Some of the comments, however, cut even deeper and hurt much more. Had she taken advantage of the fact that Leonidas was grieving the night after the funeral? They had both been grieving. Even so, that suggestion hit a very sensitive spot. She was still afraid that the only reason Leonidas had gone to bed with her in the first place was that she had reminded him of Imogen. And could it be true that Imogen had guessed how Maribel felt about Leonidas and told him? Made Maribel the butt of a joke? Her cousin, she recalled painfully, had had a rather cruel sense of humour that many people had enjoyed. And none more so, in those far-off student days, than Leonidas. She was cringing at the idea that he might know her biggest secret, might always have known. Eavesdroppers never heard good of themselves. She wondered who was responsible for that irrelevant old chestnut. She felt absolutely gutted.
The instant Maribel returned to Leonidas’ side, he noticed that something was wrong. Her inner glow had dimmed; her sparkle had dulled. When the meal was served, her healthy appetite had vanished and she picked at her food and evaded his gaze. His tension increased. He knew it had been a big mistake to let her out of his sight. Someone had referred to the stag party and she was upset. He was convinced, however, that she was too well mannered to confront him in public. As he sat there brooding on how best to handle the fallout the appeal of the Italian honeymoon he had organised began to steadily recede. His Tuscan palazzo was exquisite, but there would be airports within reasonable reach as well as towns with easy transport links. Although he always travelled with his own staff, it would be hard to keep the lid on any major marital breakdown. If Maribel decided to be especially lacking in understanding and forgiveness, she would find it all too easy to walk out on him in Italy.
Having reached the conclusion that he might easily live to regret a Tuscan honeymoon, Leonidas decided to take his bride straight back home to the island of Zelos, where he had been born. Surrounded by sea and an army of devoted retainers, Maribel would not be going anywhere in a hurry, or without his consent. He would have all the time in the world to dissuade her from making any hasty or unwise decisions. Inclining his arrogant dark head to signal Vasos over to him, Leonidas communicated his change of heart.
Only when he had done that did he consider the reality that he was making plans to virtually imprison his wife. A very slight frisson of unease assailed Leonidas at that acknowledgement. When he studied Maribel’s pale delicate profile, his core of inner steel held him steady. Look what had happened the last time he had given her the freedom to make her own choices! She had only gone through a pregnancy alone and unprotected! A pregnancy with his child, which he should have shared in right from the start, Leonidas reasoned fiercely. When she made bad decisions like that, it was hardly surprising that he should feel the need to take control. In any case even Stone Age Man had known it was his duty to protect the family unit.
Tilda insisted on accompanying Maribel when she went upstairs to get changed. ‘I owe you an apology for misjudging Leonidas,’ the beautiful blonde murmured with twinkling turquoise eyes. ‘Just like the rest of us, he has matured and changed since he was at uni.’
Maribel cast off her private worries to summon up a warm smile that put Tilda at her ease. ‘And what brought on that realisation?’
‘Apart from the fact that he has been really charming to me today? When I see Leonidas with you and Elias, he is a very different guy from the one I remember,’ the princess confessed. ‘And while I was astonished when I learned that you and he were a couple, my husband wasn’t. He said that you were the only woman Leonidas ever sought out for an intelligent conversation.’
Maribel nodded, but felt just then that intelligent conversation wasn’t a lot to offer to one of the world’s most notorious womanisers.
‘Is there something worrying you?’ Tilda asked gently. ‘Is it all that stag cruise nonsense?’
Maribel veiled her startled eyes before she could betray her ignorance on that subject. She concentrated on donning a turquoise and pink dress that was both elegant and comfortable to travel in. ‘Er…no.’
‘I knew you would be too sensible to let anything of that nature bother you. After all, men will be men, and our men in particular will always be paparazzi targets,’ Tilda remarked wryly. ‘Rashad would have been on that yacht with Sergio and Leonidas, if he hadn’t had to take my father-in-law’s place at a government meeting.’
Stag-cruise nonsense? Don’t go there, Maribel told herself staunchly. None of her business, was it? So soon after that unfortunate misunderstanding over Josette Dawnay, Maribel was in no hurry to suspect the worst. In any case, she was still too much taken up with tormenting herself with the suspicion that Leonidas might always have known that she loved him. She really couldn’t bear that idea, she really could not live with that possibility, she acknowledged tautly. Without her pride she felt she would have nothing.