Brice stared at Sabina, unable to take in exactly what she was saying. How could Latham have been responsible for sending those letters? For one thing, there had definitely been a man last November sending her letters and making threatening telephone calls, because he had been put under psychiatric care after his attack on Sabina. Secondly, Latham was supposed to be in love with Sabina, and he must have known how much receiving those letters upset her…
Or was that the point? Brice wondered sharply. Hadn’t Latham’s own nephew warned Brice about ever tangling with him, that his uncle was a fierce collector of priceless objects? And Sabina, although certainly not an object, was certainly priceless!
Sabina gave a humourless smile as she saw the obvious bewilderment on Brice’s face. ‘Hard to believe, isn’t it?’ she said shakily. ‘I still find it difficult to believe I could ever have trusted such a man!’ She shook her head self-disgustedly. ‘But it is true, Brice. Richard and I argued that day when we returned from Scotland. Richard said some things that were—’ She swallowed hard. ‘He was angry because he guessed— He was angry,’ she repeated flatly. ‘And in the course of that anger he told me that once I had agreed to marry him he had been the one to take up sending me those letters.’
‘But why?’ Brice rasped.
Sabina grimaced. ‘Can’t you guess?’
‘To keep you dependent on his protection!’ Brice suddenly guessed furiously. ‘You would obviously have been very vulnerable after that attack,’ he continued frowningly. ‘Very susceptible to Latham’s apparent kindness, I suspect—’
‘Very,’ Sabina confirmed heavily. ‘The truth is, Brice, Richard and I were never in love with each other. We—we made a bargain,’ she admitted huskily. ‘Richard would protect me, and I—I—’
‘You became the priceless object on his arm,’ Brice finished incredulously.
‘Yes,’ she admitted with a grimace. ‘I was frightened after the attack, Brice. Completely vulnerable.’ She looked at him imploringly.
‘And he wanted to keep you that way,’ Brice ground out angrily as he saw the whole truth now.
The bastard! How could he? How dared he do that to Sabina…?
‘Exactly,’ Sabina confirmed heavily. ‘You mentioned that I had probably received one of those letters that day you came to the house and I was ill? That was because— Richard had come home early from a business trip that evening I came to your house and ended up staying for dinner. He—he knew where I had been.’
‘Clive!’ Brice guessed disgustedly.
‘Yes,’ Sabina sighed. ‘The letter I received was my punishment for seeing you without Richard’s permission. I’ve had several weeks to think about this, Brice, and I realise now that I received one of those letters every time Richard thought I needed reminding that I belonged to him! In fact, that was what those letters always said, just “You’re mine”.’ She swallowed hard.
‘I’ll kill him!’ Brice’s fists were clenched at his sides. ‘Take great delight in tearing him limb from limb!’
Sabina shook her head. ‘It doesn’t matter, Brice.’
‘Doesn’t—! It matters to me, damn it,’ he ground out furiously. ‘I would like to—’
‘It really doesn’t matter any more, Brice,’ Sabina told him huskily as she stood up. ‘I became engaged to Richard for reasons that were just as wrong as his own,’ she admitted gruffly. ‘I felt exposed, vulnerable, after the attack, and, although I had known Richard for several months before that, it wasn’t until after that I actually agreed to marry him.’ She shook her head. ‘For the totally wrong reason, I now realise. As for Richard, he wanted to own something he thought was unique—’
‘You are unique!’ Brice cut in harshly.
‘Maybe,’ she accepted heavily. ‘But although I liked Richard, I was never in love with him. Not the way I love you,’ she added so softly Brice wasn’t sure he had heard her correctly.
In fact, he was sure he couldn’t have heard her correctly!
Sabina looked across at Brice, sympathising with his stunned expression. As stunned as hers must have been earlier when he’d told her he was asking her out to dinner because he thought it was too soon to ask her to spend the rest of her life with him!
But she had come a long way in the last three weeks, knew that the knock to her self-confidence that she had known the night she’d been attacked would have healed in the naturalness of time—without the constant reminder of those letters that had started to arrive again only weeks later! As it had healed now…
It was still difficult for her to believe that Richard had become the perpetrator of those letters. Not that it had been too difficult for him to have done so; she had confided in him totally once they’d become engaged, even down to the fact that she’d always recognised the letters because they’d arrived in a green envelope. After that, it had been easy for Richard to simply take over sending the letters whenever he’d felt inclined to reinforce her dependence on him.
She moistened dry lips. ‘Richard is—a strange man, in many ways,’ she began softly, not quite meeting Brice’s gaze. ‘Do you have any idea what it was that made him decide I was no longer perfect, after all?’
Brice still scowled. ‘Does it have anything to do with me?’
Sabina gave a rueful laugh. ‘Everything to do with you! Richard, it turns out, is a man who likes to admire his possessions by simply looking at them. I—he—’ She paused, her cheeks becoming red. ‘Richard is absolutely horrified at the thought of physical intimacy with a person—any person!’ she emphasised frowningly.
Brice looked more stunned than ever. ‘But I thought—’
‘I know what you thought, Brice.’ Sabina sighed. ‘By mutual agreement I had my own bedroom in Richard’s house, my own room if we happened to stay at a hotel.’ She shook her head. ‘Which was why it was no hardship for us to have separate rooms at your grandfather’s home,’ she added ruefully. ‘That was part of our bargain too. I believed it was out of respect for our friendship, but—it appears that Richard simply finds the whole idea of physical intimacy distasteful, a breach of a person’s personal integrity.’ A realisation that had stunned Sabina three weeks ago.
She had become engaged to a man who not only found a physical relationship between a man and a woman repugnant, but who stooped to sending her anonymous letters in order to maintain her dependence on him.
She still couldn’t believe the lucky escape she had made!
Brice shook his head. ‘The man is weirder than I thought he was,’ he dismissed disgustedly. ‘Although that still doesn’t change the fact that I intend going to see him, want to make sure he knows he is never to come near you again,’ he added grimly.
Sabina shook her head unconcernedly. ‘He won’t,’ she said with certainty. ‘Richard and I have come to an understanding—another one!’ she added self-derisively. ‘He will stay out of my life, and that of my family and friends, and I won’t tell the police that he was the one sending me anonymous letters.’ Her expression was bleak. ‘I think that sounds fair.’
‘Not to me,’ Brice rasped. ‘Never seeing you again isn’t nearly punishment enough for what he did to you.’
She gave a rueful grimace. ‘Richard doesn’t want to see me again,’ she assured him. ‘He no longer considers me unique, you see,’ she added softly.
Brice’s eyes were narrowed. ‘Why doesn’t he?’ he said slowly.
‘Several reasons.’ She shrugged. ‘But the main one is that he is aware of the—physical attraction, between the two of us.’
‘That’s because I find it hard to be in the same room with you for six minutes without wanting to make love to you, let alone six months!’ he admitted impatiently.
She laughed softly; it was exactly the same way she felt about him! ‘We’ve been here at least fifteen minutes now,’ she pointed out provocatively, her gaze alight with the love she felt towards this man.
Brice looked at her sharply, slowly relaxing as he saw the mischievous expression on her face. ‘Very remiss of me,’ he murmured huskily even as he crossed the room to stand in front of her. ‘I love you, Sabina,’ he told her forcefully. ‘I want to marry you.’
‘Before I answer that, I need to assure you of a few things,’ she said slowly.
‘Yes?’ he prompted impatiently.
Sabina smiled at that show of impatience. ‘I want to assure you that none of my actions—and I mean none of them—are now made because of any lingering fear over what happened all those months ago. It was upsetting at the time, but I’m over it now. I would have been months ago, if not for Richard’s behaviour,’ she added hardly. ‘Do you understand what I’m saying, Brice?’
‘None of your actions now are made because of any lingering fear because of what happened all those months ago,’ he repeated with obvious impatience.