There was a slight pause, as if Xandros’s mother was deciding what to say, and that bite of apprehension came again. Never before had Xandros’s mother phoned her, so why...?
Something’s happened to Xandros!
Apprehension sharpened to fear...
‘I am in the lobby. May I come up?’ asked Xandros’s mother.
Fear subsided into wariness.
‘Yes—yes, of course,’ she replied.
The line went dead, and Rosalie opened the apartment door just as the lift doors opened to reveal Xandros’s mother.
Politely she stood aside, to let her enter her son’s apartment. Her mother-in-law—the very last person Rosalie had expected to see—seemed agitated. Apprehension bit at Rosalie again.
‘My dear, I need to speak to you,’ Xandros’s mother said.
She sat herself down on one of the sofas, and Rosalie lowered herself tensely to the other.
‘Has something happened?’ she heard herself ask, not able to keep the alarm out of her voice. ‘To Xandros?’
The older Kyria Lakaris shook her head. ‘No,’ she said quickly.
Too quickly, Rosalie thought. Something had happened—something that was not good.
Yet what her mother-in-law said next reversed that thought instantly.
‘My dear, Ariadne has returned!’
Rosalie’s face lit. ‘Oh, I’m so glad! I know you were very worried about her.’
Xandros’s mother nodded. But her demeanour was still agitated, and she went on speaking rapidly. ‘Yes...yes, I was worried indeed. But she has been, as Xandros thought, with her relatives in Scotland. Now, though, she is back in Greece—she arrived at the weekend. She came to me because of her...estrangement...from her father—’ She broke off.
‘He has behaved very badly towards her,’ Rosalie said, wanting to make it clear where her sympathies lay. Her face lit again. ‘I do hope so very much, though, that Ariadne will want to meet me. I’ve been longing to meet her—’
Xandros’s mother cut across her, her expression constrained. ‘That would not be...advisable,’ she said, as if searching for the right word. ‘You see...’ The expression of constraint deepened and she pressed her lips tightly for a moment. ‘Ariadne is pregnant.’
Rosalie stared. She could not think of anything to say except, ‘That’s wonderful!’
Xandros’s mother was looking at her strangely. ‘That’s a very generous thing to say...’ she said slowly.
Rosalie stared. ‘I don’t understand. Why is it generous?’
‘You are generous,’ said Xandros’s mother, ‘to be so understanding of the predicament your predecessor finds herself in.’
‘My...my predecessor?’ Rosalie’s voice was hollow.
‘Of course,’ Kyria Lakaris was saying. ‘Ariadne was engaged to my son until the moment she disappeared.’
The world seemed to tip on its axis, dislodging everything in it. Everything except one single word.
‘Engaged?’
It fell like a ton weight from Rosalie’s lips. She stared at Xandros’s mother. Shock was knifing through her.
Kyria Lakaris looked at her frowningly. ‘Did you not know?’ she was saying. ‘The wedding was all set—it was a great blow to him when she ran away...broke off the engagement.’
‘They were engaged?’ Rosalie could only echo the word again. Inside, shock was detonating, reaching all her limbs so that she was weak from it. ‘He...he told me that Ariadne refused point-blank to entertain our father’s obsession—’
But Kyria Lakaris was shaking her head in negation. ‘My dear—no. Just the opposite. She was perfectly willing to marry Xandros.’
‘But Xandros...Xandros said he would never be manipulated by my father! He came to London to tell me so!’ Rosalie was gasping, snatching at all the things Xandros had said to her.
His mother was shaking her head again, contradicting her with the gesture. ‘That was after Ariadne panicked. Pre-wedding nerves—I’m sure it was only that! Had Xandros not gone chasing to London, I am quite, quite sure Ariadne would have seen sense and come home.’ Regret was audible in the older woman’s voice as she went on, ‘They were ideally suited to each other, your half-sister and my son.’
Then, in front of Rosalie’s stricken eyes, Kyria Lakaris’s face brightened.
‘And now they can be once more!’ she exclaimed.
Rosalie stared. ‘I don’t understand...’ she said slowly, each word dragged from her. ‘You...you’ve just told me that Ariadne is...is pregnant. So how can she and Xandros ever...ever get back together?’
His mother’s expression had changed. It was filled now with a new emotion. It was pity. Chilling Rosalie to the core.
And a moment later she knew why.
‘You have been married to Xandros for less than three months,’ Xandros’s mother said. ‘And Ariadne...’ She paused for a moment, her eyes holding Rosalie’s with a painful expression. ‘Ariadne has had her first trimester confirmed. So you see...’ she took a breath ‘...there can be no question about it—your half-sister carries my son’s child.’
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
XANDROS THREW HIMSELF down on the hotel bed in Thessaloniki. He’d just had a brilliant idea. He would phone Rosalie, explain that he needed to spend another day here at the Coustakis offices—the managers there had been only just been briefed by Stavros, in another damn delaying tactic of the man!—and suggest she fly up here tomorrow to join him. Then, his meetings over, he would hire a car and take off with her to explore the countryside of north-eastern Greece.
Hell, if Stavros was in no rush to get the merger done, why should he be?
It would give him yet more time with Rosalie—taking the next few days to show her the resorts of the trident-shaped Halkidiki, with the extraordinary monastery atop Mount Athos. Even get to Macedonia and show her the fabulous tomb of Alexander the Great’s father, with its treasure trove of gold filigree ornaments.
He smiled at the prospect. Two days—maybe more if they felt like it!—of the non-stop company of the one person he wanted to be with!
Rosalie.
Rosalie, Rosalie, Rosalie—her very name was a delight! Just as she was a delight! All of her—all the time. In every way...
He felt emotion well up in him. The same emotion he’d felt last Sunday afternoon, when he’d imagined what it would be like if it were Rosalie who was pregnant, not Maria’s daughter. Say, just by chance...