‘That’s not a problem,’ he responded smoothly, ignoring the frown of disapproval from his friend.
The butler, who had borne off her coat, moved forward to guide her into a side corridor and usher her into a heavily furnished Victorian library. Gaetano stepped past her and lounged back against the side of the desk, which had an open laptop on it.
‘This meeting is difficult for both of us because so much time has passed,’ Gaetano remarked smoothly. ‘Did it not occur to you that I would need to get in touch with you?’
His cool composure bit into Lara like a blade. Inside herself she was a mess of pain and regret. She was looking at the man she had loved, and he hadn’t had the decency to develop a pot belly and a receding hairline to banish her idealised memories. No, he had got even more gorgeous in a scarily sleek, sophisticated way. He wasn’t the guy with the tousled black hair, stubble and jeans whom she had fallen head over heels for within days. He wasn’t the guy looking to her for understanding and support when he was suddenly thrown into an unfamiliar world. He wasn’t the man whom she had taught to cook and wield an axe, marvelling at his lack of ordinary practical knowledge. No, this was a guy wearing an exquisitely tailored navy suit that probably cost more than she’d earned in two years of work. His hair was perfectly styled, his jawline clean-shaven, his dark blue shirt perfectly complemented by his silver tie. The only thing she had remembered right about the guy she’d married was that he was very,verygood-looking.
‘I wasn’t thinking about stuff of that nature when I left,’ Lara replied flatly.
She had run in pain and humiliation as if she could somehow leave that horrible sense of rejection behind her if she ran fast enough. She had run as an animal ran, without thought or consideration. Too late she had learned that pain found you wherever you ran and that there was no escaping it.
‘It has taken me all this time to track you down,’ Gaetano informed her.
Was he expecting an apology? Lara gritted her small white teeth, knowing she hadn’t wanted to be found, not when it entailed standing in front of Gaetano as if she were being hauled over the coals for some dreadful mistake. Quite deliberately she settled into an armchair without being asked, sneering at her foolish younger self for not guessing from the first that such comfort and opulence was Gaetano’s natural milieu. His confidence, his innate good manners, his ability to speak more than one language and wide-ranging general knowledge. All those facts should have made her appreciate that his position in society was far removed from hers. She truly hadn’t thought such things as class mattered any more. But Gaetano had taught her different when he’d looked at the not-very-well-educated waitress he had chosen to marry and make his. In shock and dismay and regret.
‘I wasn’t even sure wewerelegally married,’ she pointed out defensively.
Gaetano frowned. ‘Why would you think we were not?’
A tight little laugh was wrenched from Lara. ‘Don’t you remember what Dario said that day? He said something about constitutional law and how could you get legally married without the sovereign’s consent? So, obviously I thought that the legality of our marriage was in doubt.’
‘That wasn’t the case. Thereisno such law relating to the royal family in Mosvakia.’ Gaetano clenched his teeth, knocked off topic by that admission of hers because he remembered little of what had been said that morning. He had been reeling with shock and grief. At one and the same time he had regained his memory and learned that his brother had died, and he was now King.
Lara nodded in silence.
‘Now that you’re here, however, I do see that it is best to make this encounter impersonal.’
‘Impersonal?’ Lara almost whispered, crossing her legs in the hope that he wouldn’t realise her lower limbs were shaking. How the heck could a divorce be deemed impersonal?
A knock sounded on the door and the little man who had taken her coat appeared with a laden tray. There was much bowing and scraping in Gaetano’s direction before the tray finally reached the side table and they were alone again.
Gaetano cleared his throat. ‘Sì, impersonal. After this length of time, nothing else makes sense. There should be no recriminations, no bad feelings.’
What had happened to the passionate guy who had swept her off her feet and insisted on marrying her after a mere ten days of acquaintance?
‘I doubt if that is possible, but I have no wish to get into an argument with you,’ Lara declared stiffly.
‘We’ve been living apart for two years and all I require is your consent on a document to a divorce. That consent, while not strictly necessary, would make the proceedings run more smoothly.’ As Gaetano spoke, he tapped a document and pen lying on the desk. ‘May I ask my friend and lawyer, Dario Rossi, to join us?’
‘No,’ Lara said succinctly, still unable to overcome her aversion to the man who had viewed her with cool hostility while her entire world had caved in round her ears, all his concern reserved for Gaetano. And back then, Gaetanohadbeen her whole world because she had never even dared to dream of finding a love like that and, having found it, she had been devastated when it had proved to be an empty illusion.
‘No?’ Gaetano queried in polite surprise.
‘No,’ Lara repeated. ‘I didn’t take to him at our first meeting.’
Gaetano surveyed her, noticing that she hadn’t poured the coffee and marvelling at her seeming tranquillity, which was why her refusal to allow Dario to join them took him aback. She seemed as though she were a thousand miles away from him inside her head and he hadn’t expected that air of emotional detachment from her, not from a woman he remembered as being wonderfully warm and caring.
‘Do you have any objection to us getting divorced?’ he intoned flatly.
Lara gritted her teeth again. ‘No,’ she asserted.
‘Let me assure you that I will pay all your legal fees to the lawyer of your choice. There will also be a substantial financial settlement,’ Gaetano informed her, getting back into his stride again.
‘I don’t want your money,’ Lara told him, wondering when he was planning to get around to mentioning Freddy and also wondering if she was cutting off her nose to spite her face, as her grandmother would have quipped. After all, money would allow her to get her life in order sooner than she had hoped and build towards a better future.
‘I owe you some compensation for the way our relationship played out,’ Gaetano countered gravely. ‘But I do also wish to thank you for the valuable assistance you gave me during the weeks we were together. Matters could have gone a great deal less pleasantly for me.’
‘I wish I’d left you in the snow!’ Lara retorted, and even as she made that childish statement she knew she was lying because without Gaetano, there would be no Freddy and Lara’s life revolved around Freddy.