The Secret He Must Claim. Chantelle Shaw

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СКАЧАТЬ done my duty and informed you that you have a son,’ she said crisply. ‘I neither want nor expect anything from you, except for a few days’ grace while I arrange to move out of Cuckmere Hall.’ Her voice bore the faintest tremor and she pressed her lips together before she continued. ‘You are aware that Ralph left my brother and I each a property on the estate. But the cottages have been empty for several years and I don’t know what state they are in. I may need to have some renovation work done before I can take a baby to live there.’

      He reminded himself that she did not deserve his compassion. She had enjoyed a privileged lifestyle, which had been denied to his mother and him when he was a child. But Ralph’s vile treatment of his mother was nothing to do with Elin, Cortez conceded. Nor was it her fault that she had grown up in the gracious surroundings of Cuckmere Hall, while he had spent his boyhood working in the vineyards in the blazing Spanish sun, helping his mother to eke out a living.

      ‘I’m going back to London to meet the board of Saunderson’s Bank this afternoon,’ he told her. ‘I have no plans to return to Sussex for a week or so. You and your brother can remain at Cuckmere Hall while you make arrangements to move into the cottages Ralph left you.’

      ‘I doubt Jarek will want to live in a cottage. He has his own home in London.’ She hesitated. ‘My brother had anticipated that he would become chairman of the bank. What will happen now? Will he continue in his current job?’

      ‘For the immediate future the situation will remain unchanged, until I have met the board of directors. When I have assessed all aspects of the bank’s business portfolio there are likely to be changes,’ he warned. ‘Ralph’s will was as much of a surprise to me as it was to you. I was informed of his death by Mr Carstairs and I attended the funeral to pay my respects to my father, even though he had never given my mother the respect she deserved.’

      Cortez did not try to disguise his bitterness. His mother had been an angel and his greatest regret was that she had died before he’d become rich and successful and he hadn’t had the chance to make her life more comfortable.

      ‘It was a great shock to discover that my adoptive father had a secret son,’ Elin said quietly. ‘How did your mother meet Ralph?’

      ‘She worked as a maid here at Cuckmere Hall. My mother never spoke of my father or revealed his identity and I had no idea that I was Ralph’s son until I received a request for a DNA test. When I met Ralph he explained that he’d had an affair with my mother at the same time as he became engaged to Lorna Amhurst. He said his marriage was an arrangement to merge two banking families.’

      Cortez frowned. ‘Ralph insisted that he gave my mother money when she told him she was pregnant. He assumed she returned to her family in Spain. But her family threw her out for having an illegitimate child and she brought me up on her own, with no money other than the small income she earned from growing grapes used for making sherry.

      ‘I don’t know why Ralph made me his heir, but I think it is unlikely that he wanted to make amends for abandoning me before I was born,’ he said cynically. ‘A more obvious reason is that, having ignored me—his biological son—for most of my life, Ralph was faced with leaving his personal fortune and Saunderson’s Bank to the mercy of his two adopted children who, despite the privileges of wealth and excellent education, have become spoiled brats in adulthood.’

      Elin jerked her head back as if he had slapped her. Dios, how did this woman manage to make him feel as if he were a monster? Cortez thought frustratedly.

      ‘You know nothing about me or my brother,’ she said in a clipped voice that made him want to ruffle her cool composure and reveal the fire that he knew simmered beneath her air of refinement. ‘Jarek is a thousand times a better man than you could ever be.’

      Finally he glimpsed a flicker of emotion on her face that up until now had been a serene mask. It was interesting that her brother was her weak spot, he mused. Everyone had an Achilles heel and he had made it his particular line of expertise to detect weaknesses in an opponent which he could ruthlessly use to his advantage. Although he was unlikely to ever need to use boardroom tactics with Elin. She did not have anything he wanted—apart from the face of an angel and a body that would tempt the most devout saint to sin, he thought with grim humour.

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