Sale or return bride

by Sarah Morgan

  She swallowed painfully. 'What are you saying?'

  That you have a right to the life you have chosen’ he said stiffly, turning again and staring out of the window. ' My family owes you and I intend to honour that debt. You will remain as my wife and you will continue to receive the al­lowance we agreed. How you spend it is entirely your deci­sion.'

  Flayed by the knowledge that his desire for her to remain as his wife was driven totally by his sense of responsibility rather than anything deeper or more personal, Alesia flopped back against the pillows.

  She didn't want to stay here under those circumstances and yet how could she do anything else? She needed Sebastien's money to support her mother. She had no choice but to stay. And if he hated her for what she'd done—well, she'd just have to live with that.

  The next few weeks dragged by.

  Sebastien spent most of his time at the office and returned home after she'd fallen asleep. He slept in a different room, as if to emphasize the fact that he could no longer stand the sight of her.

  Days passed without them laying eyes on each other and, on the rare occasions that they met at a meal table, he was polite and courteous but kept a distance that filled Alesia with utter misery. His tense civility was worse than his anger.

  And, to make matters worse, the sickness hadn't passed as the doctor had predicted. If anything it was worse but she hid the fact from Sebastien because she knew that he already felt ridden with guilt for having thrown her in the swimming pool.

  The final straw came when she rang the hospital to check on her mother only to be told that she'd developed a rare infection and was dangerously ill.

  Stricken with guilt that she hadn't somehow contrived to visit her mother before now, Alesia packed a bag and asked Sebastien's driver to take her to the airport.

  The chances were he wouldn't miss her, she reasoned as she watched Athens slide past from the comfort of the pas­senger seat. She knew he had a business meeting in Paris because she'd watched him board the helicopter that morning from the window in the drawing room.

  Like a lovesick teenager, she often stared out of the win­dows of his Athenian villa, hoping for a glimpse of him.

  How had this happened?

  How had she managed to fall in love with him?

  But she knew the answer to that, of course. From the mo­ment she'd first laid eyes on him the extraordinary tension had been there between them. She'd entered the marriage full of contempt and determined to hate him, but those feelings had rapidly grown into something very different.

  When she'd sorted out this latest crisis with her mother, she'd find a way of getting over Sebastien, she vowed as she slid out of the car with her small bag and quickly dismissed the bodyguard who had insisted on accompanying her to the airport.

  She spent the whole flight to London trying not to be sick and decided that as soon as she got the chance she was going to have to consult a doctor. She must have picked up some bug or other from the water she'd swallowed.

  When she arrived in London it was pouring with rain, the sky cloudy and ominously grey. Thinking bleakly that the weather suited her mood, she took a taxi into London and arrived at the top hospital in time to talk to the doctor who was in charge of her mother's care.

  ' How is she?' she asked anxiously and he gave her a sym­pathetic smile.

  It was a big operation, as you know, but she came through it well until the last few days. Unfortunately she's picked up a bug and we're running a series of tests to identify the cause.'

  'Can I see her?'

  ‘ If you're Alesia then you are more than welcome,' the doctor said immediately. 'She talks about you constantly. I understand you've been working abroad?'

  Alesia flushed. That was the story she'd given her mother as an excuse for not visiting before but suddenly she felt torn by guilt. She should have tried to come sooner—

  But how could she? In order to fulfill the contract and get the money she'd had to play a role and without that money her mother couldn't have had the operation.

  Deciding that life was one long round of impossible de­cisions, Alesia followed the nurse to her mother's room, tug­ging off her wedding ring as an afterthought and dropping it into her pocket.

  At this moment in time her mother didn't need to know that she'd married a Fiorukis.

  Her first sight of the fragile, pale woman in the hospital bed made her choke back tears and she struggled for control. Her mother had enough to worry about without having to comfort her.

  'Mum?'

  Her mother's eyes flew open at the sound of Alesia's voice and a wonderful smile spread across her pale face. 'Darling! I didn't expect you to visit.' Her voice was so weak it was barely audible. 'You thought you might not be able to for a while.'

  'It's fine.' Alesia swallowed hard and hurried across the room to give her mother a hug. 'You've lost so much weight.'

  'Hospital food,' her mother joked weakly, lifting a hand to stroke her daughter's hair.

  'You look tired. And pale. Have you been working too hard? How's the new job working out?'

  'It's great,' Alesia said, avoiding eye-contact and settling herself in a chair that had been placed beside the bed.

  Her mother gave a sigh and her eyes drifted shut again. 'Well, it was lucky for both of us that you got yourself that job when you did. And that it pays so well. If it weren't for you—'

  'Don't. I love you.' Alesia gave a wobbly smile. 'And I hated not being able to visit you— '

  'But you phoned every day,' her mother murmured, ‘ and you gave me the greatest gift that there is. The chance to walk again. Now we just have to wait and see whether the doctors have succeeded. Until this infection they were opti­mistic'

  'They're still optimistic' Alesia felt her eyes fill and strug­gled to hold back the tears.

  'Don't cry.' Her mother's voice was gruff. 'I rely on you to be strong. You've always been so strong. Even as a little girl you were fiercely determined.'

  Alesia forced a smile. She didn't feel strong or determined. She felt sliced into pieces after the events of the last few weeks, but she knew she couldn't unburden herself on her mother. 'I'm fine. Just a bit tired.'

  And ill. She felt so sick.

  'How much time off have you been given?'

  ' As much as she needs.' A deep masculine drawl came from the doorway of the hospital room and Alesia sprang to her feet in shock, her heart suddenly thudding at an alarming rate as she stared at Sebastien.

  He stood in the doorway, grim-faced and almost unbear­ably handsome, his lean, dark features set in anger. Gone was his characteristic cool. With one flash of those molten black eyes he told her everything she needed to know, that he was furious with her.

  And then he dragged his gaze away from her, focused on her mother and the air hissed between his teeth. "Theos mou —I had no idea. You are alive. You survived the explo­sion.'

  Alesia felt her insides plummet in panic. This was one scenario that she hadn't prepared herself for. ‘ I thought you were in Paris—'

  Tracking my moves, Alesia?' His eyes locked with hers, the derision in his gaze intensifying her guilt. 'Well, now I'm back—'

  Before she could find a suitable answer, her mother gave a strangled moan and covered her mouth with her hand.

  Immediately Alesia forgot about Sebastien. 'Mum?' She leaned forward and felt her mother's forehead, just frantic with worry. ‘ Are you feeling worse? Are you sick? I'll call a nurse.' She reached for the buzzer but her mother caught her hand.

  ‘ No.' Her voice sounded scratchy and her eyes were fixed on Sebastien. ‘For years I've thought about you. In my dreams. In my darkest moments. You were always there.'

  Alesia looked at her mother in consternation. She hadn't expected her to recognize Sebastien but clearly she did and it was equally clear that she hated him. The last thing she needed now was this sort of shock and it was all Alesia's fault.

  She should have guessed that Sebastien would follow her.r />
  She never should have come.

  She turned to Sebastien, desperate to rescue such a disas­trous situation. 'You're upsetting her. I think you should leave’ she pleaded urgently, taking her mother's hand in her own and squeezing it tightly. 'We can talk later—'

  'If that is what your mother wants, then of course I will respect her wishes,' Sebastien said roughly, walking into the room with his customary air of purpose. 'But there are clearly things that need to be said.' He turned to Alesia's mother. ‘ I had no idea you were alive.'

  Alesia closed her eyes. They just didn't talk about the ac­cident any more. Her mother found it all too distressing. 'Please’ will you go—?'

  'I don't want him to go.' Instead her mother stretched out a hand towards Sebastien, her blue eyes so like her daughter's brimming with unshed tears. 'Not until I've thanked him. If you only knew how much I've longed to thank him but I had no way of discovering who he was and tracing him. I didn't know his name—'

  At that confusing declaration Alesia stared in astonishment and, to her surprise, Sebastien stepped up to the bed and took the hand that was offered, enveloping slender fingers with his own large, strong hand. 'No thanks are needed. Not then and not now—and I had no idea who you were until very re­cently.'

  'There were so many people on the yacht that day—'

  Alesia glanced between them in confusion. 'Mum—?'

  'How did you make contact with him?' Her mother turned towards her and the tears spilled over and trickled down her pale cheeks. 'You knew how much I wanted to find the man who rescued me. Without a name, how did you ever find him, you clever girl?'

  The man who had rescued her?

  Stunned into silence, Alesia sat still, unable to speak or move for a long moment. When she finally managed to produce words, her voice was croaky. This was the man who rescued you when the boat exploded?'

  That couldn't be true.

  It couldn't have been Sebastien.

  'And you. He rescued you too’ her mother said, a trem­ulous smile on her face as she looked at Sebastien. 'He risked his life so many times going under the water to find you. I saw you on the gangplank only seconds before the explosion. I knew you were in the water, probably too badly injured to help yourself. I was screaming and screaming for someone to save my baby.'

  'Your mother was trapped under wreckage on the boat,' Sebastien said gruffly, his dark eyes shadowed by the mem­ory. 'She refused to cooperate with any sort of rescue until I'd found her daughter.'

  Alesia was in shock. The vision in her head. The man she remembered. 'It was you?' Her voice was barely audible. 'The man who rescued me—the man I remember— that was you?’

  His jaw tightened. 'I didn't realize myself until the night when you told me your story,' Sebastien confessed, lines of tension visible around his dark eyes. 'I realized then that it had to have been your mother that I'd rescued but I had no idea that she was still alive. Philipos informed everyone that she had died along with Costas.'

  'That's what he wanted people to believe. He wanted me out of his life. You went back on to the boat to rescue others,' Alesia's mother said quietly, ‘ and the ambulance took the two of us to hospital. I asked everyone about you but no one knew anything. Then Dimitrios had us flown to England and I was forbidden from ever visiting Greece again. We kept our identity secret under his instructions.'

  Sebastien frowned, every inch of him suddenly alert. 'How could he make such a threat? How could he prevent you from visiting? And why?'

  Her mother closed her eyes. 'He hated me from the first moment that Costas brought me home to Corfu. When Costas was killed there was no one to defend me. He threatened to take Alesia from me,' she said wearily, ‘and bring her up as a Greek. As his own. He didn't really want her. It was just a threat to punish me. Few people know just how evil that man is. There was no way I wanted him near my daughter. I agreed to disappear. To break all contact. It suited him. It was what he always wanted.'

  'He paid you to disappear?' Sebastien's eyes darkened with shock and disapproval and Charlotte Rawlings gave a tired laugh.

  'Pay? Dimitrios? That shows how little you know him. No, he didn't pay me a penny.'

  Sebastien stilled. 'But you were severely injured with a young daughter to support—how did you manage? You had family of your own to care for you?'

  ‘ I had no family, and I managed because my daughter is a unique and very special person,' Charlotte said in a gruff voice and Alesia coloured.

  'Mum, I think you should rest now—'

  'Not yet.' Sebastien tightened his hand around her mother's. 'Please—if you can manage it, I really need to hear the rest of this story.'

  'Alesia recovered remarkably quickly from her injuries and she was a bright little thing.' Charlotte smiled lovingly at her daughter. 'One of the doctors who was treating me and knew our circumstances suggested she try for a scholarship at a top boarding school. She was accepted. It was a difficult decision but the right one. I was having endless operations. In the holidays she stayed with one of her tutors and they brought her to see me all the time.'

  Sebastien was listening intently, all his attention focused on her face. 'Go on—'

  'By the time she went to university I needed all sorts of care that we had to pay for.' Charlotte shot her daughter a tortured look. ‘Alesia worked night and day to provide for me. She would do anything . And when she discovered that there was a chance that this operation could help me walk again she got herself this amazing job in Greece—'

  A tense silence followed that announcement and Alesia closed her eyes, waiting for Sebastien to tell her mother the truth.

  'You should rest now’ he said calmly, standing up and arranging the sheets more comfortably around her mother, 'but before we leave you for a while, I have one more ques­tion. Why, when Alesia grew up and he could no longer take her away, did you not ask Philipos for money once again? You are his only family. He had a duty to provide for you.'

  'Dimitrios knows nothing about duty and he never gives away money’ her mother said with quiet dignity. ‘ And he doesn't know the meaning of family’

  Something dark and dangerous flickered in Sebastien's eyes. Then it's time he was educated on that subject,' he said grimly, straightening to his full height, dominating the small hospital room with his powerful presence. 'And I can assure you that he will be a willing pupil. He will live up to his responsibilities’

  Charlotte Rawlings closed her eyes wearily. 'No. I want no contact with that man. I never want to hear the names Philipos or Fiorukis again’

  Alesia froze in horror. Although her mother obviously rec­ognized Sebastien as the man who'd rescued her from the explosion, she clearly didn't know his identity. What would her mother say when she realized that her daughter had mar­ried a Fiorukis? And that she'd approached her grandfather for money?

  Sebastien gave a calm , reassuring smile. 'I want you to rest and stop worrying’ he instructed firmly, 'and I will bring Alesia back tomorrow’

  Her mother opened her eyes and smiled. 'You can stay another day?' Her eyes brightened. 'When do you have to go back?'

  Sebastien frowned. 'She can stay as long as she needs to,' he said roughly and then walked out of the room.

  Alesia gave her mother a hug and then hurried after him, virtually running so that she could match his long stride.

  'Sebastien, wait' Breathless, she caught his arm, forcing him to stop. 'Please don't just walk off. I know you're still angry with me but we have to talk. You saved my life. can't believe it was you.'

  Burning dark eyes collided with hers and he caught her arms and backed her against the nearest wall, his whole body throbbing with barely contained fury. 'And we would have discovered that fact a whole lot sooner if you'd been honest with me. When will you learn to trust me and tell me the truth?' he demanded in a raw undertone, his strong fingers biting into her soft flesh as he kept her pinned against the wall.

  'On a daily basis I learn something new ab
out my wife and the process is exhausting. Each time the phone rings I wonder what amazing fact I am about to discover that you have kept hidden. Until I met you I thought that I had an incredibly effective intelligence network. Suddenly I discover that I know nothing.’

  'You probably weren't looking in the right place,' Alesia muttered awkwardly, realizing that for a man accustomed to being in control all these revelations must be difficult to cope with. 'You didn't know my mother was alive.'

  'That's right, I didn't' He stared at her with naked exas­peration. 'Why did you hide that fact from me? And the fact that you were on the boat too?'

  She lifted a hand to her throbbing forehead, desperate to make him understand. 'Because if I'd told you the truth you would have known that we were anything but a happy family. And if you'd known that my grandfather despised me, then you would have known that his desire for a union between us was driven by a desire for revenge, not grandchildren to bounce on his knee. I was too scared to tell you the truth.'