The Loveday Secrets extract

A new cousin was introduced to the series in The Loveday Secrets who brought with him a dark family secret that could destroy them all. This is an extract of their reunion.

‘Adam, St John, Thomas, at last we are all together. Will you not greet our dear cousin Tristan Loveday? I believe you thought him dead these past twenty odd years,’ Tamasine Loveday excitedly announced.
There was a frozen silence from the men. Tamasine was shocked by the naked fury on her brother Adam’s face.
‘Tristan, what trickery did you use to gain my sister’s acquaintance?’ Rigid with anger Adam bowed stiffly to Tamasine. She was wide-eyed with shock, her hand raised to her face to veil her expression. Adam clipped out. ‘Sister, you have made a grave error of judgement inviting this scoundrel into your home. I refuse to acknowledge him as kin. If you are wise, you will ask him to leave at once.’
‘So speaks a true grandson of George Loveday,’ replied Tristan with equal venom. ‘Unforgiving to the end and still believing your twin’s lies.’
‘I know what I saw that fateful night. You brought shame to us all,’ Adam flared.
‘In the heat of the moment – we all had much to answer for that night.’ Tristan challenged. ‘Do you think I have not regretted what happened? I was a youth caught up in such turbulent violence I did not know what I was doing. Did any of us? I am not the same person today. Did that night not change you, cousin?’
Still bristling with fury, Adam swivelled on his heel and marched from the room. Throughout, the exchange St John had allowed his twin to speak, a look of horror on his face.
Tamasine regarded St John with astonishment. ‘I thought this reunion would be a delightful surprise. What possessed Adam to take so violently against Tristan.’ She was shocked that Adam, the most reasonable of men, could regard one of their family as an enemy.
St John shifted uneasily and glared at Tristan with contempt. ‘How dare you trick our sister in this fashion, What lies did you use to slither your way back into our family?’
Unperturbed Tristan held his cousin’s condemning glare and adjusted the ruffles at his wrist. ‘Your sister has a kinder heart than my Trevowan kin.’
‘She does not know how you betrayed us. I will not stay in the same room as you.’ St John also marched away. The darkest night of his life had come back to haunt him. And if the truth were ever known it could be the cause of his ruin.
Thomas was equally puzzled. He remembered only that Tristan had run away from Trevowan as a youth and that their grandfather, who had given the ne’er-do-well a home, had been repaid by treachery,

THE LOVEDAY SECRETS is published in paperback by Headline on 11th December.

Kate Tremayne