From the first they saw as much of each other as Jack's workload allowed, and he made a point of visiting the Sutton house regularly once work was underway to make sure the extension was completed in good time. His aim was to impress Kate's family with his firm's work, and at the same time convince them that Jack Logan was a suitable husband for her. To his relief Elizabeth and Robert approved of both, and gave their blessing when he eventually asked permission to marry Kate.

Looking on her consent as a mere formality, Jack had proposed, supremely confident that Kate was so much in love with him she would forget her ambitions about a job in London.

What a fool! He flung out of bed to stand at his window, staring savagely at the night sky. Kate had been thrilled to wear his mother's engagement ring, and deliriously happy to make plans for a wedding.

'In the meantime,' she told him eagerly, 'you can apply for jobs in London. You could start with the construction company you worked for before-'

'Hey! Hold on, Kate,' he interrupted, frowning. 'I have no intention of working in London.'

'But Jack,' she said, taken aback, 'you'll have to when I get a job there.'

'Look, sweetheart,' he said, trying hard to be reasonable, 'Dad and I have big plans for Logan and Son. Even if I wanted to, which I most definitely do not, I couldn't desert him now, just when things are really starting to take off.'

Kate stared at him in blank dismay. 'But you've always known what I wanted to do.'

Jack held on to his temper with difficulty. 'I thought you wanted to marry me.'

'I do want to marry you! But I want a career in London at the same time. We could both have one, Jack.' She looked at him in pleading. 'I'm sure your father wouldn't hold you back if he knew how you feel.'

'You mean how you feel,' Jack told her shortly, then took her by the shoulders before laying it on the line. 'Listen, Kate, I couldn't stand being a little cog in some big company's machine. I want to build up my own outfit, not just for my father's sake, but for mine. I intend to run my own show one day. If you love me, stay and help me.'

But Kate was already sliding the ring from her finger, tears pouring down her face as she held it out. 'I do love you-I'm crazy about you. But you'd better hang on to the ring for a while because I really need to do do something with my life before I settle down here for good. I'm not ready for that yet,Jack.' something with my life before I settle down here for good. I'm not ready for that yet,Jack.'

Too proud and hurt to argue, Jack had put the ring away and driven Kate home, sure that parting without even a goodnight kiss would make her so miserable she'd change her mind by morning. But the morning post had brought Kate requests for interviews from two London-based companies. Soon afterwards she was accepted by one of them as a management trainee, and rang Jack in excitement to tell him. He wished her good luck, but to her utter dismay refused to meet her to celebrate.

'I don't see the point,' he said tersely. 'You've made your choice, and I'm keeping to mine.'

'Shall I see you when I'm down next, then?'

But proud, obstinate and desperately hurt, Jack answered in a way that changed both their lives. 'No point in that either, in the circ.u.mstances.'

He heard her draw in a deep, unsteady breath, and waited, his tension mounting. 'I see,' she said in a dead little voice. 'If that's how you feel we'd better make it a clean break, then. Goodbye.'

Three months later Jack married Dawn Taylor, daughter of the landlord of the Rose and Crown.

CHAPTER TWO.

IN ANNA'S guest room Kate lay equally sleepless, wishing she'd gone home. At least there she could have made tea, or gone on painting her sitting room. She sighed and thumped her pillow for the umpteenth time. It was Jack Logan's fault. Though to be fair, she reminded herself irritably, chance encounters with him were factors she'd dismissed as unimportant when she made the decision to return here. During her one visit home after leaving to start the new job she hadn't tried to contact him, and Robert and Elizabeth had moved to London soon afterwards. Kate's next visit had been years later, when the Maitlands bought a house in the area after Ben was head-hunted by a firm of local architects. There'd been occasional visits to Anna and Ben since, but from the day she'd given his ring back Kate had never laid eyes on Jack Logan again until tonight. guest room Kate lay equally sleepless, wishing she'd gone home. At least there she could have made tea, or gone on painting her sitting room. She sighed and thumped her pillow for the umpteenth time. It was Jack Logan's fault. Though to be fair, she reminded herself irritably, chance encounters with him were factors she'd dismissed as unimportant when she made the decision to return here. During her one visit home after leaving to start the new job she hadn't tried to contact him, and Robert and Elizabeth had moved to London soon afterwards. Kate's next visit had been years later, when the Maitlands bought a house in the area after Ben was head-hunted by a firm of local architects. There'd been occasional visits to Anna and Ben since, but from the day she'd given his ring back Kate had never laid eyes on Jack Logan again until tonight.

She stared into the darkness. He'd changed quite a bit. Which was no surprise. He'd packed a lot into his life in the years since their last meeting-not only the hard work which had brought him such meteoric success, but marriage and divorce along the way. Kate's eyes kindled. She was human enough to feel glad his marriage hadn't lasted. She'd never been able to think of it without a stab of pain. Jack had broken her heart in pieces when he married Dawn Taylor.

Kate was still thinking about this when she went downstairs next morning to make tea. The house was quiet and the kitchen immaculate, all traces of the party removed the night before by the catering firm. She looked up with a smile as Anna came in, yawning.

'I thought I heard you, Kate. Why so early?'

'I didn't get much sleep last night. Nothing to do with the bed,' Kate added hastily.

'But a lot to do with Jack Logan. Sorry, love, if I'd had the least idea that he was the secret lover-'

'Ex-lover.'

'Whatever. I'd have given you advance warning.'

'Did you know about his divorce?'

'No; I don't know much about him at all, other than his success with these restoration projects of his. Everything he touches seems to turn to gold. They call it Logan's luck hereabouts according to Ben.' Anna shook her head in wonder. 'To think it was Jack Logan's name that never sullied your lips!'

'What have you been reading lately?' said Kate, smiling, then pulled a face. 'Lord, I felt like such a fool when I asked about his wife. I wonder why the lovely Dawn left him.'

'No idea. Ask Jack.'

'As if!'

'Are you going to see him again?'

'I doubt it.' Kate sniffed. 'He was a touch pejorative about my track record in the romance department.'

'But engagements were your speciality. At least you never got married-and divorced-like him.' Anna looked speculative. 'There's no one significant in his life right now, though. According to Lucy Beresford-the fount of all knowledge-the eligible Jack Logan lives all by himself in that showplace of his.'

'Amazing. When I saw that article about it in the Sunday magazine I took it for granted Dawn lived there with him.'

'They must have split up before he developed the property.' Anna downed her tea at the sound of footsteps upstairs 'Stand by your beds! Ben's on the move at last.'

'I'll just wait to say h.e.l.lo and goodbye, then I'm off home,' said Kate, and smiled. 'Home. That sounds so good, Anna.'

'You owned the flat in Notting Hill.'

'True, but I never thought of it as anything but a temporary arrangement, somehow. But, thanks to darling Aunt Edith, I now have a home worthy of the name. And, most important of all,Jo loves it as much as I do.'

When Kate reached Park Crescent she stayed in the car for a moment, gazing in satisfaction at her inheritance. The house was a small gem of early Victorian architecture with white walls, bay windows and a dark blue door with a fanlight and stone pediment. Mine, all mine, gloated Kate as she locked her car and went inside. She scooped up the Sunday paper on the way to the room her aunt had always referred to as the parlour, and smiled, pleased, as she examined her handiwork. The wall she'd painted the day before was the exact shade she'd been aiming for now it was dry-somewhere between cream and muted pink-or Coral Porcelain as it said on the tin. A perfect background for the white-painted 1857 fire grate.

Interior decorating was new in Kate's life. Jo had helped choose furniture and pore over paint cards, Ben had given invaluable advice; Anna had been forthcoming, as usual, with her own opinions and Kate had been grateful to all of them. But the end result, she thought with satisfaction, was mostly her own.

She read a few pages of the Sunday paper over breakfast in the kitchen she'd had refitted before she moved in, then, rather lacking in enthusiasm after her sleepless night, went upstairs to change into jeans and sweatshirt ready for her daily session with a paintbrush. She checked her emails and then paused, as she always did, to look at the view of the lake. She jerked the curtain aside as she spotted a man running through the rain with long, ground-eating strides, a black dog loping beside him as they skirted the lake. Jack! Kate watched as he slowed down to a walk, the dog, a retriever, she noted enviously, padding obediently beside him. She dodged back in antic.i.p.ation, sure Jack was making for Park Crescent. And felt like a complete fool when he unlocked a mud-splashed Cherokee Jeep near the park gate, loaded the wet dog inside and drove off. She was too busy for visitors anyway, she told herself irritably, and ran downstairs to open a tin of paint.

When Elizabeth and Robert Sutton moved to London Kate had lived with them at first. But after Joanna was born she eventually left the Sutton household to share a flat with Anna Travers. The two girls were kindred spirits from the moment Kate answered Anna's advertis.e.m.e.nt for a flatmate, and lived together in complete accord right up to the day Anna married Ben and then moved away, at which point Kate gave in to her current boyfriend's urging. Her feelings for David Houston were nothing like the pa.s.sion she'd felt for Jack Logan, but Jack was long since married and she was long since over him, so she accepted David's proposal and moved in with him. But eventually their relationship wound down to an amicable end, and Kate exchanged the brick walls and leather and chrome of David's hip Thames-side loft for a small fla to of her own at last in Notting Hill.

At that stage Kate's life was as close to ideal as she could make it. She moved swiftly up the ladder in her job, enjoyed a lively social life, spent her Sundays in her sister's household and remained on friendly terms with David. This well-ordered phase of her life went on until she met Rupert Chance, heir to a chain of supermarkets. He singled her out at a party and instantly began a relentless pursuit she was human enough to find flattering. He soon began persuading her to share his house in Chelsea, but Kateheld back. She was attracted to the persuasive Rupert but caution prompted her to wait before burning her boats. Byronic good looks coupled with effortless charm had always won Rupert Chance anything he wanted the moment he wanted it, and he objected strongly when Kate insisted on keeping to her own flat. When they were married, he informed her,things would change.

Drastic changes came before that, in a way neither of them could have foreseen. Edith Durant, elder sister of Kate's father, died at the age of ninety-one, and in her will left money to her niece Elizabeth and her house and contents to her younger niece, Katherine. Elizabeth and Robert Sutton celebrated their windfall with a luxury holiday during Joanna's autumn term, but died together when their hired car swerved off a mountain road during a storm.

Kate broke then ewsto Jo. She drove down to the school, held the child in her arms while she cried her heart out, and in her capacity as official guardian arranged for Joanna to take time off after the funeral. When the service was over Kate took Jo to stay overnight with Robert's elderly, grief-stricken parents,then on to Anna and Ben to recuperate. Their support was a great comfort while the child struggled to come to terms with her loss, and during their week's stay Kate took Joanna to see the house in Park Crescent. The child fell in love with it and, after much discussion, the decision was made to move from London. Instead of selling Aunt Edith's house they would live in it together,in the town where Joanna's mother and aunt had grown up.

The Notting Hill flat had been expensive to buy but with the improvements Kate had made over the years proved profitable to sell. The proceeds were enough to renovate and furnish the house in Park Crescent, and leave enough over for a respectable nest egg to cushion Kate's altered lifestyle. Joanna's education had been provided for since her birth, and her inheritance from her parents, along with the proceeds from the sale of their house, was carefully invested to provide for the future. Kate was determined to make life as happy and secure for the child as humanly possible.

Kate finished a tin of paint with a feeling of satisfaction for a job well done and called it a day. She soaked in scented hot water later with a heartfelt sigh of pleasure. Another wall had been painted and she'd taken it in her stride when Jack Logan drove off instead of calling in to see her. Her shrug rippled the water. No point in getting uptight. Casual sightings could be a fact of life from now on. She could run into Jack anywhere and any time. It was not a problem.

Anna rang later while Kate was getting dressed. 'Hi. How's it going?'

Kate reported on her painting progress, but Anna brushed that aside.

'How are you, really?'

'A bit tired, but I've had a long, lazy bath-'

'I meant after meeting the old flame!'

'Fine. Why shouldn't I be?'

'Not even a little bit singed round the edges?'

'Not in the slightest.'

'Thank goodness,' said Anna, relieved. 'Sleep well.'

Kate dried her hair, left it loose on her shoulders and took some coffee upstairs to the study at present doubling as both workplace and sitting room until her decorating was finished. She drew the curtains, switched on lamps and, with a sigh of satisfaction, curled up in the armchair to read the rest of the Sunday papers before supper. She frowned in surprise when the doorbell rang shortly afterwards. She got up to peer down from the window and saw a long, sleek car parked at the kerb and an all too familiar male figure standing under her exterior light. She went downstairs, fixed a polite smile on her face and opened the door to Jack Logan.

Her visitor loomed tall on her doorstep, looking very different from the night before in a battered leather windbreaker and jeans. He smiled, raking a hand through hair ruffled by the wind blowing along the street from the lake. 'h.e.l.lo, Kate. I took a chance on finding you at home. May I come in?'

'Of course.' She led him along the hall to the kitchen and pulled out one of the kitchen chairs. 'Nowhere else to receive visitors yet, I'm afraid. Would you like coffee, or a drink?'

'Coffee would be good. Thank you.' Jack leaned against the counter, his eyes on the fall of burnished hair as he watched Kate get to work. 'I went for a run in the park with the dog this morning, intending to call on you afterwards, but Bran and I were so wet I decided against it.'

This information won him a warmer smile. 'Have you had the dog long?'

'Five years.' Jack slung his jacket on the back of a chair. 'He's a black retriever-great company. When I'm not around, Dad takes care of him.'

'How is is your father?' Kate made the coffee, set the pot and a pair of mugs on the table and fetched sugar and milk, glad of homely occupation while she adjusted to Jack Logan's dominant presence in her kitchen. your father?' Kate made the coffee, set the pot and a pair of mugs on the table and fetched sugar and milk, glad of homely occupation while she adjusted to Jack Logan's dominant presence in her kitchen.

'Dad's semi-retired, plays a lot of golf these days.' He smiled. 'I hoped he'd marry again, but I'm afraid he's a onewoman man.'

Which was more than could be said for his son, thought Kate with rancour. 'I was very fond of your father.'

'The feeling was mutual.'

She shot him a look. 'That can't have lasted once we split up.'

'You mean when you took off for London rather than marry me!' Their eyes clashed for a moment, then Jack shrugged. 'Actually my father was a lot more tolerant than me. He told me to give you time to spread your wings. But for me it was all or nothing.'

'You can't say you pined for long!'

'Actually, you're wrong about that.' Jack crossed his legs and sat back, surveying her thoughtfully. 'Maybe it's time you knew the truth.'

Kate shook her head as she poured coffee. 'No need, Jack. I chose to leave, and you married Dawn on the rebound. These things happen.'

'Not in the way you think.'

She gave him an a.s.sessing look, resentful that the lines on his face merely added character to the good looks of his youth. 'I don't think about it, Jack. It was a long time ago. No point in raking it all up again.'

'I look on it as setting the record straight.' He drank some of his coffee, then set down the mug.' After you took off for London,' he said, with the air of a man determined to have his say, 'I began drowning my sorrows at the Rose and Crown most nights, and Dawn Taylor offered the kind of comfort I was fool enough to accept eventually, because I was so b.l.o.o.d.y miserable without you. But when she begged me to marry her because she was pregnant, I realised exactly what kind of a fool I'd been. Dawn was very popular with her father's punters, and Dad said I was an idiot to believe that the child was mine.' He gave her a straight look. 'Nevertheless, it could have been mine, Kate.'

She held his eyes. 'What happened to the baby?'

'Dawn miscarried soon after the wedding, eighteen weeks into the pregnancy.' His mouth twisted.' My entire relationship with Dawn up to that point,including the marriage, added up to twelve weeks. You can do the maths.'

'So who was the father?'

'Someone else's husband.' Jack shrugged. 'So in a panic Dawn told me the baby was mine, hoping to pa.s.s it off on me as premature. When it all went horribly wrong she agreed to a quickie divorce and used my one-off settlement to visit her sister in Australia. I haven't seen her since.'

Kate digested this in silence for a while. 'She was a very pretty girl-spectacular figure,' she said at last, and looked at him very directly. 'It broke my heart when you married her so soon after we split up.'

His eyes hardened. 'You broke mine when you took off for London.'

'Oh, come on, Jack,' she retorted. 'London wasn't the moon. I could have come home to you every weekend right from the start, or you could have come to me, but not a chance. It had to be your way or nothing.'

'I changed my mind pretty quickly,' he said, startling her. 'I missed you like h.e.l.l. I soon wanted you back on any terms. I was about to get in touch to tell you that, but Dawn got in first with her news.'

'You mean you expected me to rush back to you even though you slept with her the minute I left?' Kate eyed him coldly. 'I would have found out sooner or later. News travels fast in a small town like this.'

He shrugged. 'Not so very fast, apparently. You didn't know about the divorce.'

'I was living in London then, remember. And if they knew about it, Liz and Robert never told me.'

'Obviously not. But I'm surprised that the news hasn't filtered through to you since.' He smiled wryly. 'Talking of surprises, Anna Maitland looked thunderstruck last night when I gatecrashed her party.'

Kate nodded. 'Because you never go to parties, it didn't occur to her to invite you.'

'Does she know about our relationship?'

'As from last night she does. Anna knew I'd been engaged before I met her, but not the name of the lucky man. I couldn't believe my eyes when you strolled up at the party.' Kate smiled politely. 'But I'm glad you called in tonight, Jack. It gives me a chance to congratulate you on your success.'

'Thank you. We both achieved our aims, career-wise.' He eyed her quizzically. 'But I'm curious, Kate. I'm told you were on the point of marriage twice over the years. What made you back off?'

She hesitated for a moment, then decided it was fair return for Jack's explanation. 'The first fiance-'

'Second,' he corrected.

She ground her teeth. 'All right, the second fiance started talking about babies and a place in the country.'

'Ah!' Jack leaned back, eyes gleaming. 'The idea didn't appeal?'

'Not in the slightest. So we agreed-amicably-to call it a day, and I bought a flat in Notting Hill. I'd never lived alone up to that point, and enjoyed it so much that years later when I met the second-sorry, third third fiancee, I insisted on keeping to my own place instead of moving in with him.' Kate looked away. 'A good decision, as it turned out-less complications when we splitup.' fiancee, I insisted on keeping to my own place instead of moving in with him.' Kate looked away. 'A good decision, as it turned out-less complications when we splitup.'