Rosalie stared. ‘I don’t understand. Why is it generous?’
‘You are generous,’ said Xandros’s mother, ‘to be so understanding of the predicament your predecessor finds herself in.’
‘My...my predecessor?’ Rosalie’s voice was hollow.
‘Of course,’ Kyria Lakaris was saying. ‘Ariadne was engaged to my son until the moment she disappeared.’
The world seemed to tip on its axis, dislodging everything in it. Everything except one single word.
‘Engaged?’
It fell like a ton weight from Rosalie’s lips. She stared at Xandros’s mother. Shock was knifing through her.
Kyria Lakaris looked at her frowningly. ‘Did you not know?’ she was saying. ‘The wedding was all set—it was a great blow to him when she ran away...broke off the engagement.’
‘They were engaged?’ Rosalie could only echo the word again. Inside, shock was detonating, reaching all her limbs so that she was weak from it. ‘He...he told me that Ariadne refused point-blank to entertain our father’s obsession—’
But Kyria Lakaris was shaking her head in negation. ‘My dear—no. Just the opposite. She was perfectly willing to marry Xandros.’
‘But Xandros...Xandros said he would never be manipulated by my father! He came to London to tell me so!’ Rosalie was gasping, snatching at all the things Xandros had said to her.
His mother was shaking her head again, contradicting her with the gesture. ‘That was after Ariadne panicked. Pre-wedding nerves—I’m sure it was only that! Had Xandros not gone chasing to London, I am quite, quite sure Ariadne would have seen sense and come home.’ Regret was audible in the older woman’s voice as she went on, ‘They were ideally suited to each other, your half-sister and my son.’
Then, in front of Rosalie’s stricken eyes, Kyria Lakaris’s face brightened.
‘And now they can be once more!’ she exclaimed.
Rosalie stared. ‘I don’t understand...’ she said slowly, each word dragged from her. ‘You...you’ve just told me that Ariadne is...is pregnant. So how can she and Xandros ever...ever get back together?’
His mother’s expression had changed. It was filled now with a new emotion. It was pity. Chilling Rosalie to the core.
And a moment later she knew why.
‘You have been married to Xandros for less than three months,’ Xandros’s mother said. ‘And Ariadne...’ She paused for a moment, her eyes holding Rosalie’s with a painful expression. ‘Ariadne has had her first trimester confirmed. So you see...’ she took a breath ‘...there can be no question about it—your half-sister carries my son’s child.’
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
XANDROS THREW HIMSELF down on the hotel bed in Thessaloniki. He’d just had a brilliant idea. He would phone Rosalie, explain that he needed to spend another day here at the Coustakis offices—the managers there had been only just been briefed by Stavros, in another damn delaying tactic of the man!—and suggest she fly up here tomorrow to join him. Then, his meetings over, he would hire a car and take off with her to explore the countryside of north-eastern Greece.
Hell, if Stavros was in no rush to get the merger done, why should he be?
It would give him yet more time with Rosalie—taking the next few days to show her the resorts of the trident-shaped Halkidiki, with the extraordinary monastery atop Mount Athos. Even get to Macedonia and show her the fabulous tomb of Alexander the Great’s father, with its treasure trove of gold filigree ornaments.
He smiled at the prospect. Two days—maybe more if they felt like it!—of the non-stop company of the one person he wanted to be with!
Rosalie.
Rosalie, Rosalie, Rosalie—her very name was a delight! Just as she was a delight! All of her—all the time. In every way...
He felt emotion well up in him. The same emotion he’d felt last Sunday afternoon, when he’d imagined what it would be like if it were Rosalie who was pregnant, not Maria’s daughter. Say, just by chance...
Or even not by chance...
What then...?
The implications hovered in his head, spreading out through his consciousness, filling his mind.
We’d stay together, obviously—keep our marriage going...