Unknown by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page B

reached for the cup and drank the hot coffee with gratitude ... it seemed to settle her nerves. Then she realised what Morgan had said to her, and her blue eyes flashed with anger. ‘So that’s it! It was your attitude which bothered me. You thought it was a hoax ... the letter, I mean. You thought it was some scheme thought up by Ena and myself. How dare you think that? And you have a colossal nerve coming here checking up on her character and mine. Well, my man, you can go right back to New Zealand and tell Ross Carmichael and anyone else who’s remotely interested in your investigations to stop worrying. I don’t care if he’s my father or not. Why should I need another father? I’ve had my choice of fathers ... four to be exact, and another one coming up. What I don’t need most is another father! ’
    ‘Calm down,’ Morgan said soothingly. ‘Naturally I had to check her out, and I’m sorry if I gained the wrong impression from the letter. Ross Carmichael is not a poor man.’
    ‘Charming!' Katriona was scathing. ‘So his first thought on hearing he has a daughter is to protect his assets. She would naturally only be interested in his money. What else? As if I’d want to be related to a man like that! ’
    ‘Cut that out!’ Morgan spoke sharply. ‘You’re deliberately putting the wrong interpretation on everything I say. Why don’t you stop and listen before you hit the panic button? The boss asked me to come over here and see if there was any truth in the story …'
    ‘Huh!’ Katriona interrupted sarcastically. 'He doesn’t even know if he was married to my mother. That makes us even, I don’t know either. He doesn’t even know if he’s met her or slept with her or if she had a child by him. He sounds a pretty poor specimen to me. And if anyone’s story is thin it’s yours.’
    ‘Of course he knows he was married to Fiona Carmichael. It was the biggest mistake of his life. He was married to her for two years ... well, she lived with him for two years. Then he had a severe accident and the doctors didn’t think he would ever walk again. While he was lying critically ill in hospital your mother cleared out and left him. What do you think that did to him? Now, some twenty years later, he hears from someone he doesn’t know that she had a child six months after she arrived in Scotland and stating that he’s supposed to be the father. Is it any wonder that he thought it was a scheme set up by you and your mother to get money out of him?’
    Katriona turned pale, her hands gripped the arms of the chair until her knuckles turned white. How could she defend her mother from such accusations? Worse still, knowing her mother’s character, the story was probably true. Well, she had found out all she wanted to know. In her own mind she knew that she had found her father. She knew who had written the letter ... her own darling Ena McIlroy.
    Shading her face with her hand, she avoided Morgan’s searching eyes. Dear Ena, darling Ena. It almost seemed as if she had reached back from the grave to reassure Katriona that she was loved. Ena had been the only stable influence in Katriona’s crazy mixed up life, the only person she could count on to remain exactly the same even though she was parted from her years at a time.
    ‘Say, are you okay?’ Morgan leaned across and touched Katriona’s shoulder.
    She looked across at him, her eyes bright with unshed tears, and her face had a soft vulnerable expression. ‘I’m sorry. It’s just a bit much to take in all at once. You see, Ena knew ... she was the only one who knew I was ... a bit hung-up about having no father. It must have been so very difficult for her, wanting to tell me, yet held by the promise she’d given my mother. She used to tell me so often that it didn’t matter who my parents were, that what I made myself in this world was the important thing, that we’re each responsible for our own actions.’
    Katriona was not aware that the tears