‘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!’
H
is 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.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
DAMON was waiting for her in their bedroom when she came in from settling Emily back down. He unfolded himself from the chair he’d been sitting on and came to stand in front of her.
‘Charlotte, I meant what I said in front of Emily. I meant every word.’
She stood uncertainly before him, her eyes skittering away from his. ‘Thank you…’
He pushed a hand through his hair, which by its disordered state seemed to suggest he had been doing little else for the whole time she had been tucking Emily back into bed. His expression looked pained, as if he was having some trouble formulating what he was about to say.
‘I think it is time for us to have a discussion about our future,’ he said. ‘We cannot continue with this animosity between us. It is affecting Emily. This bed-wetting episode is an indicator of how much she needs us to learn to love and respect each other.’
‘Damon, I—’
‘No,’ he said, cutting her off. ‘Please let me continue. I have been rehearsing this for the last few minutes, ever since I realised that I still love you.’
Charlotte blinked at him, wondering if she’d heard him correctly. ‘What did you say?’
He gave her a rueful smile. ‘I love you, Charlotte. I think it is quite possible I have loved you from the first moment I met you, but back then I was too proud to admit it. I had responsibilities and expectations on me. I could not see any way out of them. When the sculptures were found in your bag and room at the hostel it gave me an out. It gave me a perfect excuse to bring our relationship to an end, even though I really did not want to let you go. But I felt I had to in order to do the right thing by my family. I let my anger blind me to the very real possibility that someone else was responsible for those thefts, someone much closer to home.’
Charlotte unconsciously held her breath.
‘You see, Charlotte,’ he continued, ‘you were the one person who was jeopardising my future, or so someone close to me thought. I am surprised I did not see it earlier, but it was something you said the other night that made me realise how far some people will go to protect those they love. You, for instance, were prepared to agree to my insulting demands of you in order to protect your sister and Emily. It made me realise that my sister could very well have done the same. She desperately wanted Iona to be her sister-in-law. She talked of it a great deal, even up until the time she died, begging me to marry her best friend, even though as time went on I could see it was not what Iona wanted. And, coward that I was, I did not have the heart to tell Eleni it was not what I wanted either. I let her die thinking I was going to do as she had hoped. Of course, knowing Iona as I do, she would have been reluctant to dash Eleni’s hopes as well, especially when we all knew Eleni’s time was limited. I suspect Iona too allowed my sister to maintain her dream to the very last.’
‘Does your mother know about any of this?’ she asked.
‘I have not wanted to taint her memories of Eleni,’ he confessed. ‘But sometimes I wonder if she has come to the same conclusion I have.’
‘Which is?’
He reached for her hands and held them within the warmth and strength of his, his dark eyes glistening with moisture, his voice rough with emotion. ‘I was a fool to let you go four years ago. I should have fought to clear your name. You are incapable of such a betrayal of trust. You are loyal and loving to all who come into your life. The way you love your sister in spite of what she has done shames me. Your belief in her is unshakable. I would have given up long ago, but instead each time she let you down you found new reserves inside yourself to forgive. I can only hope in time you will find it in yourself to forgive me.’
‘I told you just a short time ago that I forgave you years ago,’ she said with a tiny catch in her voice. ‘Didn’t you believe me?’
His eyes glistened even more and his throat moved up and down as he fought for control. ‘This is four years too late, agape mou, but yes, I do believe you.’
Charlotte couldn’t cont
rol the tears spilling from her eyes. ‘I love you so much,’ she choked as she clung to him. ‘There wasn’t a day while we were apart that I didn’t think of you.’
‘I thought of you too,’ he said. ‘That is why, when the museum contacted me about the exhibition, I felt it was too good a chance to miss. I just wanted to see you again, to make absolutely sure you were as guilty as I had thought. Seeing you that night made me realise my attraction for you had not gone away. Your response to me made me determined to have you again. Of course, when your sister stole my wallet and I later found it in your bag, I immediately assumed you were up to your old tricks again. I was ruthlessly determined to have my revenge.’
‘I was so torn,’ she said, looking up at him. ‘I wanted to protect Stacey so she could get the help she needed, but I was terrified if you found out about Emily you would take her away from me.’
His expression clouded with remorse. ‘I am ashamed of what I threatened,’ he said. ‘You are the most wonderful mother to our little daughter. It would have been nothing short of cruelty to separate her from you or you from her. We are a family now.’
‘A family…’ Charlotte breathed the words in wonder.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘You and me and Emily—the three of us. For now.’
Her blue eyes twinkled up at him. ‘For now?’
He gave her a dangerously sexy smile as he brought his mouth close to hers. ‘Give me time, agape mou. It takes time to build a family.’
‘Take all the time you want,’ Charlotte said on a breathless little sigh as his mouth finally claimed hers.
EPILOGUE
‘WHAT do you think of him?’ Charlotte asked as Stacey cradled her tiny newborn nephew in her arms.
‘He’s perfect…’ Stacey breathed in amazement. ‘He’s so absolutely perfect.’
‘We think so, don’t we, Charlotte?’ Damon said proudly as he put his arm around his wife’s shoulders.
‘Of course we do, but then we’re totally biased,’ she said with an adoring look as she met his dark tender gaze.
‘Can I have a hold of him now?’ Emily bounced up and down impatiently. ‘You promised I could after Auntie Stacey had a turn.’
Bought for Her Baby Page 16
