Page 64 of Midnight Surrender to the Spaniard

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I like my career, my own space, and I would never commit myself to another person. But then I found out I was to be a father...’

‘So you proposed?’

‘Looking back, it was perhaps a knee-jerk reaction.’ He shrugged. ‘It would never have worked. And then...’ He glanced over. ‘I’m sure you’ve read what happened.’

‘I want to hear what happened from you,’ Anna said.

‘We had an argument,’ he told her. ‘Here on the yacht. She was drinking—not in front of me, but Dante let me know that more champagne had been ordered.’

‘I’m not with you...’

‘He let me know in his very discreet way that my supplies were being topped up.’

‘I’d better not crack open the bar, then.’

‘Of course you can,’ he said lightly, but then he looked serious. ‘I dared to suggest to Ella that it might not be good for the baby. I asked to accompany her to her next doctor’s appointment, and it was shortly after that when she told me she’d lost the baby.’ He looked at her. ‘Anna, there never was a baby.’

‘But you said you saw the ultrasound picture.’

‘You can buy them online, apparently.’

‘She was lying all along?’

‘Ella is too arrogant in her attitude towards staff to comprehend that I talk with my crew and they with me. She was in the spa, laughing with her friend about how I’d believed her. My crew don’t spy. They don’t judge. But...’

‘They were looking out for you?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well!’ She didn’t know what to say. ‘Why did you let her get away with it?’

‘I told her what I thought, believe me.’

‘I mean, with everyone else?’

‘It’s none of their business. I don’t care what’s said about me.Iknow the truth and so does she...’

‘I’d be screaming it from the rooftops.’

‘No.’ He looked at her. ‘It’s hard to reveal what really hurts.’

He reached over and pushed her hair back from her face. He was not smoothing his way to a kiss, just trying to be gentle as he asked a question he was rather certain he already knew the answer to.

‘Did you know he was married?’

‘Of course not!’ She was alarmed. ‘How did you know...?’

‘Why else would you keep his secret?’

He watched as she started to cry. He still had no handkerchief to offer, but he handed her the shirt she’d discarded instead.

‘I had no idea...’

She felt stunned that he had guessed, and yet she felt as if he knew her—that he had taken care to work her out before diving in with his summing up.

‘He said it would end his career, his marriage...’

‘Poor professor,’ he said, and then uttered a word that even in her fragile state had her pursing her lips.

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