‘No. You did warn me.’
‘Years ago, she deeply offended Althea.’
‘Althea has more of an opinion of herself than I do.’ As they wandered below the trees, Tansy was relieved that she was wearing comfortable sandals and a light linen dress because, even in the shade, it was very warm. She was enjoying the fresh air and a sense of relaxation after spending half the day trapped in a seat.
‘We have to talk,’ Jude intoned tautly.
ESP fingered down Tansy’s spine like spectral fingers of warning and her delicate features tensed. As her pace slowed Jude closed a hand over hers to urge her on. ‘About what?’ she said stiffly.
‘I would suggest…a potential renegotiation of terms,’ Jude murmured sibilantly.
‘What terms?’ Tansy almost whispered, so drawn tight were her nerves at that proposal.
‘The legal terms of our marriage,’ Jude specified.
Tansy tugged her fingers free at the edge of a mossy stone fountain ringed by wild pink orchids. Sunlight glinted on the clear water and the brightness made her blink several times. ‘Why would we need to renegotiate anything?’ she asked uneasily, her heart beating very, very fast in the heat, perspiration breaking out on her upper lip.
‘You’re pregnant. That changes everything,’ Jude pointed out, lowering his lean, powerful body in a graceful sprawl of long limbs down onto the stone steps leading up to the temple. The fluid, careless elegance of the movement implied he had not a care in the world, Tansy thought painfully.
To Jude, Tansy looked very pale. But then that flawless porcelain skin of hers was very pale and translucent in comparison to his own, he conceded, studying her while willing her to respond as he wanted her to respond. In full sunlight, her dress was gossamer-sheer, outlining long shapely legs and the shadows of her areolae, accentuating the reality that she was not wearing a bra on her small pouting breasts. The tightening at his groin, the pulse of arousal made him grit his teeth, but she looked utterly incredible with her long streaky hair tousled in waves and catching the light across her shoulders, her clear green eyes fixed to him.
‘I don’t understand what you’re getting at,’ Tansy admitted shakily.
‘In our marital agreement it states that the instant a conception occurs we can separate,’ Jude recounted curtly. ‘Of course, you’re free to make your own decision and if that’s what you want—’
‘Separate…like now? Immediately?’ Tansy prompted half under her breath, her lungs feeling deprived of sufficient oxygen in the hot, still air. ‘Where did it say that? I don’t remember reading that.’
‘It was one of the clauses in the marriage contract.’ She was looking at him as though he were talking in a foreign language, eyes wide, complexion white as milk below the sun.
Tansy was feeling impossibly dizzy and slightly sick and much too hot for comfort. She made a belated move back towards the shade beneath the trees, but it was too late. Darkness stole her vision, her body swaying, and she folded down on the grass in a heap as she fainted.
For a split second, Jude almost panicked. He raced down the steps to lift her up and she looked so white and delicate in his arms. He dug out his phone and rang the villa for a staff member to collect them in one of the buggies that were used by his mother’s gardening team. Tansy stirred in his arms and moaned. ‘I’m so hot.’
‘You’re going to be fine,’ Jude said unevenly, trying to inject confidence into that optimistic assertion but very aware of his ignorance and digging out his phone again to organise a doctor’s visit to check her out.
She was pregnant, rather fragile in his estimation and he had sprung a huge choice about the future on her without the smallest preamble. It wasn’t only the heat that had got to her but probably the stress he had heaped on her as well and he felt appallingly guilty.
‘You’re holding me too tight,’ Tansy whispered shakily, her head still woozy as she peered up at him, noticing that his stunning dark golden eyes were awash with emotions she couldn’t interpret.
‘Sorry,’ Jude breathed tautly, his grip on her loosening a little.
‘I’m still so dizzy.’ She sighed apologetically as the world tilted and she was laid into some sort of compact vehicle.
‘Close your eyes, relax,’ Jude instructed.
But Tansy was incapable of relaxation with Jude’s words still weighing heavily on her mind and shadowing everything: separation after conception. A clause in their premarital agreement? Why hadn’t she read it properly? There had been pages and pages and she had given up ten pages in while the document went on to cover every possible and unlikely development under the sun. Even so, separating as soon as she fell pregnant? That was so cold-blooded, she reflected wretchedly. Had she been aware of that fact from the start, she wasn’t sure she would have agreed to consider having a child with him.
Jude carried her up steps and she heard the low mutter of voices talking in fast, liquid Italian. Her head was still swimming but her lashes fluttered up and she saw a very grand landscape painting and she closed her eyes again, just relieved that they were indoors again and out of the heat.
He laid her down carefully on a mattress and she looked up into a crown from which elaborate brocade drapes were festooned. Eyes widening, she sat up, ignoring Jude’s advice to stay flat. ‘Good heavens, this place is like a museum—’
‘Isidore loves the villa’s antique grandeur but he won’t come here in case he runs into Clio,’ Jude explained with a wry smile. ‘It’s not my style though.’
‘You surprise me,’ Tansy told him sharply, angry green eyes locking to his devastatingly handsome features. ‘I would’ve thought the medieval vibe of magnificence would have appealed to you since your ideas seem to be equally barbaric.’
Jude stiffened, his dark eyes narrowing. ‘I won’t argue with you when you’re in this condition and the doctor’s about to arrive.’
‘What condition? Raging? How dare you think for even one moment that it was appropriate to persuade me into a pregnancy when you planned to cut and run as soon as it happened? You think that’s acceptable? I don’t!’ she snapped furiously. ‘I don’t need a doctor. I need a big stick or something to thump you with!’