‘I’m sorry, I think I’m going to be—’ Hand over mouth, she slid cartoon-style down the stepladder, and made a dash for the bathroom.
She got there just in time. Turning on the cold tap, she filled the basin and immersed her face in the icy water. Then, pulling back, she looked at herself in the mirror. Wet-faced and ashen, she steadied herself against the wall. She was no fool, she knew all the signs: she was pregnant. The only problem now was how was she ever going to bear the wait until Alessandro returned.
‘Are you all right in there?’
‘Yes, I’m fine,’ she called brightly. Hurriedly wiping her face on a towel and arranging her hair as best she could in just a few seconds, she swung open the door, making sure she had a reassuring smile on her face for Alessandro’s father. ‘Let’s get back to those catkins and hazel twigs,’ she said as she walked past him.
‘No, no,’ young lady,’ he said, waggling his finger at her. ‘You’ve done more than enough for one day in your condition—’
‘My condition?’
He couldn’t conceal the sparkle in his eyes as he looked at her. ‘You know what I mean,’ he insisted, ushering her to a chair. ‘I’m only surprised my son hasn’t thought to inform me.’
‘Inform you? What should Alessandro have told you?’
The old Prince considered this in silence for a few moments, then his face crumpled with concern. ‘You mean he doesn’t know yet?’
‘That I’m pregnant? Emily said with a shy smile. ‘No, Alessandro doesn’t know about our baby yet. I’ve only just found out myself. But I’ll tell him the moment he returns—’
‘He should have been the first.’
‘These things happen,’ Emily said with a shrug as she smiled back at him.
‘He’ll return soon—immediately,’ Alessandro’s father amended thoughtfully. ‘I’ll have a messenger dispatched to bring him back here at once.’
‘Could you do that?’ Emily said, hardly daring to believe that Alessandro might be back with her so soon.
‘Of course. And as soon as Alessandro knows about the baby we can make the announcement.’
‘Won’t it be a little early to go public with the news of my pregnancy?’ Emily said with concern.
‘Excuse my eagerness, but as well as celebrating my first grandchild I shall be celebrating my freedom.’
‘Your freedom? What do you mean?’
‘I shall be free…free to concentrate on my roses,’ he explained excitedly. Now that you are expecting the heir I can abdicate formally. Forgive me, Emily. I am so eager to renounce the throne and pass it on to Alessandro I can hardly think straight.’
‘What did you mean about making the announcement of my pregnancy official…before you can abdicate?’ Emily said carefully.
‘Alessandro must have explained—’
‘Of course,’ she said quickly. ‘But it’s always good to hear it again. I have so much yet to learn about my new country.’ She felt as if each separate word was being wrenched out of her, and each one of them caused her pain—pain that only increased when she saw the expression of suppressed excitement, of longing, and of a dream so close now he could almost touch it written clear across her father-in-law’s face.
‘Well, as you know,’ he began, struggling to keep his excitement under control, ‘the first condition was that my son should marry before I could contemplate abdication—’
‘Contemplate…’ Emily murmured.
‘That’s right. Marriage, of course, was the first step. And the announcement of your pregnancy…the birth of your child, Alessandro’s heir…is what my country’s archaic legislation requires before I can abdicate in his favour. I never mentioned it before…for reasons of delicacy,’ he explained gently. ‘I know you can’t force these things—’
Oh, can’t you? Emily thought, feeling as if her heart had just splintered into a thousand little pieces. ‘No,’ she agreed huskily. ‘That’s true.’
‘But now, with this wonderful news…wonderful for all of us,’ he said expansively, opening his arms in an embrace-the-world gesture.’ Emily, come to me. Let me thank you for this gift of life.’
Like an automaton, Emily accepted the old Prince’s arms around her shoulders and even managed to return his kiss. He had done nothing wrong, she reasoned. She couldn’t blame Alessandro’s father for his son’s oversight…
Oversight, Emily thought incredulously, much later alone in her own room. She hadn’t even moved fully into Alessandro’s apartment at the palace and now she was pregnant with his child. Everything that seemed to have been built on firm foundations between them had been founded on a lie. There was only one thing left to do now—and it didn’t involve staying a minute longer than she had to in Ferara.
Picking up the telephone, she called her sister’s mobile.
‘What do you mean, she’s gone?’
His father looked at him in anguish. ‘I said she should tell you—’
‘Tell me what?’ Alessandro demanded in a clipped voice devoid of emotion. ‘I’m sorry, Father,’ he said, shaking his head as if he had never been more disappointed with himself. ‘None of this is your fault. If I hadn’t been visiting such a volatile place I would have taken Emily with me and none of this would have happened.’
‘I think it’s more complicated than that,’ the elderly Prince ventured cautiously.
‘What do you mean?’
Clapping his son on the shoulder, the old man let his hand linger for a squeeze of paternal affection. ‘I’m sorry, Alessandro. I can’t tell you—’
‘Can’t tell me!’ Alessandro exploded. ‘What can’t you tell me about my wife? Has she been unfaithful to me?’
‘No!’ the old Prince exclaimed with outrage. ‘She has not.’
‘Then what?’ Alessandro demanded angrily. ‘Why else would she leave me?’
‘You left her…here…alone,’ his father reminded him. ‘A stranger in our country, young and vulnerable. She was lonely—’
‘We had an arrangement,’ Alessandro reminded him bitterly.
‘An arrangement?’ his father exclaimed incredulously. ‘If that’s all you think of your marriage, Alessandro, then perhaps Emily was right to go.’
‘Right! She is my wife!’ Alessandro thundered. ‘And whether you like it or not, Father, we have an arrangement—’
‘Bah! Don’t talk to me of arrangements, Alessandro,’ he warned. ‘I’ll have none of it. I will not have my happiness at Emily’s expense…or yours,’ he added, seeing the torment that was fast replacing the anger on his son’s face.
Mashing his lips together in impotent fury, Alessandro turned his back and stalked to the window. ‘Then where is she?’ he growled in an undertone.
‘Somewhere where she is appreciated, I imagine,’ his father told him mildly.
‘And where might that be?’ Alessandro said, turning slowly on his heels to confront him again.
‘I’ll leave you to work that out. But don’t take too long, Alessandro. Don’t let her slip through your fingers.’
Grinding his jaws together, Alessandro sucked in a breath as he made his decision. ‘If she really wants to go, Father, there is nothing I can do to stop her. But if there is even the slightest chance—’
‘You’re wasting precious time, Alessandro.’
Inclining his head in a curt show of silent agreement, Alessandro paused only to give his father a brief, fierce embrace before setting off for his own rooms, where he would pack an overnight bag and ring the airport to file his flight plan for London.
‘As it happens, Emily, I do have something for you. Something I think you’ll like—the fallout from a nice juicy bankruptcy. Your clients are major creditors—after the usual banks and Inland Revenue et cetra. Respectable elderly couple, allegedly fleeced out of their life savings by some toff from the Shires.’
‘Billy, you’re a diamond,’ Emily said gratefully, playing to her Chief Clerk, whose thick Cockney accent and market stall joie de viv
re masked a mind of Brobdingagian scope and efficiency. She had been expecting to pick up the dregs on her return to Chambers—the cases no one else wanted. But this was right up her street. ‘Do we have all the papers?’
‘Do pigs have wings? But your clients are available for a conference this morning.’
‘Good. Give me what we’ve got. Set up the meeting. Oh, and Billy?’
‘Yes?’
‘If any personal calls come through for me…I’m not available.’
‘I understand,’ Billy said non-committally, straightening his impeccable tailor-made waistcoat on his rapid passage out of the room.
Collecting up her things, Emily went to settle herself into the office Billy had allocated to her. She was back to being a ‘door tenant’ for the time being—a part-timer in Chambers—and would have to submit to being shuffled about wherever there was available space.
Across Europe the new generation of young royals all combined professional careers with the responsibilities of their rank, so there hadn’t been a single comment when she’d returned to work. And by using her maiden name she was largely assured of anonymity. So far, at least, the paparazzi had failed to mark any change in the blissful state of the Crown Prince of Ferara’s marriage.
It had been Miranda’s suggestion that she return to work and take time to think things through. They stuck by each other through thick and thin, Emily mused, knowing she needed her sister’s support like never before. She knew Miranda would never suggest she should try and forget there had ever been a man called Alessandro…but that wasn’t going to stop her trying, Emily thought as she reached for the intercom button.
‘Billy, can you bring those papers in right away, please?’
The meeting with her elderly clients went well. As Emily had anticipated, they were both dressed in their Sunday best, and trying their hardest to appear at ease, when in fact, after planning carefully all their lives to enjoy a well-earned retirement, they were now staring into the abyss. Fortunately they had kept a meticulous diary of events, and with that she could build a case.
Emily found nothing unusual in taking over a case at the last minute, but it did mean that crucial parts of the thick file had to be read and assimilated before the first court hearing that same afternoon. Fortunately she thrived on the pressure; cases like these were what had attracted her to law in the first place.
She broke concentration reluctantly when a knock came at the door, knowing it could only be one person.
‘Sorry to disturb you, Emily,’ said Billy. ‘I thought you should know you’ve had one call.’
‘From?’
‘Your sister.’
‘Oh?’ Emily said with concern.
‘She said not to worry you.’
But the way Billy had delivered the message suggested she should look deeper into the matter without delay, Emily thought, automatically scanning her diary. ‘Could you get hold of her for me, please, Billy?’
‘Already on line one,’ he announced briskly, on his way out of the door.
‘Miranda?’
‘Sorry to trouble you at work, Em. I know you left a message with Billy to say you were too busy to speak to anyone, but I thought you should know—’
‘You don’t have to apologise.’
‘Alessandro’s in town. He wants to see you. I didn’t know what to say.’
Emily’s heart must have stopped. She only knew she had never been more grateful for her sister’s support at the other end of the line. ‘Did you tell him?’
‘Where you’ll be? No. I’m waiting for you to give me the go-ahead on that. But, Emily?’ Miranda added anxiously.
‘Yes?’
‘I really think you should see him. At least give him a chance to explain.’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Please, Em. If you’d spoken to him, heard how worried he sounds, you wouldn’t be so hard on him. He knows you’re appearing in court today; he just doesn’t know which one…’
The silence hung between them and deepened, until finally Emily said softly, ‘I can’t keep running away from him for ever, can I, Miranda?’
Dragging the documents she had been reading before the call back towards her, Emily read the name of the man she would be accusing in court that day—the man who had tricked and betrayed an elderly couple. Alessandro had betrayed and tricked her, she remembered bitterly—and into a marriage of convenience that included an innocent child. What sort of man did that?
Alessandro managed to slip into the visitors’ gallery just as the court usher called out, ‘All rise,’ and the judge walked in and took her seat.
He missed the first few moments of procedure—case number, names, et cetra—and was barely aware that another man, seeing him arrive, had also moved into the gallery a couple of rows back, and was desperately trying to catch his attention. The only thing he saw, the only thing he cared about, was Emily, fully robed and bewigged, standing in front of the judge.
He drank her in like a life-restoring draught, feeling his resolve and his determination increase with every second that he gazed at her. Just being so close was like a healing process, and he hadn’t even realised how heartsick he was until this moment. He was in such agony he had to clench his fists to stop himself calling out to her. Taking a deep breath, he battled to compose himself. He would win her back. He had to…
His heart sang with pride while his mind seethed with questions as reason and logic made a steady return. Staring at her, he found it impossible to equate the woman he’d thought he knew—the clear-faced, intelligent woman below him now in the well of the court—with someone who could give herself to a man as freely and as lovingly as Emily had and then simply disappear without a word. Had she fallen out of love with him? His guts churned as an ugly worm of suspicion burrowed into his mind.
He had been so sure that she loved him—but then how could she have left him so abruptly if that was so? And, feelings apart, she had broken the contract that meant so much to her—to her sister. His father was heartbroken by their split, yet Emily had said she loved him, too. What could have taken her from them without even the basic courtesy of a note…something…anything to explain her behaviour? It had to be something so momentous, he reasoned, that only a face-to-face meeting would allow it to be brought out into the open. Yet a face-to-face meeting was the very thing Emily seemed intent on avoiding—but she would meet with him, he was determined on that…
The efforts of the man sitting behind Alessandro to attract his attention failed until the judge called a mid-morning recess. The very last thing on Alessandro’s mind was a reunion with someone from his old school. Let alone Archibald Freemantle, he realised, grinding his jaw as he fought to remain civil.
His whole mind was focused on one thing and one thing only, and that was making things right with his wife. Maybe his pride had taken a battering when she deserted him, but the overriding emotion he had felt then, as now, was one of loss. Loss so insupportable he had no strategy to cope with the devastating effect it was having on every aspect of his life. Without Emily he had no life, Alessandro thought bitterly, forcing his attention back to the irritating individual in front of him.
‘Archibald,’ he said coolly, extending his hand as courtesy demanded, then removing it as fast as good manners allowed. ‘What brings you here?’
‘This case, old boy,’ Archibald exclaimed, with such a heartfelt sigh it threatened to mist up his gold-rimmed spectacles.
‘Oh?’ Alessandro said vaguely, trying to be discreet about his desire to spot Emily…if only for a moment…just a glance would do, he realised, cursing himself for being a lovesick fool.
‘You must have realised it’s m’brother,’ Archibald said, huffing again.’ Freemantle Minor,’ he clarified, reverting to the argot of school.
Alessandro tensed. It didn’t seem quite the moment to comment, Oh, that rat, so he confined himself to a murmured, ‘Ah, now I recognise him.’ The man in the dock, he realised, and a flash o
f amusement briefly eased his torment. Toby Freemantle had started his career as a small-time crook, going through coat pockets at school—until he was asked to leave. It appeared he had pursued his calling into adult life.
‘Would have got off,’ Archibald said hotly, clearly determined to elicit Alessandro’s support, ‘had it not been for that bitch barrister the wrinklies hired. Apparently she’s hot stuff—said to be one of the best legal minds around. For a woman,’ he added scornfully.
Rage powered up through Alessandro’s frame at this casual dismissal of Emily’s abilities, but only a muscle flexing in his jaw threatened to betray his feelings.
‘I’m sure the judge presiding would be delighted to hear you make such a remark,’ he commented laconically. ‘Oh, and by the way, Archibald…’
‘Yes?’
‘That woman is my wife.’
Making a hasty exit, Emily was keen to escape to Chambers, where she could forget her personal problems and immerse herself in the case ready for cross-examination the next day.
Head down, arms encircling her bundle of papers, secured with the traditional pink ties, she failed to see the tall, imposing figure waiting at the head of the broad sweep of marble steps…Until an arm reached in front of her to grab hold of the mahogany banister and block her way.
‘Emily—can we talk?’
Her mind locked with shock, even though she had expected Alessandro to find her. Unable to cope with the thought of seeing him again, she had simply banished it from her mind.
Seeing the security guards on alert, and moving towards them fast, Emily nodded them away first before she spoke.’ Alessandro. I didn’t expect to see you here.’
Why was she lying to him? She bit down on her lip. All her cool, all her reserve, every bit of the calm logic that guided her in the courtroom had vanished.
It was useless reminding herself that this was the man who had lied to her, who had used her like a breeding mare to gain an heir for his country, when the need to feel his arms around her instead of having one of them obstruct her path in such a stiff and telling way was all she cared about.
Married By Christmas Bundle: Anthology Page 56
