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‘Usually good fun with little adult intervention. It was different once I was older.’ Angel fell silent and looked out to the garden as though an unlucky memory had stopped him dead in his tracks. She wondered what that memory was and what had triggered it, wondering if it might explain Angel’s lack of trust in women, wondering if one of the schoolfriends had actually been a youthfulgirlfriend. Sooner rather than later Gaby intended to find out, but she would take one small step at a time.
Like the ‘terrace’, the garden was much more elaborate than one would have expected from the farmhouse setting. A riot of roses grew round a central fountain while box-edged beds were planted with herbs and perennials and paved paths ran between. Across to one side and screened off by a hedge, she saw the pale watery gleam of a swimming pool.
‘It’s really beautiful here,’ she said, keen to move on from the family and schoolfriends topic, which had silenced him. She knew enough to surmise now because, clearly, Angel hadn’t enjoyed a family life with his parents or a happy childhood. Either his parents had been too detached in nature or too busy as the sovereigns of Themos to spend much time with him.
Angel smiled again and she knew that changing the subject had been a tactful move, even if curiosity needled her more every time she had to do it. She had not known that Angel could smile at her as much as he did, and she liked that change. Angel had always struck her as rather dark and reserved at his core, rather than open and smiley.
She ate with appetite, helping herself to tasters from various plates and giving him a running commentary on her preferences while he ate only fruit, finally admitting that he had breakfasted around dawn, being an inveterate early riser, no matter how tired he was or where he was in the world. Seated dreamily in a rocking chair in the shade, Gaby sipped her coffee, pleasantly replete from the meal.
‘So,’ Angel murmured softly. ‘Cassia?’
And Gaby almost choked on her coffee. ‘Yes, that topic’s likely to be pretty difficult to tackle,’ she mumbled in an awkward recovery.
‘Why should it be? Cassia is not good with other women, but she is exceptionally good at what she does at the palace,’ Angel opined.
Gaby stiffened at his supportive, approving intonation when referring to the blonde. ‘Did you ever think of marrying her?’ she heard herself ask rather abruptly.
Taken aback in turn by that sudden question, Angel frowned. ‘In these circumstances I would like to say no, but it would be a lie. For a couple of months before I met you again, I did consider Cassia as a bride because I’ve never wanted an emotional connection with a woman,’ he explained curtly. ‘I don’t feel anything for her and I’m not particularly attracted to her, but I did think she would be a suitable choice for the role of future queen...and then you came along.’
‘And Alexios came along,’ Gaby filled in, striving to conceal her dismay at what he had told her, which meant that on that score, at least, Cassia had not been lying. At some stage, the blondehadbeen in the running to be Angel’s wife and she had been astute enough to guess that fact without him ever voicing the idea.
‘Itwasmerely a thought,’ Angel extended as if he sensed her unease. ‘I didn’t mention the idea to her or indeed ever let our relationship become close. Once one crosses those boundaries with a member of staff it is impossible to step back.’
Some of Gaby’s healthy colour had returned to her cheeks and, indeed, she even contrived to smile at him. ‘So, you’ve never had sex with Cassia?’ she double-checked.
His frown darkened. ‘Of course not. What is this all about, Gabriella? I’m beginning to feel as though I’m on trial for something.’
Gaby raised an anxious hand. ‘No, no, absolutely not! But this topic and your explanation does lead into what I had to discuss with you relating to Cassia,’ she framed uncomfortably. ‘Yesterday, on the very day of our wedding, Cassia told me that you and she were lovers on an...er...casual basis and that that would be continuingafterour marriage...’
Angel sprang upright, golden eyes gleaming dark and hard as jet with astonishment. ‘She’s an old friend. Are you sure you understood her correctly?’ he shot at her.
Gaby was knocked off balance by that immediate expression of doubt and his grim change of mood. ‘Yes, I understood her perfectly. Maybe you don’twantto believe me, Angel, but shedidmake that claim before the wedding. I’m sorry, but I don’t lie about stuff of that nature.’
‘I didn’t accuse you of lying,’ Angel countered tautly. ‘But in my experience, women often do tell lies about each other.’
‘And now you’re just showing your prejudice,’ Gaby told him, a chill running down her spine even if, unusually for her with Angel, she retained her calm. And she knew why: she was in shock at his flat refusal to creditherside of the story.
Angel spread two lean hands in an expressive arc of disagreement and dismissal. ‘I can accept that you don’t like her and that you don’t want to work with her. However, I’ve known Cassia since childhood, and I have never known her to be less than truthful.’
‘So, I’m the liar.’ Gaby framed that obvious deduction with gritted teeth.
Angel shrugged an unapologetic shoulder and turned on his heel. ‘Let’s not go there. I’m going out before I say anything that I will regret,’ he bit out. ‘I’m disappointed in you, Gabriella!’
‘Not half as much as I’m disappointed in you,’ she riposted, and for a split second she simply sat there before she plunged to her feet and grabbed up her phone.
‘Angel!’she called, racing after him because he was already halfway out of the heavy wooden front door.
His arrogant dark head turned, and he shot her a winging glance as though incredulous at her audacity in daring to approach him again after what he had said.
‘I want you to listen to this...’ she murmured quietly as she opened her phone and extended it to him. ‘But, in the mood that you are in,notwhile you’re driving.’
‘I amnotin a mood,’ Angel bit out from between white even teeth.
He was struggling not to lose his temper. It was written all over him from the flush on his exotic cheekbones to his fiery gaze right down to his knotted fists. He had ridiculously expressive body language and she wondered why it was that, even when she was mad as hell with him and reeling with the hurt that he had caused, she still just wanted to soothe him much as if he were Alexios.
‘What is...this?’ he questioned rawly, grudgingly accepting the mobile phone.
‘It’s a recording of the conversation that I had with Cassia. No,Ididn’t record it... I’m not that quick off the mark or suspicious. It was Laurie who recorded it. When Cassia asked to speak to me alone Laurie didn’t trust her and she left her phone recording in the bedroom with us,’ Gaby advanced stiffly.
