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‘Didn’t it occur to you that she might be at risk?’
‘Not with Fergal, no. He’s decent and sensible, and he’s well aware of what age she is. He does nothing to encourage her,’ Harriet countered tautly. ‘I hate to say it, but he’s probably at more risk from Una.’
Taken aback by that frank opinion, Rafael almost laughed out loud. ‘I get the picture. Your honesty on that point is appreciated.’
‘I just meant that she can be very determined. But I don’t think you need to worry. I gather Fergal’s dating some tourist at the moment.’
‘Whitewash. Fergal is not as indifferent to my sister as I would like him to be.’
‘He’s fond of Una…yes…’
‘He may not even know it, but he’s hooked. It’s a dangerous situation and I’ll deal with it.’ Rafael leant back against the solid oak table with indolent cool. ‘Next on the agenda…us.’
Harriet stiffened. ‘That’s over.’
‘But what I would like to know is…why?’
An electric silence fell. Her mind was blank. It was the most simple question, and hardly unpredictable, and yet she could not think of an answer.
‘There’s no one else, is there?’
‘No…’ The admission had escaped her before she could think better of it.
‘Then explain what happened with your sister and your mother.’
She froze. ‘What do you mean?’
‘When we flew back from Italy everything was fine. But then you went visiting for a few hours and came back the colour of a ghost, and suddenly all bets were off.’
‘No, it wasn’t like that—’
‘It was, and I want to know what changed. Did someone warn you off me? Tell tales that made your blood run cold?’ Rafael had his brilliant dark golden eyes pinned to her with penetrating force. ‘I’m trying to understand what the problem is.’
‘I didn’t say there was a problem—’
‘But there is… I’ve spent the last ten days without you. That’s a problem.’
That statement shook Harriet. ‘Is it?’
His dense lashes lowered over his intent gaze. ‘The ten lonely nights were equally painful.’
Beneath his scrutiny, Harriet lost colour, her fine facial bones tightening as she spun away from him, saying, ‘Don’t!’
‘Don’t what? This is new to me, a mhilis. I haven’t been in this position before. Usually I do the dumping. Full marks for taking me by surprise. Very few people have ever managed to do that to me.’
‘Are you saying nobody ever dumped you before?’ Suddenly, ridiculously, Harriet wanted to wrap her arms round him and cry.
‘All I want is an explanation. What went wrong? I’m an alpha-male high achiever. If you tell me why, I will never mention it again.’
Her hands knotted into fists as she fought the tears burning the back of her eyes. ‘It’s not that simple—’
‘It is that simple. Why do women always make things more complicated?’
The dark knowledge dammed up inside her weighted her down. ‘You don’t know everything…you wouldn’t even want to know…’
Rafael picked up on that declaration straight away. ‘What wouldn’t I want to know?’
Too late she recognised her mistake. ‘It was just a figure of speech.’
