Lifelong Affair by Carole Mortimer Page B

gasped.
    'Exactly.'                                                        ,       ,
    'Wouldn't
he have some say as to who he married?' she derided.
    'Of
course,' Janet snapped her impatience. 'And I can tell you now that he doesn't
intend marrying anvone.'
    Morgan
gave a bored shrug.   'You're safe
then, aren't you?'

'Unless
you try to force the issue,' the other woman studied her with narrowed eyes,
'Alex will allow no harm to come to Courtney.'
    'I
would never harm him!' she bit out angrily, tiring of this conversation with
this vindictive woman. 'Must I remind you that this is a funeral, Mrs
Fairchild? Hardly the place for the things you're saying!'
    'I
can think of no better place,' Janet rasped. 'Glenna has created trouble, as
always, she snapped. 'She must have known the havoc this joint guardian ship would cause,'
    'She
was hardly in any condition to think of hitting back at the Hammonds at the
time,' Morgan told the other woman tautly.
    'Your
sister was an embarrassment to my family from the day she came into it!'
    Her
mouth twisted. 'Didn't she come up to your strict family standards?'
    •No!'
Janet snapped. 'And she never would have done. If she hadn't become
conveniently pregnant I doubt if the marriage would have lasted as long as it
did.'
    'Conveniently
.. .?' Morgan echoed sharply. 'Axe you implying that Glenna became pregnant on
purpose?'
    'Exactly.
Providing the Hammond heir was guaran teed to keep her the wife of a wealthy man. Except that I know for
a fact that Mark didn't want children yet.'
    Morgan
shrugged. 'Accidents happen.'
    'Not
to Mark,' Janet told her pointedly.
    Morgan paled, swallowing convulsively. 'Arc
you saying—Are you implying     '
    'That
someone else was involved in Courtney's conception?' the other woman drawled.
'Someone other than Mark? I'm saying it's a distinct possibility,' she
shrugged.
    'I
don't believe it! Morgan said heatedly. 'You're just saying these things.
Glenna would never have an affair. She loved Mark very much.'
    'And    she   knew   her   marriage   was   failing.    She wouldn't
be the first woman to deliberately have a child in order to keep her marriage
together—even another man's child.'
    'I    don't    believe    that,'    Morgan    repeated    coldly. •Glenna wasn't capable of
what you're accusing her of.' Janet's mouth twisted derisively. 'Believe me,
she was,' she taunted.
    Morgan
was breathing deeply, so angry she wanted to actually hit this woman. The
character of Mary-Beth would know how to handle this situation with a
confidence that would strip this woman of all her arrogance. Unfortunately she
didn't have an ounce of Mary-Beth in her! 'Arc you really serious about
Courtney not being Mark's child?' she frowned.
    'Very
serious,' the other woman nodded. 'But my mother believes he's Mark's son, and
that's all that matters.'
    'A
blood test——'
    'Might
prove my point,' Janet acknowledged tauntingly. 'And then again it might not.
But could vou do that to your own sister, your dead sister?'
    Morgan
paled, knowing that Janet Fairchild was right. Even supposing Glenna had done
such a thing— which she seriously doubted!—she couldn't do anvthing
to hurt her sister's memory. Her parents would never forgive her if she did
that. Besides, she didn't believe for one moment that Glenna had been involved
with another man; despite her unhappiness in England Glenna had continued to
love her husband.
    '
thought not,' the other woman derided. 'Go back to America, Morgan. You aren't
wanted here.' She strolled off, smiling at several of the other guests as she
went, just as if she hadn't just dealt Morgan a wounding blow.
    Morgan
looked up as she sensed someone watching her, and her eyes clashed with
questioning grey ones. Alex   stood
across   the   room   talking   to
an   elderly man, but his attention
was only half held by the - conversation, the rest of it concentrated on