AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘No, it is not about the divorce. It is about Grandfather.’
‘Reynard?’She stopped nervously pleating the fabric she held tight across her breasts and smiled. The old King, who had stepped back from the throne in favour of his son, Dante’s father, after he suffered a stroke. Reynard had been one of the very few people she had been able to relax around in the palace.
Known for his acerbic tongue and a wit that took no prisoners, he’d made Beatrice laugh, though she had not realised until after the fact that being taught chess by him was considered a rare privilege.
They still played chess online. ‘One of these days I’m going to beat him.’
One corner of Dante’s mouth lifted in a half-smile. ‘If you ever do it’ll be for real. He won’t let you win.’
‘I hope not… So how is he?’ She read enough in his face to make her panic; it wasn’t so much his expression that made her heart lurch, more the careful lack of it. ‘Oh, my God, he’s not…not…?’
‘No…no…he’s all right,’ Dante soothed.
She had barely released a sigh of relief when he added, ‘He has had another stroke.’
‘Oh, God, no!’
‘Don’t panic, the doctors gave him the clot-busting stuff in time, so they say there’s no permanent damage, no further damage at least.’
She huffed out a sigh of relief but still felt shaky and sad because one day her worst-case scenario would be true, and a world without that irascible character would be a lesser place.
‘We’ve kept everything in-house but it’s inevitable that the news is bound to leak soon, and you know how they play up the drama disaster angle. I wanted you to know the facts, not the exaggerated fiction.’
‘Why didn’t you just say this was why you came?’ His eyes captured her own and Beatrice felt the blush run over her skin. ‘All right,’ she cut in quickly before he could point out that last night had not involved much talking. ‘You could have messaged me…rung…?’
‘Yes, I could.’ He released her eyes suddenly.
‘It wasn’t kind coming here. This hasn’t been easy for me…’
His jaw clenched. ‘You think it has for me?’ he pushed out in a driven tone.
‘Right, so let’s just call last night goodbye.’ It had to be because she couldn’t do this more than once. ‘Give my love to Reynard. I really wish I could see him. He really is all right?’
‘He really is. You could see him.’
Beatrice gave a bitter laugh. ‘Come back to San Macizo? I presume you’re joking.’
‘Were you so unhappy there?’
She kept her expression flat. ‘I was irrelevant there.’ The only function that would have made her acceptable was producing babies and she hadn’t done that. The month after month of raised expectations and then… Dante must have been relieved when she had announced that she’d had enough. The recognition made her throat tighten; she ignored it.
She was ignoring so hard she nearly tripped over the draped sheet. Enough was enough!
Head high, not glancing in his direction, she stalked across to the wardrobe and, presenting him with her back, pulled the turquoise silk robe from its hanger on the door.
There was a sheer ridiculousness to her display of false modesty around Dante, who knew every inch of her body—intimately. She let the sheet fall.
‘I tried for ten months,’ she said, throwing the words lightly over her shoulder, glad that he couldn’t see her face. ‘I tried to do the right thing, say the right thing. I tried to fit in. I tried…’ She didn’t finish the sentence, but the unspoken words hung between them like a veil. They both knew what she had tried and failed to do, the only thing that would have made her acceptable to his family: provide an heir.
