Leo hurried in at tea time to brandish the offending newspaper photo before her eyes. ‘Have you seen this? I was gob-smacked when some pupils I teach showed it to me and asked if that was me,’ he groaned. ‘Goodness knows what Stella will think! Did you get your loan?’
‘Nik and I have decided to try being married for a while,’ Prudence informed him as casually as she could.
Leo was not taken in. ‘I don’t believe you. He’s the Casanova of his generation. How can a woman with your moral views try being married to a bloke with three mistresses?’
Eyes veiled, Prudence jerked a noncommittal shoulder. Leo might be a close friend but some plans weren’t for sharing. She was planning to fight Nik from behind the scenes and he would eventually discover that she could get down and dirty, too. If he could use blackmail, she could use female cunning. Had it ever occurred to Nik that they did not have a prenuptial agreement that might protect his wealth in the event of a divorce? She thought not, for Nik was too well accustomed to her fierce independence and her long-standing refusal to benefit financially from their relationship. Well, she was about to change tack. If Nik was unfaithful to her she would hire the best divorce lawyer in London. And at the end of it all, every animal in the sanctuary would be able to look forward to a lifetime of clover and honey…
CHAPTER FIVE
THE LIMOUSINE PURRED down a long wooded drive and paused at the crown of a gentle hill. It was the perfect vantage point for a view of the ancient property that sat at the heart of the lush green parkland.
As the sole occupant of the limo, Prudence, who had come out determined not to be impressed, discovered that she was being impressed to death. She had never taken much interest in houses, but then she had never seen a house quite like Oakmere Abbey before. A hotchpotch of different roof heights and wonderfully tall chimneys, matched with mellow stone and mullioned windows, gave it a beauty and warmth that she found amazingly appealing.
The car phone buzzed and she answered it.
‘First impressions?’ Nik asked lazily, his rich, dark drawl setting up a vibration down her responsive spine.
Prudence was not prepared to gush. ‘It certainly enjoys a lovely setting.’
‘Look, the board meeting overran. I’m still an hour away. Why don’t you check out the land and the agricultural buildings first? We’ll view the abbey together.’
The chauffeur, evidently already primed with his instructions, ferried her to a remarkably well-kept farm yard, where the estate manager was waiting to give her a guided tour. It was only a week since Nik had promised to find a new home for the sanctuary and, although he had admitted that old buildings held little appeal for him, the abbey met what he deemed to be the most important requirements. Within reach of London and currently empty, it offered ample land and livestock housing as well as staff apartments and cottages.
Nik, accustomed to women who never put him to the trouble of having to find them, finally ran Prudence to earth in the stable yard at the back of the house. Chesnut-brown hair ruffling in the breeze, one hand dug in the pocket of an over-large weathered green waxed jacket that might have been new a decade ago, she was seated on a bale of hay in an open shed, cheerfully chatting to the middle-aged estate manager and petting a dog. Animated and laughing, she looked amazingly attractive and full of life. Then she saw Nik and instantly her oval face tensed and her lovely natural smile dropped away. It made him feel like the guy who stole Christmas.
Having greeted the older man, Nik extended a lean brown hand to Prudence in an intimate gesture, as calculated as it was determined to make her accept the change in their relationship. ‘Let’s go and see the house…I told the agent we’d prefer to look it over alone.’
Scrambling off the bale, Prudence wondered morosely if she would ever overcome the breathlessness and racing heartbeat that Nik’s sudden appearance could always inspire. Every time she saw him his lean, dark, bronzed face made something tender twist and ache inside her. He was gorgeous, he had always been gorgeous, but he also rejoiced in an extra-special and very powerful something that made her eyes want to cling…and cling…and cling. Dragging her attention from him, she knew that if she didn’t learn to get a grip on her reaction to his sleek, darkly handsome looks, she would humiliate herself and suffer a great deal of unnecessary pain. She ignored his hand altogether and buried her own uncomfortably in her pockets. Passive resistance, she reminded herself, no unnecessary physical contact of any description. She had to be careful. If she gave him the slightest encouragement or allowed the smallest intimacy, he’d take advantage. His intellect had programmed him to take advantage of weak and foolish opponents. Look what he was already doing to her peace of mind! If she didn’t watch out and keep him at a distance, he’d soon be shaking a hoop in front of her and snapping his fingers to make her jump!
‘Your thoughts so far?’ Nik prompted flatly, aware of her unease in his presence and infuriated by it. Her warmth and trusting openness had vanished. What was the matter with her? So he had put pressure on her to give their marriage a chance. He was willing to make the effort, why wasn’t she? She had to be in love with Leo Burleigh.
‘There’s a lot of land…the sanctuary would only use a small part of it,’ Prudence commented. ‘An estate this size must cost an absolute fortune.’
‘I can afford it. The location couldn’t be bettered.’
In a silence that fairly bristled with edgy undertones, they walked round to the main entrance. The great hall rejoiced in elaborate carved screens and a flagstoned floor. Nik frowned. ‘It’ll be very cold in winter.’
Prudence was admiring the grand stone chimney piece that was incised with a date in the sixteenth century. ‘Too much heat isn’t healthy,’ she told him, walking past him to explore a vast reception room that looked across the park to the beautiful woods in the distance. ‘That view is out of this world. It’s like the twenty-first century doesn’t exist.’
Nik, who was rather attached to the twenty-first century and all the technology that went with it, knew when to keep quiet. Prudence, who was shying away if her shadow so much as encountered his, was, he soon noticed, getting very touchy feely with her ancient surroundings. Rooms tacked on without any apparent regard to the architectural whole were pronounced ‘charming’ and the innumerable opportunities to burn open fires in giant smoke-blackened hearths praised to the skies. She termed the horrendous basic barn of a kitchen ‘characterful’, informed him that the need to provide heating, rewiring and plumbing was ‘to be expected’, went into raptures over panelled rooms that all looked the gloomy same to him and saw nothing amiss with the serious lack of bathrooms.
‘My goodness…the master bedroom even has an en suite!’ Prudence exclaimed, looking madly impressed by the sight of the giant roll-top bath that lurked in an alcove, complete with a Victorian enamelled shower frame. ‘Isn’t that just amazing?’
Nik surveyed the elderly fixtures: ‘amazing’ was not the word that came to his mind. He was frankly appalled. In his opinion everything they had seen belonged in a builder’s skip. His apartment rejoiced in a pool, a hot tub and a sauna; the bathrooms came equipped with power showers, wet rooms, steam facilities and spa baths. He could not imagine living any other way.
‘The abbey is smaller than I appreciated,’ Nik remarked. ‘It needs a major extension. But this is a listed building and it would be a headache getting plans passed for one.’
Paying no great heed to his comments, Prudence reluctantly removed her admiring gaze from the bath and strolled back into the dusty corridor. ‘I think a dozen bedrooms is more than adequate. But if you felt it wasn’t, there’s a very pretty courtyard of what used to be staff accommodation at the rear. It could easily be made accessible from the main house.’
The suggestion left his lean, strong face unmoved. ‘The condition of the house is also a good deal rougher than I was led to expect.’
Beneath his bemused gaze, Prudence, who seemed blissfully unaware of his negative
outlook on the abbey, caressed a carved wooden panel with reverent fingertips. ‘I suppose it does need a little updating here and there-’
‘Here and there?’ Nik echoed in disbelief. ‘I don’t think it’s been touched since the nineteen-twenties!’
‘Which is marvellous, because it’s completely unspoilt.’ Prudence sent a dreamy smile in his general direction. ‘It’s been a happy house, too…I can feel it in my bones.’
In the act of adding another nought to what he believed Oakmere would ultimately cost him, Nik registered that she was finally smiling at him again and he studied her with veiled intensity. ‘Would you like to live here?’
‘Oh, yes…’ Prudence had no doubts whatsoever on that score.
She had walked into the great hall and it had been a case of love at first sight. Her only previous experience of so sudden and intense an attachment had been falling in love with Nik eight years earlier. That had been, she was willing to admit, a most unhappy experience. Fortunately, she was convinced that loving bricks and mortar would be much safer and more rewarding. She was well aware that Oakmere wasn’t Nik’s style. He was accustomed to luxury and very contemporary in his tastes. He had also never evinced an interest in historic buildings or in country life. But those realities didn’t bother Prudence in the slightest. After all, she reflected resolutely, the abbey would ultimately be her house, her home, as she had every intention of claiming it as part of the divorce settlement when they broke up.
Nik watched the flutter of her curling eyelashes lift on her blue eyes. That she really went for the house filled him with intense satisfaction. He had picked a winner. He watched her gently pat the balustrade on the staircase as if it were a living thing in need of affection and he almost laughed: she was the most tender-hearted, truly feminine woman he had ever known.
Her preoccupied gaze roused his curiosity. ‘What are you thinking about?’
Disconcerted pink warmed her cheeks. ‘Nothing important-’
A slow burning smile slashed his handsome mouth. ‘I bet you were thinking about us…living here, pethi mou.’
Even though instant guilt flared through her when he made that assumption, that smile of his made a curl of heat leap and dance in the pit of her tummy. Simultaneously, the thoughts in her head burned to dust. ‘Maybe…’
The silence lay thick. She met brilliant dark golden eyes and was suddenly impossibly aware of every inch of her all too female body and of every tiny breath that she drew. She straightened her back in an effort to ease the tingling sensitivity of her breasts.
Bracing long brown fingers on the wall to one side of her head, Nik angled his proud dark head down to press a light, teasing kiss to the corner of her mouth. With a low-pitched gasp, she turned her head to blindly seek more direct contact. His breath fanning her cheek, he toyed with the soft fullness of her lower lip, rimming the upper with an erotic dart of his tongue. ‘Nik…’ She leant forward, literally begging for more, her entire being on fire for the taste of his passionate mouth on hers.
‘Mr Angelis?’ A male voice called from the direction of the great hall.
Startled back to reality, Prudence jerked back from Nik as if she had been violently slapped.
‘Relax, it’s only the agent,’ Nik breathed with a husky sound of amusement. ‘Come home with me.’
Beetroot-pink, Prudence retorted, ‘You can forget that!’ and hurried off to greet the agent.
Nik raked impatient fingers through his luxuriant black hair and expelled his breath on a hiss. He had coerced her into accepting his terms and he had expected too much too soon. But his bewilderment lingered for the Prudence he had believed he knew inside out, who was gentle, soft-hearted and serene. The woman he was currently dealing with was passionate, stubborn and angry to a degree he would not have believed.
The rich scent of the roses in her exquisite bouquet made Prudence breathe in deeply. Yet her brow had an anxious furrow and her eyes were strained.
In a couple of hours she would be walking out of Craighill Farm forever and taking up residence at Oakmere Abbey as Nik’s wife. From then on, Nik, and the marriage that he had sworn he wanted to be a real one, would be on trial. If he betrayed her trust their marriage would be over. She had to fight her own corner, stand up for what she believed in. No wilting wallflower would ever be the equal of Nik Angelis, and she could not make the mistake of getting emotionally involved with him again. An unfaithful husband, who broke her heart and humiliated her, would never make her happy, she acknowledged ruefully. For that same reason she had visited her doctor and had embarked on a course of contraceptive pills. She would not run the risk of falling pregnant in a marriage that might not last that long.
Nik had forced her into a marriage that she wanted to put behind her. Yet, in recent weeks, Nik could not have been more considerate or helpful. Although she had not seen him once in the flesh, he had phoned every day and had gone to remarkable lengths to ensure that she had practical assistance in every corner of her life. For starters, professionals had taken care of all the work of moving for her. Dottie and Sam were over the moon with the cottage they had been offered and were already installed in it. Over the past three days all the animals had been transferred and settled on the abbey estate and a full-time worker had been engaged for the sanctuary.
Nik had even sent her an outfit to wear. He knew she hated shopping and had probably assumed that she would be grateful to be relieved of the task. But Prudence was not pleased at all. Nik buying clothes for her only reminded her that he was a notorious womaniser, who knew more about female garments and sizes than she thought decent or acceptable.
That awareness in mind, Prudence pulled a face at the opulent, long halter-neck dress and bolero jacket hanging on the back of the door. It was definitely not her style. It was obvious, though, that Nik was determined to behave as though the day was a special occasion. The outfit might also be a hefty hint that some sort of surprise party was to take place. She could only cringe at the potential prospect of once again greeting Nik’s friends and relations in a dress that bore more than a passing resemblance to a wedding gown. The white silk sheath might be considerably more elegant and sophisticated than the frilly satin horror she had worn at nineteen, but it had heavy bridal overtones.
As she climbed into the limousine sent to collect her, the removal company arrived to pack up her last possessions. There was a selection of magazines in the car and she leafed through a fashion publication without much interest, until a glimpse of a familiar face made her freeze. It was Cassia Morikis, who had put her talent for acting to good use as a soap star on television before her marriage to a British rock star. His recent death and the subsequent fight over his estate by his previous wives and children had caused more than a few headlines. Prudence studied Cassia’s exquisite face and held the page up to the light to see if she could spot a single flaw. But she was disappointed: Cassia was still incredibly beautiful.
The blonde’s spite did not show on the surface, Prudence conceded ruefully. On the day that Prudence had married Nik, Cassia had upstaged her at every turn. Cassia had worn white as well and had inevitably looked much better in it. Everyone had also known that Cassia had been Nik’s girlfriend a month earlier and she had enjoyed the support of a sympathetic and attentive band of friends.
‘What a big girl you are in every department, Pudding,’ Cassia had whispered in her saccharine-sweet voice to Prudence when nobody else was listening. ‘Poor Nik won’t be able to close his eyes and pretend that it’s me in bed with him tonight!’
‘Stop it,’ Prudence had urged in a stricken undertone.
‘No, stopping is the one thing Nik and I won’t be doing. Enjoy your wedding ring. It’s the most you’ll ever have of him.’ Cassia had given her a malicious smile. ‘Why do you think you’re not getting a honeymoon? Nik refused to do without me for that long.’
Reliving that poisonous memory from the past, Prudence shivered. Cassia had soon underlined her threats with a
wounding demonstration of her hold on Nik. When Prudence had noticed that Nik was missing, she had not wanted to believe that she would find him with the beautiful blonde. Any faith she had had in her bridegroom had come crashing down when she saw him in Cassia’s arms. Yet Prudence was willing to concede that the explanation Nik had given her just weeks ago might well be true. Perhaps Cassia had been the schemer and the instigator; perhaps Nik had rejected the girl’s advances. Unfortunately, Prudence had not stayed around long enough to find out either way.
The limo finally drew up outside Oakmere Abbey, and Prudence stepped out onto a red carpet that ran all the way to the front door. For a split-second she felt a little dizzy and she blinked in surprise but the moment was almost immediately forgotten in her eagerness to see what had been done with the house. A week ago, Nik had thrown an army of cleaners and decorators into the abbey to make a select few rooms habitable. While he had insisted that he wanted to surprise her, she had worried that he might allow the atmosphere of the house to be spoilt with inappropriate colour schemes and furnishings.
The front door stood wide open. She wandered in slowly and immediately smiled when she saw the fire burning in the chilly great hall. A glorious flower arrangement stood on a table and a couple of comfortable antique chairs added to the welcoming ambience.
‘What do you think?’ Nik prompted.
She whirled round, her dress rustling round her legs in a white swirl of silk, and saw Nik in the shadows by the wall. Light from the leaded windows burnished his black hair and lean, dark, devastating face. Her mouth ran dry and she snatched in a jerky breath. ‘I…I-’
‘You look wonderful in that dress,’ Nik cut in, stunning dark golden eyes travelling over her as thoroughly as a coating of molten honey.
Prudence tensed. ‘You don’t need to say stuff like that…’