His Forbidden Bride Read Free Page B

something
    she wanted to keep secret, Adele, when I didn't think we had any secrets
    between us.' She tried to smile. 'And that's come as a bit of a shock.'
    Adele patted her on the shoulder. 'It's been quite a day for them. Why don't I
    leave you in peace while you decide what to do? You can bring the picture
    round later on, if you stil want it reframing.'
    Left to herself, Zoe sank down on the sofa. There was no message on the
    envelope, she realised. No 'For my daughter' or 'To be opened in the event
    of my death'.
    This was something that had remained hidden and private in Gina Lambert's
    life. And if Aunt Megan hadn't total y lost it, and thrown the picture on the
    floor, it would probably have stayed that way.
    Maybe that was how it should be left. Maybe she should respect her
    mother's tacit wish, and put it in the bin unopened.
    Yet if I do that, Zoe thought, I shal always wonder…
    With sudden resolution, she tore open the envelope and extracted the
    contents. There was quite an assortment, ranging from a bulky legal-looking
    document to some photographs.
    She unfolded the document first, her brows snapping together as she
    realised it was written in a foreign language. Greek, she thought in
    bewilderment as she studied the unfamiliar alphabet. It's in Greek, of al
    things. Why on earth would Mother have such a thing?
    She put it down, and began to examine the photographs. Most of them
    seemed to be local scenes—a vil age street lined with white houses—a
    market, its stal s groaning with fruit—an old woman in black, leading a
    donkey laden with firewood.
    One, however, was completely different A garden guarded by tall cypresses,
    and a man, casual y dressed in shorts and a shirt, standing beneath one of
    the trees. His face was in shadow, but some instinct told her that he was not
    English, and that he was looking back at whoever was holding the camera,
    and smiling.
    And she knew, without question, that he was smiling at her mother.
    She turned her head and studied the framed photograph of her father that
    occupied pride of place on the side table beside her mother's chair. But she
    knew already that the shadow man was not John Lambert. The shape was
    all wrong, she thought. He'd been tal er, for one thing, and thinner, and the
    man in the snapshot seemed, in some strange way and even at this
    distance in time and place, to exude a kind of raw energy that her father had
    not possessed.
    Zoe swallowed. I don't understand any of this, she thought. And I'm not sure
    I want to.
    She felt very much as if she'd opened Pandora's box, and was not
    convinced that Hope would be waiting for her at the end.
    She turned the snapshot over, hoping to find some clue— a name, perhaps,
    scribbled on the back. But there was nothing. Slowly and careful y, she put it
    aside with the rest, and turned to the other papers.
    There were several thin sheets stapled together, and when she unfolded
    them she realised, with sudden excitement, that this must be a translation of
    the Greek legal document that had so puzzled her.
    She read them through eagerly, then paused, and went back to the
    beginning again, her brain whirling. Because the stilted, formal language
    was tel ing her that this was a deed of gift, assigning to her mother the Vil a
    Danaë, near a place cal ed Livassi, on the island of Thania.
    Zoe felt stunned, not merely by the discovery, but by its implications.
    This was a gift that Gina Lambert had never mentioned, and certainly never
    used. And that she'd clearly not wanted known. That she'd hidden in the
    back of a picture, which itself suddenly assumed a whole new significance.
    Was it the recapturing of a cherished, but secret memory? Certainly that
    was how it seemed, particularly when she recalled how it had never been on
    show during John Lambert's lifetime.
    She read the translation through a third time. The name of the gift's donor
    was not mentioned, she noticed, although she guessed it would be in