Читать книгу The Holiday Escapes Collection - Сандра Мартон - Страница 54

IT WAS a long drawn out dinner and for every minute of it Charlotte was conscious of Iona’s gaze flicking warily to hers. She did her best to ignore it at first but after a while she started to resent the way the other woman was assaulting her with her repeated glances.

‘What do you think, Charlotte?’ Nick Andreakos suddenly addressed a comment to her but she was lost for an answer.

‘I’m sorry…’ She gave him an apologetic smile. ‘I was miles away. What did you ask?’

‘Nick asked if you had considered moving to Santorini permanently,’ Damon said with a very direct look.

‘I…I don’t…I’m not…I…’

Nick smiled. ‘I can see she hasn’t quite made up her mind, Damon. You will have to work harder to convince her to make her home with you here.’

‘It is no matter,’ Damon said. ‘We can divide our time between Australia and Greece until Emily is of school age. Then we will by necessity have to put down some roots.’

‘Would you excuse me?’ Charlotte pushed out her chair.

Damon got to his feet. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked with a dark frown of concern interrupting his features.

She nodded even though it made her already tight head ache unbearably. ‘I’m just feeling a little light-headed. I need some fresh air. I’ll be back in a minute.’

Iona got to her feet. ‘I will come with you,’ she said with a strained smile. ‘I need to stretch my legs.’

Charlotte wasn’t sure she was in need of company, especially that of a woman who apparently found her presence so distasteful.

‘Your daughter is beautiful,’ Iona said into the stiff silence as they traversed the marble hall to the main bathroom. ‘She is the image of Eleni at that age.’

‘Thank you…’

The bathroom door closed behind them and Iona leaned against it, her shoulders suddenly seeming too heavy for her slight frame. ‘Charlotte…’ she began uncertainly. ‘I need to talk to you but it must go no further.’

Charlotte drew in a cautious breath. ‘I see…’

‘No, you do not,’ Iona said. ‘You have no idea what I am going to say, do you?’

Charlotte decided to take a wild guess. ‘You’re going to tell me you were responsible for planting the sculptures in my bag and at the hostel four years ago, right?’

‘Wrong.’

Charlotte blinked at her. ‘It wasn’t you?’

Iona shook her head. ‘It was Eleni.’

‘Eleni?’ She felt her stomach drop. ‘But why?’

Iona let out her breath in a jagged stream. ‘She did it to protect me. She thought I was in love with her brother. I suppose you know our families had more or less arranged our future union.’

‘Yes, I knew about that…’

Iona’s dark eyes met hers once more. ‘I should have told Eleni the truth, but I was too afraid.’

Charlotte frowned in confusion. ‘The truth?’

‘I have always loved Damon,’ Iona said. ‘But like a brother. We had spent most of our childhood together and it was assumed we would make a match of it, but I was not in love with him. I was never in love with him. The truth is I have been in love with Nick since I was about twelve; I just wasn’t game enough to tell anyone, not even Eleni.’

Charlotte swallowed. ‘I don’t know what to say.’

‘It grieves me terribly to think you have been separated from Damon for all this time because of a silly prank on his sister’s part. When I heard you had had his child I was sick with worry. I could barely look at you tonight without being reminded of how your lives have been changed.’

‘He doesn’t love me.’

‘How do you know that?’

Charlotte gave her a bleak look. ‘He told me.’

‘I do not believe that.’

‘He only married me because of Emily.’

Iona’s face clenched like a tightened fist. ‘It is my fault. I should have said something earlier but I did not want to betray Eleni. She would have hated her mother and brother to think she had acted so childishly and irresponsibly.’ She pushed herself away from the door to pace the floor between the mirrored basins. ‘I should have come forward earlier but I made a promise.’

‘It’s all right…’

Iona swung back around to face her. ‘It is not all right. You are the mother of Damon’s child. Don’t you see how difficult this is for all of us now?’

Charlotte looked at her without speaking.

‘Eleni thought you would go away and never come back, leaving the path open for me to marry her brother,’ Iona went on sadly. ‘I should have been honest with her from the start. She was so proud of what she had done.’

‘I thought she liked me…’

‘She did,’ Iona said. ‘She thought you were wonderful. But she was caught up in her childish dream, that we would become sisters through marriage…Instead we have become separated by death and deceit.’

Charlotte closed her eyes for a moment, trying to make sense of all she had heard.

‘Apart from planting the sculptures in your things, Eleni told the boys at the hostel to pretend they had slept with you,’ Iona said into the silence. ‘I didn’t find out until much later she had gone that far. She only confessed that the day she died.’

‘So no one knows about this, apart from you?’

Iona shook her head grimly. ‘So many times I’ve wanted to say something to Alexandrine or Damon, but how can I? By doing so I would be destroying their precious memories of Eleni. She begged me on her deathbed never to tell. I haven’t even told Nick.’

‘But it’s destroyed my life,’ Charlotte felt the need to point out. ‘Damon’s too, when it comes to that.’

Iona came closer and grasped her hands in hers. ‘No, that is not true. You have won him back. He has married you and you have had his child. He will come to love you again, I am sure. He was in love with you before and will be again.’

Charlotte gave her a smile touched with sadness. ‘I wish I had your confidence.’

‘He is a good man, Charlotte,’ she said. ‘He loves his daughter. You have given him such a gift. Do not give up hope.’

‘He’s never going to find out the truth though, is he?’ she asked. ‘You won’t tell him and I cannot for he won’t believe me; he has never believed me.’

Iona’s brow furrowed. ‘I made a promise to Eleni…’

‘Eleni is dead but I am alive. Surely that takes precedence?’

‘No.’ Iona shook her head. ‘I cannot betray my closest friend.’

‘She’s dead, Iona. She won’t hold it against you,’ Charlotte said in rising desperation.

A curtain came down over the Greek woman’s expression. ‘No. I will not do it.’

‘Fine.’ Charlotte turned away in disgust.

‘If it is any comfort, Charlotte, I really like you,’ Iona said. ‘I liked you from the first time I met you. I know I did not show it; I was trying to put everyone off the scent of my infatuation with Nick by pretending to be put out by your involvement with Damon. But the truth is I have always thought you were perfect for Damon. He needs someone like you, someone strong enough to stand up to him. I knew from an early age I wasn’t that person. Do not misunderstand me, Nick is not weak. He is a strong man but he hasn’t the ruthless drive of Damon. Damon will stop at nothing to get what he wants, but perhaps you already know that.’

Charlotte turned back to give her a jaded smile. ‘I sure do.’

‘Please forgive Eleni,’ Iona said. ‘She thought she was doing the right thing at the time. She would have been devastated to know how much you have been hurt.’

‘And yet you will not alleviate that hurt now by telling all to Damon.’

‘I cannot do it!’ Iona insisted. ‘She was my closest friend. Besides, think of how it would hurt Alexandrine to hear of what her daughter did. She is only just coming to terms with her loss, Damon too. Tainting their memories of Eleni with this would be unforgivable.’

Charlotte let out her breath in a stuttered stream. ‘No…I guess you’re right. It wouldn’t do to burst Damon and Alexandrine’s bubble right now.’

‘Emily is doing a power of good,’ Iona said. ‘I have not seen Alexandrine smile for months and yet in the company of your little girl she beams from ear to ear.’

‘Do you think there will ever be a time when I can clear my name?’ Charlotte asked.

Iona gave her a long and studied look. ‘I think Damon will come to that realisation himself, if he hasn’t already. Besides, wouldn’t it be better for him to believe you because he has come to trust you rather than because someone proved your innocence?’

Charlotte could see the sense in Iona’s point, even though she desperately wanted to be cleared of any wrongdoing.

‘I saw the way he looks at you, as if he cannot quite believe you are back in his life,’ Iona continued. ‘He might not be ready to admit to his feelings, but he definitely feels something.’ She paused delicately and then asked, ‘Forgive my asking such a personal question, but is your marriage a physical one?’

Charlotte could feel her cheeks answering for her even as she mumbled in the affirmative.

Iona gave a satisfied smile. ‘I thought so. You have a certain glow about you. Is there any chance you could already be pregnant?’

Charlotte nibbled at her bottom lip before answering. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘A baby would be wonderful for you and Damon right now. I am three months gone and I cannot believe how close it has made Nick and I.’

‘We should get back to dinner,’ Charlotte said. ‘Thank you for telling me about Eleni. I realise it must have been hard for you, keeping it to yourself for so long.’

‘I wish I could do more for you, Charlotte, but I could not live with myself if I broke my promise to Eleni. It was the very last thing she said to me before she died. She begged me to keep her actions a secret.’ She gave her a searching look. ‘You do understand, don’t you?’

Charlotte let out a tiny sigh. ‘I understand,’ she said, even though she wasn’t entirely sure she did.

Damon turned to Charlotte once the guests had left and his mother had retired to her room. ‘Would you like a nightcap?’

‘No…I’m pretty tired. I think I’ll go straight to bed.’

‘You handled this evening very well,’ he said. ‘I was worried that Iona was going to make a scene. She was sending you some rather strange looks to begin with. What did you talk about when you left the room during dinner?’

‘Nothing much, just girl stuff.’

‘Nick has been worried about her for weeks,’ he said. ‘She has apparently been on edge ever since she heard about us meeting up again.’

Charlotte avoided his eyes. ‘I expect she wondered if I had changed.’

‘In what way?’

She gave a little shrug. ‘Who knows? Perhaps she was watching to see if I was going to pilfer the family silver or something.’

He stood watching her for so long that Charlotte began to feel her heart pound in the silence.

‘Iona knows nothing about the sculptures,’ he said.

‘Eleni was her best friend,’ she said, mentally kicking herself. ‘Perhaps they discussed it some time.’

He shook his head. ‘No. Eleni gave me her word she would not tell anyone. I cannot believe she would have let me down in such a way.’

‘Lucky you to have such a devoted and trustworthy sister,’ she remarked with a touch of irony.

Damon frowned. ‘What is that supposed to mean?’

She turned to look at him. ‘Do we have to talk about this now?’

‘Yes, we do,’ he said. ‘Have you some reason to believe Eleni spoke to Iona about this?’

Charlotte couldn’t think of a way to answer without breaking her promise to Iona. She stood in silence, feeling the burning heat of his dark eyes as they probed her soul.

‘Answer me, Charlotte.’

‘I would like to go to bed.’

‘You will go to bed when I say you can.’

She threw him a defiant glare. ‘Don’t push me too far, Damon,’ she warned him, her voice rising in anger. ‘I’ve had just about enough of your caveman tactics.’

‘You only defy me to get me to subdue you,’ he said. ‘You like to goad me into losing control. I can see the challenge in your eyes.’

‘What you can see is my dislike of you.’

He had the gall to smile. ‘So the love you confessed to me earlier has suddenly been downgraded to dislike. I knew you were lying. You wanted me to confess similar feelings so you could ridicule them.’

‘That’s not true!’

His dark eyes glinted cynically. ‘I know how your mind works, Charlotte. It would be the ultimate revenge, would it not, for you to hear me confess my love for you, only to reject me as I once did to you.’

‘Unlike you, I don’t have such a ruthless disregard for people’s feelings,’ she threw back. ‘Don’t judge me by your own appalling standards.’

There was a sound at the doorway and Charlotte turned to see Emily standing there with a bundle of bed linen almost as tall as her gathered in her arms, her bottom lip trembling. ‘I did a wee-wee in my bed…’ she said and began to cry.

‘Oh, darling.’ Charlotte rushed to her and held her close. ‘Don’t worry about it. I’ll get you some new sheets and pyjamas.’

Emily’s little shoulders shook with sobs. ‘I heard you fighting with Daddy,’ she said. ‘He won’t stay with us if you’re angry at him. Dat’s what happened to Janie’s daddy. He went away.’

Guilt knifed through Charlotte as she encountered Damon’s gaze over the top of Emily’s head. ‘We’re not really fighting,’ she said soothingly. ‘It was more of a discussion, really.’

‘You were shouting,’ Emily said with a little sniff as her thumb crept up to her mouth. ‘I heard you.’

Damon crouched down to his daughter’s level and hitched up her tiny wobbling chin. ‘You are right, little one. We were fighting, but it is over now. It is normal for adults to sometimes disagree, but as long as they say sorry, no harm is done.’

‘Are you going to say sorry?’ Emily asked with big crystal tears still clinging to her sooty lashes.

He smiled at her tenderly and brushed a tear off her tiny cheek with the pad of his thumb. ‘Of course I am, little one.’

Emily gave another little sniff, her tiny chest rising and falling with the effort to control her sobs. ‘Now?’

He immediately straightened and turned to Charlotte. ‘I am sorry for being so pig-headed and arrogant. You do not deserve to be spoken to like that,’ he said. ‘Will you forgive me?’

Charlotte swallowed against the ridge of emotion in her throat. He had sounded so sincere. If only he really meant it.

‘Of course I forgive you…’ she mumbled self-consciously.

‘Mummy always kisses me when she says sorry,’ Emily said. ‘Don’t you, Mummy?’

‘Er…yes…’

‘Then I had better kiss Mummy so she knows my apology is genuine,’ Damon said. ‘What do you think, Emily?’

‘I think that’s a berry good idea,’ Emily said with a beaming smile.

Charlotte tensed as Damon’s arms came around her but as soon as his mouth brushed against hers she felt her whole body soften. Her eyes closed on a little sigh of pleasure as his lips came back for another whispering touch, her arms snaking around his neck, her hips pressing against his where she could feel his blood quickening.

It took an effort but somehow she managed to step back from him and reach for her daughter’s hand. ‘Come on, Emily,’ she said. ‘Let’s get you into some fresh things so you can go back to sleep.’

‘I don’t have to wear a nappy again, do I?’ Emily asked as Charlotte gathered up the bed linen. ‘I’m too big to wear one. You said I am.’

‘No, of course not, poppet,’ she said, stooping to pick up a trailing edge of the sheet.

‘I will see to these,’ Damon said, stepping forward. ‘You change Emily while I bring some fresh linen to her room.’

Charlotte felt the brush of his hand against her breast as he took the linen from her arms. ‘Thank you,’ she said, briefly meeting his eyes.

He smiled a slow smile that warmed his coal-black gaze. ‘We should have done this much earlier,’ he said in a low, deep tone.

She gave him a puzzled look. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Forgiven each other,’ he said. ‘It is about time, don’t you think?’

She couldn’t quite hold his look. ‘I forgave you years ago, Damon,’ she said softly as she turned and led Emily from the room.