‘What I owe you I’ve paid in full.’
‘Have you, Andreas?’ She swallowed hard, trying not to cry. ‘Have you? Oh, you’ve married me in all honour. You’ve given me the Cinderella story. Now you’ve paid for my happy ever after. I should be grateful. But…’ She swallowed, fighting for words. ‘I want more,’ she managed, but she looked into his eyes and knew he didn’t understand.
‘Holly, this was a business arrangement,’ he said softly. ‘A marriage of necessity. I’m sorry it can’t be more.’
‘Well, so am I,’ she snapped, suddenly furious. ‘Business arrangement? No way. Not on my part. I made my vows and I meant them.’
‘Yet you don’t wish to stay.’
She stared at him, baffled. He didn’t get it. Was it only she who was hungry for what was just in front of them, so close but yet so far? She ached for him to hold her in his arms, to tell her she was indeed his wife, that he’d never let her go. Instead he talked of his duty of care to his family.
‘I think you should go now,’ she whispered.
‘Go…’
‘Back to wherever you’ve been diamond hunting. Or wherever.’
‘I don’t leave until the morning. I’d hoped-’
‘Well hope away, Your Highness,’ she snapped. ‘I’ve just had a very nasty shock. I’ve been shot at and I’m wounded. I have a headache and if you think I’m going to bed with you when I have a headache…’
‘The Holly I knew would never let a headache stop her.’
‘Yeah, well, the Holly you knew was a dope,’ she whispered. ‘The Holly you knew has gone far enough in this royal charade and can go no further. Enough, Andreas. Leave please.’
‘Holly…’ He caught her hands and drew her round, forcing her to face him. ‘I can’t believe you mean that.’ He smiled, that fabulous, gentle, seductive smile that made her toes curl, that was the source of all the trouble in the first place. ‘You don’t want me?’
‘I can’t want you,’ she said miserably. ‘Can’t you see that? Please, Andreas, no more. To be kind…just leave.’
What had she done? He stared at her for a long, tension-filled moment, his face expressionless. Then, without another word, he stood up and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. She was left staring after him in dismay.
She’d sent him away.
He was leaving anyway in the morning.
But she wanted this night.
It wasn’t going to make anything better, she thought drearily. She’d thought she could take as much of Andreas as he offered, but all his nearness did was make her ache for more.
He’d gone. She didn’t have to see him again. She could stay in her room for the rest of the day, plead headache, sleep, then when she woke he’d have left.
A stronger woman would fight for him.
Was it strong to stay in this place? Submit to endless protocol, endless absences, the clipping of her wings?
‘I’d be a bird in a gilded cage,’ she whispered to Deefer, hugging him close. ‘I can’t. Even for Andreas.’
Yet to leave him…
I’m not leaving him. He’s doing the leaving.
If you walked to the door now and called him back he’d come.
Until dawn.
‘Oh, Deef.’ She was crying, stupid helpless tears slipping down her cheeks, one after another. She hated crying. She never cried.
Andreas made her cry.
‘Which is as good a reason as any to leave,’ she told her dog. ‘I have to go. I must.’
It’d break her heart.
No. Her heart had broken years ago and the pieces were still apart. For a few short days the pieces had made a tentative effort to heal. But it hadn’t worked. Of course it hadn’t. Cinderella was for fairy tales.
She had to go…home.
He walked outside, into the palace forecourt. The sun was blazing down on the marble columns, the shining granite steps radiating heat. The white pebbles of the paved surfaces shimmered in the sun, and the vast ornate fountain gave no sense of relief. This was formality at its finest. Formality at its worst.
He lived here. It was his life.
He thought of where Holly was heading-to a vast outback wilderness, a place where nature couldn’t help but win over any attempt to tame it, and a wave of longing swept over him so strongly that it felt as if he had to physically brace himself against its force.
Munwannay and Holly.
Holly.
He couldn’t keep her here. Her place was in Munwannay. How he’d ever thought he could hold her this long…
He’d brought her here against her will and he would not keep her. Despite Sebastian. Despite his mother. They were wrong. Holly was wild and beautiful and free and he would not tame her.
His fingers were clenched so hard into his palms that they hurt. He stared down and saw he’d pierced the skin on one palm. It hurt, but compared to the gut-wrenching pain inside it was nothing. To let her go…
He had to let her go.
There was a stir behind him. He turned to find two servants pushing the door wide, and Sebastian striding out towards him.
‘I told you I wanted to see you the minute you arrived,’ he snapped.
‘Holly needed me.’
‘I have no interest in what Holly needs. You know this matter’s urgent. I want your report and I want it now. For me to have to come and find you…’
‘Unforgivable,’ Andreas said dryly. ‘You want my head off at dawn?’
‘Don’t be facetious. You know how much is at stake. I need you to be focused.’
‘Of course.’
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed. ‘I mean it, Andreas.’
‘Of course you do,’ Andreas said wearily. ‘And, yes, I know how urgent it is. Yes, I know how much our country is depending on me staying focused. It’ll happen. Holly’s leaving tomorrow for Australia.’
‘What?’ Sebastian snapped, his features darkening in displeasure. ‘I told you, I wanted the marriage to last.’
‘And I’m telling you the marriage is over,’ Andreas replied, and his voice sounded strong and sure, two emotions that were surely as far from the truth as it was possible to get. ‘Short of locking us in a dungeon there’s nothing you can do about it, brother. So set your public relations department to make as good a job of it as they can, but the thing’s not negotiable. Holly goes home tomorrow. End of story.’
