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‘Yes. It was dangerous, less safe for you to do that...but in a crowded restaurant and with you the guest of honour, who could have hoped to have removed you from the premises without it being noticed?’
‘Maybe that wasn’t the intent, maybe someone just wanted to make me ill,’ Gaby muttered uncertainly. ‘I only had one glass of champagne and nothing to eat. We had only just ordered. The only people who came close to me were the sommelier and the waiter.’
‘Unless the drug was administered by one of your companions at the table,’ Angel slotted in darkly. ‘We cannot ignore that possibility, unpleasant though it is to suspect friends and family members of such an offence.’
‘NotLiz and Laurie,’ Gaby affirmed her complete trust in her friends.
A doctor arrived to check her over. Angel hovered, his anxiety a revelation to her because she had never seen Angel less than cool and collected or so concerned about anything. She was shaken too by the acceptance that when she had begun to panic as her body had failed to cooperate with her, she had instinctively turned to him for help. Without a moment’s hesitation she had known that she could depend on him in a crisis and that revealed a level of basic trust in Angel that she had not known she had.
‘Liz and Laurie are waiting outside to see you. They couldn’t be persuaded to continue the evening and they followed me to the hospital in a taxi,’ he told her with faint amusement. ‘Despite my discouragement.’
‘Never try to come between a woman and her best friends,’ Gaby teased with a sudden smile.
A wicked grin of amusement chased the gravity from Angel’s firm, sensual mouth and his dark golden eyes smouldered a lighter shade. Her mouth ran dry as her nipples pinched taut and an almost unbearable ache stirred between her thighs. Hunger clawed at her and she gritted her teeth in an effort to restrain that fierce surge of sexual awareness. As colour washed her cheeks, she turned her head away in embarrassment. ‘I still can’t believe that someone gave me a drug... I suppose I don’twantto believe it.’
‘None of us do but you arrived here quickly enough for the hospital to administer a blood test and we have the proof.’ Angel sank down on the edge of the bed, dangerously close, frustratingly far, the faint scent of his cologne assailing her, achingly familiar. ‘From this moment on you will enjoy a steel ring of protection around you...nothinglike this will ever happen to you on my watch again,’ he swore emphatically.
‘It’s not your fault. There are people who do bad stuff everywhere,’ Gaby whispered soothingly, touched by his desire to make her feel safe again and ashamed of her own responses.
She had wanted to drag him down into the bed with her and the intensity of that desire shocked her. Attraction was one thing, ferocious craving an unbalanced and obsessive response, and Gaby admired restraint and sense much more. She could not admire the needy woman whom Angel was turning her into. It took her back to university and the pain of severance when Angel had finished his exams and returned to Themos. She had believed that she would never see him again and while in one way it had been a relief, in another it had hurt intolerably. Not for anyone was she revisiting those feelings, she assured herself bracingly.
She gave a statement to a police inspector who was very nervous at being in Angel’s presence. Gaby had nothing much to tell the officer. She had not noticed anyone paying particular attention to her in the restaurant and did not feel that she made a very good witness. Liz and Laurie came in to visit her and Liz admitted that she had suspected something was wrong and had followed her to the cloakroom, only to find her passed out.
‘And then Angel arrived when I was trying to revive you and it was all high drama then. He was very upset, and he grabbed you up and carried you out of the rear entrance of the restaurant with all his security men trying to take you off him and he wasn’t having that. He didn’t want anyone else touching you.’
‘You know, I’ve never been his biggest fan,’ Laurie chipped in ruefully. ‘But heisbrilliant in an emergency. I saw another side to him. He’s very protective and he was in a rage that you had been harmed but his temper didn’t get in the way of ensuring that you received immediate attention.’
At some stage of their visit, Gaby drifted into a doze and when she wakened again, Angel was back with her and a golden dawn was lifting the light levels in the room. ‘Have you been here all night?’ she asked, noting that the stubble surrounding his wide, sensual mouth was much darker and heavier.
‘Yes. The doctors are happy for you to leave now and your maid has sent a change of clothes for you. If you feel up to it, we’ll head back to the palace for breakfast.’
Uncomfortable because she felt such a mess, Gaby sat up and pushed back the sheet to swing her legs experimentally off the side of the bed.
‘Careful,’ Angel warned, cupping her elbow to keep her steady. ‘You could still be dizzy.’
Gaby grasped the bag he handed her and entered the bathroom, keen to remove her make-up and have a shower. Her reflection made her groan out loud. Her eye make-up had smudged, and she looked like a racoon. The shower refreshed her, but she still felt uncharacteristically weak. Not the way a woman wanted to feel the day before her wedding, she reflected ruefully, wondering who on earth had put that drug in her drink. Or even had it been meant for someone else at the table? Mulling over every possible permutation of what had happened, she put on the tailored trousers and top packed for her use and brushed her messy hair before bundling it up in a bun.
‘I think I’ll need another nap,’ she confided in the limousine wafting them back to the palace. ‘But Alexios will be wondering where I am.’
‘When we get back, I’ll spend some time with him. You need to rest. The wedding will be tiring,’ Angel warned her. ‘And I have some jewellery for you to examine.’
Back at the palace, Gaby took a nap. When she was up again, Angel brought a collection of jewellery to her suite and encouraged her to look at the pieces. ‘I am hoping that you will choose to wear the sapphire set with your wedding dress. They are family heirlooms.’
Shock having seized hold of her lungs, Gaby stared down in disbelief at the jewellery on display for her benefit. It comprised a magnificent sapphire and diamond tiara, a pendant and earrings. ‘Wow,’ she framed limply, for she had no words to describe such glittering theatrical opulence. ‘Did this superb set belong to your mother?’
‘No, my mother preferred contemporary pieces. The sapphire set belonged to my father’s mother. They are of Russian origin and design and she brought them with her when she married my grandfather. The choice of whether or not you wear them tomorrow is, of course, yours.’ Angel paused. ‘I believe you have a dress fitting now...your maid reminded me.’
Gaby winced. ‘I forgot about that!’
‘They’re waiting for you in the room across the corridor,’ Angel told her helpfully.
The afternoon bled away in a welter of wedding business, from how she was to wear her hair to which door she was to use entering the cathedral. A miniature map of the floorplan was laid in front of her. Not having realised until that point quite how elaborate the arrangements had to be for so large and important a wedding, Gaby began feeling increasingly nervous. What would Angel expect of her in her role as his consort? Would she be able to cope? As anxious as she was, it was a relief to head up to the nursery where she planned to spend some time with her son.
Alexios, however, was in the bath and when she peered in, she was taken aback by the sight of Angel in his shirtsleeves getting thoroughly wet as he divebombed their son’s plastic ducks from on high. Water splashed everywhere as Alexios squealed with pleasure and smacked the water in excitement.
Marina, hovering at the back of the room holding Angel’s jacket, beamed and stepped back into the nursery to join Gaby. ‘They are having so much fun together,’ she said happily.
‘Yes,’ Gaby agreed. ‘I won’t disturb them. I’ll come back to feed Alexios in half an hour.’
