"Unless he what?" Lorne asked as he rose and offered a hand to Valerie.

"Transferred it to Swiss accounts – or had it there already, or in other shelters."

Lorne nodded. "Like Montserrat, the Caymans, Gibraltar –"

"No, the Overseas Dependencies are part of the new regulations. The traditional havens must now report to HMRC the details of all British accounts."

"Yes, of course; that makes sense." He shrugged. "I've not used any of them, never saw any reason for banking there other than to hide money. I'm sure that's why the crackdown."

"Exactly. There's been far too much abuse."

"Only by those who wish to misuse offshore banking. I've maintained Swiss accounts for more than a decade, but for the stability of their economy, not to hide money." He chuckled. "I'm a good little boy, and I report all my interest."

"As do I, but the interest is minor. My Swiss account balances nearly doubled with the foreign exchange swing following the 2008 collapse." She shrugged. "But you know this – yours would also have."

"That's their purpose. To take advantage of international fluctuations. I fund most of my offshore purchases from Swiss accounts. I wonder if he does anything except trying to hide money."

Valerie tilted her head along the aisle. "We should join Clyde and Chloe at the table." She squeezed Lorne's hand. "And let's find some other topic. Anything to help get my mind off him."

Shortly after they had taken their seats, Patrick arrived with the chilled bottle of Bulles du Chêne. "Begin with the sparkling, Sir?"

"Yes, please."

Chloe looked at the label. "That's from your new winery, isn't it? Do you know why the name is French?" She gave a full-tooth grin. "I do."

Lorne grinned back at her. "You were going to research Franschhoek and tell us all about it, weren't you?"

"It was Mummy's diversion tactic to keep me from searching for..." She giggled, then shrugged. "For things. Anyway, the area was settled in the 1680s by Protestant refugees from France, and they named it le Coin Français, which means the French Corner. The Dutch later changed it to Franschhoek, which means the same thing. It was unsettled when they arrived, but as it developed, people migrated from the rest of Africa." She paused when Patrick had finished pouring the wine. "Juice again, please."

The four carried on a broad-ranging conversation through dinner, then as Patrick served the cheese course, he said to Chloe, "Garth has asked if you could come to the cockpit now. We'll soon be over the coast of Angola, and he wants to show you the line between the lights of civilisation and the black of the ocean."

"Please, may I be excused, Mummy?"

"Yes, you may. And you also may do your maths problems tomorrow."

After Chloe had gone forward, Clyde said, "Such an aware and serious girl. Difficult to believe she's only ten." He chuckled. "At ten, mine were still oblivious and playing with Barbie and Ken."

Valerie nodded. "So was I. How old are they now?"

"Thirty-four and thirty-five."

"Yeah, my era. Different times, different influences."

The conversation turned to education, both social and formal, and they had moved to other topics by the time Chloe returned. "Boring to fly this. Just sit and monitor the autopilot and instruments. I far preferred flying the helicopter."

Lorne chuckled. "Using your body as well as your mind. A helicopter requires full-time physical participation, but flying this, the systems do most of it for you."

"Except for take-offs and landings."

"Yes, those take a lot of skill. Patrick's doing our London landing; it's a tricky one with a very steep approach and a short runway. There'll be no formal breakfast, just self-help coffee, tea, scones and whatever at six."

"And speaking of landings, it's time you landed in bed." Valerie pointed along the aisle. "Go get ready, and we'll come kiss you goodnight."

After Valerie and Lorne had tucked Chloe in, they bade goodnight to Clyde and headed aft. A while later, as they lay in an intimate cuddle, gently shifting their hips, Lorne said, "I've thought about this a few times, but I hadn't felt comfortable to ask – maybe I still don't."

"Ask what?"

No, let's forget it for the moment. Find a more appropriate time." He gave a deep, exploring thrust as Valerie tilted her butt back. "In there somewhere. Guide me to it."

"Not until you've cleared your mind."

He thrust, and she tilted farther back, causing him to chuckle. "At least we won't have to worry about your howls and moans this way."

"You said the engines will mask them."

"Nothing to mask if you don't hoot and howl." He thrust again.

She tilted back a bit more. "Ask me, or I won't let you bring me off." She snickered. "God! How stupid a threat is that?"

He gave a series of short, quick thrusts and chuckled. "I'll use your little man, then."

"Aargh!" She tilted forward, engulfing him. "Okay, you win. But ask me what's on your mind."

"Chloe." He resumed a slow rocking.

"What about her?"

"Seems odd to continue a pregnancy from a violent rape."

Her body froze. "Yeah."

"See. Not an appropriate time. Not even an appropriate question. Let's just ignore it." He gave a deep thrust.

"No. You need to know this. I need to re-examine it."

"Later?"

"No, do it now. It's on your mind." She blew out a deep breath and paused to gather her thoughts. "I didn't know I was pregnant. After my missed period and the negative pregnancy test, I assumed the delay was from the shock. From PTSD, as the doctor said."

Lorne nodded, remaining silent.

"I blamed the next missed ones on the stress of the first trial and the shock of his being acquitted. I buried myself in researching and writing my thesis, and I was nearly twenty-five weeks into it and starting to show by the time –"

Lorne interrupted. "That's the limit for abortions, isn't it?"

"Yeah, twenty-four. And an abortion would not have been approved even if I had recognised it earlier. He had been acquitted. It wasn't rape, and the foetus would have shown as healthy in an ultrasound had I had one. There was no medical reason."

Lorne nodded, but remained silent and motionless except to hold her tighter.

"I hated Chloe. Hated her through the remainder of the pregnancy. I was into my ninth month by the end of the second trial. Didn't even have a name for her when she was born." Valerie shuddered to a stop.

After a long pause to recompose, she continued. "Hated her until her innocence taught me to love. Allowed me to realise she is part of me."

"How long was that?"

"Two days. Two horrible days waiting for Social Services to arrange to take her away." She shuddered.

Lorne shuddered with her. "Oh, God! And why didn't they?"

"I initially thought it was incompetence." She blew out a loud breath. "I'm eternally thankful for the required delay, hoping for mother-child bonding."

"And that nature had conspired to fool you."

"Yeah. She was meant to be."

"I love her name. How did you come up with it?"

Valerie chuckled. "In the hospital. To find one for registering the birth, I asked a nurse for the most common name."

"Great choice. It suits her."

"Yeah, it does. She was two months old when I changed our surnames to Redburn, and I added Marie to hers."

"I like that, Chloe Marie."

"My middle name. Mum was French." She squeezed a few tight Kegels.

Lorne moaned. "Your exquisite beauty. Yeah, I wondered."

Valerie squeezed tighter as she churned. "Bring me, Lorne. Let's focus us. On here. On now."