"Yes," Ryland agreed sombrely.

"I wanted to tell you," he assured her, 'but at the same time I wanted to protect you, to protect our love, to give it a chance to grow. "

Tara blinked away the tears she could feel threatening her, weakening her.

"What is it about me that makes people... you, my parents... feel that I need to be protected? Do you really see me as so weak... so naive...

so stupid that I can't be trusted to make my own judgements and my own decisions, to protect myself?"

"It isn't your vulnerability that motivates us," Ryland told her huskily.

"It's our own fear... our fear of losing you," he explained when she looked questioningly at him.

"We're the ones who are vulnerable because of our love for you. It'sour awareness of the wonderful uniqueness of you, the irreplaceabilityof you, that makes us afraid of not being worthy of your love. We areafraid of not being good enough for you, Tara, not the other wayaround."

As she listened to him, Tara could see that he meant every word he was saying.

"I was afraid of telling you the truth in case it drove you away from me," Ryland admitted quietly.

"I was afraid to tell you the truth because I thought I might lose you," her mother had said, and for both of them Tara had the same answer, she recognised now.

"How could you? How dare you even begin to think, to doubt that mylove is any less strong and less enduring, any less whole and freelygiven, than yours?" she challenged Ryland chokily.

"I love you ... you, the person, Ry ... and I'll always love you. I

don't care about the money, and right now I don't care too much, either, about the problems we might have to face in the future because of it.

"No, I don't want my children, our children, to grow up in a protective glass bubble that separates them from the rest of the human race--you were right about that--but neither do I want my children to be fathered by any man who isn't you. Somehow we'll find a way to give them some freedom, to let them learn and grow, to value themselves for who they are, not the money they will one day inherit."

Her voice had grown stronger and more passionate with every word she spoke. Now flushed with emotion, Tara declared heatedly, "End it all between us because of my background if you must, but not to protect me or because you think I'm not strong enough, that my love isn't strong enough to endure."

"End it? Oh, my love, my dearest love, that's the last thing I want to do," Ryland responded fervently, then he reached out to gather her into his arms and held her tightly in a rib-crushing, breath-stopping hug.

Tara raised her head, intending to speak to him, but discovered instead that what she was actually doing was kissing him.

"I love you so much," he told her thickly as he kissed her back.

"So very, very much." He kissed her again and one kiss led to another and then another.

"Try telling me now that you don't love me," Ryland challenged her when he eventually held her still-dewy, relaxed body in his arms.

"You were the one who doubted my love..."

Tara started to remind him before checking herself and saying tentatively, "The money..."

"Forget the money," Ryland said fiercely.

"I'd rather give it all away than risk losing you, Tara, but I do have a responsibility to my family, the business, my aunt..."

"We could buy some land perhaps, a farm, with some of the money," Tara suggested sleepily as she nestled closer to him.

He was right. She did find the thought of so much money hard to deal with, but her love for him was such that she knew that being with him was more important to her than any potential problems his wealth could cause.

"And we could stay there with our children. That way they could have some freedom and--' she lifted her head and looked at him '--we could give some of it to... to others... charities...?"

"Of course we could," Ryland confirmed promptly, adding warningly, "My aunt had several pet charities of her own and I think you'll find that you'll be approached by them to take her place on their fund-raising committees."

"I thought perhaps one for... for women... girls who--' " I thought you might be thinking along those lines," Ryland anticipated her gently, 'and the answer is yes, of course. But first things first, and the first and most important thing we need to do now, at least as far as I'm concerned, is to get married just as soon as we can."

"My mother will want me to have a traditional wedding," Tara warned him.

"Yours and mine both," Ryland agreed.

"The church in Dorset where she.-.Katriona is buried is very pretty," Tara told him softly.

"I.

can't think of her as my mother--Claudia will always be that--but. but she ;s a part of me, of my past, my history. "

"We can be married wherever you wish," Ryland assured her gently before taking her back in his arms and starting to kiss her with tender loving relish.

An hour later as they ate an impromptu meal off their laps, they went through the post that had accumulated during their absence.

"Uh-huh, looks like this one is for you," Ryland told Tara, tossing her an envelope with an American embassy stamp on it.

"My visa," Tara guessed before starting to laugh.

"I expect we'll have to reapply now that we're getting married, won't we? Just think, if this hadn't been delayed, Ma would probably never have told me about Katriona. She was so desperately afraid that the delay was because they were querying the registration of my birth. Apparently, she's always been worried that some day it might be questioned. At first I almost wished that I hadn't had to know, but I'm glad now. In some odd kind of way, it's brought us closer, made me see Ma as more vulnerable and put us more on a par--one adult woman to another adult woman--but please... no more secrets," she told Ryland lovingly.

"Not one single one, not ever."

"No more secrets," Ryland agreed, closing his eyes in mute gratitude.

There was no way he could ever condone what Margot had done. He knew he would never in a million lifetimes want to deprive Tara of the right to love someone else, or of life itself, but he knew, too, that it would take the heart and soul of his life out of him to lose her.

Thankfully, fate and Tara herself had spared him that.

Epilogue.

As she left the doctor's surgery and walked back to her car through the bright spring sunshine, Tara patted her stomach, her mouth curled into a hugely triumphant little-girl grin.

She drove home carefully, mindful of the new life she was now responsible for. She had known about the baby already, of course, but having her doctor's confirmation made it fully official.

As she let herself into the pretty New England house she and Ryland had bought in the same small town where his family lived, there was only one thing on her mind, one person.

Eagerly, she picked up the telephone, her mouth still curved in a wide, happy smile, then quickly punched in the numbers.

When she heard the voice responding at the other end of the line, she burst into immediate excited speech, exclaiming, "Guess what... I'm pregnant! I wanted you to be the first to know." She started to laugh as she heard the other person's response.

"I couldn't wait to tell you... Grandma!" she told Claudia, chuckling as her mother replied enthusiastically.

"Not even Ry knows officially yet. I wanted to be sure you were the first to know," she repeated softly, her own eyes filling with emotional tears as she heard the huskiness in Claudia's voice.

"And I want you to be here for the birth," she declared warmly.

In the background, she could hear her father demanding to know who was on the line and then he, too, came on, congratulating her and reminding her that it would only be a matter of days before they flew over to Boston to see them.

"I know that, but I couldn't wait that long," she said simply.

"I.

wanted you to know now. "

She was still beaming five minutes later when she replaced the receiver.

The rift that had threatened to destroy the relationship between her and Claudia was completely healed now and, if anything, Tara felt closer to her mother than ever before. Her work with deprived youngsters through the charity she and Ryland had established in his aunt's name had given her a deeper insight into the problems that could afflict children when they were deprived of parental love, and she had now seen for herself what could happen when drug- addicted mothers, however much they might love their children, quite simply put the needs of their habit first.

Tara had settled easily and comfortably into the life of small-town New England.

"Why shouldn't I?" she had asked Ryland lovingly when he had commented on this fact. Her home was within herself, encompassed by the love they shared. She missed her family and friends, of course, especially Claudia, but in the eighteen months of their marriage, she and Ryland had travelled back to the UK for several visits and had had her parents over to visit with them, as indeed they were due back again at the end of the week.

She and Ryland had spent their first Christmas together as man and wife in Britain with her parents.

Garth and Claudia had remarried one another in a quiet ceremony three days before Christmas, and Claudia had been glowing with love and happiness as Garth slipped her old wedding ring back on her finger.

Quick tears momentarily filmed Tara's eyes as she remembered the day of her own wedding.

She and Claudia had been together in her bedroom. She had been standing in her wedding finery while Claudia fussed nervously around her.

"Ma, I still haven't thanked you for all of this," she had told her, her gesture encompassing not just her dress but all the formidable organisation that had gone into making her wedding possible despite the short notice that Ryland's impatience had demanded.

"And I... I haven't told you, either, how much. how much I love you and how very, very glad I am that you are my mother."

She had seen Claudia shaking her head and guessed instinctively what she was going to say. She turned to hug her fiercely, ignoring her protests that she might spoil her dress.

"Don't say it. You are my mother, the best mother anyone could ever have and the only mother I could ever want. You are my mother and, even more so, I am your child. You're the one who has nurtured me, loved me, taught me, shown me. You are my mother."

Later in the day as she emerged from the church, she had overheard one of the onlookers who had gathered outside the gate telling her friend, "Oh, look, there's her mother. They look so alike, don't they? You can tell immediately that they're mother and daughter."

Instinctively, she had looked across at Claudia to share the moment with her, her eyes brimming with a tearful mixture of love and laughter; the same love and laughter she could see filling Claudia's own.

"So it's official, then?" Ryland asked, kissing Tara's still-flat stomach.

"Yes," she confirmed."I rang Ma the moment I got back from the surgery. I wanted her to bethe first to know. I want her to be here for the birth," she warnedhim.

"Of course," Ryland agreed tenderly.

"After all, she is your mother."

"Yes," Tara agreed.

"She is ... she is!"

end.