Page 64 of Bought For The Marriage Bed

How had he not guessed? She was nothing like Nadia. She was loyal and devoted, selfless and shy, and—he gave a painful swallow—she had been a virgin.

‘Nina?’ He knocked at her door but there was no answer. He opened it but it was empty except for a few scattered articles of clothing suggesting she had packed in a hurry, not bothering to take everything with her.

‘Nina!’He called out louder as he went through to the nursery, the door swinging back against the wall in his haste.

Georgia awoke with a start and immediately began crying, her tiny frightened sobs galvanizing him out of his temporary stasis.

‘Hey there, little one,’ he soothed as he picked her up, holding her over his shoulder, stroking her as he made his way back through the rest of the villa in search of Nina.

Georgia was inconsolable, her cries growing louder and more frantic, as if she sensed the panic coming off him in waves.

‘Do not cry,’ he pleaded as he searched the downstairs rooms. ‘We will find her, do not worry. We have to find her.’

After twenty minutes he knew he was beaten. Nina was gone and he was left holding the baby—a very unhappy baby who was crying out for the mother she had come to know as her own.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

NINA decided against using the airport at Naples and hailed a cab to take her to Rome instead. She took the first available flight, arriving in Sydney bleary-eyed and broken-hearted. She stayed with Elizabeth for a week, hardly coming out of her room, her eyes red from bouts of weeping, her slim build visibly shrinking as each day passed.

Elizabeth sat on the end of her bed on the seventh day and frowned in concern. ‘Come on, Nina. Don’t take this lying down. Go and see him and tell him how you feel. Yesterday’s paper said he’s back in town now.’

‘I can’t,’ Nina sobbed.

‘Yes, you can,’ her friend insisted. ‘You love him and you love Georgia. He needs to know.’

‘He hates me.’

‘How do you know that? Things might have changed by now. Who knows? A full dose of Nadia might have set him straight.’

Nina rolled on to her back and scrubbed at her eyes. ‘It’s my fault for not telling him the truth from the start. He has every right to be angry. He married the wrong woman.’

‘What rubbish!’ Elizabeth said. ‘He married the right one, if you ask me. You are everything he needs. You are loyal and faithful and would rather suffer yourself than hurt someone else. What more could a man ask for?’

Nina’s chin wobbled. ‘I just wish I could tell him how I feel.’

Elizabeth got to her feet. ‘Do it.’ She handed her the phone from the bedside table. ‘Call him now and ask to see him.’

Nina stared at the phone for a long moment.

‘Go on,’ she urged. ‘What’s his number and I’ll dial it for you.’

Nina took the phone with an unsteady hand. ‘No…no, I’ll call him.’

‘Good girl.’ Elizabeth gave her an encouraging smile. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’ She went to the door and turned back to add, ‘Good luck.’

Nina gave her a tremulous smile and, although she’d only said she’d call Marc to get her friend off her back, she looked down at the phone in her hands, surprised to see she had pressed more than half the numbers in already. She took a shaky breath and pressed the last three.

‘Nina?’ Lucia answered on the second ring. ‘Dio! Where are you? We have been so worried! Georgia is not sleeping and Marc is—’

‘Is she all right?’ Nina gasped.

‘She is missing her mother,’ Lucia said.

‘Where is Nadia?’

Lucia made a noise of disgust in the back of her throat. ‘Not that mother—you. Your sister took the money and left.’

‘What money?’

---