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‘John might not be here for much longer,’ her aunt divulged tautly. ‘He’s fading away before my eyes.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ Billie responded, having also refused to think about the near impossibility of concealing her baby’s parentage if she tried to raise her child on the island. ‘I was lost in this wonderful daydream of having you here on the spot, instead of thousands of miles away. I was being silly.’
‘No, if it wasn’t for John, I would agree like a shot. I would just love a fresh start, new faces, new possibilities…’ Hilary confided breathlessly.
The germ of an audacious idea came to Billie. ‘I think I know how we could do it and nobody would ever be able to guess that it was Alexei’s baby.’
And that was the moment that the plan of concealment was born, laid out at first to an unimpressed Hilary, who thought her niece was utterly crazy to suggest such a thing; there was no question of Hilary leaving her sick husband alone in the UK. ‘But who would ever believe that your baby was mine?’
‘Why not? You’re only thirty-eight. Nobody here but Lauren knows about John’s illness,’ Billie argued with growing enthusiasm. ‘And we wouldn’t have to live the lie for ever, Hilary. Once I’d saved enough money up, I’d sell the house and find another job and we would leave the island with the secret intact. But there would be no need to continue the pretence once we settled somewhere new—’
‘Even if I was ever in a position to help you, Lauren would know we were lying—’
‘I’m sure we could persuade Mum to keep quiet. Hilary, if it was possible—it would allow me to keep my baby without causing a big furore,’ Billie reasoned fiercely. ‘Please think it over and say yes.’
‘If it’s what you really want, I would do it simply because I love babies and I’d love to live on the island. But not while John is still alive. He may not recognise me most of the time when I visit,’ Hilary admitted painfully as she referred to her husband’s dementia, ‘but he does have occasional moments when he’s quite lucid. I know he hasn’t long left but let’s not talk about the impossible right now.’
‘No, let’s not,’ Billie said, guiltily aware of her insen-sitivity.
‘I don’t understand how you’re planning to hide the fact that you’re pregnant from Alexei,’ Hilary declared.
‘I’ll conceal it for as long as I can and then I’ll ask Alexei to give me a career break so that I can return to England to stay with you for a while. It’s a reasonable request.’
‘If you give birth here you could leave the baby with me to look after. I haven’t been able to find another permanent teaching job yet and I could manage fine,’ her aunt asserted. ‘It wouldn’t be easy for you to leave your child behind with me but I’d love him or her like my own.’
r /> ‘I know you would,’ Billie replied warmly.
Billie slept right through that night for the first time since she had discovered that she was pregnant. In the dawn light she wakened and ran back over the plan, worrying over the weak spots while wincing over the idea of plunging both herself and her aunt into living a lie. No solution would be perfect or foolproof, she reasoned frantically, but one that ensured her child enjoyed loving care and security would definitely be worth bending a few rules for. She splayed her hand over the deceptive flatness of her stomach. She wanted to keep her baby; she wanted her unborn child very, very much. In the short term, if nobody was harmed by her concealing her secret, surely a few lies could be no great sin?
The next day, Damon Marios asked her to meet him at the site of her new house to discuss the terrace. She had hired him to not only design her new home, but also as project manager to supervise the building, ensuring that she endured minimal disruption to her life. In the slumberous heat of the afternoon, Billie drove up the rough gravelled lane and parked at the edge of the site beside Damon’s SUV, wondering how she would ever turn the baked-dry dustbowl of her surroundings into a garden.
‘I thought we’d have some lunch while we talked,’ Damon remarked, a smile on his handsome face as he indicated the picnic lunch already artfully arranged in the shade of a gnarled olive tree.
‘Oh…what a lovely idea,’ Billie said in surprise, lowering herself down onto the rug with a soft sigh. Damon offered her food while trying to persuade her to do something more elaborate with the terrace than had been planned. ‘The views are so spectacular,’ he pointed out.
Billie breathed in deep and shook her head at the wine he offered in favour of the bottled water. ‘I’m afraid I want the house finished as soon as possible and I would prefer not to incur any extra expense. I do still have to furnish it!’
Scanning the taut pallor of her face, Damon frowned. ‘You’ve been so stressed these past weeks, Billie. What’s wrong?’
His perceptive powers were unwelcome and her face tightened and she munched busily at her sandwich, finally pausing to murmur, ‘Nothing’s wrong. The summer heat here sometimes tires me out—that’s all.’
‘Alexei does like to get his pound of flesh. I don’t know how you stand the pace. And if the press are on the right track, he’s got that bitch Calisto back to keep him busy.’
Billie stiffened. ‘Why do you call her that?’
‘If she is back in Alexei’s life to stay, you’ll soon find out. According to my mother, Calisto was horrible to the household staff at the villa last time around…a real diva. There’s also a rumour that his parents disliked her so much they threatened to disinherit him and that that’s why she married Bethune instead.’
‘People change and she was young,’ Billie said wryly.
Damon reached for her hand. ‘We used to be close friends, Billie.’
‘I hope we still are.’ Billie gently slid her hand free again.
‘But I’d like us to be something more than friends,’ Damon was honest enough to admit as he retrieved her fingers with dogged determination.
And it was at that opportune moment that Alexei strolled out of the back of the house and stood lazily studying them from the shadows. Black hair swept back from his brow, sunglasses anchored on his arrogant nose and sheathed in a soft grey summer-weight suit, he was as stylish and sophisticated in appearance as a model on a cat walk. ‘Don’t mind me,’ he urged silkily. ‘I thought it was time I came for a look around.’
Instantly, Damon released Billie’s hand and sprang up. ‘Let me give you the official tour.’
