Old Desires/A Stranger's Kiss (2-in-1 edition) by Liz Fielding Page A

detaining him. ‘That will wait. I’ll get that birth certificate and then I’ll make you some lunch.’ He watched as she searched through the sideboard drawer. ‘I had it recently,’ she said desperately, when her shaking fingers couldn’t find it. ‘I’m going to Italy and I had to get my passport renewed. It must be here. I know it is...’
    She jumped as he placed a hand on her shoulder and leaned over her. She turned to glance up at him, surprised by the intimacy suggested by the warmth of his body against hers, the simple touch of his hand.
    ‘I believe this is it.’ He plucked the document from the drawer and offered it to her.
    She forced her mind back to the business in hand. ‘Yes, it is. How on earth did I miss it?’
    ‘Maybe you didn’t want to find it?’ he suggested.
    She made no comment, but took the document from him and spread it on the sideboard, holding it flat. ‘Now, there,’ she said. ‘Will you believe me now?’
    His breath was sucked in sharply as he read the words the registrar had written in a neat, copperplate hand.
    ‘It’s not what I expected.’
    ‘What did you expect?’ she demanded. ‘An adoption certificate?’ ‘Frankly, yes. I’m sorry for doubting you, Holly. I knew you wanted to believe it, but I thought you were fooling yourself.’ He took the certificate and held it up to the light, checking to see if there had been any illicit alterations.
    ‘But I still don’t understand.’ He turned to her. ‘I’ll have to check the original entry, of course, but I have no doubt that this is genuine enough. There has to be another explanation.’
    ‘Well, thank you,’ she said with uncharacteristic bitterness, shaken, bewildered by his insistence, in the face of this evidence, that he was right.
    ‘Holly, please try to understand.’ His voice was so unexpectedly gentle that her insides flipped over. She moved quickly away and sat down, wrapping her arms around herself.
    ‘No, Joshua,’ she begged. ‘Just go away and forget you ever came here.’ But there was no escape. He came and squatted on his heels in front of her.
    ‘I was told by a dying woman that you were her daughter.’ He pushed back a dark strand of hair that had fallen over his forehead. ‘It was hard enough to believe that she had a child. For her to admit that she had given her...given you…to someone else to bring up was an agony for her. If you had known her you would understand.’
    ‘I’ll never understand why you’re putting me through this,’ she said, rising quickly, needing to move, not wanting to hear him, and he let her go, straightening behind her, but said nothing. ‘Are you sure she wasn’t…?’ Holly hesitated, turning to him. ‘She must have been on some sort of drugs for the pain—’
    ‘You think she was imagining all this?’
    ‘Isn’t it possible?’ Her voice pleaded with him.
    ‘No.’ He dismissed the idea without hesitation. ‘Are there any other family papers?’
    Her shoulders sagged. He wasn’t going to give up unless she convinced him, but she didn’t know how. ‘A few. Marriage certificates, death certificates, that sort of thing. They’re upstairs, but they won’t tell you anything.’
    ‘Nothing else? Letters, diaries? What about the loft?’
    ‘I don’t know. There are a few boxes stored up there, but nothing important. I haven’t been up there in ages—’
    ‘Perhaps we should—’ The key in the door stopped him and he turned as David appeared in the doorway and, eyes narrowed, glanced from Holly to Joshua and back again.
    ‘How’s the heiress, then?’ he said, casually dropping a kiss on her cheek before she could anticipate the gesture and avoid it. ‘Are we celebrating tonight?’
    ‘No—’
    But Joshua forestalled her, his voice wintry as he took in the casual way David had draped his arm around her shoulders. ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to wait to celebrate Holly’s legacy. There has been a slight hitch.’
    ‘What sort