Instant Father

“I’ll save time by admitting I heard the last part of your conversation,” Gavin said grimly. “Let me make it clear that nothing you can do can keep me from my son. And if you really think you can ‘take care of’ me you’ve made a big mistake. Older and wiser heads than yours have made the same mistake, and regretted it.”

“I’m sure you’re very fearsome and terrible,” she agreed, but without seeming overawed. “Peter certainly seemed to think so. Don’t you realize that he heard what you said about removing him from me? He heard you shouting it in anger and it upset him almost as much as what happened last night.”

“Nonsense. He’s my son.”

“Technically, but Tony was a father to him these past few years and he’s forgotten any other home but this. If he wanted to go with you it would be different, but he doesn’t, and so I won’t allow it.”

He almost smiled. “You won’t allow it? You think you can tell me what you will and won’t allow, when the issue is my son?”

“Yes, of course, he’s yours, isn’t he?” Norah said, a scathing note creeping into her voice. “Your property. I was forgetting. All right, let’s fight this battle your way.” She rose to confront him, and he had an odd sensation that she’d removed the gloves. “There can be more than one claimant to a piece of property.”

“Not this one,” Gavin said firmly.

“I’ve just been talking to Angus Philbeam, our lawyer. I wanted to check a point in Liz’s will. Angus is a very thorough man. When he drew it up, he made Liz consider every possibility—even this one. Liz left the guardianship of Peter to Tony, and after him—me.”

Gavin was silent for a split second before exploding, “You must be out of your mind!”

“You can visit Angus and see the will—”

“To hell with the will! No power on earth could give Liz the right to will my son’s guardianship away from me. He’s mine.”

Norah regarded him bitterly. “I’m beginning to understand why Liz always referred to you as Hunter,” she said. “Not Gavin, but just ‘Hunter.’ She said you were so predatory that the name suited you perfectly.”

“It makes a change from ‘grating Gavin,’” he snapped.

“But she was right. You are predatory. Everything is prey to you—something to be fought for and snatched. And you win because you scare people. But I’m not scared. For one thing, even you wouldn’t be inhuman enough to try to drag that child away today.”

“I never said I was going to—”

“And for another you’ll have to go through the courts to get Peter back, and I think they’ll pay attention to that will. They’ll pay even more attention to the fact that this is Peter’s home, where he’s been happy. He’s just lost two parents—”

“One parent.”

“And I don’t think they’ll let him be taken away from me by a father he hardly knows any more.” The phone rang and she answered it quickly. She barely said a word, but whatever she heard seemed to please her because her face brightened. Finally she said, “I’ll tell him at once. Thank you very much.” She hung up and faced Gavin. “That was the Social Services. Angus has been on to them. They’ll be sending someone to see you.”

“Need I ask what this ‘someone’ is going to say? You seem confident that you have it all stitched up.”

“They’ll oppose any attempt to remove Peter from me so soon after the accident. He needs security, not another big change straight on top of the last one.”

“And what kind of security can you offer him?”

“Love, and the stability of the home he’s used to.”

Gavin gritted his teeth. He hadn’t meant to play rough, but she’d left him no choice. “But you’re going to be leaving here. See what Social Services says when I tell them that.”

“Leaving here? Why should I?”

“Look, I realize that your father was still a young man and you couldn’t have dreamed that he’d die so soon.”

“What does that have to do with what we’re talking about?”

“It means that you have no right to stay in this house.”

“Why?”

“Because it belonged to Liz—half of it. The other half is still mine. Liz’s half will become Peter’s and I—”

“Wait,” she stopped him. “Liz didn’t own any part of Strand House.”

“I happen to know better. I bought this place originally and put it in our joint names, and the court awarded her half in the divorce settlement.”

“Yes, I know all about that. What I’m saying is that Liz’s share became Dad’s some years ago, and he left it to me.”

“What? That’s impossible.”

“It was to protect the sanctuary. He wanted to be sure that if anything happened to him I could carry on here.”

“I don’t believe what I’m hearing,” he exploded.

But he did believe it. It had an awful inevitability. He’d always known that Tony Ackroyd had been a sponger who’d battened on Liz for her property. Now he discovered that he’d been a mercilessly efficient sponger. “You really do have this neatly arranged, don’t you?” he said, breathing hard.

“I know you can’t evict me, and for the moment you can’t take Peter away from me. If you love your son, you won’t even try to.”

“Don’t lecture me about loving my son,” Gavin said dangerously.

“You frighten him—”

“That’s impossible.”

“I imagine anything’s impossible to you, if it doesn’t suit you. But Peter doesn’t know you any more. Can’t you understand that?”

“Yes, I’m beginning to. In fact I’m beginning to understand a good many things. You’ve turned his mind away from me, haven’t you, and you think I can’t take it back.”

“You’re right—I don’t think you can take it back. You might win it back, but that’s not your way, is it, Hunter? Your way is smash and grab, and it won’t work this time.”

“Oh, I have more weapons in my armory than you think. I can be patient and subtle when I have to be. You may be able to stop me removing Peter, but you can’t keep me away from him. I have as much right to live in this house as you do, and that’s what I mean to do.”

“Live here? You mean to move in?” she echoed, dismayed.

“I’ve already moved in. So I’ll be on hand to make sure my son isn’t turned against me any more.”

“But that’s—” she sought for the word.

“Impossible?”

“Impractical. How can we live under the same roof?”

“It won’t be for long,” Gavin said. “Just as long as it takes you to realize that you can’t defeat me. In the meantime, we’ll just have to learn to endure each other.”