The Scorsolini Marriage Bargain (4 page)

“My brothers are not in line to be the next ruler of
Isole
dei Re.
They can afford to put duty second on occasion. The country does not depend so heavily on them. And their wives do not have the same requirements put upon you as my wife.” He spoke like a teacher reciting a lesson to a student that he had recited many times before.

The practiced patience in his voice was worse than if he’d snapped at her.

“I miss you,” she said baldly.

“I have been gone less than a day.”

“Are you saying you don’t miss me?” she asked, wishing the question did not feel like a razor shredding her insides. So much for him wishing she was there.

“I will miss you tonight.”

If he had planned it, he could not have said anything more wounding. “In bed,” she said flatly.

“We are good there.”

“But nowhere else?” she asked, for once making no effort to hide how much that displeased her.

“Do not be ridiculous. You are my wife, not my concubine. Why would you even ask such a question?”

“Perhaps because that is the only place you deign to miss me.”

“I did not say that.”

“Excuse me, but you did.”

“I did not call you to get into an argument.” The frozen tone of his voice came across the phone line loud and clear. “But for the record, if you took what I said to mean such a thing, it did not.”

Maybe he didn’t know he meant it that way, but he had. The facts spoke for themselves.

“Why did you call? We both know it was not merely to say hello. I don’t rate those kinds of phone calls from you.”

“What is the matter with you? Perhaps that is exactly why I called.”

She wasn’t even remotely convinced. “Not likely.”

“I was thinking of you and wanted to hear your voice, all right?” he asked, sounding thoroughly annoyed with her.

Oh. Man. Did he mean it?

Of course he meant it.
Claudio
never consciously lied, but still she had to ask, “Is that true?”

“I do not make it a habit of lying to you.”

“I know you don’t. It’s one of the things I appreciate most about you.”

Her father had lied to her, to her mother, to anyone at all…all for the sake of convenience and had called it diplomacy. But she didn’t think that that kind of diplomacy belonged in a family. It was best saved for other politicians, all of whom were expecting it.

“Can you say the same thing?”

Shock coursed through her that he would ask such a thing. “Of course I can. You know I don’t lie to you.”

“Only perhaps you do not feel withholding information from me is the same as lying?” he asked.

Could he know about her condition? Impossible…she’d been far too careful to keep it a secret. “I don’t know what you mean.” That at least was no lie, but it was also not the full truth. Perhaps there was more of her father in her than she wanted to admit.

“Are you sure about that?”

“No one tells everything, but that doesn’t mean I lie to you,” she said, defending a position he did not know why she’d taken. But there was no way she could tell him the news of her infertility over the phone.

“I hope that is true,
Therese
.” He sighed. “I have another call coming in. I have to go.”

“All right. Goodbye,
Claudio
.”

“Goodbye, bella.”

She hung up the phone, but as she got ready for the day and then left her apartments to traverse the grand marbled hallways of the palace, she couldn’t stop thinking about what he had said, what she had said and what she hadn’t been able to say. She owed him the truth—both about her condition and what she planned to do because of it.

He would be relieved. He had to be.

But a tiny part of her heart hoped against all logic that he wouldn’t be. That he might even refuse to let her do the right thing…the only logical thing to do in the circumstances.

Walk away.

“Your Highness…”

Therese
looked up from her musings to find her personal secretary standing in front of her. At one time
Ida
had worked for her mother, but the year
Therese
had married, her mom had sacked
Ida
in order to hire someone else. The other woman was younger and had connections high in the social set
Therese
’s parents were now moving in.
Ida
had been only too happy to accept
Therese
’s offer of a job.

Ida
’s loyalty was unwavering, her discretion without equal and her finesse with a schedule second to none. She was the only other person besides
Therese
’s Miami doctor and his assistant who knew about the laparoscopy and the results.

“Your morning appointment is waiting.”

“
Ida
…I have to go to
New York
.”

The older woman barely blinked. “I believe I can clear your schedule. If you could take care of your current appointment, I will have a maid pack for you while I begin clearing your schedule.”

“Just like that?”

“There are things you and the prince need to talk about,”
Ida
said kindly. “I’m assuming those things did not get said last night.”

Therese
shook her head.

“That gives a trip to
New York
precedence over anything else in your schedule.”

“I hope
Claudio
feels that way.”

“Men, even brilliant men, are not always the brightest spark when it comes to relationships.”

“Even brilliant men, hmm?”

“Yes.”
Ida
sighed, the sound filled with exasperation. “Sometimes I think it’s the really bright ones that are dumbest when it comes to women.”

Therese
laughed. She thought maybe
Ida
was right. Look at how stupid King
Vincente
was about Flavia.

“Just you remember, young lady…a marriage is not all about having children.”

Therese
smiled disappeared. “My marriage is.”

“Don’t you believe it.”

She wished she shared the older woman’s assurance, but she couldn’t.

* * * * *

She landed in
New York
later that evening, her nerves stretched to screaming point. She’d spent the entire flight going over in her head what she was going to say to
Claudio
, but she couldn’t get past the first sally because every time she thought about him agreeing that their marriage should be dissolved, her throat clogged with tears.

She had asked security not to alert her husband to her intention to join him. For some reason, she felt the element of surprise might be on her side. She was informed he was at the hotel preparing for a dinner meeting when her plane landed. It seemed fortuitous and she hoped it boded well for the meeting to come.

Her eyes barely registered the opulence of the oversize suite when security let her inside. She was too busy trying to control her tortured emotions.

Claudio
was tying his tie when she walked into the bedroom.

“Hello, caro.”

His big body jerked, blatant testament to how shocked he was by her presence. Then his head snapped up, his dark eyes zeroing in on her with physical intensity. “
Therese
, what are you doing here?”

“You said you’d like it if I was.”

“You are not here because of my phone call this morning.” His expression dared her to contradict him…to lie.

“No, I’m not. We need to talk.”

“Do we?”

“Yes,” she said, trying to ignore the fact that his expression was about as welcoming as an accountant faced with a tax auditor.

“I suppose you have something you have to confess that has weighed on your conscience long enough,” he said in a voice that dripped in ice.

She didn’t know what triggered his hostility, except maybe that she’d changed her schedule.
Claudio
didn’t like surprises and he had a worse one coming.

“You could put it that way.” She couldn’t even assure him it was nothing bad because it was.

In a marriage like theirs, it was a death knell and nothing less.

Claudio
went back to what he was doing with cold precision. “It will have to wait. I have a dinner meeting.”

“Can you cancel it?”

“You mean like you obviously canceled all of your obligations so you could fly up here and have a conversation that surely could have waited the three days it would take me to get home?”

“Yes.” She didn’t care how he made it sound. That was exactly what she wanted.

“That’s not going to happen.”

“Would it really be so terrible?”

“Obviously you do not consider it so, but I do not appreciate my wife letting down her obligations and therefore me.”

“And are our duties the only thing that matter in our life together?”

“Duty must come first. At one time, I believe you understood this.”

“Is that why you married me?”

“You already know it was one of the primary reasons I decided you would suit me well as a wife. Your parents could not have raised you more suitably for the life of a princess if they had been royalty themselves.”

That reminder was as unwelcome as it was painful. For she better than anyone knew how carefully her parents had raised her. Her father with the hopes she would pursue a political career and her mother with the desire to live her life’s ambitions through her daughter. Neither had ever cared what dreams beat in
Therese
’s heart.

“My appreciation for duty was my main attraction to you…and of course the fact that I was physically compatible with you,” she said, long denied hurt coming out as bitterness.

“Would you have expected me to marry a woman who did not understand or fit the role of princess and future queen?”

“Your brothers weren’t so worried about suitability when they chose their wives,” she reminded him.

“As I said last night, I am not my brothers.”

“No, you are the crown prince, which means duty must come first, last and always with you.”

“You knew this when we married. It is not something I expect to be raised as an issue of contention now.”

“You don’t expect anything to be raised as an issue of contention.”

“How perceptive of you to realize that.” He pulled on his black dinner jacket. “As scintillating as this conversation is, I must go or I will be late.”

“Just like that? I fly all the way from
Isole
dei Re
and you walk out on an important conversation because your damn schedule demands it?” How was she going to tell this cold-faced stranger anything, much less the intimate details of her latest doctor’s visit?

“Do not swear at me,” he said, contriving to sound shocked.

She said a truly foul word. “You mean like that?”

“I do not know what your problem is, but I suggest you get over it. I will be back quite late. If you still feel the need to discuss whatever it is you think is so important, we can talk then.”

“And if I don’t feel like waiting?”

“You have no choice.”

“When have I ever?”

“You made a choice to marry me. No one forced you to speak your vows. If they are chafing now, please remember, you have no one but yourself to blame for your circumstances and I will not tolerate you dismissing your promises or your duty as my wife as easily as you did your duties as a princess this morning.”

“They’re pretty much the same thing, aren’t they?” she asked in a voice filled with angry pain.

“No.” His gaze seared her. “You have personal obligations to me that have nothing to do with your responsibility to the crown.”

He meant sex, she was sure…but he was wrong. That aspect of their marriage was as wrapped up in her role as princess as everything else. Because it was supposed to result in an heir to the throne and it wasn’t going to.