by Penny Jordan
The look Luc gave Carrie could have shredded glass, she recognised warily as he turned the full force of his disapproving, hard-eyed stare on her before turning back to his godmother.
Well, at least she would have her freedom, Carrie acknowledged hollowly, even though she was gaining it at the hands of a woman she loathed. She could hear the bite of the anger Luc has just shown her in his voice when he replied.
‘I appreciate your concern, Godmother, but I am afraid that the wedding cannot and will not be cancelled. The celebrations and the marriage will both take place,’ Luc continued curtly, ignoring the anger and disbelief on the faces of both the women looking at him.
‘The last thing this country needs now is the kind of panic that will ensue if either event is cancelled. In fact, if anything, it is even more important than ever that they do take place!’
‘I realise that you do not particularly like my godmother, Carrie, but it was hardly diplomatic of you to speak to her the way you did earlier this evening.’
Carrie gave Luc a bitterly hostile look. The dinner was over and the guests had departed. She and Luc were alone in the Green Salon and Carrie had just been on the point of making her escape when Luc had started to speak.
‘If you want my opinion she doesn’t deserve to be treated with diplomacy,’ Carrie told him with asperity. ‘I have every right to my own opinions, Luc, and I’m not changing them for you or anyone else. You might be able to force me to marry you, but there’s no way you can force me to change the way I think or feel!’
‘Did I say I wanted to?’
The silky comment took her aback.
‘Well, you certainly want to change everything else about me,’ she retorted quickly, plucking at the skirt of her dress as she added disparagingly, ‘My clothes, my—’
‘Your temper?’ Luc offered sardonically. ‘Your incredible stubbornness? Yes, I would certainly like to see those moderated a little, shall we say, but there are other aspects of your personality that I have to admit are admirable.’
Carrie stared at him. Praise from Luc—and for her? This was the last thing she had expected.
Warily she looked at him.
‘What aspects?’ she demanded suspiciously.
Luc shot her a brief look she could not analyse before responding dispassionately, ‘Your defence of the underdog, your championing of moral causes, your compassion for those less fortunate than yourself,’ he told her promptly.
Open-mouthed Carrie blinked. Luc actually liked something about her? Approved of and valued things about her?
Her sense of giddy pleasure was swiftly squashed as Luc added coolly, ‘These are excellent attributes in the consort of a man in my position. A wife with what used to be called ‘the common touch’ is an invaluable asset when one—’
‘I am not going to be your ‘‘consort’’ or your wife,’ she told him bitingly. ‘I am merely going to be the woman you marry!’
Immediately his eyebrows rose.
‘There’s a difference,’ he asked her dryly.
Carrie wasn’t going to be taunted into backing down.
‘Yes. There is!’ she said fiercely. ‘A woman you marry is just that. But a wife is…’
As she saw the way Luc was looking at her she stopped mid-speech, her face overheating.
‘You know what I mean,’ she muttered angrily. ‘Anyway, there’s something I need to…to ask you, Luc,’ she told him. The conversation was getting out of control, and she was anxious to escape to her own room, but first there was her promise to her maid!
A little breathlessly, she told him what Benita had said to her.
‘And what is it, exactly, you are expecting me to do?’ he demanded scathingly. ‘Command his release just because his cousin is your maid? Despite what you think, Carrie, my powers are not omnipotent. We have laws in this country which have to be upheld!’
‘He’s only sixteen,’ Carrie told him stubbornly. ‘His family do not even know where he is and have not been allowed to speak with him. You say you have laws, Luc? Well, every right-thinking modern country has laws that preclude them from locking up sixteen-year-olds without telling their families…or at least they should have. What is happening here is tantamount to an abuse of people’s human rights, and if you want my opinion that fact should be made public. In fact, if I were a journalist and not an economist…’
She stopped speaking as he looked at her.
‘If that is a threat, Carrie…’ he said pleasantly.
Carrie had had enough.
‘Oh, I see—it’s all right for you to threaten, bully and blackmail me, is it? But the moment you think you are the one who might be forced into doing something you turn all moralistic—even through you are the one who is in the wrong—’
‘There is far more involved here than a mere personal vendetta,’ Luc interrupted her curtly. ‘There are issues at stake here, Carrie, of far-reaching importance. Issues of far more consequence than either you or I.’
Stubbornly Carrie refused to say anything.
She heard Luc draw in his breath in what might have been either a sigh of irritation or one of resignation.
‘Very well,’ he agreed grimly. ‘What is this young man’s name? You may inform your maid that I shall do my best to find out where he is and make sure that his family are informed. But that is all I will do, Carrie!’
Exhaling a little shakily, Carrie gave him Benita’s cousin’s name.
‘And in return for this favour I am to do for you,’ Luc continued smoothly, ‘what, may I ask, do you intend to do for me? Historically, of course—at least if one is to believe Hollywood—there is only one method of payment, one form of currency between a man and woman under such circumstances. So what is this young man’s freedom worth to you, Carrie? One night in my bed? Two?’
Carrie stared at him in disbelief.
‘You don’t mean that!’ she insisted feebly.
A cynical look shadowed his face.
‘Hardly. After all, I know how worthless a reward it is, don’t I? Since you have given it—and yourself—to so many others already!’
CHAPTER NINE
LUC replaced the telephone receiver into which he had been speaking and walked over to the window of his private office. From it he could look down into the courtyard below, where Carrie was pacing one of the ornamental gravel pathways. She had, as Luc knew, just finished having the final fitting of her wedding gown, and the movement of her body reminded him of an angry feline, all pent-up heat and energy.
His telephone call had been to an old friend and very distant family connection whose input he had been seeking with regard to the situation confronting him.
‘Tough one, Luc,’ his third cousin four times removed or thereabouts had informed him cheerfully. ‘From the looks of it you’re well and truly in a “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” situation, so to speak! I know that privately you sympathise with the feelings of the activists, even if you can’t say so publicly. But unfortunately, from what you’ve hinted to me, you’ve got some real nasties left over from your grandfather’s day tucked away in S’Antander’s vaults, who aren’t going to take kindly to being evicted and are potentially one hell of a lot more dangerous than those insurgents of yours!’
‘Tell me about it,’ Luc had agreed feelingly.
His cousin had laughed.
‘I hear you’re still going ahead with the Fifth Centenary celebrations and the wedding. I’m not sure I would want to. I know S’Antander is a small state, but policing that kind of affair…It would only take one suicide bomber!’
Both of them had fallen silent before Luc had answered dryly, ‘Thanks!’
‘My money’s on you, Luc,’ his cousin had assured him. ‘Knowing you, you’ll find a way of dealing with the situation.’
As he recalled his relative’s rueful words now, Luc’s expression darkened slightly and he continued to watch Carrie. The fiery passion which was so much a part of her personality was pla
in to see in her reaction to her situation.
Like all young men he had once dreamed idealistic, unattainable dreams, and Carrie had…The intrusion of unwanted thoughts and memories made him frown. Didn’t he already have enough to concern and occupy him? Hadn’t those stern guardians who had brought him up made sure that they instilled into him that he was a ruler first and a man second?
Carrie’s head ached. She was sick of hearing her maid singing Luc’s praises for having the compassion and the forbearance to put all the activists under house arrest, rather than keeping them in prison, and she was sick, too, of hearing people blather on ceaselessly about the wedding—as though it were something she was supposed to be looking forward to and not a punishment that was being forced upon her, Carrie thought furiously as she paced the private courtyard garden.
She had spent virtually all morning being prodded and pinned beneath the critical eye of the designers from the couture house who’d agreed to rush through the making of her wedding gown, and gowns for the ten attendants she was apparently going to be having. And this afternoon a hairstylist and make-up artist were coming to do a run-through prior to the dress rehearsal for the wedding.
The wedding. Edgily Carrie pushed her hair off her face. In three days’ time she and Luc were going to be married.
Every night she prayed that something would happen to set her free, and every morning she woke up to the realisation that her prayers were not likely to be answered.
The whole state seemed to be in an excited ferment already, in preparation for the celebration of the Fifth Centenary and the wedding. Only this morning Benita had happily told her that virtually everyone she knew was either throwing or going to a party in anticipation of the double event.
‘What? Even the activists?’ Carrie had queried dryly.
‘Oh, yes.’ Benita had responded blithely, before flushing and looking a little uncomfortable. ‘It is only true that they do not agree with some of our country’s current policies…’ she had admitted.
Carrie had lifted one eyebrow, but said nothing.
‘Well, only three days to go before you become a Serene Highness.’
The teasing voice of Luc’s cousin made Carrie spin round, her face breaking into a warm smile as she welcomed him and returned his hug.
‘Jay!’ she exclaimed. ‘When did you get back? I thought you were still in New York.’
‘I flew into Nice this morning,’ he told her. ‘I was just on my way to see Luc when I spotted you out here. You’ve lost weight! Don’t go getting too thin! A man likes a woman who feels like a woman! Mind you, when that woman is you…’ He paused and shook his head. ‘Luc is one hell of a lucky guy.’
‘Flatterer.’ Carrie laughed. They might look so physically alike that at a distance it was virtually impossible to tell them apart, but her body knew the difference between them. To her body Jay was a man who was a friend, but Luc…Her body responded to Luc in a way it had never ever done to any other man! Never had done, and never would do?
As she watched Jay hurrying off to see Luc, Carrie acknowledged the unwanted truth she had been fighting to deny ever since the night Luc had taken her to bed and in doing so had exploded the carefully constructed defences she had spent the years they had been apart maintaining.
She desired Luc…wanted him, ached for him, needed him in a way that was far too intense ever to be merely physical. There! She had made herself think the unthinkable. She had made herself recognise it and acknowledge it. She still loved Luc! And he still loathed her!
‘So you’re still going ahead with everything, then?’
As he faced his cousin across the polished expanse of his desk Luc nodded his head tersely.
‘I don’t have any other option,’ Luc told him. ‘The activists have delivered an ultimatum. Either I outlaw those who hold accounts here they do not approve of, or I abdicate!’
Jay let out a silent whistle. ‘They’ve dared to make that kind of a challenge? I hadn’t realised things had gone so far!’
‘The situation has escalated faster than I expected myself,’ Luc acknowledged. ‘I could be wrong, but I am beginning to suspect that they are receiving backing—financial and political—from a third party—someone who perhaps has their own reason for wanting to see me step down. That would certainly explain why we are suddenly faced with terrorist tactics as opposed to peaceful, if vocal, demonstrations.’
As he spoke Luc gave Jay a coolly level look.
‘Mmm…Well, I haven’t heard anything on the international grapevine. I just saw Carrie outside,’ he commented, changing the subject. ‘Does she know yet what’s going down?’
‘No,’ Luc responded tersely. ‘And I don’t intend that she will. I’ve set up some private meetings away from S’Antander to see if a diplomatic, behind the scenes solution can be found.’
‘And if it can’t?’ Jay pressed him.
When Luc didn’t answer him, he said, ‘I’ll tell you straight, Luc, this country is going to lose one hell of a lot of revenue if things don’t improve. With the commitment you’ve made to provide improved schooling and medical care you just can’t afford that.’
‘Spare me the lectures, Jay,’ Luc responded sharply.
‘Oh, I nearly forgot. Gina asked me to give you a message,’ Jay told him.
Luc frowned.
‘I’ve already spoken with her.’
‘And?’
A sharp look darkened Luc’s eyes, making it plain that he did not relish his cousin’s question.
‘She has been offered a prestigious role in an upcoming movie. I’ve told her that she should take it. She’s leaving S’Antander this evening.’
‘You can be a ruthless bastard when you need to be, can’t you?’ Jay commented lightly.
Luc made no response. He saw no reason to inform his cousin that the ‘affair’ he was supposed to have shared with the actress had been little more than a publicity stunt conjured up by her to gain press attention. At the time it had suited him to go along with her pretence, and it had even amused him, in an ironic sort of way, to recognise that his betrothal had had the effect of making Gina behave as though they had in actual fact been lovers. Certainly she had played the role of abandoned and outraged lover with melodramatic enthusiasm, and he had had his own reasons for allowing her to do so! But she was the complete opposite of everything he found desirable in a woman.
Everything he found desirable! Automatically he walked over to the window and looked down into the courtyard.
Carrie had gone and it was empty. As he dropped his lashes to conceal his expression Luc was glad that only he was aware of the symbolism of those words, and just how much they had haunted his life.
Carrie had just walked into the Green Salon when her mobile rang. Recognising that the caller was her brother, she hesitated for a second before answering. There was no way she wanted to spoil Harry and Maria’s happiness by telling them what had happened and how she was being blackmailed into marriage by Luc.
Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to smile as she said her brother’s name.
‘Carrie, you’ll never guess what!’ Harry burst into excited speech. ‘Whilst Maria and I have been on honeymoon we’ve been doing some serious talking, and—well, to cut a long story short I’m going to give up my job in the City and Maria and I are going to look round for a farm to buy! You know how I’ve always wanted to.’
Carrie knew that this was true, but even so…
‘Harry?’ She stopped him cautiously. ‘I understand what you’re saying—but the cost! You don’t have any money, and—’
‘Oh, we don’t need to worry about that. Maria has a huge trust fund from her parents.’ An indulgent, adoring note entered his voice as he added, ‘Sensible girl—she’s never let on to anyone because she didn’t want to have any wastrel fortune-hunters chasing after her. God, Carrie I can’t tell you how it feels to know I can pack in that wretched job. I never liked it; you know that!
‘It
all came out whilst we were away. Maria guessed that I was worrying about something, and when I told her—well, if I hadn’t already been madly in love with her…She was just so sweet and understanding. She said she’d never liked the ideas of me working in the City anyway. She wants a family—and as soon as possible—we both do—so we’re going to look round for the right place. Dad got in contact the other day, by the way. He and Liz are on a trip into the Outback, apparently, and they’ll be gone for weeks. Where are you?’
Carrie opened her mouth to speak and found that she had to clear her throat before she could do so. ‘I…’
‘You’re working,’ Harry guessed. ‘Okay, I’ll keep it short—oh, but, Carrie—I’m just over the moon. Maria has turned my life around. Loving her, marrying her…You know better than anyone that the bank thing just wasn’t working out for me, and I’d have come totally unstuck without your constant guidance. I’m not like you and Dad…I suppose I must be more like Ma—her family were farming stock, weren’t they? Oh, Maria says—Oh, damn—we’re breaking up. My battery’s running down. Love and kisses, sis…’
As her brother’s voice disappeared in a burst of staccato crackling followed by silence Carrie stared at her mobile. She was, she discovered with admirably detached interest, trembling from head to foot. With relief, of course. Relief because now she did not have to marry Luc! He no longer had the power to hurt Harry. He could still ruin her professionally, of course, but she could retrain—in a different field. She was still young enough, and surely anything was better than being forced into an unwanted marriage? And a lifetime of misery! She could just walk away right now. Right now this very minute…this very second…