Mina flushed and sank down on the edge of a nearby chair, her knees too wobbly to hold her upright. ‘I didn’t know you would have any feelings…I mean, if you didn’t know…’ she stumbled.
‘But I do know now and I have not the slightest intention of leaving you in sole possession of my daughter,’ Cesare informed her flatly.
‘You’re trying to punish me.’ Mina hadn’t meant to say it out loud but she was in such conflict, she let the thought escape.
An almost imperceptible darkening of colour accentuated the hard slant of his cheekbones. ‘I want what is best for my child and I am not leaving her in this house to live on your family’s charity!’
‘Baxter’s offered me a cottage which will be vacant this autumn. Susie and I will be living alone and you can visit as much as you want…or I could even bring her up to London!’ Mina suggested in a frantic rush, willing to do just about anything to placate him until she could get her thoughts back under control.
‘I want more than that small share offered at the point of a gun,’ Cesare derided.
‘You want blood…well, I am not giving Susie up!’ Mina sprang upright, sudden fury powering her, her amethyst eyes brilliant as jewels. ‘And what sort of man are you to demand that? I love her very much and whether you appreciate it or not she loves me too, and not all the money in the world is likely to compensate her for losing her mother!’ she shouted back at him with clenched fists.
Cesare lifted a broad shoulder and shrugged with Latin cool, his intent scrutiny a glittering sliver of unreadable gold below luxuriant lashes. ‘You have a point.’
Disconcerted by the swiftness of his agreement, her emotions all churning about wildly inside her, Mina drew in a deep, shaky breath of relief.
‘If you’re not prepared to give her up and you feel that she would be emotionally damaged by such a separation,’ Cesare drawled smoothly, ‘then I have little choice but to offer you a home as well.’
Mina blinked rapidly. She was sure she hadn’t heard him right. ‘P-pardon?’
‘Trailing you through court for custody would be a deeply unpleasant experience for all of us and very upsetting for Susie,’ Cesare murmured very softly. ‘And even though I’d throw everything I’ve got at you, I might not win. A foreigner in a British court, a father suing a mother…my lawyers were reluctant to go beyond a fifty-fifty estimate of my chances of success.’
Mina viewed him with stricken eyes and ended up sinking back down on the chair. ‘Your 1-lawyers?’
‘Naturally a man in my position would take legal advice.’
Nasty little cramps were pulling at her stomach. Her head was pounding. She was sick with horror at the facts he was reeling off with complete cool.
‘You see, I feel very strongly about this,’ Cesare told her quite unnecessarily.
‘Yes,’ she conceded numbly.
‘But accepting you along with Susie would be the wiser alternative from the child’s point of view.’
It took Mina at least thirty seconds to untangle and absorb that statement. ‘I don’t quite understand what you mean by that.’
‘If I married you, I would have all the time in the world to get to know my daughter,’ Cesare drawled without any expression at all. ‘And Susie would have the benefit of two parents.’
CHAPTER SIX
‘IF YOU married me?’ Mina parroted in a voice that even to her own ears sounded strangled.
‘In addition, Susie would have my name. That is important to me. She would share my home. That is also important to me. And she would have her mother,’ Cesare enumerated coolly.
She noticed that he didn’t include Susie’s having her mother as being important to him. Clearly that could only be seen as an advantage to Susie. Shell-shocked by the suggestion that they marry, Mina swallowed hard. ‘But——’
Cesare let her get no further. ‘You can’t live with me without a wedding-ring, not with Susie around. She would be branded as my illegitimate child and I don’t want her to bear that label.’
‘No?’ Mina was flat out of anything else to say. But she had an extraordinarily powerful desire to slap him hard and see if the ice cracked. Cesare at his most unlovable, she reflected, trying to inject a little humour into her growing sense of mortification. How to propose marriage like a business deal with Susie as the most desirable asset!
She knew Cesare. He would have cut his throat sooner than offer her marriage on any other terms! He didn’t want to marry her but if marrying her was the only sure way to acquire Susie, who had had a meteoric rise from revolting status, he would bite the bullet.
‘Susie deserves the very best that I can give her. My parents did that for me. I will do it for her,’ Cesare imparted with grim emphasis. ‘If I did anything less, it would be on my conscience forever. So call me when you’ve decided what to do.’
In disbelief, Mina watched him stride out of the door. She flew upright and chased after him, bubbling with frustration and anger. ‘Cesare?’
He swung gracefully round on the steps, his strong face hard and impassive.