The Kouvaris Marriage

Promising herself that she had to believe that, she brushed her hair until it fell in soft, silky curls and tendrils around her face, applied the minimum of makeup, and set out to run him to earth.

But he seemed to be missing. The house was silent, the atmosphere heavy, as if a storm were about to break. Maddie felt perspiration on her upper lip, between her breasts. The aggravating dull ache in the small of her back seemed to be getting more intense. She must have slept in a awkward position. Strained a muscle.

When Dimitri turned up she would suggest they eat out tonight—anything to get away, to be alone with him, out of reach of the woman who always made her feel so worthless.

Yet…

Running away from a problem wasn’t her style. Or it had never used to be. Only since coming here as Dimitri’s bride. Irini’s poisonous revelations, the way his aunt lost no opportunity to drum the fact of her nephew’s enormous wealth and high social standing down her throat, contrasting it with her own lowly status, the fact that she wasn’t fit to touch the ground he walked on, had turned her into a cringing wimp!

Time to sort it out! Ignoring a sudden gripping sensation in her pelvis, she headed over the main hall, making for the door that led to Alexandra’s quarters. She was determined to tell the old lady that the put-downs had to stop, to suggest they try to be friends. And if she couldn’t manage

that, then politeness and respect would do.

Her legs felt unaccountably heavy, slowing her progress, but through the open main door she glimpsed Dimitri, jeans and T-shirt-clad, approaching along the wide driveway. He must have been for one of the long walks he was so fond of.

About to put a spurt on, let herself into his aunt’s quarters before he reached the house, because for the sake of family peace the conversation she was intent on having had to be completely private, she frowned in annoyance as the telephone on a rosewood hall table shrilled out imperatively.

She couldn’t simply ignore it, she decided frustratedly. But there would be other opportunities to confront the old lady, she told herself as she lifted the receiver and gave her name.

‘Oh—it’s you! I need to speak to Dimitri. Now! Fetch him!’

Irini!

She sounded hysterical. Maddie’s heart went into overdrive, constricting her breathing.

‘I can give him a message,’ she managed, more or less evenly. Had Dimitri broken the news that he was going to stick with his marriage? Was that why the other woman sounded so manic?

A series of what sounded like curses in her own language almost split Maddie’s eardrum, then, on a wild crow of spite, ‘I phoned Alexandra this afternoon. She tells me you’re pregnant. So don’t come the high and mighty with me! The moment you’ve given birth you’ll be yesterday’s wife—I warned you, remember?’

Speechless, Maddie felt the colour drain from her face. Was he still putting his love for Irini first? It couldn’t be true. She wouldn’t let it be true!

Aware for the first time of Dimitri’s presence at her side, his questioning frown, she handed him the receiver and sagged back against the wall, fighting a tide of nausea as she heard him say tersely, ‘Where are you calling from? Here in Athens?’ He fell silent, listening intently to what the other woman was saying, those wide shoulders tensing. Then, ‘I’ll be with you in fifteen minutes. Do nothing. Promise me? Let me hear you say it!’

Her breathing shallow and fast, her skin turning clammy, Maddie struggled to come to terms with what she had heard. Irini had called, and as ever he would drop everything to go to her, be with her. The undeniable fact dealt her a body-blow, left her in mind-numbing shock.

The pain around her pelvis stabbed wickedly, and white-hot horror engulfed her at that precise moment. Was she about to lose her precious baby? It mustn’t happen! She wouldn’t let it!

Opening her mouth to alert him to the alarming possibility, she closed it again as he turned to her, his voice sounding as if it were in an echo chamber. ‘I’m sorry, but I have to go. Don’t wait dinner for me.’

He mustn’t! She needed him! But he was already turning towards the open doorway again. Maddie blurted the first thing to come into her head. ‘Don’t go—I need you!’ Panic accelerated her heartbeat. He must put her first, he must!

But he turned back to face her, and she was sure he wasn’t actually seeing her. He couldn’t wait to leave. ‘I have to. Irini needs me. She’s threatening—’ He caught the words back between his teeth. ‘One day I’ll tell you why, I promise. But not now. I don’t have time for this. I’m sorry.’

That did it. Cleared her brain. When Irini called he had no time for his wife. Ice-cold now, her mind crystal-clear, she stated, ‘Leave now and I’ll take the other option you mentioned. I’ll leave this marriage.’ And she meant it, even though she felt her knees might buckle beneath her at any moment.

While there had been hope that they had a chance of finding happiness together she had been willing to do everything in her power to make it happen. But she would not be second best to that hateful woman for the rest of her days!

Dimitri went still. ‘I don’t accept ultimatums. Know that about me. I made a promise. I’m not about to break it.’

The ice in his tone chilled her to the depths of her being, and then he lobbed over his shoulder, already walking away from her, ‘If you can make such childish threats then our marriage can’t count for much, can it? Think about it. We’ll talk later.’

Her brain buzzed and fizzed with dizziness, and blackness claimed her just after she watched him walk out through the door.

CHAPTER TWELVE

DIMITRI left Maddie’s gynaecologist with a terse word of thanks and strode out of his office, where he’d been given a reassuring update on her condition, and along the length of the wide hospital corridor to the private room where Maddie had been for the last two days.

Hating him? Lying there, frightened for their baby, fuming because he hadn’t been at her side?