by Jennie Lucas
He was no longer that pitiful child with a constant fear of abandonment, with no one to turn to, with no one to love or be loved. He was no longer that brooding, resentful teenager with a chip on his shoulder.
He depended on no one for his happiness.
He had no need of anyone but himself. He was totally autonomous. He didn’t want the ties and responsibilities that other people saw as a natural part of life. Marriage and children were not something he had ever pictured for himself. Life was too fickle for him to chance it. What if the same thing happened to him as had happened to his father—his life cut short in its prime and his wife and child left to fend for themselves as best they could, easy prey for the scurrilous, conscienceless predators out there who would do anything to get their hands on money for drugs and drink?
No. He was fine on his own; perfectly fine.
* * *
Bella was in the kitchen stacking the dishes into the dishwasher when Edoardo came back in. It was a domestic scene he wasn’t used to seeing. She had never been one to lift a finger about the place. She had grown up with a band of willing servants to cater to her every whim. He had always thought her father had been far too lenient with her. She had never had to work for anything in her life. It had all been handed to her on a silver plate with the Haverton coat of arms emblazoned on it. She had flounced around issuing orders as if she was already lady of the manor, even as a small child. Not even as an adult had she ever considered the sacrifices Godfrey Haverton had made to provide a secure future for her. She hadn’t even had the decency to be by his side as he drew his last, gasping breath.
He had been the one to watch Godfrey pass from life to death.
He had held his frail hand and listened to the sounds of the breath slowly leaving the old man’s rail-thin body.
He had been the one to close Godfrey’s eyes in final rest.
He had been the one to weep with grief at losing the one person on this earth who had truly believed in him. He had sworn on Godfrey’s death bed that he would do the right thing by him and protect Bella. He would make sure she stayed out of trouble until the guardianship period was over. He would not let her waste her father’s hard-earned money. And in the meantime he would continue to restore Haverton Manor into the grand old residence Godfrey had loved so much, thus keeping a part of his mentor and friend alive.
Bella closed the dishwasher and straightened, her tongue darting out to moisten her lips. ‘I was going to make some coffee,’ she said. ‘Would you like some?’
Edoardo couldn’t help a little lip curl. ‘You mean you actually know how to boil water?’
She pursed her mouth and tossed the dishcloth she had been holding on the sink. ‘I’m trying to be nice to you, Edoardo,’ she said. ‘The least you could do is meet me halfway.’
‘Nice?’ He gave a rough sound of derision. ‘Is that what you call it? You’re sucking up to me to get what you want.’
‘I’m not,’ she said. ‘I’ve been thinking about what you told me about your parents—about being orphaned so young. I didn’t understand how devastating it must have—’
‘Cut it, princess,’ he said savagely.
Her smooth forehead crinkled in a frown. ‘But surely talking about it would be helpful?’
‘There’s nothing to talk about,’ he said. He reached for the coffee grounds in the pantry and slammed them down on the counter. He filled the percolator with water, spooned in the coffee and switched it on, his hands clenching the counter until the tendons on the back stood out starkly against his tan. Was she never going to give this up? What was it about women that they had to know everything? To talk about everything? He wanted to block it out, not dredge it up all the time.
He wanted it to go away.
He needed it to go away.
The percolator hissed and spat in the silence.
Edoardo heard her move across the floor. She had such a light, almost silent tread but the hairs on the back of his neck lifted all the same. He felt her just behind him. He could smell her perfume. It danced around his nostrils. If she touched him, his control would snap. He could already feel it straining on its tight leash. It felt like a wild beast being held back by a thin, rusty chain. One of these days one of those fragile, corroded links would break.
He heard her draw in a small breath and then she spoke his name, softly and hesitantly. It was like a caress on his skin. It made every pore react as if a soft feather had brushed over him. ‘Edoardo?’
He waited a beat before he turned around and looked down at her. Her beautiful heart-shaped face was uptilted and her big brown eyes were soft and dewy, her rosy lips full and moist. ‘I know what you’re doing,’ he said with a cynical look. ‘You always lay on the charm when you want something. I’ve seen you do it to your father hundreds of times. But you’re wasting your time. It won’t work with me.’
Her expression soured. ‘Why must you be so...so beastly?’ she asked.
‘I won’t be manipulated by you or anyone,’ he said. ‘I made a promise to your father and I’m going to keep it.’
‘I want to get married here,’ she said, throwing him a combative look. ‘I’ve dreamed of it all of my life. My father would have wanted it. You can’t say he wouldn’t.’
Edoardo thought of the highbrow, vacuous crowd she would have swarming around her like bees around a honey pot. The press would besiege the place. They would crawl over his private domain like ants at a picnic. His private sanctuary would become party central. And, if that weren’t enough, he would have to watch Bella smiling up at some toffee-nosed man who—he could almost guarantee—only wanted her for her money. ‘No,’ he said. ‘He wouldn’t have wanted it, otherwise he would’ve left you the manor in the first place.’
She narrowed her eyes to hairpin-thin slits. ‘You’re doing this deliberately, aren’t you?’ she said. ‘All that talk of wanting me was rubbish. You don’t want me at all. You want the power. It turns you on, doesn’t it? You get off on it. You just want the rush it gives you to have me squirming in the palm of your uncivilised hand.’
Edoardo captured one of her wrists and held her fast. The urge to touch her had been unstoppable. He had barely even realised he had reached for her when he heard the gasp of her breath. He saw the sudden flare of her pupils. He felt the rapid jump of her pulse. He brought her closer, inch by inch, watching as her brown eyes went wider and wider. ‘Maybe I should show you just how uncivilised I can be,’ he drawled silkily.
Her pulse went wild beneath his fingers as he tugged her against his swollen groin. She swallowed and then licked her lips, her gaze tracking to his mouth as it came inexorably closer. He felt the soft gust of her breath against his lips. ‘If you kiss me I will scratch your eyes out,’ she said in a breathless little voice that was at odds with her warning.
‘Before or after I kiss you?’
Her eyes blazed with hatred. ‘During.’
He held her gaze for a throbbing heartbeat. ‘I’d better not risk it, then,’ he said, stepped back from her and reached for his keys on the hook near the door.
She blinked a couple of times as if she had been expecting him to call her bluff. ‘Where are you going?’ she asked.
He tossed the keys in the air before deftly catching them. ‘Out.’
‘Out where?’ she asked with another frown. ‘It’s close to midnight.’
‘Can you let Fergus out before you go to bed?’ he asked. ‘I might not get back before dawn.’
She gave him an irritated look. ‘Is that how you stay under the press’s radar?’ she asked. ‘By keeping your liaisons the other side of midnight?’
‘Works for me,’ he said, shouldering open the kitchen door.
She threw him a caustic glare. ‘You disgust me.’
‘Right back at you, princess,’ he said and let the door swin
g shut behind him.
* * *
Bella was too annoyed to sleep. She tossed and turned and counted sheep and sheep dogs. She got up and had a glass of water. She checked on Fergus three times. She couldn’t stop her mind from conjuring up images of Edoardo with one of his anonymous women. It disgusted her that he could just go out like that and find someone to slake his lust with. She could just imagine the type of woman he would go for: someone brash and bold, someone who would be confident sexually. His lovers wouldn’t agonise over their breasts or thighs, they wouldn’t worry about bikini waxes and whether they weren’t responsive enough in his arms. He would make them respond just by looking at them, just like he did to her.
‘Grrrhhh,’ Bella said as she threw off the covers yet again.
She was out in the garden waiting for Fergus to come back in when she saw the twin beams of Edoardo’s car headlights move across the fields of the estate as he came up the long driveway. ‘Fergus?’ she called out softly. ‘Come on. Hurry up. I’m freezing to death out here.’
There was still no sign of the dog when Edoardo’s car purred its way back to the garage. Bella listened as his footsteps crunched over the gravel of the driveway. She slunk against the shadows of the manor, holding the edges of her dressing gown tighter around her body. She didn’t want him to think she had been losing sleep over his nocturnal activities. She didn’t want him to think she had been waiting up for him to return, even though—subconsciously, at least—she had.
It was unnaturally, eerily quiet.
The night sounds that had seemed as loud as an orchestra rehearsing just moments ago had stilled as if silenced by a conductor’s baton.
Bella edged her way along the manor with her back against the icy-cold, hard stone. Her skin was pebbled with goose bumps and her heart hammered like a piston. She inched her way closer to the window of the morning room. She took a breath and started to climb the trellis, where the gnarled and twisted skeleton of some clematis was situated, when a pair of strong arms suddenly tackled her from behind. ‘Oomph!’ she gasped as she fell backwards against a strong male body.
‘Bella?’ Edoardo swung her around and gaped at her in shock. ‘What in God’s name are you doing?’
She put up her hand in a little fingertip wave and gave him a sheepish smile. ‘Hi...’
His expression went from shock to furious. ‘What the hell are you playing at?’ he asked. ‘I could have hurt you. I thought you were a burglar.’
Bella straightened her dressing gown, which had slipped off one shoulder in the tussle. Her body was still tingling from where it had pressed against his. Her heart was still jumping and her pulse as crazy as an over-wound clock. ‘Do you normally wrestle burglars to the ground?’ she asked with a wry look.
He scraped a hand through his hair. ‘Not usually.’ He let his hand drop back by his side. ‘Are you all right?’
‘I will be when I get my heart to get back where it belongs,’ she said with an attempt at humour. ‘You scared the living daylights out of me. I didn’t hear you make a sound. I thought you’d gone the other way around the house.’
‘What on earth were you doing?’ he asked, still frowning darkly.
‘I was taking Fergus out for a comfort stop.’
‘Then why hide in the shadows like an intruder?’ he asked.
She gave a little shrug, suddenly feeling foolish and gauche. ‘I didn’t want you to see me...’
‘Why not?’
She waved a hand over her night attire. ‘I’m not...um, dressed.’
‘I’ve seen you in a lot less,’ he said.
Bella was glad of the muted moonlight because her face felt suddenly hot. ‘So, how was your date?’ she asked.
A shutter came down over his face. ‘Where’s Fergus?’ he asked.
‘Good question,’ she said as she made her way back to the kitchen door. ‘I was trying to find him when you came home. He’s not very obedient, is he?’
‘He’s deaf and practically blind,’ he said. ‘You shouldn’t have left him on his own. He gets disoriented at night.’
‘You were the one who left him while you went off sowing your wild oats,’ she tossed back. ‘You find him. I’m going back to bed.’
* * *
It was mid-morning when Bella came downstairs the next day. She supposed Edoardo had been up since dawn, or maybe he hadn’t been to bed at all—or at least not his own bed, she thought with a niggle of pique.
She was halfway through a cup of tea and a muffin when she heard a car come up the driveway. She went outside and watched as a slim, elegant woman of about thirty got out from behind the wheel.
‘Hello,’ the woman said with a friendly smile. ‘You must be Bella. I’m Rebecca Gladstone. I moved into the area a few months ago.’
‘Um...hi,’ Bella said.
‘Is Edoardo about?’ Rebecca asked. ‘I was passing and thought I should check on Fergus.’
‘Fergus?’
Rebecca smiled. ‘I’m the new vet.’
‘Oh...’ Bella pasted a stiff smile on her face. Was this Edoardo’s latest lover? Beautiful, classy, educated, good with animals and probably children as well. She felt a tight pinching feeling close to her heart. Somehow she hadn’t been expecting him to go for someone so...so likeable. Did this mean he would get married and fill Haverton Manor with a brood of kids and pets? He had stolen her house and now he had stolen her dream as well. It should be her children and her pets filling up the place, not his. ‘Come this way,’ she said. ‘Fergus is asleep in the kitchen.’
Bella watched as Rebecca greeted the dog. Fergus, the old fool, practically gushed. His tail wagged like a metronome on steroids and he even gave a puppy-like wriggle of his hindquarters. Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. ‘He seems to really know you well,’ Bella said.
‘Yes, we’re old friends, aren’t we, Fergus?’ Rebecca said, ruffling his ears.
Bella wanted to hate her but she couldn’t quite do it. She decided to hate Edoardo a little bit more for choosing someone so damn perfect. Why couldn’t he have a shallow, self-serving mistress she could really have a good bitch about?
After a minute or two, Rebecca stood up from examining the elderly dog. ‘I’ll leave some vitamins in case he’s not eating properly,’ she said, taking out a little bottle and placing it on the table. ‘Irish wolfhounds don’t live much longer than eight or so years. He’s doing well for his age, but it’s best to be on the safe side.’
Bella tried on another smile. ‘Thanks.’
‘So, how long are you staying for?’ Rebecca asked.
‘Just a few days,’ Bella said. ‘I haven’t been home much just lately... Actually, not since my father’s funeral.’ Not since he gave away my home to my worst enemy, she added silently.
‘I’m sure Edoardo will be glad of the company,’ Rebecca said as she clipped shut her bag. ‘He works far too hard, but I guess I don’t have to tell you that.’
‘I’m not sure Edoardo enjoys my company too much,’ Bella said, pursing her mouth.
Rebecca looked at her quizzically. ‘Oh? Why do you say that?’
Bella wished she hadn’t been so transparent but it was a bit late to retract what she’d said. In with a penny, in with a pound, she thought. Anyway, why should she sugar-coat her relationship with Edoardo? He had probably derided her to Rebecca every chance he could. ‘He thinks I’m a spoilt brat who hasn’t grown up,’ she said.
Rebecca studied her for a moment. ‘You’ve known him a long time, then?’
‘Since I was seven years old.’
‘So you’re like brother and sister?’
‘Um...not quite,’ Bella said, blushing in spite of every effort not to. She paused for a beat. ‘We’re not exactly bosom buddies.’
‘He’s your financial guardian, is
n’t he?’ Rebecca said.
Bella felt like a fool. Who on earth had financial guardians these days? Kids under eighteen or elderly people with dementia, that was who. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I expect Edoardo has told you all about it.’
Rebecca gave her a reassuring smile. ‘It’s all right,’ she said. ‘I didn’t hear it from him. He never talks about you. I heard it from Mrs Baker. She told me your father set things up in a rather complicated fashion.’
‘Very complicated,’ Bella said, blowing out a breath. ‘I can’t do anything without Edoardo’s approval. It’s incredibly annoying.’
‘I’m sure he would never stop you doing anything you really wanted to do,’ Rebecca said. ‘Anyway, it won’t be long, and you’ll be free to do what you like. I seem to remember Mrs Baker saying it’s only until you turn twenty-five.’
‘Or until I marry.’
‘Are you planning on doing that any time soon?’ Rebecca asked, glancing at Bella’s left hand.
‘It’s not official as yet,’ Bella said. ‘I’m just waiting until he gets back from a trip abroad before we announce anything.’
‘Congratulations,’ Rebecca said. ‘You must be so excited.’
‘I am,’ Bella said. Or I would be, if it weren’t for Edoardo standing in the way of my plans.
There was the sound of firm footsteps, and Bella watched as Rebecca Gladstone’s cheeks took on a pink hue as Edoardo strode in. He glanced at the dog in the basket before meeting Rebecca’s gaze. ‘What’s going on?’ he asked.