Mistaken Mistress. Margaret Way

is as Owen’s long-lost child.”

      Her heart shook. “How do you know I’m not?”

      Another lancing glance. “I know Owen, that’s why. There’s no way in this world Owen would have deserted his child, his child’s mother. I know him. No way he could have kept such a thing secret. Not from me, let alone Delma.”

      “You don’t think she would take kindly to having Owen’s love child fostered on her?” she asked, her voice so poignant he wanted to stop the car to confront her.

      “You’re not pregnant, are you?” God, he didn’t think he could live with that.

      “I find that unforgivable.” She had never done anything illicit in her life. Owen was her father, for God’s sake. What code had Owen bound her to she couldn’t say it? Both her mother and her father were good at keeping secrets she’d found. She wasn’t going to relive history. Tomorrow when Owen was a little stronger she was going to insist he explain the exact nature of their relationship and the whole sad story behind it. There was no earthly reason to delay, not even Delma’s arrival. She was tired of this charade and intensely angry with Lang Forsyth. She didn’t enjoy how he was making her feel.

      “I don’t follow you at all,” he was saying. “In fact we seem to be speaking a different language. This isn’t a good situation. You must know that. I feel I have to warn you, you’ll have a job fending Delma off. She’s a tough mature woman. She’ll fight tooth and nail for her man.” God knows she had come up with quite a strategy to land Owen in the first place, he thought. But he wasn’t about to tell the girl that. It could only amount to extra ammunition.