"No," she agreed numbly, staring at the wall at the foot of the bed.
"I am to blame for this situation. We made love and I chose not to protect you-"
"I said I wanted a child," she said dully, not understanding how he was to blame. She had conceived and would have been overjoyed had she still been pregnant. But now she had miscarried and all such talk only reminded her of her loss and her disappointment.
Nik closed both hands round her limp fingers and expelled his breath in a ragged hiss. "I"m so sorry...you will probably never understand how much."
He had stayed with her throughout. He had been strong for her, supportive, everything a husband should be. But only a few days back he had admitted that he didn"t really want a baby with her. Of course, had he realised that there was the slightest risk that she might be pregnant he would never have admitted that. But he had admitted it and she could not forget his candour. And, naturally, he could not forget it on such a day either. After all, Prudence conceded wretchedly, he was a very decent guy.
"I let my pride come between us..." Nik bit out in a driven undertone.
That was a startling enough announcement to make Prudence turn her head on the pillow to look directly at him. "How?"
Nik studied her with bleak, dark eyes. "I wanted you to have my child. But I wouldn"t admit that when the sentiment wasn"t returned."
Her throat thickened. She turned her head away again and squeezed her eyes tight shut on the tears threatening to well up and overflow. He was trying to comfort her by demonstrating his sympathy and understanding of her feelings. He was really, really good at that, she acknowledged inwardly. He always knew exactly what to say. But she did not want him telling her lies out of pity or out of guilt. Why should he feel guilty because he had said he didn"t want a baby? Lots of guys of Nik"s age and lifestyle would feel exactly the same.
"I think I want to sleep," she murmured flatly.
"Go ahead...I won"t disturb you."
The silence stretched.
"I"d like to be on my own," she muttered tightly.
"But I don"t think you should be, pethi mou."
"Just go home," she told him stonily. "Don"t you have any work to do?"
The silence thundered. The door closed. She flipped over and focused on the chair he had vacated. She had wanted him to go but, just as swiftly and unreasonably, she wanted him back. The thickness in her throat became great gulping sobs and she rolled back and buried her face in the pillow.
Three days later, Nik picked her up and took her back to Oakmere. She changed the subject whenever he tried to talk about the miscarriage...
It was six weeks since Prudence had returned from hospital. She could hear a phone ringing in the abbey "s cavernous entrance hall. The housekeeper answered it before she could reach it and brought the phone to her.
"Am I speaking to Prudence Angelis?" an accented male voice enquired heavily. "The granddaughter of Theo Demakis?"
She frowned. "Yes...why?"
It was her grandfather"s lawyer, Gregoly Lelas. He was calling to inform her that the older man had died very suddenly that morning from a ma.s.sive heart attack. Shock engulfed Prudence in a sickening tide. She had always cherished the secret hope that Theo Demakis would come to regret his treatment of her and wish to get to know her as a member of his family. But now it was too late, forever too late because he was gone.
As her pale profile pinched tight, Nik strode into the room. "What has happened?"
"My grandfather"s dead," she mumbled sickly.
CHAPTER NINE.
"HOW DO YOU feel?" Nik settled Prudence into a seat on his private jet with as much care as he would have utilised had she been an invalid.
"I"m perfectly fine." Her even white teeth clenched on that declaration. She was convinced that if he asked her one more time how she was, she would scream! Such prolonged, exaggerated solicitude struck her as quite unnecessary. She was not suffering any physical discomfort or weakness now. Ironically she felt healthy as a horse.
When they were airborne, Prudence studied a wildlife magazine and struggled to seem unconscious of Nik"s steady regard.
"You"re not speaking to me..." Nik murmured.
"Of course I"m speaking to you. I"m not a child, for goodness" sake!"
"I don"t know you like this. It"s like you"re surrounded by barbed wire."
"We are on our way to a funeral. Excuse me for not feeling chatty," Prudence whipped back at him stiffly from behind her magazine.
Nik left his seat and sank down in the one beside her. "We can get through all this...but we have to talk."
Prudence threw aside the magazine in a temperamental display that she could not suppress. Her emotions all felt as though they were perched on a knife edge. Nik starred at the heart of a welter of conflicting responses. She wanted him to be close, and yet, on another level, she could not resist the urge to push him away and snipe at him. With an unsteady hand she smoothed down the skirt of the elegant black suit she wore. "Not now, please..."
"I lost a child, too..." Nik breathed in a raw undertone. "Don"t shut me out, thespinis mou."
As she sprang up to take refuge in the sleeping compartment, Nik caught her hand in his. "What?" she gasped, eyes over-bright and stinging and avoiding the golden challenge of his.
"We can share more than a bed," Nik told her with disconcerting candour.
Her face flaming, she pulled her fingers free and fled. He had held her through the nights since she" d lost the baby without touching her, while her shameless body tingled and heated to the hard, muscular embrace of his. Had he known how much she longed for him? Here she was, barely speaking to him, and yet that craving for him refused to cease! Her hands curled into tight fists. He was right. There was a barrier between them but it was a much more basic barrier than he appreciated.
Of course, she was not still blaming him for his candour on the score of parenthood a few days before she lost the baby, she thought unhappily. She was not so stupid or short-sighted that she would hold spite on such a score. No, in the aftermath of her miscarriage, she had come to appreciate that she was hurting so badly because she had set herself up for that hurt. Unrequited love was a recipe for disappointment. Worst of all, she was obsessively in love with Nik and she always had been. But when they were just friends she"d had enough distance to keep her pride and her common sense and independence. In short she had learned to get by without Nik very nicely. After their marriage blessing, however, everything had changed and, with it, her aspirations.
Even so, it wasn"t fair to blame him for not loving her. He had never offered love. He still did romance as if he had been born to it and had the right move and word for every occasion. Three weeks of being treated like a G.o.ddess in their Tuscan hideaway had left her floating on air, so the return to solid earth again had been understandably tough. Nik was never going to love her and she had to learn to live with that. They could be really close in other ways, she reasoned fiercely. Pride was making her push him away but she did not want to destroy their marriage; she did not want to lose him. Half a loaf still felt better than no bread at all.
"I had a nap...I"m feeling better," she hastened to a.s.sure Nik with a determined smile as they moved through Athens Airport. "I"m sorry I"ve been so out of sorts."
"The experience you"ve had, you"ve been a saint," Nik p.r.o.nounced, his charismatic smile making her heart bounce like a tennis ball.
She was very much surprised when an older man with a familiar face stepped forward to greet her with solemn formality and ask if he might take her luggage for her. She recognised him as her grandfather" s chauffeur.
"My goodness...I"m afraid I wasn"t expecting to be met off my flight."
Nik explained that they had made their own arrangements to travel to the funeral.
"Do you think the driver did that off his own bat?" Prudence asked when they reached their own limo. "Grandfather"s staff were very nice to me when I stayed with him."
In Nik"s experience staff, no matter how kind or well-intentioned, rarely took such initiatives. Were Theo"s legal executors keen to cast a polite public veil of concealment over the late tyc.o.o.n"s brutal treatment of his grandchild? A limo ride to the funeral would have been cheap at the price. His handsome mouth took on a sardonic curl. He considered that the more likely explanation.
From the airport they went to Nik"s family home, where they had been invited to lunch with his parents. Prudence had received several sympathetic phone calls from her mother-in-law and Nik"s sisters and had been warmed by their friendly acceptance. Nik"s father also accompanied them to the church.
During the church service, Prudence became conscious that quite a few people seemed to be craning their heads to look in her direction. At the cemetery, the surge of her regret for the fact that she"d never got to know the older man sent tears rolling down her face. Theo Demakis had been her last living relative and to the last he had been a stubborn, bitter, unforgiving man who had rejected her every attempt to treat him like a family member. Of course, that had been his choice, she reminded herself ruefully. While Nik was engaged in dialogue with his father, Gregoly Lelas approached her to check that she was coming back to the Demakis villa outside Athens.
Prudence was surprised by the question. "I wasn"t planning to," she told her grandfather"s lawyer.
"But you are the only possible hostess. Everyone here will be your guests," the older man pointed out, as if there was nothing extraordinary about her taking a place that had been denied her during his employer"s life. "I would also welcome the opportunity to read the will."
The concept of acting as hostess at the palatial Demakis villa shook Prudence, but she could not see that she had any choice in the matter if it was expected of her. Her eyes widened a little at that reference to the will. Had her grandfather left her something? A small token? Or possibly some item that might act as an unspoken rebuke for the disappointment she had brought him while he was alive, she thought wryly.
"I can"t accompany you," Nik breathed in a taut undertone of apology when she explained. "I was content to offer my respects at the funeral but it would be inappropriate for me to enter the Demakis home."
"But you"re my husband," Prudence protested in dismay at the prospect of being left to cope alone with so many strangers.
"I hate to disappoint you...however, circ.u.mstances are such at this moment that I could not be present, thespinis mou." Nik grasped her hand, his thumb ma.s.saging her wrist in a soothing gesture. " The limo will drop me off at my office and return to wait for you until you are ready to leave. I"ll be at my apartment by six."
Feeling that she had been selfish and thoughtless to expect more concessions from Nik when he and her grandfather had parted in such acrimony, Prudence managed an understanding smile. In any event, the number of guests arriving at the Demakis villa kept her too busy to notice Nik"s absence. It was still a shock, however, to lift her head and see Ca.s.sia Morikis gliding towards her like visiting royalty. With her shining fall of platinum-blonde hair tumbling round her slender shoulders and wearing an impossibly elegant little black dress and hat, Ca.s.sia looked like an exquisite doll put on earth purely to depress other women.
The blonde woman settled sparkling brown eyes on Prudence. "A lot of people were very impressed that Nik attended the funeral. He has so much cla.s.s. You"ll never match him. You didn"t notice me at the service, did you? You were too busy looking devout."
"The church was crowded." Prudence fought to maintain her composed front, even while her tummy lurched as if she was in a tiny boat spinning in a whirlpool. She had always found the blonde intimidating and that teenaged fear of humiliation was with her still. "I wasn"t aware that you were acquainted with my grandfather."
"Weren"t you? My father has been a powerful man in Demakis International for several years." Ca.s.sia, who was on the best of form, gave her a sickeningly smug smile. "Of course, the will may not have been read but we all know that Theo has left the lot to his first wife"s cousins in Germany. They don "t need the money and they"ll leave the business in the capable hands of the current management. Nice for us, but not so nice for you."
As Prudence had never been under the impression that she would inherit her grandfather"s wealth, Ca.s.sia"s spite had no effect on her. "If you like to think so."
"Oh, I do." Ca.s.sia laughed softly. "I"m amazed that you can act as though you belong in this house. Whose sad idea was that? After all, you weren"t welcome here when Theo was alive."
"I"m amazed that you still hate me so much," Prudence confessed truthfully. "The past eight years must have been very empty for you if you"re still so bitter about Nik and I getting married-"
"And what sort of a marriage is it?" Ca.s.sia cut in furiously, twin spots of high colour burning over her delicate cheekbones. "Just a big fat fake! I did him a good turn when I ensured that he flaked out on your wedding night. Beautiful Nik, forced to marry someone ordinary and boring like you-"
Prudence"s soft blue gaze had turned to steel. "You...ensured?"
"Who else?" Ca.s.sia could not conceal her triumph. "I slipped the pill into his drink when he wasn"t looking."
Prudence trembled with rage. She remembered that Nik had said how much he cherished the fact that she never forgot she was a lady. She remembered that it was a solemn and sad occasion. She also strove to recall that violence was not an answer to a difficult situation. She breathed in so deep as she restrained herself that she almost went into orbit.
"Mrs Angelis..." Gregoly Lelas interposed at a most welcome moment. "Would you like to come into the library now?"
Prudence was bemused to find that she was alone in the room with three lawyers. "Where is everyone else?"
"There are no other beneficiaries," she was told and before the significance of that statement could sink in the will was read.
"I don"t think I quite understand."
"You have inherited the entire estate and are now an extremely wealthy woman," Mr Lelas clarified with a.s.surance.
"But the cousins in Germany..." she said weakly.
"A cover story that amused your grandfather. You have been an heir to the Demakis holdings since the day that your father, Apollo, died."
Prudence was shattered by that statement. "But that was more than fifteen years ago...and at one stage my grandfather believed he had a second son."
"Yes. But even during that period you would still have inherited a substantial share of Mr Demakis "s estate. You have Demakis blood in your veins and that meant a great deal to him."
The shock Prudence had received was so great that she felt numb and unresponsive. "But my grandfather wasn"t even speaking to me..."
"Mr Demakis was a very complex and clever man and not always easy to understand." The lawyer and his colleagues went on to list the main a.s.sets of the estate; ten minutes later they were still talking and Prudence"s lower lip felt permanently parted from the upper.
"Obviously we will need to have a series of meetings as there are many formalities to be observed. "
"Obviously," Prudence echoed, a slightly glazed look in her eyes.
"I don"t wish to tax you with more today. Shortly before Mr Demakis died he made a short film that he wished you to view."
"A film? He knew that he was ill?"
"Yes. He preferred that his fragile state of health towards the end of his life remained a private matter." The lawyer pa.s.sed her a DVD in a sealed case, indicated the player and announced that he and his colleagues would wait outside to answer any questions she might have.
With a thudding heart, Prudence broke the seal, extracted the DVD and fed it in. The image of her grandfather flicked up on screen. It was a good five years since she had seen him in the flesh, and age and poor health were etched in his grim pallor.
"How does it feel to be an heiress and hold your husband in the palm of your hand?" Theo Demakis asked with a sardonic smile. "As this film is being made, you and Nik Angelis are sunning yourself in Italy and carrying on like newly-weds. You can thank me for that development."
"No...you can"t have known!" Prudence gasped in stark disconcertion that the older man could have found out about their Tuscan honeymoon.
"Picking a fight with Nik was not difficult. He"s very loyal to you. When I evicted you and your menagerie from that squalid house, Nik raced to your rescue as I knew he would. It brought you together. Adversity brings out the best in Nik. So I put him under financial pressure by poaching contracts from his company. He fought back. He even sold his yacht to fund the purchase of Oakmere Abbey. How chivalrous of him." The older man shook his grizzled head in wonderment. "Since then, as you"re no doubt aware, Demakis International"s campaign to put your husband"s company out of business has been steadily gaining ground. I knew Nik wanted to feel free of my influence and I gave him good reason to believe he had succeeded."
"Oh, my word..." Prudence mumbled sickly, for a hundred and one things were falling into place for her and she was aghast at what she was hearing. On more than one recent occasion, she had marvelled at the endless hours of work Nik put in and the frequent phone calls he made and received. Indeed, she had scolded him for his preoccupation with business and his exhaustion. But he must have been worried sick, for her grandfather was a formidable opponent. How could she not have guessed what was going on? And how could he not have told her?
"And now Nik is yours and you can call all the shots, Prudence. That is how I always planned it," her grandfather a.s.sured her.
"That"s not possible!" Prudence gasped in disbelief.
"You"re a Demakis. I"m making you a very rich and very powerful woman," Theo Demakis continued with satisfaction. "If I"d known how stubborn you are, I might not have used the tactics I did eight years ago. But it offended me to see in a girl the traits that your father, Apollo, lacked. You have his sentimentality but not his weakness. You should acknowledge that I chose you the perfect husband."
As the recording concluded, Prudence went into shock and stared into s.p.a.ce, her brain teeming with frantic half-formed thoughts. Her most overriding need was to see Nik but first she tackled Gregoly Lelas. "Demakis International is trying to put my husband out of business. What is the position now?"
"I know I may speak for the board when I say that the directors have no desire to continue what has been seen as a personal vendetta," he responded smoothly. "But the position is essentially what you choose to make it. Theo made his own decisions. He led very much from the front. When the terms of his will are publicised, Demakis International will need a strong guiding hand."
Nik, she thought numbly. Nik"s would be the guiding hand, just as Theo Demakis had always intended. And the whispers of her incredible inheritance had already begun to travel; she saw it in the stunned light in certain eyes that turned towards her, as the crush of people parting allowed her to cross the hall and leave unimpeded. She realised that the news would spoil Ca.s.sia"s day and that knowledge gave her a wickedly pleasant sensation.
She got into the limousine. I am rich. She shook her head a little to clear it but the floating sensation of unreality persisted. This time around, she was going to save Nik, and that had a certain poetic justice.
Nik was chatting on the phone when she found him. His dark eyes flared gold when he saw her standing on the threshold of the large airy reception room. A smile curving his handsome mouth, he stretched out a lean brown hand to welcome her to his side. Willingly she grasped that hand and let him fold her up against his hard muscular frame while he completed his call in husky fluent French that made her toes curl.
"How was it at the house, pethi mou?" he asked softly.
"Not so bad...but Ca.s.sia was there and less than pleasant."
"Nothing new in that."