Chapter Nine
‘TY V poryadka?…Are you okay?’
A frown of annoyance mingled with concern stamped on his lean bronzed face, Sergei hovered on the threshold of the bathroom, held back only by Alissa’s frantic hand signals warning him to keep a distance. ‘Look, I’m calling a doctor. I think you’ve caught a bug.’
‘I don’t need a doctor,’ Alissa protested, freshening up at the sink, her voice rather shrill because with every day that passed her anxiety was steadily mounting. Her period was well over a week late, her breasts were sore and attacks of nausea were making her throw up without good reason at odd times of the day. She had already worked out which diagnosis she most feared.
Ignoring her objections, Sergei got on his phone to arrange for a doctor to be brought out to the yacht as soon as possible. Alissa was a sickly green colour and he was convinced that she had succumbed to some ongoing bug or infection. He stared down at Mattie, the little scruffy dog frantically wagging his stub of a tail and licking at his shoes. He finally bent down to give Mattie a reassuring pat to prevent him from demanding attention from Alissa, who was clearly in no fit state to respond to needs other than her own.
Over three weeks had passed since Alissa had been ashore and had first seen the dog lying injured in the gutter. One minute she had been by Sergei’s side looking in the window of a gold merchant in Corfu town and the next she had been racing across the busy road at great risk to her own safety and getting down on her knees to attend to the dog. A trying day for Sergei had followed while Mattie was treated by the local vet and identified as a stray and therefore homeless. In spite of a visit to an animal sanctuary, where Sergei had made a very generous donation, Mattie, with his three legs, his tatty coat and perennially anxious expression, had somehow contrived to move in with them on the yacht. Now as Mattie cried anxiously for Alissa in the doorway Sergei sidestepped the little animal to scoop up his wife and carry her back to the bed in spite of her vehement protests.
‘Just lie there, angil moy,’ Sergei instructed, out of all patience with her independence. ‘Stop being so stubborn! You’re sick and you should rest.’
In truth it was a relief for Alissa to lie down in comfort and close her eyes for a few moments. She still felt dizzy and nauseous, and she was torn between exasperation at her physical weakness and dismay that she might have fallen pregnant by a man who wanted to have a child and raise it without her.
Sergei surveyed the pallor of her face and the slightness of her body in the bed. He was convinced she had lost weight and her healthy appetite had noticeably dwindled. He was genuinely worried about her. Possibly he was guilty of having made her overdo things. She looked fragile and he should have been treating her accordingly. But being selfish came naturally to him, he acknowledged grudgingly, and he had insisted she go swimming and waterskiing most days. When Sergei cut his working hours his unlimited energy needed the outlet of physical activity. In and out of bed, theirs had been a very active honeymoon. He had taken her everywhere with him, regardless of the reality that she was no more into fishing than she was into football. On the other hand, he reflected abstractedly, she could add an excitement to a picnic in a deserted cove that no fish alive or dead could have delivered.
‘I’m being a real drag,’ Alissa sighed, fighting back her fatigue even to speak. ‘I bet your last honeymoon wasn’t like this.’
‘Most days Rozalina was far from sober or nursing a heavy hangover and she stayed in bed until nightfall,’ Sergei countered with unhidden distaste. ‘You feeling off colour occasionally is nothing.’
Alissa had pushed herself up on her elbows to study him with bemused eyes. ‘Didn’t you appreciate that she was a heavy drinker when you married her?’
‘I didn’t notice. I was only twenty-two and the marriage was a joke. She was a party girl round the clock and it got on my nerves even before the honeymoon was over.’
‘I can imagine,’ Alissa murmured. She had noticed his caution with alcohol and he never drank very much. After his experiences with an alcoholic mother, a wife who couldn’t stop drinking would have been a serious turn-off for him.
‘Your addiction to chocolate is a lot easier to live with, milaya moya,’ Sergei quipped, looking so astonishingly handsome as his sensual mouth curved into a charismatic smile that her heart skipped a startled beat.
A middle-aged doctor was collected at the harbour and brought out to the yacht within the hour. When Sergei showed worrying signs of wanting to stay for the consultation, Alissa persuaded him to leave. She wasted no time in telling the doctor that she thought she might be pregnant, but that she preferred to keep that private if he decided that her suspicions were correct. After an examination and an on-the-spot test, he was able to give her that confirmation and, even though she had thought she was prepared for that news, the acknowledgement that she had indeed conceived Sergei’s child left her in a state of shock.
Sergei rejoined her and shifted his lean brown hands in a gesture of frustration. ‘The doctor said the sickness would go away and that there’s nothing to worry about. Shouldn’t he have prescribed something for you to take?’
‘I’m not that sick…maybe I’ve just got a little rundown,’ Alissa suggested, swinging her legs off the side of the bed and gathering up the panting bundle of dog that hurled itself ecstatically at her knees. ‘Mattie’s so affectionate, isn’t he? He just loves to be fussed over. You can tell that he’s never had so much attention before.’
Sergei watched Mattie turn up his tummy to be tickled and suppressed a sigh. She was more concerned about the dog than about her own health. ‘Stay in bed for a while—get some sleep,’ he urged, snapping his fingers to bring the dog darting back to his heels as he left the suite.
A baby, Alissa thought in wonder, checking her still-flat tummy in a mirror while she ignored Sergei’s advice and got dressed. Sergei’s baby…that he wouldn’t want to share. He didn’t trust her sex and she had given him good reason not to trust her. What was she supposed to do now? When it occurred to her that out of distrust he might try to take her child away from her she just wanted to run and keep on running away from him.
And feeling like that was a great shame, she acknowledged heavily, after such a long happy run spending over three weeks together on board
Platinum. In truth, she had become very deeply attached to Sergei, but nothing would have elicited that admission of deep love and even stronger caring from her. She had got so used to being with him…the sudden explosions when anything went wrong…the immense satisfaction when things went right. Without a doubt Sergei was a volcanic personality, but he absolutely fascinated her and he could make the most ordinary pursuits entertaining.
When had she reached the stage that she would sneak down to look through the glass wall of his office just to get a look at him while he spent several hours away from her to catch up with business? When the sight of him lying asleep by her side in the early hours could turn her heart inside out? Or when a glimpse of him covertly petting Mattie could make her eyes smart with stupid tears? He hadn’t wanted the little dog at all at first and had been astonished when she had failed to leave the injured animal to recuperate at the sanctuary. But, day by day, Alissa had watched Mattie limping and hopping valiantly out of his basket to steadily wear down Sergei’s defences and wheedle his way into full acceptance. It was becoming more and more of a challenge to keep her emotions under control around him.
But normal life was about to intervene. It was the last full day of their honeymoon and she was already wondering ruefully when she would next have Sergei all to herself. He had not yet told her when they would be leaving but Platinum was cleaving through the waves at a purposeful pace far different from the idyllic lazy cruising that had distinguished their exploration of the Greek islands.
She had spoken to Prince Jasim’s wife, Elinor, several times in recent weeks. She had enjoyed catching up with news about Elinor’s life and children and had found it a comfort to be able to chat to her friend, even though she had not felt able to confide fully in her.
‘Where are we?’ Alissa queried, peering through the salon windows at the picturesque harbour when the yacht dropped anchor late afternoon.
‘It’s a surprise. Are you sure you’re well enough to go ashore?’ Sergei prompted.
‘I’m great…’ Alissa executed a twirl, golden hair rippling in the sunlight, her purple sundress splaying round her slim figure. She was making a real effort to hide her tension and the growing fear that her only option was to walk out on Sergei before he realised that she had already conceived his child. Even he had admitted that he did not want that to happen without a legal agreement in place between them. And yet, in spite of those anxieties, Alissa was also experiencing an inner glow of awe and pleasure when she thought about the baby growing inside her womb.
They disembarked from the yacht at the busy marina where a Turkish customs officer stamped their passports and a four-wheel-drive awaited them.
‘I had no idea we would be visiting Turkey,’ she told Sergei as the vehicle hurtled through busy noisy streets before climbing into the lush green hills studded with villas.