Bridal Bargains

‘You might forget all about me when you have the new baby to love,’ she confided one evening as she lay in the bed Carol had allocated her in the room next to Mia’s.

‘New babies don’t steal love from one person for themselves, darling,’ Mia said gently. ‘They only ask that you let them share it. Do you think you can do that? Share all the love I have for you with this new baby?’

‘Will Alex let me come and visit sometimes, do you think?’ she asked anxiously. ‘Will he mind if I share you with the new baby?’

‘Of course not,’ Mia said. ‘Who was it who convinced Daddy to let you come and stay here until you go back to school?’

‘Carol said Alex likes children,’ the child said, with that painfully familiar wistful expression. ‘She said Alex likes me because I look so much like you.’

Well, that was a very kind thing to say, Mia acknowledged, and made a mental note to thank Carol when she next saw her.

Carol just shrugged her thanks aside. ‘It was only the truth,’ she said. ‘Alex does like children and he’s got himself so tied up in knots over you that he’s bound to like Suzanna simply because she looks like you.’

Tied up in what kind of knots? she wondered. Sexual knots? ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she replied dismissively.

‘No?’ To her annoyance, Carol started grinning. ‘Did Alex ever tell you about his mistress?’ she asked. When Mia instantly stiffened up Carol nodded, ‘I thought he would. I know how his mind works, you see, and he would have told you about her just to score points off you. But I bet he hasn’t told you that within a week of marrying you he had sent her packing.

‘No,’ Carol continued drily at Mia’s start of surprise, ‘I didn’t think he would. Too bad for his ego to admit that, having had you, he couldn’t bring himself to touch another woman. But that’s our dear Alex for you,’ she went on. ‘Committed. Totally committed to whatever he turns his attention to.’

‘Like an island he wants to repossess,’ Mia said derisively, refusing to believe a word Carol was saying because believing would make her start seeing Alex through different eyes, which in turn could make her weak.

And she couldn’t afford to be weak where Alex was concerned. She was already vulnerable enough.

‘Certainly, recovering

the family island has been the goal that has driven him for the past ten years,’ Carol agreed. ‘But marry some strange woman and produce a child with her in the quest for that goal?’ She shook her blonde head. ‘Now that was going too far, even for Alex. Or so I thought,’ she added sagely, ‘until I met you. Then I began to wonder if half the trap wasn’t of his own making.’

‘It wasn’t,’ Mia said coolly. ‘My father is a master tactician.’ And then some, she added bitterly to herself.

‘Your father knew why Alex wanted the island back so badly,’ Carol acknowledged. ‘A solemn promise to his dying father—you can’t really get a bigger incentive than that for a Greek. But I still say—’

‘His father?’ Mia cut in sharply. ‘Alex promised his dying father?’

‘Didn’t you know?’ Carol looked surprised. ‘Come on,’ she said suddenly, taking hold of Mia’s hand as she did so. ‘It will be easier to show you,’ she explained, pulling Mia into the hall and then into a room Carol used as a working studio. ‘See,’ she declared, bringing Mia to a halt in front of a large framed painting.

It was titled Vision and Mia’s heart stilled as she recognised it as the original of the print she had seen in the lift at the Doumas office building.

‘Their father had this painted when he knew he was going to have to sell the island,’ Carol explained. ‘Until then it had been in the family for ever. See the little graveyard.’ She pointed it out. ‘Every Doumas, except their father, is buried there, including their mother and their older brother. They were killed in a flying accident when Alex was a teenager and Leon a small child. The accident devastated their father. He adored his wife and worshipped his eldest son.

‘With them gone, he felt he had nothing left to live for, hence the sudden drop in the Doumas fortunes. His own health suffered until he eventually died prematurely—but not before he had extracted a promise from Alex that he would get the island back and have his remains transferred there. Do you understand now?’ she demanded finally.

‘Understand?’ Mia repeated. Oh, yes, she acknowledged heavily, she understood. Alex’s island in the Aegean was not just a piece of rock for which he was willing to sell his soul. It was home. It was where his heart lay, right there with his mother and his brother and where his father needed to lay his own heart.

She finally did understand that the grip her own father had on Alex was easily as tight as the grip he had on herself. Blackmail—emotional blackmail. A far more powerful vice than mere financial blackmail.

Her hand came up to cover her mouth. ‘I’m going to be sick,’ she choked, and had to run to the nearest cloakroom.

It was ironic, really, that Alex should choose to call her that same evening. ‘Are you all right?’ he demanded the moment she announced herself on the phone. ‘Carol said you were sick earlier.’

‘Something I ate. I’m fine now,’ she said dismissively, hoping Carol hadn’t told him exactly why she had been sick.

And what had made her sick? Her own words coming back to haunt her. Cruel words, dreadful words, where she’d condemned him for selling himself for physical gain while she’d self-righteously seen herself as selling herself for love.

‘You must not overdo it now that Suzanna is out of hospital,’ he commanded rather curtly.

‘I won’t,’ she said. ‘She’s quite an easy child to entertain.’

‘I noticed,’ he muttered. ‘Too damned easy to please. Have you seen your father?’