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wanted to hear about New Zealand ... about the man Ross Carmichael. She tried to tell herself that she was unused to dining out in fashionable hotels, but knew it wasn’t true. She had always been in and out of these places with her mother. She told herself she wasn’t used to dining out with men. That was true enough. But she had dined out with young men often enough to know that she was usually bored to the back teeth by their company.
    Tonight she was far from bored. She risked another glance across the table and wished she had not. Morgan Grant had impact, and he knew it.
    He told the waiter that they would have their coffee in the lounge, and guided Katriona across the dining room and over to two comfortable chairs and an occasional table in a secluded corner.
    When he offered her a cigarette she refused, and he put the packet back in his pocket and settled back comfortably in his chair.
    ‘I don’t mind if you want to smoke,’ Katriona said politely.
    ‘Thank you, but I won’t. It’s a bad habit. I’m trying to give it up.’
    ‘Are you succeeding?’ she asked.
    ‘Yes. I don’t often fail when I put my mind to something.’ His smile was wicked.
    Katriona was furious at herself for giving him that opening. He was so smug and sure of himself, it just made her feel more inadequate than ever.
    ‘Do you know anyone by the name of Ena McIlroy?’
    ‘Ena McIlroy! ’ Katriona jerked forward in her chair in surprise at the question. ‘Ena McIlroy was a distant relation of my mother’s. She died almost two years ago.’
    ‘Would you say she was an honest responsible person?’ Morgan asked.
    'None more honest than Ena,’ Katriona said forthrightly. She was aware now that there was no amusement in his intelligent grey eyes. It was replaced by an alert, wary expression.
    ‘Strange you should say that ... everyone else is of the same opinion.’
    'It would be strange if they were not,’ Katriona stated fiercely. ‘She was a fine person. Dearly loved and highly respected.’
    ‘The letter my boss received was written by her. She claims that you’re Ross Carmichael’s daughter.’
     

CHAPTER TWO
    Katriona gasped. It was so completely unexpected. Her blue eyes opened wide with shock. ‘Ena wrote to this Carmichael man claiming I was his daughter!’
    ‘Correct.’
    ‘But ... but why should she do that? She never mentioned anything like that to me.’ Katriona still sounded incredulous. She sat silent for a moment or two. ‘So he heard nearly two years ago that I might be his daughter. He must have been crazy with delight the way he rushed to verify the news.’
    ‘You do him an injustice,’ Morgan straightened up in his chair. ‘He received the letter last month. Ena McIlroy had left it with her lawyer to post when you reached the age of twenty-one. She’d apparently promised your mother she wouldn’t tell you the truth about your father. When she knew she was dying she tried to persuade your mother to tell you and your mother told her she would ... when you were twenty-one. Ena McIlroy must have known your mother very well, because she didn’t trust her to keep her word. The lawyer said the old lady felt very strongly that the secret must not die with her, so she told him to post the letter to Ross Carmichael a week after your birthday. That’s why the lawyer held it so long.’
    Katriona stared at him in bewilderment. If Ena said Ross Carmichael was her father, she wanted no further proof. Ena would never tell a lie. Her mind whirled with questions. Why was it a secret? Was her mother married to the man or not? Was that why it was a secret? If she was married to him then she, Katriona, had a real father.
    'I'm afraid this must have come as a bit of a shock to you.’ Morgan sounded really concerned. ‘Would you like a brandy?’
    Katriona shook her head.
    ‘Well, here’s the coffee. Drink it up while it’s hot. I’m sorry it never occurred to me that you wouldn’t be in on it.’
    Katriona