‘Not you in the condition you’re in,’ Rico spelt out.
He carried her out to the limo and there was nothing she could do to prevent him. All her concentration was bent on holding back the sick wooziness that was afflicting her. She would be all right once she had a couple of hours’ sleep but she could not understand why her body was letting her down so badly. Had she caught some bug? Worse, could she have put Hector at risk by sitting with him? She had never felt so drained in her entire life.
When they reached the spacious apartment Bella crawled straight into bed. She had nothing to wear. Rico produced a silk pyjama jacket which she donned in silence. He said that he had called a doctor—a friend of his in the private sector—who had consulting rooms just down the street. Dully she nodded, relieved to notice that her nausea was beginning to recede.
‘Maybe it was something you ate,’ Rico suggested stiltedly.
She said nothing.
He sank down on the foot of the bed, searching her pinched profile. ‘Bella… we’d had a row,’ he reminded her in a tense undertone. ‘When I heard you’d gone off with Atherton naturally I was disturbed.’
‘The senior partner in Griff’s firm is Hector’s solicitor. He put Griff in charge of informing me about Hector’s heart attack. Griff had to drive all the way down to Winterwood because he couldn’t find out the phone number.’
‘How could I have known of that connection?’
‘It doesn’t matter. I haven’t given you any grounds for thinking that I would behave like a tart,’ she muttered tightly. ‘I’m not your ex-wife and I won’t take the heat for her.’
‘I made a mistake,’ he acknowledged tautly.
Bella felt horribly confused. Deep down inside she knew that she was going to forgive him but somehow she just couldn’t bring herself to tell him that yet.
Loving someone who did not love you was an unrewarding road to humiliation, she reflected miserably. His distrust had bitten deep, hurting her badly at a moment when she was already struggling to cope. With Rico she had no defensive shell, and part of her deeply resented that vulnerability. She wanted to make him suffer and she was ashamed of that fact. How could you try to punish someone for not loving you?
‘Two mistakes,’ Rico adjusted flatly in the continuing silence. ‘I shouldn’t have asked Dai to call. But it seemed such a waste—all those fabulous paintings piling up. I’m proud of what you can do with that brush.’
His weight left the mattress. Bella curved her face into the pillow, tears stinging her eyes. What a bitch she was! She was in the act of stretching out a forgiving hand when she heard the door open, the murmur of an unfamiliar voice. The doctor had arrived.
He told her to call him George. He had one of those wonderfully round faces which instilled good cheer. Rico had barely left the room when Bella found herself sitting up and reeling off her symptoms with the subdued irritation of someone who was rarely ill. She submitted to an examination and answered one or two questions which struck her as highly irrelevant when she was suffering from a stomach disorder. But no doubt George knew his business better than she did.
‘You’re pregnant,’ he finally delivered very quietly.
Bella changed her mind about him knowing his business. ‘No way,’ she told him, with a forced laugh at such an insane diagnosis.
‘Bella, I’m a consultant gynaecologist,’ he returned gently. ‘And if I’m wrong I ought to be back in medical school. First pregnancies in particular carry unmistakable signs. You are at least two months pregnant.’
‘But I had a—’ she began jerkily.
He explained that sometimes what he described as a partially suppressed period could occur. Bella went into cold shock while he talked to her about not pushing herself too hard and taking proper rest.
‘Don’t tell him!’ she begged abruptly.
He reminded her of patient confidentiality and she apologised, so shattered by what he had told her that she could hardly think straight. He paused at the door, clearly troubled by her reaction.
‘Bella, Rico’s very fond of children. You should see him with mine,’ he said ruefully.
So Rico liked other people’s children. What did that mean? Feeling weak, she lay down again. Her hand slid down unsteadily to her still flat stomach. She struggled to accept that there was a baby growing inside her—a baby conceived weeks ago while she had been convincing herself that no such conception could take place.
She had been as foolishly naive as an uninformed teenager, she realised. There was no such thing as a fail-safe time to make love. There was always a risk. And Rico had ironically been far more concerned by the possibility than she had been … probably because it was the very last thing he wanted to happen.
The door opened.
‘George was very cagey,’ Rico said impatiently.
‘It’s just a stupid stomach upset—probably that breakfast I ate at the hospital,’ Bella volunteered, and forced herself to turn over and meet his enquiring gaze. ‘I’m glad it wasn’t anything that could have put Hector at risk of infection. Now all I want to do is sleep.’
Just looking at Rico suddenly tore her heart in two. She searched his strong, dark face, read the relief there, and knew she deserved an Oscar for her performance-but then it was wonderful what fear could do. It sharpened the wits and in the short term chose deception over honesty. She wasn’t ready yet to share such devastating news, was already wondering how she would ever bring herself to share it.
‘I’ll go back to the hospital in the afternoon,’ she added, dropping her head back down on the pillow as if she were too exhausted to stay awake.