'Is NIK WORKING?' Ponia enquired gently over dinner for two.
'Probably.' Leah contrived a stiff little smile meant to suggest that she had only just noticed his absence and was quite unconcerned by it. After all, she reminded herself doggedly, five years of almost continuous absence ought to have accustomed her to the value of her own company and counsel. Only somehow it hadn't. Their relationship had changed so fast and so radically that Leah was in turmoil and her desperate attempts to regain her former detachment weren't working one little bit.
'He was in the tavern this afternoon; one of the fishermen at the harbor mentioned it,' Ponia supplied, and looked uncomfortably at Leah. 'He's in a rage, isn't he?'
'We had an argument, yes,' Leah conceded, wishing that the teenager would drop the subject.
'He has a very hot temper.' Ponia pushed her thick curls back from one small ear, a reflective curve to her mouth. 'But he very rarely loses it—which is just as well, considering that the family just don't know how to handle it. My grandmother never raises her voice. None of them do. They go white to the gills and back off when Nik blows up. The one and only time I saw it, it fascinated me.'
Nik's niece was watching her almost expectantly. Leah's brow furrowed but she said nothing.
Ponia concentrated on her plate but kept on talking. 'I was about eleven when I overheard my two aunts talking about Nik. They were wondering who his natural parents were and I didn't even know what that meant then—'
Leah froze. 'His natural parents?' she repeated, carefully keeping her voice level.
The teenager's face was uncharacteristically serious
'Of course, I was stupid enough to go and ask my
mother and she was really upset. It was years before
I understood that adoption's only something to be
ashamed of in my family.'
'Yes,' Leah agreed, since some input appeared to be expected from her. She was so afraid of revealing her astonishment that she wouldn't even let herself
think about what she had just learnt.
Ponia visibly relaxed. 'It's never, ever mentioned,
Everybody outside the family thinks Nik was born to my grandmother, how did she get away with it? She was forty-eight!'
'It's not impossible.' Leah was becoming uncomfortable although she could understand Ponia's curiosity. Her request for an explanation of what she had overheard at eleven had obviously been greeted with maternal dismay and distress and a brick wall of silence. She was a lively, intelligent girl, still clearly troubled by the response she had received. Ponia shrugged. 'The secrecy must have made it much harder for Nik.'
'People are much more open about adoption now than they were thirty years ago.' Leah took a deep breath 'But we shouldn't be talking about this. Ponia. It's too private and, before you ask me. No, I don't know anything more than you do.'
Ponia went a fierce red and bent her head. 'I'm sorry. I don't know why I brought it up—'
'Because I'm family…and yet not family.' Leah supplied gently. 'But I think you have to accept that Nik has a right to privacy about something that personal and I may be wrong but I doubt that it would be a good idea to raise the subject with him.'
'I wouldn't dream of it.' Ponia was aghast at the idea.
Leah smoothly changed the subject and hoped she had firmly dissuaded the younger girl from further indiscreet probing. But long after Ponia had said goodnight Leah was bothered by what she had been told. In some ways she knew nothing about Nik and that hurt; no matter how unreasonable that was, it hurt. She wandered into the drawing-room where she had noticed the magnificent grand piano earlier in the day and sat down on the stool.
