoyed that I wasn’t available to prevent Jamie from rushing off to Las Vegas to get married.”
“Beg pardon?”
“He’s married.”
“So soon? Well, I’ll be buggered!”
“That can be arranged.” I grinned at him, almost giddy with relief, and began rereading Barbara’s words, aloud this time, and more slowly. When I finished, I looked up into my lover’s eyes. He ran his fingers through my hair and pressed a kiss to my temple.
So much time had passed, so much had happened…
I leaned against him and stared off into space, remembering.
