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‘No.’ Ionanthe denied his accusation fiercely, shaking her head. ‘Someone left the window open and there was snow on your laptop case. I merely intended to move it out of harm’s way. The papers fell out.’ When she saw the cynical look he was giving her she cried out, ‘It’s the truth. Not that I have any need to justify myself to you now that I’ve seen what you plan to do.’
‘What I plan to do?’
‘You can’t deny it. I’ve seen the evidence with my own eyes. When Philippe de la Croix told me he’d heard rumours that you were going to foreign conglomerates about a coal mining contract I wanted to believe that he was wrong, that unlike Cosmo you don’t see the island simply as a means of filling your own bank account. No wonder you were so keen to marry both of us. You knew about the mineral ore and you wanted to make sure that you had a legal right to it. That’s why you took me to bed and seduced me, making me believe that there could be something more between us than merely a cold dynastic marriage. And I dare say that’s why you went out with the men this morning as well. What were you really doing? Trying to take rock samples? Well, you were wasting your time. I would only ever allow this land to be mined if it was the wish of those who live on it, for their benefit, to provide them and their children with all those things that the rule of your family has denied them. No, don’t come near me,’ she told him when Max closed the door and started to walk towards her. ‘I don’t want you anywhere near me.’
‘Have you finished?’ Max’s voice was even, but there was a white line of anger round his mouth.
‘Finished? I’ve finished thinking that I can trust you to do the best for the people of Fortenegro, and I’ve certainly finished feeling that I can respect you, if that’s what you mean.’
‘For your information I did not commission that report, as you have accused me, because I want to benefit personally from the island’s resources. Far from it.’
‘I don’t believe you,’ Ionanthe told him flatly.
‘That is your choice. But think about this. I too heard about plans to sell off the island’s mineral assets to benefit the few who owned them.’
‘So you thought you’d get in on the act?’ Ionanthe interrupted him contemptuously.
‘No such thing. In fact the very accusations you are laying against me are exactly those that I should lay against you. You are the one who will stand to benefit if the minerals lying beneath your land are to be mined.’
Ionanthe was too shocked to conceal what she felt, and her response betrayed her emotions. ‘You thought that of me?’
‘Why not? Both your grandfa
ther and your sister proved themselves to be duplicitous, intent on putting their own interests first. Why should you be any different?’
Max knew that he was goading her, but he had to be sure she was saying what he thought she was saying.
‘But I am not like them. You said yourself that you knew that I was different.’
Ionanthe’s reaction was everything he’d hoped for. Even if she had originally thought about selling her mineral rights she would change her mind, see things differently, come to understand and share his views, share all those things he wanted to do for the island and those who lived there. She must care about them. She had already shown that in the way she had spoken about the need for more schools. But he must be sure. He must hear her say categorically that she had no ulterior motive for marrying him.
‘You could have been deliberately deceiving me—deliberately creating a fake persona for yourself to conceal your real intentions. When there are millions at stake, then people…’
‘You really think I would take that money for myself when the people need it so much, to pay for education and health care and a better infrastructure?’ Tears burned her eyes.
‘You had no real reason to come back to Fortenegro,’ Max pointed out. ‘You must have known that by doing so the feudal law of atonement would be invoked against you.’
‘I knew it existed, yes, but it never occurred to me that a modern man of the twenty-first century would be governed by it. Were you the ruler you should be, you would have such antiquated laws repealed.’
Her unexpected attack on him hit a raw nerve. He would already have repealed those laws had he felt that the people would accept such changes. He still intended to repeal them—once he had won their trust.
‘Such an act would merely have been empty words,’ he felt obliged to tell her. ‘It takes the will of the people to make a law work, and as you must know there any many people here on Fortenegro who, either through fear or ignorance or pride, or a mixture of all those things, are not willing to relinquish the control and power they believe such demanding laws give them. Do not deny it. That mindset is operating here within this castle and its lands every time a father refuses to allow his child an education. You have as good as said so yourself.’
‘They do that because they have no choice.’ Ionanthe immediately defended her people. ‘Because they cannot afford to take their children off the land. Because the law allows landowners to demand a set number of days of work per year from their tenants.’
When Max didn’t respond she shook her head in angry despair.
‘Oh, it is hopeless trying to make you understand.’ Tears of frustration gathered in her eyes. ‘The other night when we were discussing education you let me think that you shared my views and my hopes for the people,’ she accused him. ‘But you were just deceiving me. Why would you do that if not to lull me into a false sense of security? To make me think that we shared a similar purpose?’
‘I could just as easily use that argument against you,’ Max told her curtly.
He shouldn’t be doing this, Max knew. As Fortenegro’s ruler, he knew he had a duty of care to his people which involved questioning her motives and acting on his suspicions. But he wasn’t just Fortenegro’s ruler. He was also a man. And as that man who had held her in his arms, who had known whilst holding her there that he never wanted to let her go, surely he had a duty to that feeling?
There was only one thing he could do now—one question he had to ask. The whole of his future personal happiness was balanced on the answer.
Ionanthe possessed strength of will, she possessed courage, and she was passionate about what she believed in. He could think of no one better to share both his personal and his public life. But he also had to know that he could trust her with Fortenegro’s future; he had to know that she would put what was best for the island above her own personal gain. He could not and would not blame her for wanting to realise the wealth beneath the surface of her land for herself. From what he had learned, it was her grandfather who was to blame. He had taught his granddaughters to value wealth and pride, and to follow his example of always putting himself first.
‘If you are not lying about the mineral deposits, then tell me that you had no ulterior motive whatsoever in agreeing to marry me other than the need to protect your own safety.’
