Slowly and carefully, Billie read the letter. For all its startling opening, it was a remarkably sensible and far from dramatic communication in which its writer, Desmond Bury, explained that he had fallen in love with her mother, Lauren, when she'd come to work as a teenage receptionist at his father's vehicle-repair garage. An engagement had followed during which Lauren had fallen pregnant. Sadly, by then, Lauren had decided that she no longer wanted to marry Desmond and, having told him that she intended to seek a termination, she had dumped him for another man. He'd had no further contact with Lauren until he'd come upon a newspaper article about Billie's engagement to Alexei, which had also featured a picture of her with Lauren. Ever since he had been wondering if Billie could be his daughter, for her age and colouring fitted that scenario. The letter concluded with a small paragraph on Desmond's history. He had eventually married and was now the widowed owner of a flourishing chain of garages. If Billie believed that she might be his daughter, he would like the opportunity to meet and get to know her.
Five minutes after her third reading of the missive, Billie drove down to the village with Nicky to see her mother and handed her the letter. 'Is there any truth in this? Is it possible that this man could be my father? Were you once engaged to him?'
Lauren grimaced and rolled her eyes theatrically several times while she read the letter. 'Yes to all those questions,' she said grudgingly. 'But he's got no right telling you that I considered a termination while I was carrying you…'
'I think he may only have mentioned that because he wanted me to know that he would have taken an interest in me sooner had he known I existed,' Billie responded mildly. 'And I don't blame you for considering it…'
'Well, you can thank Hilary for the fact I didn't go ahead with it!' Lauren fielded tight-mouthed. 'But I've got no regrets where Desmond was concerned. He was a bore, middle aged at twenty-five, a pipe-and-slippers man, not my type at all.'
'So why, when I was a teenager, did you tell me that I was the result of a one-night stand?' Billie asked painfully. 'That upset me and I honestly thought you didn't know who my father was.'
Lauren laughed heartily at that candid admission. 'I thought you would blame me for not marrying Desmond and giving you a more conventional childhood.'
'I'm glad you didn't marry him just for the sake of it,' Billie told the older woman truthfully. 'It would never have worked out if you were so different.'
'Will you get in touch with Desmond?' Lauren prompted with a frown. 'You know, he's really not an exciting person.'
'If he is my father, I would like to meet him.'
'Oh, he is definitely your father,' Lauren confirmed with a sigh, as if she was more embarrassed than anything else by that.