point.’
He nodded. ‘But now it’s going to be different. I’m going to look after you until you’re better.’ Tenderly he helped her into her pyjamas, and a thought seemed to strike him. ‘How long have you been here?’
‘Three days.’
‘When did you get back from England?’
‘I haven’t been to England. What made you think I had?’
‘When I found your phone turned off I called the house and spoke to someone who said you’d gone to England with Nikator. There was a message that neither of you wanted to be disturbed-for quite a while.’
‘And you believed that?’ she demanded. ‘What are you-dead in the head?’
‘How could I not believe it? There was nothing to tell me any different. You’d vanished without a trace. Your phone was switched off.’
‘I lost it in the water. I’ve got a new one.’
‘How was I supposed to know? You might have gone with him.’
But he knew that wasn’t the real reason for his credulity. Nikator’s lie had touched a nerve, and that nerve led back to a lack of self-confidence so rare with him that he couldn’t cope with it.
Petra was still indignant.
‘It wasn’t possible,’ she fumed. ‘It was never possible, and you should have known that.’
‘How could I know it when you weren’t there to tell me?’ he asked reasonably. ‘If I didn’t think it through properly, maybe it’s your fault.’
‘Oh, right, fine. Blame me.’
‘You left without a word.’
‘
‘Don’t tell me what I want and don’t want,’ he said with a faint touch of the old ferocity.
‘You were pushing me away, you know you were-’
‘No, that’s not what I-’
‘Sending me different signals that I couldn’t work out.’
He tore his hair. ‘Maybe I couldn’t work them out myself. You told me you’d finished with me-’
‘I didn’t actually say that-’
‘The hell you didn’t! Have you forgotten some of the things you said? I haven’t. I’ll never forget them. I never wanted you to go away. And then-’ he took a shuddering breath ‘-you could have died on that boat, and you might not have been on it if it weren’t for me. I just had to know you were safe, but after that-well, you and he seemed so comfortable together.’
‘Except that he took the chance to spread lies,’ she seethed. ‘I was actually beginning to think he might not be so bad after all. I’ll strangle him.’
‘Leave it for a while,’ he soothed. ‘Then we’ll do it together. But until then you stay in bed until I say you can get up.’
‘I’m not fragile,’ she protested. ‘I won’t break.’
‘That’s my decision. You’re going to be looked after.’
‘Yes, sir,’ she said meekly, through twitching lips.
He threw her a suspicious glance. She retaliated by saluting him.
‘I understand,
He smiled then. ‘Oh, I think you might like it,’ he said.
‘Yes,’ she said happily. ‘I think I just might.’
That night she slept better than she’d done for weeks. It might be the effect of snuggling down in Lysandros’s comfortable bed, waited on hand and foot and told to think of nothing but getting well. Or perhaps it was the blissful sensation of being beside him all night, ordered to, ‘Wake me if you need anything.’
Or the moment when she half-awoke in the early hours to find him sitting by the window, and the way he hurried over, saying, ‘What is it? What can I do for you?’
This man would astound those who only knew him in the boardroom. His tenderness was real, and so, to her delighted surprise, was his thoughtfulness. He visibly racked his brains to please her, and succeeded because it seemed to matter to him so much. She slipped back contentedly into sleep.
When she awoke the next morning he was gone and the house was silent. Had she misread him? Had he taken what he wanted, then abandoned her to make her suffer for invading his privacy? But, although that fitted with his reputation, she couldn’t make herself believe it of the man who’d cared for her so gently last night.
‘Aaaaah,’ she gasped slowly, rubbing her back as she eased her way out onto the landing.
Downstairs, the front door opened, revealing him. As soon as he saw her at the top of the stairs he hurried up, demanding, ‘What are you doing out of bed?’
‘I had to get up for a few minutes,’ she protested.
‘Well, now you can go right back. Come along.’
But once inside the bedroom he pointed her to a chair, saying brusquely, ‘Sit there while I remake the bed.’
Gladly she sat down, watching him pull the sheets straight, until finally he came to help her stand.
‘I’m just a bit stiff,’ she said, clinging to him gladly and wincing.
‘You’ll be less stiff when I’ve given you a good rub. I went out for food and I remembered a pharmacy where they sell a great liniment. Get undressed and lie down.’
She did so, lying on her front and gasping as the cool liniment touched her. But that soon changed to warmth as his hand moved here and there over her bruises.
‘They seem more tender now than last night,’ she mused.
‘You should have rested at once,’ he told her. ‘It’s my fault you didn’t.’
‘Yes,’ she remembered, smiling. ‘We did something else instead. It was worth it.’
‘I’m glad you think so, but I’m not touching you again until you’re better.’
‘Aren’t you touching me now?’
‘This isn’t the same thing,’ he said firmly.
And it wasn’t, she thought, frustrated. His fingers moved here and there, sometimes firm, sometimes soft, but tending her, not loving her. There was just one moment when he seemed on the edge of weakening, when his hand lingered over the swell of her behind, as though he was fighting temptation. But then he won the fight and his hand moved firmly on.
She sighed. It wasn’t fair.
Later, in the kitchen, she watched as he made breakfast.
‘They wouldn’t believe it if they could see you now,’ she teased.
He didn’t need to ask who ‘they’ were.
‘I’m trusting you not to tell them,’ he said. ‘If you breathe a word of this I’ll say you’re delusional.’
‘Don’t worry. This is one secret I’m going to keep to myself. You don’t keep any servants here?’
‘I have a cleaning lady who comes in sometimes, but I prefer to be alone. Most of the house is shut up, and I just use a couple of rooms.’
‘What made you come here now?’
‘I needed to think,’ he said, regarding her significantly. ‘Since we met…I don’t know…everything should have been simple…’
‘But it never has been,’ she mused. ‘I wonder if we can make things simple by wanting it.’
‘No,’ he said at once. ‘But if you have to fight-why not? As long as you know what you’re fighting for.’
‘Or who you’re fighting,’ she pointed out.
‘I don’t think there’s any doubt about who we’ll be fighting,’ he said.
‘Each other. Yes, it makes it interesting, doesn’t it? Exhausting but interesting.’
He laughed and she pounced on it. ‘I love it when you laugh. That’s when I can claim a victory.’
‘You’ve had other victories that maybe you don’t know about.’ He added with a touch of self-mockery, ‘Or maybe you do.’
‘I think I’ll leave you to guess about that.’
