‘So dry your eyes, Sabrina, and let me tell you all the juicy gossip about your guests downstairs,’ Amelia said giving her a wicked grin.
* * *
Amelia led Sabrina down the stairs. Sabrina bit her lip knowing fine well that her presence would cause a stir. She didn’t want to see them all looking at her as if she was the main attraction in a freak show. She didn’t want to feel them watching, wondering what she remembered about them.
Sabrina glanced at Amelia and took a deep breath before entering the drawing room. The soft murmur of pleasant conversation hushed into an eerie silence as her presence was noticed. If she’d ever wanted to make a grand entrance, this was it. She felt apprehension flutter inside as she frantically searched the sea of faces looking for any familiar characteristics. Nothing.
Some of the strangers looked on in disbelief as if they were witnessing the presence of a ghost. Others looked confused, even afraid. Three didn’t look surprised at all, merely smiled with glee at the others, having been close enough to the couple to be let in on the secret of her return. There was no sound in the room, all she could hear was the hiss and spit of the wood burning in the open fire. Raoul was suddenly by her side.
‘Sabrina, let me introduce you to our friends.’
Sabrina allowed Raoul to introduce her to the strangers cluttering the large room filled with antique furniture, she had a distant memory of having chosen herself.
‘Sabrina, this my brother Luc.’
Luc Valoire was dark and handsome, just like his brother, but he lacked the unmistakable masculine firmness and definition to his frame and facial characteristics. His appearance was reckless, a devilish dark shadow lined the contours of his jaw line, giving him a magnetic rough charm that would attract more than his fair share of women. But his wide smile that bored down on Sabrina gave him a dangerous almost leering countenance that activated her guard. Her fleeting memory told her he was a man that loved to live life to masculine excess without apology and took what he wanted without remorse. He was a constant headache for his older brother who, more times than enough, had sorted out his gambolling debts and disagreements with angry husbands.
Luc reached out to put his arms around his sister-in-law, but Sabrina found herself taking two steps back before she even realised what she was doing. Her back hit a solid muscled wall, Raoul. His arm slipped protectively around her shoulders.
‘One step at a time, Luc. To Sabrina, everyone in this room is a stranger, including myself.’
Luc frowned but nodded, watching Raoul’s fingers trace the smooth skin of Sabrina’s shoulder as though he was mesmerised. But his attention was quickly turned when a woman appeared by his side wearing a revealing backless blue dress that clung seductively to her tall svelte body. His arm slipped around her waist.
‘And you already know Cressida,’ Raoul’s voice was stiff.
‘How could I possibly forget?’
Sabrina smiled condescendingly, holding the reins of her irritation and outrage tight. She couldn’t believe Raoul had the nerve to invite his mistress to dinner. But now was not the time or the place, and she was dammed if she was going to give Cressida the satisfaction of seeing her lose control.
Cressida looked her up and down assessing her appearance in comparison to her own and gave her a mocking pitiful smile. Sabrina clenched her fist at her side wishing she could wipe the smile off the bitch’s face.
‘Raoul, the snow is falling heavily. It makes the grounds look quite beautiful. Wouldn’t it be romantic if we were snowed in together all weekend.’
Raoul laughed.
‘Yes, it would be romantic,’ he said looking down at Sabrina.
Sabrina felt her shoulder shrink from his grasp feeling disappointment and hurt crush her.
‘Well, I think it’s time we went into dinner everyone. If you’d all like to go through, Sabrina and I will join you in a moment,’ Raoul instructed.
Sabrina ducked to move out of Raoul’s hold. She took up position at the fireplace for the second round of their battle regarding the issue of his infidelity. Irritated by the slow movement of their guests from the room she drummed her fingers against her folded arms.
‘I had no idea she was coming,’ he said it quietly, his voice as smooth and rich as dark chocolate.
She tried to ignore the caress it made over the ache of her restless anger and anxiety. She spun on her heel.
‘Liar.’
It was a vicious accusation, tripping all too easily from her mouth.
Raoul’s eyes darkened, but his voice retained its spell binding smoothness. She’d never been able to resist the French accent, now he was using it to every advantage to calm her.
Manipulator.
‘Luc brought her with him, just to cause trouble like he usually does. He had no right. I thought at least on this occasion he would behave himself.’
He turned to one of the tall windows and looked out at the heavy snowfall.
‘I would ask them to leave, but I’ve been informed the roads are blocked. They are predicting more heavy snow fall, and it looks like we will be cut off.’
‘You knew she was coming. This all just some ploy with Luc. How could you do that to me? I don’t think you really want me back at all. Maybe for some misplaced guilt or sense of duty.’
He strode across the room, capturing her wrist tightly as she moved away and pulled her to him.
‘Why all the sudden concern, Sabrina. If I were still a stranger, you wouldn’t care so much. Are you beginning to remember us and what we had?’ he asked firmly, hope weighed heavy in his tone.
She turned away. His response was swift. He cupped her chin, lifting her face to obtain a better view of her eyes to search for any betrayal of his suspicions. She looked up at him unable to avoid his penetrating stare. She felt her eyes widen and open shedding all of her deepest secrets until her soul was completely bared. Slowly that knowing, mocking smile curved his lips.
‘Anger is good, Sabrina. If you didn’t remember any feeling for me, you couldn’t be so angry and jealous of Cressida.’
He gently let her chin go and moved away once more putting an awkward distance between them.
‘If you are so concerned, why are you keeping away from me all of a sudden?’ she prodded. ‘I thought you wanted me to stay by your side.’
The words blurted unchecked from her mouth. He was making her lose her self-control, making a fool out of her vulnerability. She was beginning to resent him for the power he wielded over her. He visibly tensed.
‘I am merely keeping the distance you required. But I want you in plain sight near me, so do not get any ideas about finding an opportunity to evade me.’
The formal tone in his voice cut deeply into her heart. But she persisted, needing to know his feelings about her account of her rape and kidnap. Maybe he viewed her as being unfaithful with her attacker. The very thought stung her insides.
‘It didn’t seem to bother you earlier today,’ she probed.
He was silent for a moment, pensive.
‘It should have,’ he told her gently, quietly.
Francine entered the room stopping their conversation dead.
‘Monsieur Valoire, Madame Valoire’s brother has arrived.’
Julian Michaels rushed into the room. He hadn’t even taken his coat off, and he was moaning about the French traffic and the snow holding him up. He stopped and stared at Sabrina.
‘Sabrina, it really is you.’
Julian Michaels’s attractive fair features paled for a moment and then a smile widened his mouth and lit his face providing it with much needed warmth. He rushed to put his arms around her and hugged her close. She felt such warmth and sibling love in his embrace, and it pained her that she was incapable of reciprocating.
He looked down at her with deep affection studying her features, staring into her eyes for the merest hint of recognition. She watched his face crumple with dismay. But he expertly covered the betrayal of emotion quickly
. There was determination in his voice that signalled that he would not allow his unhappiness to spoil the reunion. Sabrina looked at him with glassy eyes.
‘I’m so glad you are alive and well. Sabrina, I have missed you so much. It just hasn’t been the same. It doesn’t matter that you can’t remember me. That will all come in time.’
She glanced at Raoul. He was leaning against the white fireplace, striking a tall formidable pose. He was as still as one of the Sculptures in the Louvre carved from perfect smoothly toned muscle. He watched Julian with suspicion. Sabrina felt her back straighten with affront as her distant mind acknowledged her need to protect her brother. There was a tension in the air between the two men. Both were too formal in their language with each other. Julian kissed the top of her head.
‘I’m going to take you back to London. I have doctors waiting in Harley Street to help you retrieve your memory.’
‘Sabrina is not going anywhere.’
Both brother and sister turned to face Raoul.
‘Sabrina is not leaving the Chateau,’ Raoul repeated with heavy warning in his tone.
Julian pulled his sister protectively to his side. Sabrina felt her heart begin to thud with anxiety.
‘Sabrina is coming with me,’ Julian insisted. ‘She isn’t staying here one moment longer in this house, after what you did to her.’
Sabrina’s eyes shot questioningly at Raoul. One dark eyebrow rose making the pit of her stomach throb with a pleasurable ache. Her unexpected reaction made her angry, and she looked at him with a haughty air.
‘If you think I am leaving my sister here with you alone when the last thing she told me was that you were having an affair and she wanted a divorce. She was frightened of what you would do to stop her from leaving. No way. You don’t win this one, Raoul.’
Colour drained from Sabrina’s face as Julian watched Raoul with stern triumph, waiting for his reaction. Raoul straightened to his full height.
‘I will not continue to defend myself. I am not, nor have I ever had an affair. And Sabrina has no reason to be afraid of me. I would never hurt her, I love her. But then you have never been able to cope with that have you, Julian?’
‘My sister did not imagine anything, Raoul.’ Julian continued ignoring Raoul’s question.
‘Look that’s enough, both of you. Who do you think you are? I am here you know. Stop talking about me as if I am not. Don’t I get a say in my own life?’ Sabrina interrupted.
Both men were suitably silent. She stared at them angered by their lack of response.
‘Right that’s it, I am moving out and going back to England to carry on my new independent life. It seems my life before was dictated to me.’
She turned on her heel to leave, to make a grand exit, but Raoul was there catching her arm and swinging her round.
‘You are not leaving and that is final Sabrina. Remember what I told you I would do, if you tried to leave. I always carry out my threats, and I will have you put into a private hospital until you get your memory back.’
She stared at him, her face flushing hot with anger. But her brother found his voice first. He simply laughed.
‘Try it. Our family lawyer will discredit you as an unfit husband.’
Raoul looked at Sabrina ignoring Julian’s intrusion into a conversation between husband and wife.
‘You are my wife, Sabrina, and your place is here by my side, and I will do whatever it takes to keep you here. I know you well, and you have no intention of leaving until you find out the truth.’
‘Stop filling her head with that mystical notion of wedded bliss, Raoul. She is coming home with me.’
Julian stood in front of Raoul, inches away from his face. Raoul’s broad shoulders squared.
‘Get used to it, Julian. You can’t play at being her father anymore. You can’t stand it that she married me and left you on your own.’
Sabrina was sure if she walked out of the room neither man would notice. They were so engrossed in their argument over her. It seemed both of them wanted to control her life and she wasn’t to have any say in it at all.
‘Stop it,’ Sabrina issued the order prising the two men apart before more than words began to fly like bullets. ‘Get a grip both of you. I don’t know what the old Sabrina was like, but you are dealing with a new one and by the looks of it a much improved one. And the sooner you get it through you thick, egotistical male skulls we will all be better off. I make my own decisions about my own life. Get used to it.’
‘Raoul, Sabrina, are you coming? They won’t serve until you come, and I’m starving,’ Amelia moaned entering the room. ‘Oh, Julian, you’re here at last. I’m sorry I’ve interrupted something haven’t I?’
Amelia looked embarrassed, her eyes flicking between the men and Sabrina for confirmation. Sabrina wasn’t so sure of Amelia’s innocence and was convinced her interruption had been a rescue attempt. Relieved and thankful she joined her friend and gave a shaky smile when Amelia turned to walk out of the room and winked at her.
Chapter Ten
Sabrina glanced around the table at the faces of the guests in the flickering candle light. Beatrice and Jacques were married and worked with Sabrina as lawyers. Clearly their relationship was strained with Jacques’s wavering eye that frequently rested on Cressida, roved around to Amelia and finished with Sabrina herself. Beline and Floren were originally friends of Raoul’s from his youth. But Sabrina had become close with Beline when they all lived in the same apartment building in Paris. They were very much in love and planning a family. Alain and Sophie were Raoul’s top executives. Both were eyeing her nervously.
The police officer, Inspector Tissier was unnerving and left Sabrina feeling alert and on her guard with everyone in the room. His eye wandered around the table as frequently as her own did but with more suspicion. Then there was the bitch from hell, Cressida, pawing Luc Valoire whilst trying to catch Raoul’s eye. But Sabrina was having her own battle with Luc, his constant vigil of every move and lift of her eyes made her feel scrutinised and embarrassed. He wore the same knowing smile on his lips that Raoul often did, only his had a sinister quality to it.
Then there was Raoul, the man who she was beginning to remember as husband and lover, who wanted her so much, yet now wished to keep away from her. He did not engage her in conversation and spent most of his time brooding. And her brother didn’t stop watching Raoul and Cressida with a steely eye. If it weren’t for Amelia’s and Julian’s constant attention, she would have left the room. By the end of the meal she was feeling isolated and anxious of everyone. These people were strangers, she knew nothing of their lives, hopes and dreams, yet they were her supposed to be her closest friends. She hated having lost her memory. It continually put her at great disadvantage. The conversation amongst the people in the room once they had recovered from their initial shock of her miraculous return, made her feel ignored.
By the time coffee was served in the lounge and further stories of the life she didn’t know were recounted with amusement, she couldn’t take anymore. The room full of people made her feel like a freak and lonely with the unnerving notion that they all knew more about herself than she did. Luc’s constant staring and Alain’s nervous suspicious looks made her want to seek the solace of sleep. Once she was sure Amelia, Julian and Raoul were both engaged in conversation, she slipped unnoticed from the room.
‘Going somewhere?’
It was Cressida standing at the bottom of the stairs. Sabrina stopped half way up and turned to face her enemy. The woman mounted the stairs and came to rest on one step down from Sabrina. She smoothed her red tipped fingers over the silk material of Sabrina’s dress on her shoulder, a flute of champagne in the other hand.
‘I suppose it will be tiring and quite uneasy to be in a room full of people who know you much better than yourself,’ she smiled pausing to take a sip of her drink and lean against the marble balustrade. ‘Maybe they know things you don’t? Such as how much Raoul prefers the company of my
bed to your own.’
‘Really?’ Sabrina questioned with sarcasm, frowning at Cressida with distaste.
Sabrina watched the vixen’s cherry lips pout when she didn’t receive the reaction she was looking for.
‘He only wanted you back so he could prove he didn’t kill you. He wants a divorce so we can be married. You were never good enough for him, you could never give him what he wanted and needed in his bed. You were always so inhibited, that’s why he always came to me . . .’
Sabrina’s hand shot out in a reflex action, swiping neatly across Cressida’s polished face. Cressida’s eyes narrowed, but she laughed.
‘You should pack your bags and leave. He doesn’t want you now. Make it easy for him to get a divorce. Or maybe I should tell him about the affair you were having with Luc. I’m sure he would love to hear the details of your torrid affair with his brother.’
Sleeping Love Page 11
