The Scandalous Collection. Кейт Хьюит

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      ‘And the mother of your child?’ Sophia asked him, dry-mouthed.

      ‘Yes. If life chooses to bless us with your speedy conception.’ He paused and then gave her a look that stripped her pride bare as he told her, ‘Let there be no doubt about one thing, though, Sophia, and that is that from now on you will behave in a way that befits a married woman, who is faithful to her marriage vows and her husband.’

      ‘A marriage that is empty of love, and to a husband I have not chosen for myself?’

      ‘It is as a direct result of your own behaviour that we are now in this situation,’ Ash stated coldly. ‘And as for love, it is the last thing I will be looking for in our marriage—or outside it. For the sake of the children I hope this marriage will be one they can respect and one which does not dishonour either them or their family name.’

      So much pride, so much importance placed on duty, and no place left for love. But he had loved Nasreen. And buried his heart and his capacity to love with her?

      Why should she care? She had her pride, too, and it certainly would not allow her to want Ash’s love. Before she could comment on the flat cold statement he had just delivered, there was a brief knock on the door and a member of Ash’s staff entered.

      ‘Highness, I am sorry to disturb you but Mr Alwar Singh is here with his accountant and solicitor.’

      ‘Thank you, Kamir.’ Nodding his head, Ash went towards the open door, saying as he did so, ‘Mr Singh, please come in,’ and extending his hand to the smartly suited middle-age man who was shown into the room. He was followed by an elegant dark haired woman dressed in a beautiful salwar kameez, and another business-suited man.

      ‘I am sorry to have kept you waiting. Please allow me to introduce you to my fiancée and wife-to-be, Princess Sophia of Santina, before we begin our meeting.’ Ash turned towards Sophia, smiling at her as he did so. But Sophia could see that the smile did not quite reach his eyes. Formality and the business of protocol and good manners were no strangers to her, and it was easy for her to step forward to accept the good wishes of Mr Singh and his companions.

      She knew why Ash had introduced her as he had, of course. He had just made their marriage to each other official and placed it in the public domain, and now there was no going back from that declaration.

      ‘Kamir, please ask the kitchen staff to serve tea in my office,’ he instructed the waiting staff member before turning to her and saying politely, ‘Please excuse us, Sophia.’

      ‘We shall try not to keep you apart for too long,’ Mr Singh told her with a smile as the group departed.

      She was alone in the clinical vastness of the now-silent room. Alone with her sick dread of the emptiness of the future that lay ahead of her and her despair at the loss of the goal she had promised herself she would one day achieve.

      Her glance fell on her mobile and she remembered her sister’s message. Numbly she picked up her phone and quickly texted Carlotta. Am to marry Ash. And then she switched her phone off. She had too much on her mind to dare to allow herself the interruption and complication of other people’s views and input into the situation, even someone as close to her as Carlotta.

      The door opened. She looked up quickly, her heart racing, only it wasn’t Ash; it was a staff member who had come to ask her if she would care for tea or coffee.

      ‘Coffee, please.’ She thanked him, and went back to her lonely thoughts.

      In his office, even though he was doing his best to focus completely and only on what Alwar Singh had to say to him about their proposed business venture, Ash knew that in reality his thoughts and his concentration were divided. He was committed now publicly, as well as privately. Sophia would be his wife. His body responded with a surge of male heat. He wasn’t going to make the same mistake again, though. This marriage would be based on practicality and the need for him to have an heir. There would be no love involved. And no question of Sophia continuing with her present hedonistic lifestyle.

      Alwar Singh’s accountant was running through some of the figures that would be involved in the transformation of the currently derelict palace into a world-class hotel.

      ‘You will, of course, have a forty percent share in the hotel.’

      ‘Fifty percent,’ Ash checked her firmly. ‘That was our original agreement.’

      ‘It is Mr Singh who will be putting in most of the money and bearing the larger part of the risk.’

      ‘Not so,’ Ash contradicted her. ‘As Maharaja of Nailpur I have a responsibility towards my people and towards the cultural inheritance left to me by my ancestors. If the unique historical value of the palace is damaged in any way by its conversion to a hotel, something irreplaceable will be destroyed, not just for the present but for the future. That is my share of the risk.’

      After the meeting had concluded, his visitors left and Ash turned his concentration to the matter of making the necessary legal and practical arrangements for his marriage.

      In the drawing room of the apartment, Sophia threw aside the English language newspaper she had been attempting to read. Freed from the powerful determination of Ash’s presence her own independence was beginning to reassert itself. Her independence or her fear? What did she have to fear? She would only need to fear marriage to Ash if she was still vulnerable to him through her emotions, through the love she had once had for him, and that wasn’t the case. It was simply her desire to control her own life and to make her own decisions that was filling her with this increasing sense of urgency and need to escape. And why shouldn’t she escape? Why shouldn’t she prove to herself that she could be strong enough to claim her right to her freedom of choice. She already knew that there was no point in trying to make Ash understand how she felt. Her feelings didn’t matter to him.

      The staff member who had brought her coffee had returned and was removing the tray. Before she could change her mind, Sophia told him, ‘I’d like my case, please.’

      The man nodded his head and withdrew.

      She was running away again, she knew, but Ash had made it plain that he intended to marry her, leaving her no alternative.

      Ash had just finished putting in place the arrangements he had needed to make when one of his staff came into the office.

      ‘The Princess Sophia, she has asked for her suitcase, Highness,’ he told Ash.

      Sophia swung round when the door opened, her heart banging into her ribs when she saw that it wasn’t the man with her suitcase who had come in but Ash himself. One look at his face told her that he knew what she planned to do.

      Sophia took a deep breath. Very well, she would just have to make it clear to him that she wasn’t going to give up her freedom.

      ‘I don’t want to marry you, Ash,’ she told him. ‘I don’t think it’s the right thing for either of us.’

      Ash could feel the fierce surge of his anger slamming into him.

      ‘You are supposed to be an adult, Sophia, but you are behaving like a child—a child so selfish and self-obsessed that she thinks only of herself.’

      His accusation appalled her.

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