‘I…I don’t…I’m not…I…’
Nick smiled. ‘I can see she hasn’t quite made up her mind, Damon. You will have to work harder to convince her to make her home with you here.’
‘It is no matter,’ Damon said. ‘We can divide our time between Australia and Greece until Emily is of school age. Then we will by necessity have to put down some roots.’
‘Would you excuse me?’ Charlotte pushed out her chair.
Damon got to his feet. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked with a dark frown of concern interrupting his features.
She nodded even though it made her already tight head ache unbearably. ‘I’m just feeling a little light-headed. I need some fresh air. I’ll be back in a minute.’
Iona got to her feet. ‘I will come with you,’ she said with a strained smile. ‘I need to stretch my legs.’
Charlotte wasn’t sure she was in need of company, especially that of a woman who apparently found her presence so distasteful.
‘Your daughter is beautiful,’ Iona said into the stiff silence as they traversed the marble hall to the main bathroom. ‘She is the image of Eleni at that age.’
‘Thank you…’
The bathroom door closed behind them and Iona leaned against it, her shoulders suddenly seeming too heavy for her slight frame. ‘Charlotte…’ she began uncertainly. ‘I need to talk to you but it must go no further.’
Charlotte drew in a cautious breath. ‘I see…’
‘No, you do not,’ Iona said. ‘You have no idea what I am going to say, do you?’
Charlotte decided to take a wild guess. ‘You’re going to tell me you were responsible for planting the sculptures in my bag and at the hostel four years ago, right?’
‘Wrong.’
Charlotte blinked at her. ‘It wasn’t you?’
Iona shook her head. ‘It was Eleni.’
‘Eleni?’ She felt her stomach drop. ‘But why?’
Iona let out her breath in a jagged stream. ‘She did it to protect me. She thought I was in love with her brother. I suppose you know our families had more or less arranged our future union.’
‘Yes, I knew about that…’
Iona’s dark eyes met hers once more. ‘I should have told Eleni the truth, but I was too afraid.’
Charlotte frowned in confusion. ‘The truth?’
‘I have always loved Damon,’ Iona said. ‘But like a brother. We had spent most of our childhood together and it was assumed we would make a match of it, but I was not in love with him. I was never in love with him. The truth is I have been in love with Nick since I was about twelve; I just wasn’t game enough to tell anyone, not even Eleni.’
Charlotte swallowed. ‘I don’t know what to say.’
‘It grieves me terribly to think you have been separated from Damon for all this time because of a silly prank on his sister’s part. When I heard you had had his child I was sick with worry. I could barely look at you tonight without being reminded of how your lives have been changed.’
‘He doesn’t love me.’
‘How do you know that?’
Charlotte gave her a bleak look. ‘He told me.’
‘I do not believe that.’
‘He only married me because of Emily.’
Iona’s face clenched like a tightened fist. ‘It is my fault. I should have said something earlier but I did not want to betray Eleni. She would have hated her mother and brother to think she had acted so childishly and irresponsibly.’ She pushed herself away from the door to pace the floor between the mirrored basins. ‘I should have come forward earlier but I made a promise.’
‘It’s all right…’
Iona swung back around to face her. ‘It is not all right. You are the mother of Damon’s child. Don’t you see how difficult this is for all of us now?’
Charlotte looked at her without speaking.
‘Eleni thought you would go away and never come back, leaving the path open for me to marry her brother,’ Iona went on sadly. ‘I should have been honest with her from the start. She was so proud of what she had done.’
‘I thought she liked me…’
‘She did,’ Iona said. ‘She thought you were wonderful. But she was caught up in her childish dream, that we would become sisters through marriage…Instead we have become separated by death and deceit.’
Charlotte closed her eyes for a moment, trying to make sense of all she had heard.
‘Apart from planting the sculptures in your things, Eleni told the boys at the hostel to pretend they had slept with you,’ Iona said into the silence. ‘I didn’t find out until much later she had gone that far. She only confessed that the day she died.’
‘So no one knows about this, apart from you?’
Iona shook her head grimly. ‘So many times I’ve wanted to say something to Alexandrine or Damon, but how can I? By doing so I would be destroying their precious memories of Eleni. She begged me on her deathbed never to tell. I haven’t even told Nick.’
‘But it’s destroyed my life,’ Charlotte felt the need to point out. ‘Damon’s too, when it comes to that.’
Iona came closer and grasped her hands in hers. ‘No, that is not true. You have won him back. He has married you and you have had his child. He will come to love you again, I am sure. He was in love with you before and will be again.’
Charlotte gave her a smile touched with sadness. ‘I wish I had your confidence.’
‘He is a good man, Charlotte,’ she said. ‘He loves his daughter. You have given him such a gift. Do not give up hope.’
‘He’s never going to find out the truth though, is he?’ she asked. ‘You won’t tell him and I cannot for he won’t believe me; he has never believed me.’
Iona’s brow furrowed. ‘I made a promise to Eleni…’
‘Eleni is dead but I am alive. Surely that takes precedence?’
‘No.’ Iona shook her head. ‘I cannot betray my closest friend.’
‘She’s dead, Iona. She won’t hold it against you,’ Charlotte said in rising desperation.
A curtain came down over the Greek woman’s expression. ‘No. I will not do it.’
‘Fine.’ Charlotte turned away in disgust.
‘If it is any comfort, Charlotte, I really like you,’ Iona said. ‘I liked you from the first time I met you. I know I did not show it; I was trying to put everyone off the scent of my infatuation with Nick by pretending to be put out by your involvement with Damon. But the truth is I have always thought you were perfect for Damon. He needs someone like you, someone strong enough to stand up to him. I knew from an early age I wasn’t that person. Do not misunderstand me, Nick is not weak. He is a strong man but he hasn’t the ruthless drive of Damon. Damon will stop at nothing to get what he wants, but perhaps you already know that.’
Charlotte turned back to give her a jaded smile. ‘I sure do.’
‘Please forgive Eleni,’ Iona said. ‘She thought she was doing the right thing at the time. She would have been devastated to know how much you have been hurt.’
‘And