by Lynne Graham
Winnie was gobsmacked by that reply enumerating Eros’s advantages and it momentarily silenced her.
‘Of course, you’ll marry him. Why wouldn’t you? He owes you a wedding ring,’ her grandfather informed her sternly. ‘It’ll put right everything that was done wrong. Tell me the date and I’ll even put in an appearance on the day.’
‘I was planning to ask you to get me a good lawyer to fight him,’ Winnie almost whispered, already reckoning that that was a hope doomed to failure.
‘No, you’ll have the benefit of my legal team when you’re divorcing him,’ Stam assured her with calm emphasis.
‘But if I don’t marry him, he’s threatening to fight me for custody of Teddy.’
‘But why wouldn’t you want to marry him and put everything right?’ the older man demanded in what sounded like honest disbelief. ‘You said you would marry to please me.’
‘Yes...anyone but Eros,’ Winnie mumbled shakily.
‘Nevrakis is my choice but don’t worry, you and the little boy will be coming home with me after the wedding,’ Stam informed her with immense satisfaction.
No way was he prepared to entrust Nevrakis with his granddaughter and great-grandson’s future happiness, Stam reflected grimly. He would care for Winnie and Teddy, and give them the support and security that they needed to flourish. How could he possibly trust Nevrakis to do that for him? Neither respect nor care had featured in Nevrakis’s behaviour during his affair with Winnie and Stam had never believed that a leopard could change his spots. Winnie and Teddy would be safer with him. It was his job to ensure that no further harm came to his family, so naturally they would have to leave Nevrakis and come home with Stam after the wedding. That was the only way that he could fully protect the pair of them from further harm.
It occurred to Winnie, even in her shell-shocked state of betrayal, that Eros wouldn’t like getting married and then finding that his wife and child had flown, and she tottered into the house, only to be engulfed by her sisters and their frantic questions. For the first time ever, she found herself being less than honest with her siblings. How could she tell them that Eros had threatened to expose their secrets and frailties in an open courtroom? It would seriously distress and frighten them.
My goodness, had her grandfather engineered Eros’s sudden reappearance in her life? What else was she to believe? Stam Fotakis was a control freak. He liked to pull strings, enjoyed manipulating people into doing his bidding. Was it her grandfather who had told Eros about Teddy? She should have worked out that reality from the minute Eros had appeared without warning, she censured herself severely. Where had her wits been when she’d accepted that that was only a coincidence? Combined with her grandfather’s admission that he wanted her to marry Eros and Eros’s sudden proposal, she felt as though she had been dangled like bait on a fish hook. What else didn’t she know? What else had either man not told her? It infuriated her to be left in ignorance.
‘Why the hell would you want to marry him?’ Vivi demanded furiously.
Zoe cleared her throat. ‘He’s gorgeous, he’s rich and she used to love him and he’s Teddy’s father. I disagree but I can understand where Grandad’s coming from. Those inducements do provide quite a strong argument.’
‘He’s a rat!’ Vivi objected.
‘We also have John and Liz and Grandad’s proposition to consider,’ Winnie reminded her sisters quietly. ‘He wants me to marry Eros and if I don’t have to live with him, I think, I think I’ll do it and that’ll be that, my duty done.’
‘But you can’t,’ Vivi argued emotively, her eyes full of compassion. ‘Let’s face it, you really don’t want to be forced to have anything to do with Eros Nevrakis.’
‘No, but beggars don’t have choices,’ Winnie breathed starkly. ‘This is the price for my having made the mistake of having an affair with him. I’ll do it for Teddy and for John and Liz.’
But she lay in bed that night thinking about that kiss she had succumbed to, and hating herself like poison for still being that weak and vulnerable with a man who had almost destroyed her two years earlier. She had spent weeks locked in her bedroom before she had found employment, listening to songs of heartbreak on endless replay until the reality that she was pregnant and had to make plans for the future had finally pierced her shell of self-pity and made her pick herself up and shake herself down again.
A marriage that was only a marriage on paper to satisfy her grandfather would suit her to perfection. Eros wouldn’t be able to threaten her or her sisters with her grandfather behind her as support, she told herself urgently. All she had to do was play along, let the arrangements take their course and wait for Eros to get stung in the tail by Stam Fotakis just as she and her sisters had been. Eros would not get her as a wife and he would not get Teddy either and, bearing in mind the way he had threatened her and Vivi and Zoe, that was exactly what he deserved... Wasn’t it?
She had to look after Vivi and Zoe. Hadn’t that always been her role as big sister? Yet her sisters had been separated from her as children and she had not been able to prevent them from suffering through unhappy and challenging experiences in foster care. That sad failure still on her conscience, Winnie knew that there was nothing she wouldn’t do to protect her sisters’ well-being now that they were adults.
And naturally she wanted nothing more to do with Eros, naturally she didn’t want to live with the man! After all, he had pulled the wool over her eyes before and hurt her terribly. Obviously, she didn’t want to give him another opportunity! Eros was her fatal flaw, her weakness. It was a shameful truth but there it was. She had no common sense around him and her defences were paper-thin. If she didn’t guard herself, she would get hurt again and spending too much time exposed to Eros was an inexorable way of putting herself in jeopardy. She would just be an accident waiting to happen, she thought with a shiver of foreboding.
CHAPTER FIVE
WINNIE WOULD HAVE been surprised to appreciate that her future husband on paper only was well aware of the size and calibre of the odds stacked up against him. Eros was shrewd and he already knew that his future grandfather-in-law loathed him for the sin of turning his granddaughter into an unmarried mother. Forewarned was forearmed as far as Eros was concerned and no sooner had Eros received a cool little phone call from Winnie informing him that she had thought the situation over and that she would marry him than he began putting in place the kind of security he had never dreamt he would have to hire.
Nevertheless, Stamboulas Fotakis was devious, and Eros had no intention of letting the older man control or manipulate him. Stam would have to be satisfied with having shocked Eros with the news that he was a father at their first meeting, for it was the only winning move he would get to make in the game unfolding. Eros would not allow either his wife or his child to be damaged by the conflict between himself and Teddy’s great-grandfather. Stam would have to wise up and accept the status quo, Eros reflected grimly, determined to protect his future family from every malign influence, including that of an old man who was bitter and unforgiving.
While Eros was plotting with the same dexterity that his future grandfather-in-law excelled at, Winnie was shyly admitting that she was about to marry Teddy’s father to John and Liz Brooke and receiving their entirely innocent approval and congratulations, for she had never told them that Eros had been a married man at the time of her son’s conception. Vivi rolled her eyes in sympathy for that concealment of the unlovely truth and sat chatting to one of the teenage foster kids at the kitchen table while Zoe, as usual, busied herself round the kitchen as a background girl, hoping to deflect any interest anyone might have in her.
‘I know it may seem old-fashioned for you young parents to get married these days but I’m very pleased,’ Liz confided, squeezing Winnie’s small hand, her plump face wreathed in a bright smile of pleasure. ‘Marriage seems more secure to my generation. I wasn’t criticising.’
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‘No, I know you weren’t.’ Winnie gave the older woman a hug while John, a quiet man at the best of times, beamed approval and mentioned that it would do Teddy good to have a father around.
The very first pang of guilt pierced Winnie at that moment because she knew she would be leaving Eros straight after the wedding to return to her grandfather’s house. Teddy wasn’t going to have a father around. Instead he would only enjoy occasional visits from him. Unfortunately for her, it went against her inherently honest nature to deceive anyone, even Eros. She knew that Eros was expecting her to stay with him, to act as a wife and a mother by his side, and the awareness of that lowering fact prevented her from experiencing even an ounce of satisfaction over the reality that she would be spiking Eros’s big guns and threats with superior power.
Now, however, Winnie was finally looking beneath those superficial reactions and admitting a less welcome truth to herself. Frankly, she was terrified of the mere prospect of having to live with Eros, she admitted guiltily. In such a position she would end up letting her guard slip and she would let him hurt her all over again. In reality she was being a total coward about Eros because she was struggling to keep everyone else happy. She wanted to please her grandfather, save John and Liz and protect her siblings, and she could see no way other than marrying Eros to achieve those goals. What other option did she have?
So, of course, she was going to have to leave Eros after the wedding. That would make her grandfather and her sisters happy and it would also ensure that she didn’t need to risk herself in Eros’s radius again. It wouldn’t make Eros happy, she acknowledged ruefully, but since she couldn’t credit that he really wanted to marry her, she was convinced that he would soon see the benefits of almost immediately regaining his freedom.
Her grandfather phoned her when she returned home, telling her with positive good cheer that he had deposited sufficient funds in her bank account to cover what he called ‘wedding fripperies.’ ‘All you have to do is buy your and your sisters’ dresses. I will take care of everything else.’
In that assumption, however, Stamboulas Fotakis discovered himself to be sadly mistaken because Winnie’s future husband informed him that the ceremony of marriage had to take place on the island of Trilis because it had been where his ancestors had married. Stam had never viewed Nevrakis as a sentimental man but on that one point the younger man was stubbornly immovable, and Stam knew that he could hardly refuse his future grandson-in-law the right to use the island and the house he had already promised him because it would be a sign of bad faith. Exasperated, Winnie’s grandfather found himself having to adjust his plans to fit someone else’s and it had been a very long time since Stam had suffered through that experience and bitten his tongue.
Perfectly conscious that he was creating waves, Eros flew out to Greece and organised a helicopter to take him out to the private island where no Nevrakis of his acquaintance had set foot in over thirty years. Even when his parents had still been together they had not visited the island because his father had very much preferred city life. The house had been renovated in the eighties, presumably sometime after Winnie’s grandfather had acquired ownership, and since then it had been maintained in pristine condition, so, on that score, Eros had no complaints. The property was fully fit for occupation and for wedding catering.
Eros stood on the cliff gazing out to sea, enjoying the sunlight slowly tapering into a peach-coloured sunset while he thought with satisfaction about showing that same view to his son and to his wife. He was certain that Winnie had absolutely no idea of her grandfather’s intention of stealing her and Teddy back on their wedding day. Unfortunately for Fotakis, the minute he had gone into a rant at their first meeting, insisting that neither Winnie nor Teddy actually needed Eros in their lives, Eros had smelled a rat and acted accordingly.
Where Winnie was concerned, however, he was convinced that she did not have a single sly, cheating bone in her little curvy body. That was, after all, what had first attracted him to her, he freely acknowledged.
He could read her expressive face like a picture book. She scored low in the feminine guile and calculation stakes and she didn’t play power games like her grandfather or like many of the women Eros had met in his thirty years. No, what you saw was what you got with Winnie, unlike her grandfather, prepared to pressure a bridegroom into a wedding that he had no intention of allowing to become a marriage. Stam, however, was known for having done something similar with his eldest son, refusing to accept the wife his son had chosen and eventually becoming estranged from his own flesh and blood over his choice of partner. It was a track record that telegraphed a loud warning to Eros that he was dealing with a man who only ever paid heed to his own feelings and beliefs. He had displayed sufficient antipathy for Eros to recognise that the older man would not willingly accept him as a member of his family circle.
* * *
Winnie and her sisters went shopping. Neither Vivi nor Zoe paid the smallest heed to Winnie’s plea to keep expenses to the minimum. In fact even Zoe laughed at that suggestion, reminding Winnie that it was to be a society wedding and the last thing Stam Fotakis would want was his grandchild dressed like a bargain-basement bride. Even Winnie, nonetheless, was overwhelmed by the whole bridal-salon experience and the kind of feminine extras that there had never before been room for in her budget.
Eros phoned her around noon and Zoe answered Winnie’s phone because Winnie was being eased into a foaming mass of lace by two assistants.
‘It’s Eros...’ she said, extending the phone once Winnie had emerged again.
‘Lunch?’ Eros enquired.
‘Er...’ Tumbled and flushed, Winnie stared at herself in the full-length mirror and knew she still hadn’t found the right dress because it was too fussy and frilly for her taste. ‘I’m trying on wedding stuff,’ she muttered. ‘Today’s not good.’
‘Dinner tonight, then,’ Eros decided arrogantly.
‘No, I—’ Winnie began, keen to avoid him as much as was humanly possible.
‘I haven’t seen you since you agreed to marry me,’ Eros reminded her darkly. ‘Is there a reason for that?’
Something like panic infiltrated Winnie and she dragged in a stark breath, reminding herself that she had to play along and that avoiding him altogether wasn’t an option. ‘No, tonight will do fine. What time?’
Zoe dropped the phone back into Winnie’s bag and looked at her expectantly.
‘Dinner tonight,’ she muttered in explanation.
‘Put on your acting shoes,’ Vivi advised. ‘Of course, he’s going to expect to see you and discuss arrangements and the like.’
‘I suppose,’ Winnie mumbled grudgingly.
‘Not that dress. Makes you look like a dumpy version of a ballerina doll,’ Vivi whispered, making her older sister loose an involuntary giggle.
Even so, Winnie found it a challenge to regain her former light-hearted mood and reminded herself that it scarcely mattered what she wore to a fake wedding. But she chose a gown she liked, a sleek elegant dress that did wonders for her small curvy figure, reasoning that she needed to look her best with so many guests being invited by her grandfather and Eros.
She borrowed a dress and shoes from Zoe to wear that evening. Her own wardrobe was small and contained few smart outfits. The dress was black and unremarkable in every way, which suited her attitude to dining out with Eros.
‘It’s a funeral dress,’ Vivi scolded. ‘It’s long and it’s shapeless—’
‘And it will do fine,’ Winnie cut in impatiently.
‘Don’t mind me,’ Vivi said drily. ‘But you’re supposed to be playing the happy bride-to-be.’
‘I’m not happy about any of this,’ Winnie admitted ruefully.
‘That man is about to get exactly what he deserves!’ Vivi proclaimed vengefully.
‘Two wrongs don’t make a right,’ Zoe reasoned with a
wince, squeezing Winnie’s hand in sympathy. ‘Maybe you’ll decide to give him another chance... Who knows?’
‘Get a life, Zoe!’ Vivi exclaimed. ‘Eros wants his son, not Winnie.’
Winnie’s slight shoulders hunched and colour faded from her cheeks. That even her sisters saw that so clearly mortified her.
‘I’m sorry,’ Vivi muttered ruefully to her older sister. ‘But what else are we supposed to think? He’s divorced but he didn’t come looking for you even when he was free, did he?’
‘No,’ Winnie conceded, sucking in a steadying breath when faced with that truth again, hating herself for squirming at the reminder. What did it matter with only a fake wedding ahead of her? What did any of it matter now? She had loved him but he hadn’t loved her, the oldest story of heartbreak in the world and one of the most common, she told herself impatiently.
‘Maybe he felt guilty too,’ Zoe muttered. ‘Maybe he didn’t feel entitled to be happy after his divorce.’
‘Oh...you!’ Vivi scolded her optimistic kid sister. ‘You’d find a bright side to any catastrophe!’
None of those somewhat distressing conversations put Winnie in the mood to see Eros again. She reckoned she was oversensitive to the pain that Eros had caused her and equally thin-skinned when it came to that past being discussed because he had been a subject her siblings had staunchly avoided during the period when she was nursing a broken heart. Fortunately, she had moved on, got over him, completely got over him, she reminded herself doggedly.
It didn’t help to walk out to the limousine that was there to collect her and see Eros standing beside the open passenger door in dialogue with a man who was unmistakeably one of her grandfather’s security team. One glance at that classic bronzed profile and the sheer height and elegance of him in a formal dinner jacket and narrow black trousers and she was challenged to even swallow.