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She looked pretty.
Louisa prayed it would help. Because she was terrified.
As she went downstairs, she could hear the first guests starting to arrive outside. She saw Rafael at the base of the stairs and stopped, gripping the polished wood of the railing. She closed her eyes as she took a single calming breath, her hand on her belly. Could this night be anything like her deepest dreams?
“I’m pregnant, Rafael,” she would say.
His gray eyes would widen. He’d gasp. Then he’d take her into his arms. “I am glad,” he’d say fiercely. “Of course I want this baby. And I want you. You are the only woman for me, querida.” Looking down at her, he would lift her chin and whisper tenderly, “I love you, Louisa.”
“Louisa.”
She opened her eyes to see Rafael looking up at her from the bottom of the stairs. He was frowning at her as if she’d dyed her hair purple and dressed like the Easter bunny.
“Why are you dressed like that?” he demanded, coldly surveying her from head to toe.
It wasn’t quite the reaction she’d been hoping for, but she tried to smile as she walked down the stairs—carefully, on her four-inch black patent high heels.
“For the party,” she said. She stopped one step above him. He still wouldn’t smile back at her. “For your birthday,” she tried again.
Instead of looking pleased, Rafael scowled. “You are going to attract attention like that.”
A servant should always be invisible. The rule had been drummed into her for ten months. After her parents had died, Louisa had given up her chance at a college scholarship to stay home and take care of her little sister and ailing great-aunt. But her aunt had left Louisa a small inheritance, which she’d used to attend butler school to become a certified household manager. You are not a person to your employer. You are a tool in his service. Serve invisibly. Never invade your employer’s privacy or force yourself upon his notice. To do so will cause embarrassment to you both.
Now, Louisa stiffened. “You don’t like my dress?”
He glared at her. “No.”
It seemed almost impossible to believe just that morning, she’d been in his arms. They’d been naked together in the amazing Greek mansion overlooking the Aegean. Now, when she needed his attention the most, he’d suddenly become distracted. Distant.
Was he already thinking about Dominique Lepetit, who was already on her way? Had he already forgotten Louisa completely?
“Go change,” he said coldly. “The guests will arrive any moment.”
He seemed completely disinterested in her. Just as he’d promised two days ago, their little affair had apparently cured his desire for her. He’d had his fill of her. He was done. He was ready to move on.
With a deep breath, she told herself it was irrelevant if he cared for her. She had to think about their unborn child. Rafael had to know she was pregnant. For their baby’s sake.
As he turned to leave, she grabbed his wrist. It took every ounce of her courage. “I need to talk to you.”
He stared at her hand on his wrist. She released him as if he’d burned her.
“I want you on the plane to Buenos Aires tomorrow,” he replied icily.
“Buenos Aires?” she whispered, staggered. He no longer wanted her in Paris? “Why Buenos Aires?”
“You’ll take over my house there.” He gave a single dismissive nod, already turning away. “Now go change your dress.”
Louisa felt a stab of pain.
He could not have said it more plainly. He no longer saw her as anything but a servant.
And the truth was that even in Greece, when she’d imagined herself his cosseted mistress, she’d still been his servant. Serving his needs in bed, rather than in the household. And now that he was done with her, he expected her to simply return to being invisible, to being the plain gray ghost that vanished into the hundred-year-old woodwork of the mansion.
So he cared nothing for her but as his invisible servant? She gritted her teeth.
So be it.
She had no intention of going to Buenos Aires. She wouldn’t go meekly off to serve him forever in exile, while he enjoyed a succession of other women!
