Novels by PENNY JORDAN - الصفحة 23

22-11-07, 12:55 AM

المشاركة رقم: 111

المعلومات
الكاتب:	نيارااا
اللقب:

البيانات
التسجيل:	Jun 2006
العضوية:	7129
المشاركات:	287
الجنس	أنثى
معدل التقييم:
نقاط التقييم:	43

االدولة

مدونتي

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كاتب الموضوع : نيارااا المنتدى : الارشيف

Chapter Nine

KING GIORGIO wagged a reproving finger. Is it not enough that you have deliberately attempted to undermine the authority of the Crown—an authority which is soon to be your own—with these generators you have brought toNiroli without this added flouting of my command to end your association with this...this floozy? You know perfectly well that there are channels and protocols to be followed when a member of the royal family takes a mistress. It is unthinkable that you should have brought back with you toNiroli a woman who is a common nothing, and who never can and never will be accepted here at court!’

‘You mean I take it that I could take my pick from the married women amongst the islands nobility? Her husband would of course be instructed to do his duty and give up his wife to royal pleasure and in due course, both would be appropriately rewarded—the husband with an important government position, the wife with the title of Royal Mistress and a few expensive baubles.’ Marco shook his head.

‘I have no intention of adorning some poor courtier with a pair of horns so that I can sleep with his wife.'

‘You cannot expect me to believe that you a prince ofNiroli can be ******* with a woman who is a nothing—‘

‘Emily is far from beingnothing, and the truth is that you insult her by comparing her with the blue-blooded nonentities you seem to think are so superior to her. There is no comparison. Emily is their superior in every way.’ The immediate and heated ferocity of hisdefence of Emily and his anger against his grandfather had taken hold of Marco before he could think logically about what he was saying.

His immediate impulse had been to protect her and that alone was enough to cause him to wonder at his uncharacteristic behaviour. And yet even though for practical and diplomatic reasons he knew if he could not bring himself to recall his statement, then at least he should temper it a little. But he couldn't do it. Why not? Was it because by bringing Emily here toNiroli he now felt a far greater sense of responsibility towards her than he had done in London?

His grandfather didn't give him time to ponder. Instead the king pushed his chair back from the table and eased himself up before demanding regally. Do you really think that I am deceived by any of this, Marco? Do you think I don'trealise that you have brought those generators and this woman here toNiroli expressly to anger and insult me? You may think that you can win the hearts of my people by giving them access to the technological toys you believe they crave, and that they will accept your mistress, but you are wrong. It is true that there are elements of rebellion and disaffection amongst the mountain-dwellers, theViallis who will give you their allegiance and sell you their loyalty for the price of a handful of silver, but they are nothing. The hearts of the rest of theNirolian population lie here with me. They, like me know that onNiroli the old ways are the best ways, and they will show you in no uncertain terms how they feel about your attempts to win round theViallis .’

‘No. Grandfather, it is you who is wrong.’ Marco answered him curtly. You may wish to stick with the old ways as you call them, enforcing ignorance and poverty on people, refusing to allow them to make their own choices about the way they want to live, treating them as children. You try to rule them through fear and power, and some of them rightfully resent that, as I would do in their places. I have brought back the generators because your people, our people, need them, and I have brought Emily back because I need her’.

It wasn't what he had planned to say and it certainly wasn't what he had been thinking when he had walked into this confrontation, but as soon as he had said the words Marcorecognised that they contained a truth that had previously been hidden from him. Or had it been deliberately ignored and denied by him? He had known that he wanted Emily; that he desired her and that he could make use of her presence here to underline his independence to his grandfather, but needing her...that was something else again, and it made Marco stiffen warily, ready to defend himself from what herecognised was his own vulnerability.

‘The woman is a commoner, and commoners do not understand what it is to beroyal . They cause problems that a woman born into the nobility would never cause.’

'You're speaking from experience?' Marco taunted his grandfather, watching as the older man's face turned a dangerously purple hue.

‘You dare to suggest that I would so demean myself?'

Marco looked at him.

‘Whilst Emily is here onNiroli she will be treated with respect and courtesy, she will be received at court and she will be treated in every way like the most highly born of royal mistresses.' he told his grandfather evenly. I have a long memory and those who do otherwise will be pursued and punished.'

He had spoken loudly enough for everyone else in the chamber to hear him.knowing that the courtiers would know as well as he did that he would soon be in a position to reprimand those who defied him now.

Before this he had never had any intention of bringing Emily to court, but he did not intend to tell his grandfather that. How dared the old man suggest that Emily was somehow less worthwhile as a person than someNirolian nobleman's wife? He'd back Emily any day if it came to having to prove herself as a person. She possessed intelligence, compassion, wit and kindness, and her natural sweetness was like manna from heaven after the falseness of the courtiers and their wives.

He had seen the pleased looks that some of the flunkies had exchanged when his grandfather had flown into a rage over the generators. Of course, they couldn't be expected to like the fact that there were going to be changes, but they were going to have to accept them. Marco decided grimly.Just as they were going to have to accept Emily. He was striding out of the audience chamber before herecognised how much more strongly he felt about protecting Emily than he had actually known...

Emily stared at her watch in disbelief. It was closer to lunchtime than breakfast! How could she have slept so late? The sensual after-ache of the night's pleasure

gaveher a hint of a reason for her prolonged sleep.

Marco! She sat up in bed and then saw the note he had left for her propped up on the bedside table. She picked it up and read it quickly.

He was going to the palace to see his grandfather, he had written, and since he didn't know when he would be back, he had given Maria instructions to provide her with everything she might need, and had also explained to her that Emily was going to beorganising the interior renovation of the villa.

‘If you feel up to it by all means feel free to have a good look around.’ he had written, ‘but don't overdo things.'

There was no mention of last night, but then there was hardly likely to be was there? What had she been hoping for?A love letter? But Marco didn't love her. Did he? The starkness of that reality wasn't something she was ready to think about right now. Emily admitted. It was too soon after the traumatic recent see-sawing of her emotions from the depths of despair to the unsteady fragile happiness of Marco's appearance at the shop and their intimacy last night.

But she would have to think about it at some stage, she warned herself. After all, nothing had changed, except that she now knew what living without him felt like. She mustn't let herself forget that all this was nothing more than a small extra interlude of grace; a chance to store up some extra memories for the future.

It wouldn't do her any good to dwell on such depressing thoughts. Emily told herself. Instead, she would get up and then keep herself occupied with an inspection of the villa.

If Maria was curious about her relationship with Marco, she hid it well. Emilydecided, an hour later, when she had finished a late breakfast of fresh fruit and homemade rolls, which Maria had offered her when she had come downstairs. She had eaten her light meal sitting in the warm sunlight of a second inner courtyard, and was now ready to explore the villa, which she managed to convey with halting Italian and hand-gestures to Maria, who beamed in response and nodded her head enthusiastically.

Emily had no idea when the villa had first been built, but it was obviously very old and had been constructed at a time when the needs of a household were very different from the requirements of the twenty-first century. In addition to the dark kitchen Maria showed her there was a positive warren of passages and small rooms, providing what Emily assumed must have been the domestic service area of the house. To suit the needs of a modern family, these would have to be integrated into a much larger, lighter and more modern kitchen, with a dining area, and possibly a family room, opening out onto the courtyard.

The main doors to the villa opened into a square hallway, flanked by two good sized salons, although the decor was old-fashioned and dark. The bedrooms either already had their own bathrooms or were large enough to accommodate en suites, although only the room Marco was using was equipped with relatively recent sanitary-ware.

On the top floor of the villa, therewere more rooms and. by the time she had finished going round the ground and first floors. Emily was beginning to feel tired. But her tiredness wasn't stopping her from feeling excited at the prospect of taking on such a challenging but ultimately worthwhile project. The attic floor alone was large enough to convert into two self-contained units that could provide either semi-separate accommodation for older teenagers, staff quarters, or simply a bolt-hole and working area away from the hubbub of everyday family life. The courtyards to the villa were a real delight, or at least they had the potential to be. There were three of them, and the smaller one could easily be adapted to contain a swimming pool.

It was the second courtyard, which Marcos bedroom overlooked, that was herfavourite , though. With giant terracotta pots filled with shrubs, palms and flowers

anda loggia that ran along one wall, it was the perfect spot to sit and enjoy the peaceful sound of its central marble fountain.

Standing in it now Emily couldn't help thinking what a wonderful holiday home the villa would make for a family. It had room to spare for three generations; with no effort at all she could see them enjoying the refurbished villas luxurious comfort: the grandparents, retired but still very active, enjoying the company of their great-grandchildren, the kids themselves exuberant, and energetic, the sound of their laughter mingling with that of the fountain; the girls olive-skinned, pretty and dainty, the boys strongly built with their fathers dark hair and shrewd gaze, the baby laughing and gurgling as Marco held him whilst the woman who was their mother and Marcos wife—Nirolisqueen—stood watching them.

Don't do this to yourself, an inner voice warned Emily. Don't go there. Don't think about it, or her don't imagine what it would be like to be that woman. In reality, the home she had been busily mentally creating was not that of a king and a queen. It was the home of a couple who loved one another and their children, a home for the kind of family she admitted she had yearned for during her teenage years when she had lived with her grandfather.The kind of home that represented the life.

The future, she wished desperately she would be sharing with Marco, right down to the five children. The warmth of the sun spilling into the courtyard filled it with the scent of the lavender that grew there, and Emily knew that, for the rest of her life, she would equate its scent with the pain seeping slowly through her as she acknowledged the impossibility of her dreams. If this were a fantasy, then she could magic away all those things that stood between her and Marco, and imagine a happy ending, a scenario in which he discovered that she loved him and immediately declared his own love for her. But this was real life and there was no way that was going to happen.

One day—maybe—there would be a man with whom she could find some sense of peace, a man who would give her children they could love together and cherish. But that man could not and would not be Marco, and those dark-haired girls and boys she had seen so clearly with her minds eye that gorgeous baby, were the children that another woman would bear for him.

And poor things, their lives would be burdened by the weight of their royal inheritance, just as Marco’s was and that was something Emily knew she could not endure to inflict on her own babies. For them she wanted love and security and the freedom to grow into individuals, instead of being forced into the mould of royal heirs.

It was just as well that Marco had no intentions of wanting to make her his wife, on two counts. Emily told herself determinedly as she battled with her sadness, because the revealing nature of her recent thoughts had shown her what her true feelings were about Marcos royal blood. Plus, of course, as he had already told her it was not permissible for him to marry a divorced woman.

The sound of crockery rattling on a tray and the smell of coffee brought her back to the present as Maria came into the courtyard carrying a tray of coffee for her which she put on a table shaded from the heat of the sun by an elegant parchment-colouredsun umbrella.

Thanking her with a smile. Emily decided that she might as well start work. Within half an hour, she was deeply engrossed in the notes she was making, having moved the coffee-pot out of the way. Although she hadn't felt nauseous this morning, the smell of the coffee had reminded her that her stomach was still queasy and not truly back to normal.

An hour later, when Marco drove into the outer courtyard Emily was still hard at work. After leaving the palace he had been to the airport where the generators had already been unloaded. He had already made a list of those villages up in the mountains most in need of their own source of power and whilst in London he had spoken with the islands police chief and the biggest roadhaulier to arrange for the transport of the generators. However, whilst he had been at the airport, he had received a message from the police chief to say he had received instructions from the palace that the generators were not to be moved.

It had taken all of Marcos considerable negotiating skills, and the cool reminder that he wasNiroli’s future king, to persuade the police chief to change his mind and go against what he described to Marco almost fearfully as orders from the palace.

Because of this Marco had decided to drive into the mountains himself to make sure that the generators were delivered safely. If his grandfather thought he couldoutmanoeuvre him then he was going to have to learn the hard way that it was just not going to happen.

Marcos mouth compressed. As a successful entrepreneur whose views were respected he wasn't used to having his decisions questioned and countermanded. Had his grandfather really no idea of the potential damage he was inflicting on the island by his stubborn refusal torecognise that the world had changed and its people with it, and that it was no longer viable for a king as hugely wealthy asNiroli's to allow some of his subjects to live in conditions of severe poverty? Apart from anything else, there was the threat of civil unrest amongst the mountain-dwellers, which would be seized upon and further orchestrated by theVialli gang that lived amongst them.

His step-grandmother had in part to be behind this. Marco decided grimly. Queen Eva was his grandfather’s second wife, and it was Marcos personal opinion that she was and always had been hostile towards herpredecessors side of the family. That naturally included Marco and his two sisters. Given their step-grandmothers attitude, it was no wonder that Isabella rarely visited the palace, and that Rosa preferred not to live on the island, just as he hadn't, until recently...

Emily had been deeply engrossed in the notes she was making, but some sixth sense alerted her to Marcos presence, causing her to put down her pen and turn to look towards the entrance to the courtyard. Despite thesombreness of her earlier thoughts, the minute she saw Marco standing watching her all the feelings she had promised herself she would learn to control rushed through her. Pushing back her chair, she got up and hurried over to him.

As he watched her coming towards him Marco could feel the anger his morning had caused being eased from his body by the warmth of her welcome. He wanted to go to her and take hold of her. He wanted to take her to bed and lose himself and his problems within her. His need for her was so intense...He tensed once more. There it was again, that word need, that feeling he didn't want to have.

‘What is it? What's wrong?' Emily asked him uncertainly when she saw his sudden tension.

‘Nothing for you to worry about.An administrative problem I need to sort out.' he told her dismissively.‘I‘ll be gone for most of the afternoon.'

Emily did her best to hide her disappointment, but she knew she hadn't succeeded when she heard him exhaling irritably.

‘Emily—' he began warningly.

‘It's all right. I know. You're a king-in-waiting and you have far more important things to do than be withme .' she interrupted him briskly.

Marco looked at herdownbent head.

‘You can come with me if you wish, but it will mean a long, hot drive along dusty roads, followed by some boring delays whilst I speak with people. And since you haven't been feeling well...'

Emily wanted to tell him that being with him could never bore her but she managed to stop herself just in time. Instead she assured him quickly. ‘I’m feeling much better now. I've had a look round the villa and I could run some options by you in the car.unless ...’ She paused uncertainly, suddenlyrealising how very little she knew about what was expected of him in his new role. ‘That is will you be driving yourself.or ...?’

‘We aren't going on some kind of royal progress in a formal cavalcade, if that's what you mean and yes. I shall be driving myself.' Marco answered her. 'You'll need a hat to protect your head from the sun and a pair of sensible shoes for if you do get out of the car. Some of the villages we shall be going to are pretty remote and along single-track mountain roads. I don't want to delay too long though.' He didn't want the police chief getting cold feet and instructing thehaulier to stop his fleet oflorries , or worse, turn back.

Emily's eyes were shining as though he had offered her some kind of priceless gift, he reflected. He had a sudden impulse to take hold of her and draw her close to him, to kiss her slowly and tenderly. He shook the impulse away, not sure where it had come from or why, but knowing that it was dangerous...

22-11-07, 12:57 AM

المشاركة رقم: 112

المعلومات
الكاتب:	نيارااا
اللقب:

البيانات
التسجيل:	Jun 2006
العضوية:	7129
المشاركات:	287
الجنس	أنثى
معدل التقييم:
نقاط التقييم:	43

االدولة

مدونتي

الإتصالات
الحالة:
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كاتب الموضوع : نيارااا المنتدى : الارشيف

Chapter Ten

‘AM I allowed to ask any questions?’ Emily said lightly. It was nearly an hour since they had left the villa. Marco had driven them through the main town and then out and up into the hills. Or is this trip a state secret?’

‘No secret, but it is certainly a *******ious issue so far as my grandfather is concerned.’ Marco told her.

‘If its private family business.’ she began, but Marco stopped her shaking his head.

‘NoIt’s very much a public business, since it involves some of the poorest communities on the island. But instead of acknowledging their need and doing something about it my grandfather prefers to ignore it which is why I have decided to take matters into my own hands. The more remote parts of the island do not have the benefit of electricity.1 he explained. Because of that, these people are denied modern comforts and communication, and their children are denied access to technology and education.

My grandfather believes in his divine and royal right to impose his will and keep them living as peasants. He also believes he knows what is best for them and forNiroli . Because there has been a history of insurrection amongst our mountain population, led by theViallis .in the past, he also fears that by encouraging them to become part oftodays world he will be encouraging them to challenge the Crowns supremacy.’

‘And you don't agree.' Emily guessed sympathetically.

‘I believe that every child has the right to a good education, and that every parent has the right to want to provide their child with the best opportunities available. My grandfather feels that by educating our poorest citizens, we will encourage them to want much more than the simple lives they presently have, he fears that some will rise up others will desert the land and maybe even the island. But I say it's wrong to imprison them in poverty and lack of opportunity. We have a duty tothem, and for me that means giving them freedom of choice. You and I know what happens when young people are disenfranchised. Emily. We have already seen it in the urban ghettos of Europe: angry young men ganging up together and becoming feral, respecting only violence and greed, because that is all they have ever known. I don't want to see that happening here.

'I have tried to persuade my grandfather to invest some of the Crown's vast financial reserves in paying to install electricity in these remote areas, but he refuses to do so. Just as he refuses to see the potential trouble he is storing up for the island.’

Emily could hear the frustration in his voice. It had touched her immensely that Marco had connected the two of them together in their shared awareness of the downsides of keeping people impoverished and powerless.

‘Perhaps, once you are King...’ she suggested, but Marco shook his head again. ‘My grandfather is very good at imposing conditions and I don't want to trap myself in a situation where my hands are tied. Plus, it seems to me that some ofNiroli's youth are already beginning to resent my grandfather's rule, just as previous generations resisted the monarchy. I do not want to inherit that resentment along with the throne, so I have decided to act now to take the heat out of the situation.'

‘But what can you do?' Emily asked him uncertainly ‘Ifyour grandfather has refused to allow electricity to be supplied...'

‘lcan't insist that it is. No’ Marco agreed. ‘But I can provide it by other means.Whilst I was in London. I bought what I hope will be enough generators to at least provide some electricity for the villages. My grandfather is furious, of course, but I am hoping that he will back down and accept what I have done as a way of allowing him to change his mind without losing face. He is an old man who has ruled autocratically all his life. It is hard for him. I know that, but the Crown has to change or risk having change forced upon it.’

‘You think there will be some kind of uprising?’ Emily was horrified, instantly thinking of the danger that would bring to Marco.

‘Not immediately. But the seeds are there. And still my grandfather is so determined to hold absolute power.’

‘You pretend not to do so but in reality you understand him very well, and I think you feel a great deal of compassion for him. Marco.’ Emily said gently.

‘On the contrary, what I feel is a great deal of irritation and anger because he refuses to see the danger he is courting.’ Marco corrected her. Her perceptiveness had startled him, making him feel that she knew him rather better than he hadrealised . ‘There are so many changes I want to make. Emily, so much here for me to do, but my grandfather blocks me at every turn.’

'You've lived away from the island for a long time and you've grown used to making your own decisions without the need to consult others. Perhaps your grandfather is being difficult because he sees this and in some ways he fears it—and you. You said yourself that he's an old man—he obviously knows that he can’t continue to be King, but my guess is that he doesn't want to acknowledge that publicly, and that a part of him wants to continue to ruleNiroli through you. When you come up with your own plans and they are opposed to his he tries to block you because he's afraid of losing his power to you.'

‘I doubt you would ever get him to admit any of that.'

Emily could hear the frustration in Marco's voice and. with it.His hunger to right what he saw as wrongs. He would be a strong king morally, socially, politically and in all the other important ways, sherecognised . Listening to him had brought home to her the reality of her own situation. Even if by some miracle he should return her love, there was no future for them. She could not be his queen, and she could never do anything that would prevent him from beingNiroli’s king. Not now.

After hearinghim speak so passionately about his country and his people. If Marco had a duty to his people, then she too had duties to him and her love for him; loving someone meant putting them first and their needs before one's own. Marco's great need was tofulfil his duty and he could not do that with her in his life. A small, sad shadow darkened her eyes—the ghost of her dreams. Seeing it Marco frowned.

‘I’m boringyou.: he announced curtly.

‘No.’ Emily told him. ‘No! I like listening to you talking about your plans. I just wish that you had told me who you were when we first met.’ Had he done so she would have been so much betterarmoured against her vulnerability to him and she would certainly never have started dreaming they could have a permanent future together.

‘It wasn't a deliberate deceit on my part.’ Marco defended himself coolly.

‘Maybe not but you could have said something...warned me. Then, at least...’ She stopped, shaking her head, not wanting to admit her own folly where he was concerned.

‘In order to live the kind of life I wanted, to prove myself on my own terms, it was necessary for me to do it with anonymity and without the trappings of royalty. I grew up here as a renegade in my grandfathers eyes. I was his heir, but I refused to conform or let him turn on me and bully me the way he did my father.’

Marco's expression changed, and Emily ached to reach out and comfort him when she saw that look in his eyes.

‘My father was too gentle to stand up to my grandfather. As a child I hated knowing that. As a form of compensation I suppose. I rebelled against my grandfather’s authority and I swore that I would prove to him and to the world, that I had the capability to succeed as myself.’

‘But while you were proving yourself, you missed the island and your family, your father?’ Emily guessed tenderly.

Marco opened his mouth to reject her words and then admitted huskily. ‘Yes. It was such a shock when he was killed in a freak accident off the islands coast. Something Id never imagined happening...never considered.’

And along with his natural grief at the loss of his father.Marco had had to deal with the irreversible changes in his own circumstances that had followed. Emily acknowledged silently. It must have been so hard for him—a man used to taking control of every aspect of his personal life, to have to come to terms with the fact that, as King, a huge part of his life would now be beyond his control. Just listening to him was causing a change within her own thoughts, turning her angry bitterness and pain into compassionate understanding and acceptance.

It altered everything for her. Did herecognise how very alone he was emotionally? Was that a deliberate choice, or an accidental one? If he knew about it did he care, or did he simply accept it as part of the price he paid for his royal status?

‘I would hate to be in your shoes.’ The words had slipped out before she could stop them.

Marco looked searchingly at her.

‘What do you mean?’ he demanded.

‘I can hear how important your people are to you Marco, and how strongly you feel about helping them but...’ She paused and shook her head. ‘I couldn't pay the price you’re about to pay for beingNiroli’s king. On the one hand yes you will have enormous wealth and power, but on the other youwont have any personal freedom, any right to do what you want to do. Everything will have to be weighed against how it affects your people. That is such a tremendously heavy responsibility.’ She gave a small sigh. ‘I supposeits different if you’re born to it. I'm beginning to see why princes marry princesses,' she added ruefully. You really do have to be born royal to understand.’

‘Not necessarily. You’re doing a pretty good job of showing you have a strong grasp of what's involved.’ Marco told her dryly. They had rarely spoken so openly to one another and it surprised him how much he valued what she had said to him. Impulsively, he slowed the car and reached for her hand, giving it a small squeeze that caused her to look at him in surprise. Such a small, tender gesture was so very unlike him.

‘I’m glad you're here with me. Emily.’

Her heart was thumping and thudding with the sweetness of the emotions pouring through her. Marco brought the car briefly to a halt and leaned across and kissed her—a hard, swift kiss that contained a message she couldn't manage to decipher, but which sent a physical craving for him soaring through her body. She had never, ever known him exhibit such extraordinarily un-Marco behaviour before. Her heart felt as though it had wings, her own happiness dizzying her.

She mustn't let a casual moment out of time lead her into forgetting what she had justrecognised , she warned herself. But then, should she let what she knew to be their separate futures prevent her from enjoying their shared here and now?a different voice coaxed.

At this stage of the game, when you've got so much to deal with, it's only natural that you need someone to bounce ideas off and confide in,' she told him. ‘and...’ She paused, unsure of just how much she dared say without giving herself away completely.

‘And?’Marco probed as they bounced along the narrow track past a cluster of small houses.

'And I wouldn't want that someone to be anyone else but me’ Emily told him simply.

A young man, tall and gangly and outgrowing his clothes, was standing in the middle of the road in front of Marcos car waving his hands, his face alight with excitement.

Emily looked questioningly at Marco.

‘Tomasso.’ he informed her as he brought the car to a halt. ‘He is the leader of a gang of youngVialli hotheads, and he is also the person I have chosen to be my representative in taking care of the generator and introducing his village to its benefits’

The moment Marco opened the car door and got out,Tomasso bounded up to him exclaiming, ‘Highness, Highness, it is here! The generator, just as you promised. We have built a special place for it. Let me show you...’

An elderly woman appeared from the nearest house,tutting and looking very disapproving as she came over to join them.

‘What is this—where is your respect for our Crown?:she demanded. ‘Highness, forgive my thought-less grandson’ Emily could hear her saying as she curtseyed to Marco.

This was a side of him she had never seen. Emily thought to herself as Marco leaned forward and assisted the elderly woman to her feet, accepting her homage with easy grace, whilst maintaining a very specific formal dignity that Emily could see the elderly woman liked. As more villagers surrounded him he was very much the future king, so much so that Emily’s emotions blocked her throat.

She felt so proud sitting in the car watching him and yet at the same time, so painfully distanced from him. What she was witnessing was making her even more aware of how impossible it would be for them to sustain a long-term relationship. Already she could see the curious and even hostile glances being directed towards her and she guessed when Marco turned to look at the car that he was being asked who she was.

She looked away, her gaze caught by an array of brightly painted and beaded leather purses spilling out of a basket, just outside the door to one of the houses. Her artist's eye could immediately see how with some discreet direction, highly desirable objects could be made by adapting the leather and bead-work to cover boxes. She was constantly on the lookout for such accessories to dress her decorating schemes; they walked out of her shop faster than she could buy them. She made a mental note to ask Marco a bit more about the leatherwork and those who produced it.

It was nearly half an hour before he returned to the car having been pressed into going and viewing the generator in its new home. When he returned he was accompanied by a group of laughing young men whilst Emily noticed the older people of the village held back a little, still eyeing her warily. One of them, a bearded and obviously very old man went up to Marco and said something to him.shaking his head and pointing to the car. Emily saw the way Marcos expression hardened as he listened.

‘What was that old man saying to you?’ she asked him once he was back in the car and they had driven out of the village.

‘Nothing much.’

‘Yes.he was. He was saying something about me wasn't he?:Emily pressed him.

‘He didn't like you taking me there.'

Marco looked at her. Rafael, the elder of the village, was very much his grandfather’s man. He did not approve of the generator and had said so. And then, when he had seen Emily in the car he had berated Marco for—as he had put it—bringing such a woman toNiroli . Where is her shame? Rafael had demanded. She shows her face here as boldly as though she has none. In my days, such a woman would have known her place. It is an insult to us the people ofNiroli that you have brought herhere he had told Marco fiercely.

Rafael has a reputation as someone with very strong views. He is even older than my grandfather and tends to think of himself as the guardian of the island's morals...’

‘You mean he disapproves of me being here with you.’ Emily guessed.

‘Marco was negotiating a tight bend, and Emily had to wait for him to answer her.

‘What he thinks or feels is his business. What I choose to do is my own.’ he told her grimly.

But the reality was that it wasn't, and that whatever Marco chose to do was the business of the people ofNiroli .

In an attempt to change the subject, she asked him brightly. ‘I saw a basket of leather purses...’

‘Yes the women of the villages make them. They sell them to tourists, if they can although these days the visitors who come toNiroli would far rather have a designer piece than something fashioned out of home-made leather.’

‘Mmm...lwas thinking that, with a bit of time and effort, the leather could be used to cover trinket boxes, the bead ornamentation was so pretty, and I know from my own experience there is a huge market for that kind of thing. If as you say the villagers are short of money, then...’

‘It’s worth thinking about, but there's no way I want my people involved in any kind of exploitation.’

‘It was only a thought.’

‘And a good one.Leave it with me.'

When the time came for him to marry.Marco reflected,he would need a wife who would take on the role of helping him to help his people. Emily could easilyfulfil that role. Somehow, that thought had slipped under his guard and into his head where it had no right to be.Just as he had no right to allow Emily into his heart.Into his heart? Now, what was he thinking? Just because Rafael's objection to her presence had made him feel so angry and protective of her, that didn't mean that she had found her way into his heart. Did it?

22-11-07, 01:00 AM

المشاركة رقم: 113

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الكاتب:	نيارااا
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البيانات
التسجيل:	Jun 2006
العضوية:	7129
المشاركات:	287
الجنس	أنثى
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كاتب الموضوع : نيارااا المنتدى : الارشيف

Chapter Eleven

EMILY sighed to herself as she parked the car Marco had hired for her to use whilst she was staying onNiroli outside the islands elegant spa. Although he had made love to her last night and it was at his suggestion that she was visiting the spa today, she knew that she would far rather have had his company. Marco, though, was too busy with royal affairs to spend time with her. His purchase and distribution of the generators had led to yet another row with his grandfather, which had resulted in Emily asking Marco if there wasn't someone within his family who could mediate between the two of them.

‘Someone, you mean, like my sister Isabella?’ he had replied. She claims that my grandfather doesn't value her because she is female. No. Emily.' He had shaken his head. ‘This is something I have to deal with myself.'

To Emily's relief, she had now gone three whole days without being sick, although she had noticed that, despite the fact that she wasn't eating very much, the waistline of one of herfavourite skirts was now uncomfortably tight, and even more uncomfortable were her breasts, which felt swollen and tender. It must be due to too-rapid a change of climate, she had told herself this morning as shed dressed.

Marco had told her that the spa was owned and run byNataliaCarini daughter of Giovanni, the Royal Vine-keeper. Emily had been a bit hesitant about coming here and putting herself forward for inspection1 when she was at her most vulnerable. But as she walked into the spa foyer she heard the pretty girl behind the reception desk saying to another client. ‘I’m sorry, but MissCarini isn't here today.’

Emily hadn't really been sure how she felt about meeting someone who might have known Marco when he was younger. Like any woman in love, she longed to know everything there was to know about him and yet at the same time, the reality of her position in his life made her feel that she wanted to remain anonymous. In London, it might be acceptable for a couple to live together as lovers without any intention of making their relationship permanent, but she suspected that things were different here onNiroli —even if Marco weren't who he was and destined to be King and. no doubt, to make a dynastic marriage.

‘May I help you?'

Emily returned the receptionist's smile. ‘ldon't have an appointment, but I was wondering if it was possible to have a treatment?'

‘Since it isn't the height of the tourist season yet we should be able to fit you in. What kind of treatment would you like? Wespecialise here in using natural substances, especially theisland's own volcanic mud. It's very therapeutic, especially when we use it in conjunction with our specially designed massage treatments.

‘Here's a list of the treatments we offer, and a medical questionnaire.' The girl smiled again. The owner of the spa takes her responsibility to our clients very seriously, and I should point out to you that some of the more vigorous massages are not suitable for women who are pregnant.'

Pregnant! Emily almost laughed. Well, she certainly wasn't. And then suddenly it hit her. Her brain mentally registering the facts and assembling them: her sickness, her aching breasts, her growing waist...A wave of sickening shock and disbelief thundered through her and she could hear the receptionist asking her anxiously if she was all right.

‘I'm...fine...' she lied.

But of course she wasn't. She was anything but. How could she be 'fine', when the reason for the sickness shed been suffering these last few weeks, and the fact that, oddly, her waist seemed to have expanded making her clothes feel tight, had suddenly been made blindingly obvious to her?

Was she right? Was she pregnant? She did some hasty mental calculations, whilst her heart banged anxiously against her ribs.

She needed very badly to sit down, but not here. Not anywhere where the truth might out and therecould be any hint of a threat to her unborn child. It had only been seconds, minutes at the most, since she hadrealised the reality, but already she knew that there was nothing she would not do to protect the new life growing inside her. She would allow nothing or no one to imperil her child's safety and right to life!

Emily stared at her own reflection in the bedroom mirror and tried not to panic. There was little to show that she was pregnant as yet apart from that slight thickening of her waist, but how much longer would she have before Marco became suspicious? She couldn't afford to be still here onNiroli by then. Her throat went dry. Inside her head she could hear Marco's voice telling her at the very beginning of their relationship, that there would be no accidents, and what he expected her to do if one occurred.

Of course, what he had meant and not said was that he didn't want any royal bastards.

But there was no way she could destroy her child. She would rather destroy herself.

However, logically.Emily knew that, even if Marco had not made it plain he did not want her to have his child, there would be no place here onNiroli for the future king’s pregnant mistress, or his illegitimate baby! What on earth was she going to do? She had never felt more alone.

‘And now the village elder says that his orders have beenignored, and that the generator-shed has been broken into and the generator itself stolen. You see what you have done, what trouble you have caused by your interference?’

Marco forced himself to count slowly to ten before responding to hisgrandfathers angry but also triumphant accusations.

‘You say that Rafael gave orders that the shed housing the generator was to be boarded up for the safety of the villagers. What is that supposed to mean?’

One of his grandfather's aides bent his head close to the Royal Ear and murmured something in it.

The peace of the village was being destroyed—by the noise of the generator and various electrical appliances. Several villagers had complained to him that it had put their hens off laying and stopped their cows producingmilk.:

Marco didn't know whether to laugh or cry. And because of that he stopped the villagers using the generator?’ he demanded incredulously. No wonder they decided to ignore him.

Rafael says that he has long had concerns about the rebelliousVialli tendencies amongst this group of young men.Now that they have stolen the generator and are refusing to say where it is. He has had no other option but to order that they are punished.

‘What?'

‘Furthermore Rafael has told me his village is on the verge of anarchy, and that it will spread to other villages in the mountains.’

‘This is crazy,’ Marco told his grandfather. ‘lfanyone should be locked up it’s Rafael with his prehistoric views. Grandfather, you must see how foolish it was for him to have done this,' Marco implored. His grandfather was after all an educated, astute and wily man whilst Rafael was a simple peasant.

‘What I see is that you are the cause of this trouble with your reckless refusal to obey my commands.’

Marco didn't trust himself to stay and listen to any more, in case it provoked him into open warfare with his grandfather and his outdated ideas. Giving King Giorgio a small, formal half-bow, he then turned on his heel and strode out of the room.

In the corridors dust motes danced on the warm afternoon air. Emily would be back at the villa by now. An image of her slid into his head: she would be sitting in the shade, and when she saw him walking towards her she would look up at him and give him that welcoming smile. She would also look cool andcalm, and just seeing her would take the edge off his own frustration. Right now he admitted,he would give anything to share his experiences of the morning with her. Emily, with her understanding and her sympathetic ear—he needed both of those very badly.

He paused. There it was again, that word, 'need'. It suddenly struck him how very alone he would be feeling right now if Emily hadn't been here onNiroli with him. It was only since bringing her to the island that he hadrecognised how good she was with people, and at problem-solving, and how much it meant to him to have the safety valve of being able to talk openly to her about the situation with his grandfather. Increasingly he was beginning to feel that he didn't want her to leave either the island or his bed. But whilst he might flout the royal rules for the benefit of his people, where his personallife was concerned he couldn't do the same and succeed .

The only way he could keep Emily on the island was by elevating her to the position of Royal Mistress, and to do that he would have to procure a suitably noble husband for her one who understood the way in which these things were done. Whilst he knew he would be able to find such a husband, he also knew that Emily would refuse point-blank to enter that kind of marriage and. besides...Besides what? He didn't want her to have a husband...

He had no time to delve into the inner workings of his mind at the moment, he reminded himself; nor could he go back to the villa—and Emily—no matter how much he wanted to do so. First he must go up to Rafael's village and deal with the situation there before it got any worse.And what about his growing dependence on Emily? When was he going to deal with that—before it got worse?

‘Emily’

She tensed as she heard Marco call out her name as he came out into the sheltered inner courtyard, where she was seated in the shade, one hand lying protectively against her stomach as she tried to come to terms with everything.

It was early evening and she could hear the sharp edge of something unfamiliar in his voice. What was it? Not tiredness or irritation, and certainly not anxiety, but somehow a something that made her heart ache for him.above and beyond her own pain and fear for herself and their child. Was it always going to be like this? Was she always going to have this instinctive need to give him the best of her love? How could she do so now?

‘I would have been back earlier.’ Marco told her ‘but I had to go up to Rafael's village to put an end to some trouble brewing there, as my grandfather informed me with great delight earlier.'

‘What kind of trouble?' Emily asked anxiously.

Marco sat down next to her. She could smell the dusty heat of the day on him but under it she was as always, acutely conscious of the scent that was so sensually him. However, this evening, instead of filling her with desire, it filled her with a complex mix of emotions so intense that they clogged her throat with tears—tears for their baby, who would never know andrecognise his fathers scent, tears for herself because she would have to live without Marco. But most of all tears for Marco himself, because he could never share with her the unique feeling that came from knowing they had created a life together.

Her child, their child, his first-born child.The huge tremor of emotion that seized her shook her whole body, overwhelming her with a flood of love and pain in equal proportions. She wanted this baby—his child—so very much. Its conception might have been wholly unplanned, but if she could go back and change things she knew that she would not do so. She was a modern woman, financially independent, with her own home and her own business, and more than enough love to give to her baby. A baby that would never know its fathers love, she reminded herself as Marco answered her question, forcing her to focus on what he was saying and to put her own thoughts to one side.

‘Rafael had tried to stop the villagers using the generator.’ he explained. SoTomasso and some of his friends rebelled and hijacked it. Then Rafael—with mygrandfathers approval—had the young fools punished. They were alreadyantagonistic towards a way of life that traps them in the past and my

grandfather'sold-fashioned determination to enforce a way of life on them to their detriment.'

‘It can't be good that they feel so disenfranchised.' Emily felt bound to comment.

‘I know.' Marco acknowledged. If my grandfather was more reasonable I could discuss with him my concern that these youngsters could, if handled the wrong way become so disaffected that ultimately it could result in civil unrest and even violence. But the minute I tell him that, his reaction will be to have them imprisoned.'

‘You need to find a way of getting them onside and opening a dialogue with them that allows them to feel their concerns are being addressed.' Emily offered.

‘My views exactly.'Marco agreed. I've told them that it's an issue I intend to take on board once I take over from my grandfather and I've asked them to be patient until then. But I also know that the moment I start instituting any reforms, the old guard is going to react against them, because my grandfather has drip-fed them the fear that change means that they will lose out in some way.'

Emily listened sympathetically. She could see how passionately Marco felt about the situation. But she also sensed that the more angry and opposed to his grandfather Marco became, the less chance there was of them reaching a mutually acceptable solution.

‘I don't have to tell you that your grandfather is an old man.' she replied. It may be that his pride won’t allow him to admit that he has got things wrong and they've gone too far or that the way the island is ruled needs to change. You might have to backtrack a little. Marco, and find a way to offer him a face-saving way of accepting your changes. Maybe you could handle them in such a way that he could feel they were his ideas—in public at least.' She could see from Marco's expression that he wasn't willing to take on board what she was saying. It seemed to her that he and his grandfather were two very proud and stubborn men and that neither was prepared to give in to the other.

‘You haven't seen anything of the island yet.' he told her abruptly.We’IIremedy that tomorrow.'For Emily's benefit, or for his own because he needed to put some distance between himself and his grandfather?

22-11-07, 01:03 AM

المشاركة رقم: 114

المعلومات
الكاتب:	نيارااا
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البيانات
التسجيل:	Jun 2006
العضوية:	7129
المشاركات:	287
الجنس	أنثى
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نقاط التقييم:	43

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مدونتي

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كاتب الموضوع : نيارااا المنتدى : الارشيف

Chpter Twelve

ARE you sure you've got time to do this? Emily queried as Marco held open the door of the car for her before they set off to see something of the island. The morning sunshine cast sharp patterns on the worn flagstones of the courtyard and Emily was glad of the welcome coolness of the air-conditioned car. Hadn't she read somewhere that pregnancy increased the blood flow and made one feel warmer?

Pregnancy.She ached to be able to share her joy with Marco and yet at the same time, she was also afraid of his reaction. If he should try to pressure her into having a termination it would break her heart, but logically, what else could he do? Even if he was prepared to understand and accept that she wanted to have this baby and bring it up alone, she suspected that his grandfather would be totally opposed to the idea. The old king would surely put pressure on Marco to deal with her. She didn't want to put Marco in that position and she wanted to keep her child as far away as possible from what increasingly she felt was a very negative kind of environment. TheNirolian royal family might be the richest in the world, but so far as Emily was concerned they seemed to be as dysfunctional as they were wealthy.

Money wasn't important to her so long as she had enough for her needs. She wanted her child to grow up confident that he or she was rich in love rather than money. What she wanted, she admitted, was for her child to be raised somewhere very far away fromNiroli and without the burden of being a royal bastard. So what was she going to do? Return to London without telling Marco she was having his child?

That was certainly her easiest option. Emily felt. But did she have the strength to do it? Could she walk away from Marco without telling him? She loved her child enough already to do whatever she had to do to protect him or her.including leaving the man she adored; she knew that, almost without having to think about it. However, did she also love Marco enough to spare him the necessity of having to take on board prospective fatherhood and the problems that would cause for him? Was she strong enough to deny her instinctive longing to share her news with him even though she knew he couldn't, and wouldn't, share her growing joy at the prospect of having his baby?

It was an extraordinarily wonderful gift that fate was giving her: a child, and not just any child, but the seed of the man she loved. She could picture him now; somehow Emily already knew that her baby would be a boy. He would have Marcos features and perhaps a little of his arrogance. He would look at her with Marcos eyes and she would melt with love for him and the man who had fathered him. And. later, when he was old enough to demand his fathers name? She would deal with that when it happened. For now what concerned her most was her baby's health and whether she could leaveNiroli without Marco suspecting anything. So how was she going to do that? She couldn't just tell him she didn't want him any more. He would never believe her.

Perhaps he would believe her if she told him she wasn't comfortable with her role in his life. She wasn't even his formallyrecognised mistress, and she felt it could reflect on her business reputation. Marco's own pride meant that he would be able to identify with that. Last night, when they had made love, he hadn't questioned the way she had encouraged him to gentle his possession of her holding her breath a little, caught as she was between her maternal anxiety for her baby and the intense physical desire he always aroused in her. But Marco was a skilled and a sensual lover, who knew every single one of her body's responses and how to invoke them. There was no way he wouldn't soon notice a new desire on her part to make his penetration of her less intense.

A small, sad semi-smile touched her lips. Marco didn't know it yet but the sightseeing journey they were taking together today could well be the last they would make together. Now she was destined to set out on a new path, which she would share with this gift he had given her.

‘Seat belt.’Marco reminded her. He reached across to secure the belt for her before she could stop him. Immediately Emily breathed in protectively. There was no bump of any kind to betray her but still she felt a sharp clutch of anxiety for the vulnerability of her child. It would be like this for the rest of her life, sherecognised . No matter that one day this baby she had conceived so unintentionally would be an adult; as a mother she would always be fiercely protective. Though, of course, there would be many things she could not protect her child from, foremost amongst which would be the pain of knowing his father hadn't wanted him.

‘Emily?'

To her shock Marco had placed his hand flat against her belly. Fearfully she turned to look at him. Had he, by some intuitive means, actually guessed?

‘You're looking so much better than you did when you first arrived here.' she heard him tell her.Niroli's sunshine has done you good.'

Shakily Emily released her pent-up breath. He hadn't guessed; it was just her own anxiety that was making her think that he must have done.

‘I don't think anyone wouldn't enjoy it. I know I haven't seen much of the island...'

Today, we're going to see as much of it as we can.' Marco told her as he started the car and my royal duties will just have to wait.'

Whatever else the future held for Marco's child, she was glad that it wouldn't be the dark shadow of duty that fell across Marco's life. Emily decided emotionally. The little boy might have to grow up not knowing his father, but he would be free of the burden Marco carried, and she was passionately grateful for that. Though, at the same time, almost overwhelmed by the intensity of her love for Marco, she reflected as he turned the car off the main road into a much narrower lane that ran close to the high, rocky coastline where cliffs plunged down into the sea.

‘This was one of myfavourite places when I was a boy.' Marco confided as he stopped the car.

Emily could understand why. There was an elemental wildness about it; in some ways, the landscape matched the man.

‘Come on let's get out of the car.'

Emily wasn't sure she wanted to. The height of the cliffs gave her an uncomfortable feeling of vertigo. But she could see that Marco was determined and she didn't want to have to explain to him how she felt.

I used to come here and gaze out to sea and promise myself that one day I'd get away from here and from my grandfather. But of course, even then I knew that ultimately I would have to come back.' Marco confessed, once they were standing a few feet back from the edge of the cliff-top. He bent down and picked up a handful of the thin, stony soil that lay at the roots of the weather-beaten gorse bushes that grew in such abundance along this part of the coast, and flung it as far out to sea as he could.

Watching him Emily knew that this was a re-enactment of something he had done many times as a boy—as a way of releasing the anger inside him? It was an emotion he had partially dissipated by leaving the island and making a life for himself. But it would never really leave him so long as he and his grandfather struggled for supremacy one over the other. And whilst they were embroiled in that struggle, others would suffer. She could not allow her child to be one of them...

All of a sudden it hit her: she had to tell Marco that she intended to leave. She couldn't stop herself from reaching out to touch him and placed her hand on his bare forearm. Immediately he turned towards her.

‘Marco.’ she began tentatively, and then stopped. Unexpectedly he reached for her and took her in his arms, kissing her with such fiercely sweet passion that it made her eyes sting with tears.

Why was he doing this? Marco asked himself. He knew that it couldn't go on. Already, deep down inside, he knew he was becoming too dependent on her, and she was becoming too important to him. That couldn't be allowed to happen. There was no room in his life for that kind of relationship with her. He wasNiroli's future king and he intended to devote every ounce of his mental and physical energy to his country and its people.

He would break down the restrictions that centuries of royal rule hadplaced, he would open the door forNiroli's population to walk freely into the new century. There was no legitimate place in his life for the kind of relationship he had with Emily. He was reeling at the way he felt about her now the intensity that was being demanded of him. It was only recently he had started to feel like this, torecognise there was within him this dangerous need to have her close, a need that went far beyond any kind of sexual desire. But such emotion could not be allowed toexist, it could not be given a name, or a place in his life.

He started to pull away from her and then stopped, smothering a savage groan before he tightened his hold on her and kissed her again.

Emilysmouth felt soft and giving beneath his own, her body warm, and he longed to possess her and fill her and lose himself in her and know the passion of loving her.

‘Marco! Emily objected, somehow managing to stem her own longing and drag her mouth from beneath his. She was trembling from head to foot, afraid not of him but of herself and the intensity of her feelings, and stumbling over the words in her desperation.

‘There's no easy way to say this, but the truth is that I should never have come here.Niroli is different from London, and my role in your life has changed. I can’t live like this. Marco, a semi-secret mistress, despised and ignored by the court, and forced to live in the shadows. I'm going back to the UK just as soon as it can be arranged. It will be best for both of us.’

She was only saying what he already knew to be true, and yet he felt as shocked as though his guts had been splintered with ice picks. She couldn't do this! He wasn't ready to let her go. He needed her here with him. He should, he knew, be feeling relieved, but instead he felt more as though he had suffered a mortal blow. Pain rolled over him in mind-numbing waves, crashing through him and drowning out reason, spreading its unbearable agony to every part of him. He could hardly think of it do anything other than try somehow to survive its rapacious teeth as it savaged him and tormented him.

How could this have happened? How could he be experiencing this? The thoughts and feelings that filled him were so new and unfamiliar that they made him feel as though he was suddenly a stranger to him-self. He felt like a man possessed by...by what? He shook his head, unable to allow the word pulsing in his heart to form. He had wanted it tohappen, he had wanted her to leave. But not like this...He'd wanted to be the one to tell her to go...But how? That he didn't want her here because he was afraid that she would come between him and his duty? His whole body shuddered as the pain savaged it once more.

Why didn't Marco say something, anything? Emily worried anxiously.

What could she say without risking betraying the truth?

‘I loved the life we shared together in London. Marco. But things are different here. The time we're sharing together is borrowed time, stolen time, perhaps; she told him sadly. It’s better that I go now.’

Marco could feel the heavy drum of his heartbeat thudding out a requiem for their relationship as he heard the finality in her voice.

‘There'll never be anyone else in my life like you. Marco, nor a relationship to match the one we've shared.'

The words felt as though they were being ripped from her like a layer of her skin, but she couldn't hold them back; they were after all the truth, even though she knew she was a fool for having said them.

But it didn't matter now that she was compounding that error by lifting her hand to his face, tears burning at the backs of her eyes as she felt the familiar texture that was hard with the beginnings of his beard against the softness of her palm.

‘Emily.'

He had caught hold of her hand before she could stop him lifting it to his lips and then dropping it when he felt her tremble, to pull her bodily into his arms and then plunder her mouth with his own. Not that she made any attempt to resist him. Instead, she gave him the sweetness he was demanding whilst she clung helplessly to him.

Few people visited this part of the island, and Marcorealised that an irresistible need was flooding through him to know the intimacy of sex on this wild headland. He couldn't let her go without this one last time, a final memory he would have to make last a lifetime of days and nights once he was without her. There had been manymany times when their pleasure had been more sensual and more sustained, when he had deliberately set himself the task of pleasing her. But no time had ever been more intense than this, or more emotional. Because this was the last time that finally he could give to himself what he had previously so rigidly denied, and that was the right to feel with his emotions what he was feeling with his flesh.

This was too much. Emily told herself. She just wasn't strong enough to endure this kind of passion. It was as though Marco had wrenched away, with his clothes, the barrier she had always sensed he kept raised against her.

As they lay together on the lavender-scented turf, the sun warming their naked bodies, the kisses he lavished on her body were hot and fierce with a desire that went beyond the merely physical.As though by shared consent neither of them spoke. What words were there to say after all? Emily wondered, with dry-eyed hurt.

Words would only be lies or worse, create wounds. It was better this way that their last memory of one another was one filled with a shared but unspoken awareness of what they’d shared and what they would never have again. It seemed to Emily as she touched him that she had never loved him more. Something within her that was maybe both lover and prospective mother, swelled her heart with bitter-sweet emotion.

They kissed and touched, their lips clinging, their bodies urgent, trying desperately to hold onto every second of their pleasure. But like sand, it could not be held, running swiftly through their fingers instead as Emily’s cries of pleasure became soft sighs of *******ment.

She would treasure her memories of this day for the rest of her life. She smiled lazily up at Marco as he leaned over her.

‘I don't want you to leave.’

Marco had no idea where the words had come from. No! That was lie. He knew exactly where they had come from and why. And even if he hadn't, the heavy pounding of his heart would have told him. What on earth was he doing, when he had already decided that she must go? What had happened to him to make him want to change his mind on the strength of a few minutes of good sex?he derided himself. But it wasn't the good sex he didn't want to lose—it was Emily herself.

Emily wondered if anything else in her life could ever be as poignant as this. Marco had never, ever asked her for anything, never mind pleaded with her so emotionally! She so wanted to fling herself into his arms and cover his face with passionately joyful kisses as she told him there was nothing she wanted more than to be with him. But how could she?

‘Marco. I'm sorry. I can't.' Her voice was little more than an anguished whisper, but Marco heard it releasing her abruptly and turning away from her. She knew how much it must have cost him to ask her to stay. Given his inbuilt sense of male arrogance and his pride, along with his background and upbringing, she could only marvel that he had.

She got to her feet and said his name unsteadily, but he was already heading back to the car.

‘Marco!' she protested. Please listen to me...'

He stopped walking and turned around. She saw his chest lift as he breathed in sharply and the sadness that filled her was not just forherself , but for both of them. She knew what she had to do, where her responsibility now lay but how could she walk away letting him think that she hadn't wanted to stay with him? She couldn't, she decided frantically. Yes she had her baby to think of and. yes she was afraid of Marcos reaction to the news that she was pregnant. But she loved Marco, too and the knowledge that he wanted her enough to actually ask her to stay was too sweetly precious that she couldn't deny its tremendous effect on her.

She still had to leave, nothing could change that, but she knew she couldn't go away from him without telling him why it was so important that she went.

She took a deep breath; this was the most difficult thing she had ever had to do. I don't want to leave you. Marco. But I have to. You see. I'm having your child. I'm pregnant.'

‘What?’ Marco could feel her words exploding inside his skull as he battled with his own disbelief.

‘I know you told me at the beginning of our relationship that there must not be any accidents.' Emily continued, carefully cutting into the tension of his complete silence, and...andof course I understand now why you said that. The future King ofNiroli's bastard isn't the title I want for our baby.'

She gave a small shrug. ‘The truth is I don't want him to have any title at all, and if there is one thing in all of this that I am grateful for it’s that our son wont ever have to live the kind of controlled and confined life you will have to live. What I want for him more than anything else is the kind of personal freedom that you don't have and that you can’t give to your legitimate children. I want him to grow up in a home filled with love, where what matters most is that he finds his own sense of where his life lies and how his talents should be used. I don't want his future to be corrupted by wealth and position. I don't want him to have to carry the burdens I can see you carrying. Marco. I can't give him his father, but I can give him the right to define his own life, and to me that heritage is of far more value than anything your legitimate children will inherit.'

For a few seconds.Marco was too taken aback by what she had said to speak. From the moment of his birth he had been brought up to be aware of the tremendous importance of his role and his family. The thought that someone was not awed and impressed by it was something he found hard to take in. But he could see that Emily meant what she'd said. Senses of isolation and aloneness of having lost something he could never regain,an awareness that somehow, somewhere, he had turned his back on something precious stabbed through him.

With it came the drift of painful memories: of himself as a young boy longing passionately for the freedom to be himself. He could see his father’s struggles and his mothers anguish and of course, his grandfather’s anger. He could also hear the echo of his own childishly piping voice stating defiantly. ‘When I am grown up and I can do what I want. I won’t be a prince!’ But with a kick like an iron-tipped boot, slowly but surely his position and its claims on him had reshaped him. He pictured two small boys, both dark-haired and sturdy, one of them grubby and laughing as he played happily with his friends. The other was sad-eyed and alone, held at a respectful distance by his peers, protected by privilege, or was he imprisoned by it?

What folly was this? Marco forced back the memories, refusing to acknowledge them any more, letting his pride take over instead. ‘You are being naive. No one else will share your views. Emily. In fact, they will think you a fool. And. besides, being King ofNiroli is about more than any of those things.’ he retaliated sharply. It’s about making a difference to mypeople, it’s about leading them to a better future. Do you really think our son, myson.will thank you for denying him his birthright?’

‘He has no birthright here onNiroli . I am your mistress, and he will be

illegitimate.'

‘He has the birthright I choose to give him.’

‘Byrecognising him and making him face the world as less than your children born within royal wedlock? By making himgrow up in an environment where he will always be beneath them—in their eyes and. ultimately, in his own?’

‘He will be a member of theNiroli royal family, how can you think of denying him that? Do you really think he will thank you when he is old enough to know what he has lost?’

In the space of a few heated sentences, they had become opponents. Emilyrecognised .

‘It doesn't matter how much we argue about our own feelings.’ she told him. You are not yet King Marco, and I doubt that your grandfather would welcome the birth of an illegitimate child to a woman of such lowly status as me’

There was just enough edge to her voice to warn Marco that, at some stage, she had learned of his grandfather’s opinion of her.

‘The fact that I am his father automatically gives him his own status.’ Marco retaliated, and thenrealised his words had added toEmilys fury rather than

softenedit.

‘Yes as your bastard—a royal bastard, I know. But he will still be your bastard. I won’t let him suffer that. Marco. I'm going home.’

‘Niroliis my child's home, and this is where you and he are staying. When did you find out—about the child?’ he demanded abruptly.

‘Very recently.I had no idea...' Emily looked away from Marco, remembering how shocked she had been. 'I would never have agreed to come here with you if I'd known.’

‘So how would you have informed me that I'd become a father?Via a birth notice in The Times?’

Emily flinched as she heard the savagery in his voice. ‘That wouldn't happen.' she told him quietly. It had been foolish of her to give in to her urge to comfort him because now she had created a new set of problems. Why had she told him? Because secretly she had been hoping—what? That he would sweep her up into his arms and say that he was thrilled she was expecting their child?

‘I'm sorry if I've given you a shock. I was stunned myself when Irealised . But I didn't want you to think I was leaving because..’The words because I don't love

youformed a tight knot that blocked her throat. How could she say them when she knew he didn't want her love?

‘I wanted you to know that I have a valid reason for leaving the island.’ she amended, her voice growing firmer as she underlined, a reason that matters to both of us. We already knew that one day we would have to part. The fact that I have accidentally conceived your child only makes that parting all the more essential. We both know that. I will not be your pregnant mistress. Marco.’

Emily was having his child, their child! A complex mixture of unfamiliar emotions were curling their fingers into his heart and tugging hard on it.

‘How far advanced is this pregnancy?’ he asked her brusquely.

Emily felt as though her whole body had been plunged into ice-cold water. This was what she had dreaded. An argument with him in which he would try to demand that she terminate her pregnancy—something she had absolutely no intention of doing.

‘I’m not sure.’ she admitted honestly. I think that possibly it could have happened when I had that stomach bug. I remember reading somewhere that that kind of thing canneutralise the effect of the contraceptive pill. I should have thought about that at the time, but Ididnt .’

She lifted her head and told him firmly. 'You needn't worry about the consequences, though, Marco. I am fully prepared to take sole responsibility for my child.’

‘My child.’Marco stopped her ruthlessly. ‘The child is my child. Emily.’

She looked at him uncertainly. It hadn't occurred to her that he would react like this. He sounded almost as though he felt as possessive about the baby as she did herself.

‘I don't want to discuss it any more. Marco. There's no point. I can't stay here

now.'

The morning sun was slanting across the courtyard. The coffee Maria had brought him half an hour earlier had grown cold as Marco sat deep in thought. He was not going to let Emily leave. And he was not going to allow his child to grow up anywhere other than here onNiroli . Both were unassailable and unchangeable tenets of what he felt about his role as king-in-waiting and as the father of Emily's expected baby. It wasn't any longer a matter of what he did or didn't want; it was a matter of his royal duty, to his pride, to his name and to his first-born.

It was ridiculous of Emily to suggest that their child would have benefits that his so-called legitimate children would not, folly for her to claim that he would one day thank her for denying him his royal status. Marco might have enjoyed the freedom of his time in London, but he had also never forgotten who and what he was. Having royal blood and being able to lay claim to it even if one was born on the wrong side of the blanket, was a life-enhancing benefit that couldn't be ignored.

His son growing up here onNiroli as his accepted child, could look forward to the best of everything and when grown, a position of authority at his fathers court. He would be revered and respected, he would wield power and he would be on hand to support his legitimate half-sibling when finally he became King. Would he be imprisoned by his royal status, as Marco had sometimes felt he had been? No!

All of that and more could be made possible for this child, provided that Emily was prepared to see sense. She didn't have the status of a proper royalmistress, that was true. But his grandfather, for all his faults and stubbornness, also had a strong sense of duty and family. He too would want his great-grandchild to remain onNiroli . There was a way in which it could be made possible for her to stay and be elevated to a position in which she and their baby would have the respect of the people.

He swung round as he heard Emily come out into the courtyard. The sun had brushed her skin a warm gold, driving away its London pallor. She wasn't showing any visible sign of her pregnancy yet but there was a rich glow about her.somehow , a sense of ripeness to come. Watching her Marco experienced a swift surge of possessive determination not to let her go. She was having his child; whether by accident and not by design, that did not alter his paternal responsibilities or that a baby of royal blood was to be born. Who other than he could tell that child about his heritage and where better a place to do that than here onNiroli ?

‘I’ve just seen Maria andshe's going to bring out some fresh coffee for you.' How domestic and comfortable that sounded. Emily thought tiredly as she sat down on the chair Marco had pulled out for her. She had hardly slept, her thoughts circling helplessly and tumultuously.

'I'm not prepared to let you leave the island. Emily. You and my child, are going to stay here where both of you belong. It seems to me that marriage is the best way to secure our son's future and your position at court.'

Marriage! Emily almost dropped the glass of water she had been drinking. Marco wanted to marry her? She was shaking from head to foot with the intensity of her joy. Emotional tears filled her eyes. She put down the glass, and protested shakily.’ Marco! You can’t mean that. How can you marry me?’

Sherealised immediately from his expression that something was wrong.

‘Icant marry you.’ he told her flatly. You know that. What on earth made you think that I could?’ Why did he feel this dragging weight wrapping itself around him? He couldn't marry Emily, and he was surprised that she had thought he might. And yet just for a moment, seeing the joy in her eyes, he had felt...He had felt what?A reciprocal surge of joy within himself? That was ridiculous.

‘You need a husband Emily, and a position at court. There is within European royal families a tradition whereby noblemen close to the throne marry royal mistresses. This kind of marriage is rather like a business arrangement, in that it benefits all parties and. in the eyes of the world, bestows respectability on the mistress and any children she may bear. The nobleman in question is of course rewarded for his role and—

‘Stop it. Stop it. I have heard enough!’ Emily had pushed back her chair and got to her feet. She could hardly breathe but she struggled to speak. ‘I thought I knew you, Marco. I even felt sorry for you, because of the heavy responsibility your duty to the Crown lays upon you! But now Irealise that I never really knew you. The man I thought I knew would never in a thousand years have allowed himself to become so corrupted by power and pride that he would suggest what you have just suggested to me!'

‘What I propose is a traditional solution to a uniquely royal problem.’ Marco persisted curtly. You are overreacting.’ Her outburst had made him feel as though he were doing something wrong, instead of recommending a logical solution to their problem. A logical solution of the kind his grandfather would have suggested? Was the pressure of becoming King turning him into a man like his grandfather the kind of man he had once sworn he would never allow himself to be? His critical inner voice would not be silenced, and its contempt echoed uncomfortably inside him.

‘Am I? Take a look at yourself. Marco, and try seeing yourself through my eyes, and then repeat what you have just offered as a solution. You want to bribe another man to marry me so that—so that what? You can have your child here, convenientlylegitimised by a convenient marriage between two strangers, though I'm sure that won’t stop the gossip.But what about me? Am I expected to be a dutiful bride to this noble husband you're going to find for me? Am I supposed to submit willingly to having sex with him bear his children, be his wife in allsenses

ofthe word?’

‘No. there will be no question of that.' The harshness of his own immediate denial caught Marco off guard. But he couldn't retract his words, nor deny the feeling of fierce possessiveness that had gripped him at the thought of Emily in another mans bed.

‘What kind of man are you. Marco, if you think that I would be willing to sell myself into such an arrangement? But then I was forgetting: you aren't a mere man are you? You are a king! I'm not staying on the island a minute longer than I have to. Everything you've just said underlines all the reasons why I don't want my son growing up here. Your proximity to the throne has corrupted you but I don't intend to let it corrupt my child.'

‘And I don't intend to let you leaveNiroli .'

They had been the closest of lovers, but now they were enemies locked in a battle to the bitter end for the right to decide the future of their child.

22-11-07, 01:05 AM

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كاتب الموضوع : نيارااا المنتدى : الارشيف

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THE plane had taken off but Emily was holding her breath, half expecting that, somehow. Marco still could prevent her from leavingNiroli .

Shed hated having to appeal to Marcos grandfather for help behind his back. At first, the king had refused to see her when shed made her secret visit to the palace. She had been expecting his rejection, though, and so had lifted her chin and told the stiff-faced, uniformed equerry who had told her that the king would not receive her. ‘Please tell His Majesty that the favour I want to ask him will benefit both of us and the throne ofNiroli .’

She had been made to wait over an hour before she had finally been shown into the royal presence. It had shocked her to see how very like the king Marco was traces of Marcos stunning good looks still visible in the older mans profile.

She had chosen her moment with care, waiting until she knew that Marco had gone up to the mountains to see Rafael before she visited the palace.

‘I want to leaveNiroli ’ she told King Giorgio. 'But Marco does not wish me to leave. He has said he will do everything in his power to stop me and to keep me here.’ She didn't tell the king about her pregnancy, just in case he echoed Marcos insistence that her child be brought up under the cover of an arranged marriage betweenherself and a nobleman.

‘Only you have the authority to enable me to leave without Marco knowing.

‘Why should I do that?1the king challenged her.

Emily was ready for that. Because you do not want me here.’ she replied. You do not consider me good enough to be Marcos mistress.’

‘He is not the man I thought if he cannot provide sufficient inducement to keep you in his bed if that is where he wants you.’

‘Marco is more than man enough for any woman.’ Emily defended. ‘But I am too much of a woman to be prepared to share him with the throne and everything else that entails.’

She thought she saw a glimmer of grudging respect in the king’s eyes before he gave a stiff nod of his head.‘Very well. I will help you. A royal flight will be made ready for you and I shall ensure that Marco is kept out of the way until it has taken off.'

The king had kept his promise to her and now she was on her way home. She closed her eyes against the acid burn of her tears and pressed her hand against her body as though in mute apology to her baby for what she was doing. ‘You may not understand it now, but I'm doing this for you and for your future.’ she whispered to him.

‘How dare you do this?’White-faced with rage. Marco towered over his grandfather, royal protocol forgotten in his fury. Now he knew why Rafael had kept him at the village for so long with his endless complaints against youngTomasso and his friends.

When he had returned to the villa to find Emily missing, he had summoned Maria, and she had been the one who had told him that a car bearing the royal crest had arrived for her.

He had gone straight to the palace, demanding to see his grandfather. Emily applied to me for aid because she feared you would force her to remain here onNiroli against her will. Naturally I helped her

‘Naturally.’ Marco agreed grimly, registering even more grimly that her departure had elevated Emily from being a floozy to someone his grandfather was prepared to speak of with far more intimacy. 'After all, you never wanted her here.’

Whatever role she might have played in your life in London, there is no place for her here onNiroli . She herself accepts this and in doing so she shows far more sense and awareness of the importance of your future role than you do. Marco. I confess that she impressed me with her grasp of your responsibility. She fully understands what will entail when you becomeNirolis king.’

‘She also fully understands that she is to be the mother of my child.’ Marco told his grandfather sharply. That is why she has left—but I don't expect she told youthat, did she?’

‘She is having your child?’

‘Yes.’ Marco confirmed unashamedly.

The king was frowning imperiously. But that alters everything. Why did you not say something to me about this? She must be brought back, and at once! What if this child she is carrying should be a son? It is unthinkable that he should be brought up anywhere but here. Sons are a precious commodity. Marco, even if they are illegitimate. It is important that this child grows up onNiroli knowing his duty and his responsibility to the Crown. That knowledge cannot be instilled in him too early. When is the birth expected? There is much to do—the royal nursery will have to be prepared, and a suitable household established to take charge of him. The mother can stay in London if she wishes, in fact it would be better if she did.’ the king continued dismissively.

His grandfather was only painting a picture that was similar to the one he himself had put before Emily. But instead of feeling vindicated Marco could feel a cold heaviness seeping through him as though leaden weights had been tied to his hands so that he was effectively imprisoned.

‘You will order the woman to return, and when you do you will inform her that it is against the law ofNiroli for anyone to remove a child of royal blood from the island, on penalty of death.’

Marco shook his head. 'Don't be ridiculous Grandfather. Once in some mediaeval age it might have been possible to make such a threat, but I can tell you now that the British courts will take a dim view of it and that Emily is totally within her rights to want to keep her child with her. I would certainly support her in that. I want my child to grow up here yes but I also want his mother to be here for him as well.'

'Ridiculous sentimentality.I blame your mother for it.And your father. He should have insisted that she followed tradition and handed you over to those appointed to be responsible for your care as a future king, instead of meddling in matters that did not concern her. It is thanks to her that you developed this stubborn streak that puts you at odds with your duty.’

Marco forced himself not to say anything. Instead he focused on his childhood. He could see himself playing, running and his mother chasing him and he could see too the disapproving looks of the elderly courtiers his grandfather had insisted were to be responsible for his upbringing and formation. His mother, had she still been alive, would have supported Emily and helped her. They would have got on well. His father had struggled to oppose the king’s insistence that Marco was brought up to be a prince, rather than as a member of a warm and loving family. His grandfather would try to impose his will on his great-grandchild. Marco knew.

Hefrowned, suddenly sharply aware of his own desire to protect his child from the cold discipline and royal training he had known in his own childhood. He was not his father, he reminded himself. He was more than strong enough to ensure that his son was not subjected to the misery of his boyhood.

'Whilst you are here; his grandfather was continuing imperiously. I have decided that the generators will have to be removed from the island completely. They are causing too much conflict between our peoples. It is just as I hadthought, these young dissidents in the mountains have been encouraged by theViallis to band together and challenge the authority of their village elders. And the blame for that can be laid at our door. Marco. By publicly going against my wishes, you have turned yourself into a figurehead for their rebellion. Various informants have told me of their concern that they are only waiting until you are on the throne to force your hand and make demands that can never be granted.If there is any more trouble. I shall impose a curfew—that will teach them to respect the law and the Crown.’

‘If these youngsters are angry and filled with resentment, who can blame them?’Marco demanded. They need the controls on their lives relaxing, not tightening to the point where there is bound to be increased conflict. By imposing a curfew, all you will be doing is driving their feelings underground and alienating them further. What we need is to establish a forum in which they feel they can be heard and their views properly addressed.’

‘What,reward them for their rebelliousness and their disrespect? They need teaching a lesson, not to be indulged.'

‘Have a care.Grandfather.’ Marco warned. 'Feed their sense of injustice by imposing your royal will, and in the end we will all pay a heavy price’

'Bah...! You are too soft, too much the modern liberal. You cannot ruleNiroli like that, Marco. You rule it like this!’ The old king closed his fist and banged it down hard on the table in front of him. ‘By letting them know what it is to fear your anger.’

As he had learned to fear his grandfather's anger as a child?As his son would be forced to learn to fear it? Marco was filled with a sense of revulsion. He had returned toNiroli committed to working to improve things for its people, but now he was beginning to question his ability to do that. With his grandfather so opposed to the changes he wanted to make, and his own views so diametrically opposed to the kings, weren't they more likely to tearNiroli apart between them than anything else? Perhaps Emily was right to refuse to allow their child to be brought up here?

Marco closed his eyes, deep in thought. No. his son should be here because he hisfather, was here. Emily would have to accept his determination to play his royal role, whether she liked it or not...