Securing the Greek's Legacy by Julia James Read Free Book Online

resolved?’
    Anatole chose his words with care. ‘What if you came with Georgy?’ he asked.
    She stared at him blankly. ‘Brought him out to visit your grandfather?’
    He gave a quick shake of his head. ‘Not just to visit—to live.’
    ‘To live in Greece?’ she echoed, as if she had not heard properly. ‘Georgy and me?’
    ‘Why not?’ Anatole’s eyes were studying her reaction.
    ‘But I’m British!’ she replied blankly, because right now it was the only thing that occurred to her.
    The corner of his mouth curved, and irrelevantly Lyn thought how it lightened his expression—and sent a pulse of blood around her veins. Then he was replying.
    ‘Many British people live very happily in Greece,’ he said dryly. ‘They find the climate a great deal warmer!’ he said pointedly, glancing around at the bleak, wintry landscape.
    ‘But I haven’t got any accountancy qualifications yet, and even when I do I probably wouldn’t be able to practise out there. And besides, I don’t speak any Greek! How could I make a living?’
    Anatole’s eyebrows rose. Had she really just asked that question?
    ‘It goes without saying,’ he said, and his voice was even drier, ‘that there would be no necessity for you to do so.’
    His reply was a flash of her grey eyes that gave animation to her thin face.
    ‘I’m not living on charity!’ she objected.
    Anatole shook his head. ‘It would not be a question of charity!’ he retorted. His tone of voice changed. ‘Timon would insist that you have an allowance.’
    Her mouth pressed together. ‘So I’d be Georgy’s paid nursemaid? Is that what you’re saying?’
    ‘No!’ She was taking this entirely the wrong way, he could see. He tried to recover. ‘How could you be a nursemaid when you are going to be Georgy’s adoptive mother?’
    He had thought his words would be reassuring to her, yet for a second there was again that flash of fearful emotion he had seen before in her eyes. His gaze narrowed infinitesimally. ‘Tell me,’ he heard himself saying, ‘is there some problem with your application to adopt Georgy?’
    It was a shot fired with a calculated aim to expose any weaknesses in her claim. Weaknesses, he knew with grim resolve, he would have to exploit if she reverted to being as obdurate and uncooperative as she had been yesterday. But surely that would not be so—not now that they had finally reached the stage where they could at least discuss Georgy’s future without her flying into an emotional storm!
    He watched her face, saw her expression close. His shot had hit home, he could see.
    ‘What is it?’ he asked bluntly.
    Lyn’s hands twisted in her lap. Unease and fear writhed in her. But she had to reply—that much was obvious.
    ‘From the moment Lindy died,’ she said, her voice low and strained, ‘the authorities wanted Georgy taken into care and put up for adoption. Adoption not by me but by a childless couple. There are so many desperate for a baby!’
    A cold spear went through Anatole. It was just as he had feared the moment Lyn Brandon had said that she was not Georgy’s birth mother!
    ‘Even now,’ she said tightly, ‘if I dropped my application they would hand him over straight away to a married couple!’
    ‘But you are his maternal aunt. That surely gives you a priority claim to him!’
    The fear darted in her eyes again. ‘They say I’m too young, that I’m a student still, that I’d be a single mother—’ Her voice broke.
    For a moment Anatole was silent.
    ‘But I’m not giving in!’ Lyn’s voice was vehement now. ‘I’ll never give in—no matter what they say or how much they drag their heels! I’ll never give up Georgy! Never! ’
    Her hands spasmed in her lap, anguish knifing inside her. Then suddenly her hands were being covered by a large, warm, strong hand, stilling their convulsion.
    ‘There is a way.’ Anatole heard himself speaking but did not quite believe he was doing so. ‘There is a way that