AllFreeNovel
Share Us
'Would you like to check my teeth?' Jessica enquired.
Lukas stared at her for a startled moment and then gave a great shout of appreciative laughter. 'Spirit and
a sense of humour... I like that. But can you give Carlo sons?' he demanded bluntly. 'That is the most important thing.'
Carlo banded an arm to her taut spine. 'Not to me.'
'Five years of marriage and no children,' Lukas argued fiercely. 'You think about that, Carlo...send her for some tests or something and then I'll keep quiet!'
Jessica could not quite believe that this utterly revolting conversation was carrying on above her head. Carlo said something in rapid Greek and his father snapped back at him and then cast both hands in the air with an attitude of blistering contempt.
Dinner was announced.
As they left the room in the wake of Lukas, Jessica hissed at Carlo, 'I want to talk to you!'
'You want to fight, we do it in private,' he gritted down at her roughly, a dark anger seething in his flashing sidewise glance.
And what the blue blazes did he have to smoulder about?
She asked him.
'The thought of you lying under Turner for five bloody years!' he slashed back down at her with visible distaste. 'Unproductive or otherwise.'
Jessica went white.
The dining table was circular. It was
a relief to find Marika seated to one side of her. She couldn't bring herself to look at Carlo again.
'Children are very important to Greek men of my father's generation,' Carlo's sister murmured with a sigh. 'It was not his intention to hurt your feelings.'
A lie if ever there was one, even if it was meant kindly. After half an hour watching Lukas Philippides in action, it was crystal-clear that he didn't give a damn what he said or how it was received. The mere fact that Jessica was female put her in an inferior position.
Sunny was different in her husband's presence. She smiled and chattered gaily, putting on a show of great friendliness towards Jessica. She ate very little but her wine glass required constant replenishment. Father and son talked in Greek. Marika made polite, rather anxious conversation, her attention frequently straying to her sister-in-law.
Jessica was sipping her coffee when it happened. With a guttural sound of fury, Lukas reached out, snatched up his wife's glass and flung it violently against the wall. Quite unconcerned, Sunny smothered a yawn with a polite hand.
'I think I'll turn in,’ Sunny said as a poker-faced manservant began to quietly pick up the broken shards of glass.
Lukas grunted something rough in Greek and lit a fat cigar, unconcerned by the shattering silence. He gave his daughter an impatient nod.
'Would you like some fresh air, Jessica?' Marika murmured brightly on cue. 'We could walk on the terrace.'
Jessica's last view of Lukas was of him choking on the cigar and wheezing, and with the best will in the world she couldn't experience much in the way of compassion.
‘My father is not a sensitive man,' Marika said with careful emphasis as soon as the doors closed behind them. 'Don't let him upset you. I wish you could have witnessed his delight and satisfaction when he learnt of your engagement. My brother is thirty-three and the news was most welcome. We were beginning to fear that he would never marry.’
'How long is it since Carlo last saw your father? Carlo doesn't talk much about his family,' Jessica added hurriedly, fearful that she had made a slip.
But his sister's plump face merely looked sad and resigned. 'Over nine years. Of course, I have always kept
in touch with Carlo. I would say I was going shopping and we would meet up in Miami. I am deeply attached to Carlo,' she shared with great warmth. 'Ever since he was a little boy. I was seventeen when he was born and he was the most beautiful baby...'
They strolled along the paved terrace beneath the starry night sky while Marika gave her chapter and verse on Carlo's baby years. Her pride was touching, as was her pleasure in sharing such titbits with the woman she believed to be her brother's bride-to-be. Jessica felt horribly guilty. Marika was so kind and trusting, clearly not even dreaming that there was anything strange about her brother's sudden engagement.
'What was his mother like?' she asked encouragingly.
'She was very beautiful. Then, Lukas would not have
