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‘That’s how they lived but it’s not how I want to live,’ Angel admitted bluntly.
His crest would have risen in her eyes had it not been for his brooding silence in the car, and the spiralling, panicked thoughts it had triggered in her. How was she supposed to know how Angel wanted to live when he never properly opened up to her? But dared she hope that was about to change? Nervous beyond belief, feeling her future happiness at stake, she couldn’t help but notice that the wing that he inhabited was much more formal and traditional with oil paintings on the walls and grand antique furniture. ‘You’ll have to give me a tour of this place. I had no idea that this side was so different from mine. I’ve seen the public rooms downstairs, of course.’
‘We only use the ground-floor reception area for major events and, since times have changed and people have become more egalitarian, I don’t use them half as much as my parents did.’
He showed her a room off a long wide marble-floored corridor. ‘I thought the nursery could move in here and we could have Alexios closer to us...there’s rooms for the staff as well.
‘This is the sitting room,’ he told her, standing back to allow her to admire a giant expanse ornamented with formal drapes and a massive marble fireplace. ‘It should be dragged into this century, like a lot of the accommodation in this wing. But I’m not interested in the décor, so I’m hoping you will step in...’
‘It’s possible,’ Gaby commented, not wishing to give a definitive answer as yet and commit to a move within the palace. She’d not even decided if she could stay in the marriage yet. What had been decided about Cassia?
‘This is the master bedroom...and it connects with another bedroom, which you could use as a dressing room or whatever.’ Angel studied her fixedly, a frown line starting to pleat his brows. ‘You’re very quiet.’
‘You’ve obviously done a lot of thinking about this rearrangement, but right now I’d prefer to talk about Cassia and why you went so broody and quiet on me in the car after telling me she was the one who drugged me,’ Gaby confessed ruefully, wandering across the huge gilded room with its ridiculously majestic bed on a low dais, which was surrounded by gilt pillars. It was a level of splendour and magnificence so far removed from her experience that she felt intimidated. Slowly, she turned back round to face him.
‘Seriously?’ Angel grimaced. ‘I’ve spent half the day having to talk about Cassia, with her parents, her friends, her colleagues—it’s been endless. I’ve had to be polite, tolerant and compassionate when only a couple of centuries ago I would more happily have stuck her in a dungeon in the basement and had her executed...and, to be quite frank,that’sthe endgame I would’ve preferred!’
Astonished by that shattering declaration, Gaby gaped at him, blue eyes very wide.
‘Well, how do you expect me to feel?’ Angel demanded. ‘You could have had an allergic reaction to the drug, could have been seriously harmed by it, but Cassia didn’t care,’ Angel bit out. ‘I think she simply wanted to hurt you because you were marrying me. I am stunned that I failed to appreciate, in all the years I have known her, what a scheming, vindictive woman I had working for me!’ Angel exclaimed harshly. ‘How did Inotknow? How could I have been so blind to her real nature?’
‘She wasn’t family or your girlfriend,’ Gaby proffered. The depths of the turmoil Angel was finally sharing had her instinctively looking to comfort him. ‘I suspect that you never looked that closely at her. She’s poisonous but I don’t think men find that trait as easy to spot as women do. So whatwillhappen to her now?’
‘I want to keep a lid on this whole toxic mess. I want to ban her from Themos, which, believe me, will be punishment enough.’
‘You don’t want her charged?’ Gaby countered in surprise.
‘Ultimately, as the injured party, the decision is yours. If you want her in court, you must make that choice.’
Gaby breathed in deep and slow. ‘But you would prefer to brush the whole thing under the carpet?’
‘I wouldn’t have put it in those words but, yes, that is the preferable option in my opinion. If we prosecute her, it will hit the press. I don’t want to treat the world to the story of my bride being roofied before our wedding. Regrettably, in our circumstances and with my reputation, nine out of ten people will assume that I was having an affair with Cassia and that sordid interpretation will accompany us all to our graves. Clearly, Cassia was violently jealous of you.’
‘And very possessive of you,’ Gaby filled in. ‘I think she truly believed that she would end up as your wife. Had believed that for many years.’
‘Unfortunately, most people will believe that she had cause to be jealous even though she didn’t. I do want her punished, but in a manner that also respects her family’s service to the throne and removes her from Themos and your radius,’ he extended gravely. ‘Her father, Piero, is a long-standing family friend and a very decent man. He and his wife are in pieces over their daughter’s treachery, but your safety must come first. If Cassia went to prison she would be out again within a few years. As it is, in return for her confessional statement, I will remove her citizenship and she will not be able to get back onto the island.’
Gaby nodded comprehension.
‘That is my preferred solution because I never want to lay eyes on her again in this lifetime,’ Angel continued with grim intensity. ‘It protects her parents’ reputation and residence here as well. They are wealthy and can maintain contact with their daughter however they wish in the future. I could never forgive her, though, for what she did to you...thatcould have had a tragic conclusion!’
His dark deep drawl roughened as he finished speaking and she gazed across the room at him, momentarily entranced by the volatile liquid gold of his gaze, sensing the powerful emotions he was restraining.
‘I’ll go with whatever you choose,’ Gaby responded with a sigh. ‘A scandal would be embarrassing, andifshe went to prison—’
‘Oh, she woulddefinitelygo to prison on Themos,’ Angel incised. ‘Buying a banned drug and using it to assault my bride? She has broken several laws and the charges are serious, not inconsequential.’
Angel fell silent then and Gaby could feel the despair in him, which made her wonder if something else was wrong. ‘Angel, is there something else I need to know?’
‘You were targetedbecause of me. Your life was put at riskbecause of me.’
‘That’s not how you should view her unbalanced behaviour.’
‘No, but it’s the bald, unlovely truth!’ Angel sliced back harshly. ‘I had a dangerous employee, and I didn’t realise it. Not only didn’t I realise it, while I was refusing to give you my trust, I was givinghermy trust and regarded her as a friend! Cassia could havekilledyou with that drug!’
‘Luckily, she only gave me a headache,’ she said soothingly.
‘Luck doesn’t count when it comes to your safety,’ Angel informed her. ‘You mean the world to our son and to me,hara mou. Anyone who wishes you even the smallest ill is unwelcome on Themos.’
