Duarte's Child

Then she had married Duarte. Duarte with his domineering force of will and powerful personality. She had put up with everything thrown at her. Victorine, Duarte’s endless absences on business, a lifestyle she disliked. Had she ever complained? No! She had blamed herself for not being content with what she had and for wanting too much. Instead of putting the blame squarely where it belonged on Duarte’s shoulders.

Hearing a twig snap somewhere nearby, Emily froze into stillness.

‘Are you trying to play hide-and-seek now?’ Duarte derided as he strode into view from below the screening darkness of the trees. ‘It is three o’clock in the morning. Do you realise how long I’ve been searching for you? How concerned I’ve been? If I hadn’t found your tracks across the grass, I’d have been turning the staff out of bed to look for you!’

Emily studied him with a glorious sense of calm and not the smallest desire to apologise for her lack of consideration. In moonlight, Duarte was a dramatic study in black and white. So tall, so dark, so handsome. Always in control, preferably in control of her—yet he was losing his reserve at a staggeringly fast rate this time around. Why? She wasn’t the same woman she had been at the time of their separation, eleven months ago.

‘You really have been a lousy husband,’ Emily sighed. ‘And I don’t need to be hysterical or intoxicated or nuts to tell you that—’

‘You can abuse me all you like indoors,’ Duarte stated icily. ‘I refuse to stand around in the garden at this hour listening to this nonsense.’

‘Fine. Goodnight,’ Emily said quietly.

‘Look, you’re overwrought—’

‘You’re not at the bank, Duarte…so drop the command tone of voice. I won’t be bullied or browbeaten—’

‘But you might just be strangled,’ Duarte intoned, mounting the steps at an aggressive pace. ‘Now, I understand that you feel threatened by Bliss and that it may even be my fault that you feel jealous and insecure—but no way are you going to make a major event out of that stupid incident in the courtyard!’

‘Am I not?’ Emily sat up a little straighter and raised her chin.

‘It’s outright nonsense for you to pretend that you suspect me of infidelity!’ Duarte delivered in the same thunderous tone. ‘And, in your heart, you know it is—’

‘Do I?’ was all Emily said and not in a tone that suggested she was greatly interested in the subject.

‘I would not have an affair with an employee—’

‘I thought she was your friend…and wasn’t I once an employee? And in a much humbler capacity than Bliss has ever been.’

Duarte dealt her an electrifying look of smouldering frustration. ‘That was different!’

‘So maybe Bliss was what you call different, too—’

‘Are you trying to wind me up?’ Duarte demanded incredulously, staring at her expressionless face with probing intensity.

‘Why would I do that? Bliss need not be a problem, Duarte…providing that you can prove to my satisfaction that you are innocent.’

‘What the hell is that supposed to mean?’ he launched at her.

‘That this evening I witnessed something suspicious between you and Bliss,’ Emily reminded him in the same reasonable tone that seemed to be making his even white teeth clench. ‘I don’t need to justify my expectation that you should now immediately convince me beyond all reasonable doubt that you are blameless.’

‘And how am I supposed to do that?’ Duarte bit out furiously.

Emily lifted a slight shoulder and dropped it again. ‘I don’t know. It’s not my problem, is it?’

‘I’ve had enough of this!’ Duarte growled and, taking a sudden step forward, he bent down and scooped her off the bench and up into his powerful arms. ‘You’ve gone haywire since last night! You’re trying to play games with me—’

‘By demanding that you prove yourself innocent? Was it a game when you did the same thing to me after seeing Toby kiss me?’ Emily asked dulcetly.

Duarte froze. ‘So that is what this is all about…’

Imprisoned in his arms and as limp as a rag doll, Emily looked up at him. ‘And I’ve been much kinder to you than you were to me in the same circumstances—’

‘Just keep quiet or I’ll lose my temper!’ Duarte seethed, arms tightening round her slight figure as he strode down the steps and headed back towards the house.

‘I mean, you can’t say that I sat you down, stood over you like a hanging judge and frightened you to the extent that you just fell apart at the seams…can you?’