AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘I find it very hard to trust people.’ Angel leant back against the desk, visibly striving to look relaxed but taut as a bowstring to her more discerning gaze, every line of his lean, powerful physique tense. ‘It probably started when I was a kid. My mother didn’t have time for me or interest in me. She lacked the maternal gene, if there is such a thing.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Gaby almost whispered, reluctant to interrupt but needing to express sympathy.
‘But possibly the most damaging event for me happened when I was fifteen...’ Angel’s voice trailed off and he compressed his wide, sensual mouth. ‘It is hard for me to tell you something I have never shared before with anyone.’
Gaby sat in the suffocating silence waiting while Angel collected himself like a male about to climb a challenging mountain.
‘I brought my best friend back to the palace for the summer vacation and she...she seduced him—’
‘She...what? How old was he?’ Gaby broke in, utterly taken back.
‘He was fifteen too. I found them in bed together and afterwards when I tried to confront her, she said,What did you expect when you brought home such a beautiful boy?She had neither regret nor shame.’
Gaby had paled as he’d spoken, and she didn’t know what to say. It was too shocking and disgraceful for her to label or contrive some trite remark, because nothing could soothe such a betrayal for an adolescent boy, or the adult son who still cringed recalling that distasteful experience.
‘I shouldn’t have been surprised. I was aware of her many lovers. She was a great beauty, but she was a heartless mother,’ he proffered stiffly. ‘I have not shared these facts with Saif...and would like your promise that this will remain a secret, because I see no reason to distress him now with the truth about our mother.’
Gaby gave a vigorous nod and muttered, ‘Of course. I won’t ever mention it to anyone.’
‘That is probably where what you see as my lack of trust began,’ Angel continued tautly.
‘Probably,’ Gaby conceded uncomfortably.
‘Then the very first woman I slept with sold the story of our encounter to an international tabloid newspaper, and several after her did the same. That was when I began to look for signed non-disclosure agreements to protect myself,’ Angel framed grimly. ‘My parents were surrounded by sleazy rumours and conjecture for the whole of their reign. There was a lot of truth in the sleaze, but I wish to create a different image for Themos. I did not want that smut and sleaze and gossip to damage the kingdom’s reputation.’
A knock sounded on the door and Angel stalked impatiently across the room to answer it. While she could have suspected some irritation on his part as Viola bustled in carting a massive tray, he, instead, took the tray from her and thanked her warmly. He settled the tray on the desk and sighed. ‘She knows I missed lunch so shehasto feed me.’
‘She seems very fond of you.’
‘Yes, the older staff who work for the family were the parents that my own parents couldn’t be bothered to be,’ Angel explained wryly. ‘I was very fortunate to have them and I am equally fond of them. They went beyond their jobs to show me interest and kindness.’
Gaby got up to pour the coffee and pile sandwiches on a plate, which she extended to him. ‘Yes, I’m helping feed you!’ she said tartly. ‘I haven’t forgiven you yet, but I am starting to understand where and why you started thinking the way that you do. The real problem, though, is that you keep on making me pay for your past experiences and, regardless of what a bad time you’ve had with other women, I’m not prepared to accept thatIhave to pay fortheirsins.’
‘And I don’t expect you to,’ Angel assured her. ‘I have to change my outlook.’
‘It’s not that easy to change your basic nature,’ Gaby cut in, unimpressed.
‘It’s lot easier if you can see that you have continuallywrongedsomeone else, particularly someone who has never given me cause for such distrust,’ Angel disagreed, giving the words emphatic weight.
Disconcerted by that frank little speech, Gaby sank back down on the sofa. ‘Continually?’ she queried that use of the word.
‘I may make mistakes but I’m not stupid,hara mou,’ Angel contended. ‘We didn’t get together when we were students because of my lack of trust, but I’m a little more mature now, although looking back on the way I behaved when you tried to tell me that you were pregnant, that maturity wasn’t on view.’
Gaby suppressed a deep sigh of relief that he had truly begun to examine the way he had always treated her as though she were as untrustworthy as some of her predecessors.
‘So, you see, youcanteach an old dog new tricks,’ Angel murmured with wry self-mockery. ‘I can change. I can see when I’m being unreasonable now...because it’s you.’
‘And Cassia...?’ she prompted uncertainly.
Angel munched through a sandwich in reflective silence. ‘She’ll have to leave our employ. I was really shocked by that conversation. Thank Laurie for recording it. I would never have dreamt that Cassia would tell lies like that. I did have total faith in her as an employee, but what she said... I’m sorry that I gave you the impression that I trusted her more than I trust you, because that is untrue. I simply had to think it through.’
‘But the recording helped and hit home like a sledgehammer,’ Gaby gathered with hidden amusement as he wolfed down another sandwich and she refreshed his coffee.
Her earlier sense of despair was gone. Angel was more emotionally intelligent and stable than she had believed he was, but her heart ached for the betrayal his mother had visited on him. He was damaged by the indifference and betrayal of a nasty mother and a succession of lovers, who had wanted him for his status and wealth and had then used him as a publicity tool to enrich themselves.
‘What I regret most...is that day you came to the hotel to tell me that you were pregnant, and I refused to listen,’ he confided heavily. ‘That mistake cost us both so much. All that was on my mind was the number of other women who had claimed to have conceived by me and had lied. In the following weeks I did become more rational and appreciate that I had reacted that way because I assumed you were lying as others had before you and that that belief upset me...and in some way prevented me from taking a more logical approach.’
‘I do understand that,’ Gaby murmured ruefully. ‘Even at the time I understood that, but I also assumed that you wouldn’t want anything to do with our child anyway.’
