Modern Romance Collection: February 2018 Books 1 - 4. Lynne Graham

help you still have a life as a single parent,’ Sybil told her daughter unhappily. ‘You were so young. I never wanted to come between you and Merry.’

      ‘I’d like to meet Elyssa,’ Natalie declared. ‘Sybil’s shown me photos. She is very cute.’

      And Merry realised then that she had been guilty of holding her own unstable childhood against her mother right into adulthood instead of accepting that Natalie might have changed and matured. ‘I will bring her over for a visit,’ she promised stiffly. ‘How long are you staying for?’

      ‘Two weeks,’ Natalie told her. ‘But now that Keith’s gone and we’ve split up, I’m thinking of moving back to the UK again. I’d like to meet your husband while I’m here as well.’

      Tears suddenly stinging her hot eyes, Merry nodded jerkily, not trusting herself to speak. She understood why her mother had wanted the story told but wasn’t at all sure that she could give the older woman the warmer relationship she was clearly hoping for. But then too many of her emotions were bound up in the bombshell that had blown her marriage apart, she conceded guiltily. Roula’s confession had devastated her and at that moment having to turn her back on the man she loved and her marriage was still all she could really think about. It was the thought, the terrifying awareness, of what she might have to do next that left room for nothing else and paralysed her.

      She shared photos of the wedding and Elyssa with both women, glossed over Sybil’s comment that she seemed very pale and quiet and returned to Foxcote Hall as soon as she decently could, having promised to bring Elyssa back for a visit within a few days. The limo travelled at a stately pace back up to the elegant country house that had the stunning architecture of an oversized Georgian dolls’ house. Informal gardens shaded by clusters of mature trees spread out from the house and slowly changed into a landscape of green fields and lush stretches of woodland. Foxcote was a magnificent estate and yet Angel had not even mentioned that he owned a property near her aunt’s home.

      She had originally planned to go to a hotel from the airport, but when she had yet even to see and speak to Angel such a statement of separation had seemed a tad premature. Walking into the airy hall with its tall windows and tiled floor, she heard Elyssa chuckling and stringing together strings of nonsense words and she followed the sounds.

      Several steps into the drawing room, she stopped dead because Angel was down on the floor with Elyssa, letting his daughter clamber over him and finally wrap her chubby arms round his neck and plant a triumphant noisy kiss on his face. He grinned, delighting in the baby’s easy trusting affection, but his smile fell away the instant he glimpsed Merry. Suddenly his lean, darkly handsome features were sober and unsmiling, his beautiful dark eyes wary and intent.

      ‘You never mentioned that you owned a house near Sybil’s,’ Merry remarked in a brittle voice as he vaulted lithely upright with Elyssa clasped to his chest.

      ‘My father bought the estate when he was going through a hunting, shooting, fishing phase but he soon got bored. Angelina used it for a while when she was socialising with the heir to a local dukedom. It should really be sold now,’ Angel contended, crossing the room to lift the phone and summon their nanny to take charge of their daughter.

      A current of pained resentment bit into Merry when Elyssa complained bitterly about being separated from her father. That connection, that bond had formed much sooner than she had expected. Elyssa had taken to Angel like a duck to water, revelling in his more physical play and more boisterous personality. If her father was to disappear from her daily life, their daughter would miss him and be hurt by his absence. But then whose fault would that be? Merry asked herself angrily. It certainly wouldn’t be her fault, she told herself piously. She had played by the rules. If their marriage broke down, it would be entirely Angel’s responsibility.

      ‘So, what’s going on?’ Angel enquired, taking up a faintly combative stance as Sally closed the door in her wake, his long powerful legs braced, shoulders thrown back, aggressive jaw line at an angle. ‘You blew me off at lunch and all day you’ve been ignoring my calls and texts...why?’

      Merry sucked in a steadying breath. ‘I’m leaving you...well, in the process of it,’ she qualified stiffly, her face pale and set.

      ‘Why would you suddenly decide to leave me?’ Angel demanded, striding forward, all brooding intimidation, dark eyes glittering like fireworks in the night sky. ‘That makes no sense.’

      Anger laced the atmosphere, tensing every defensive muscle in her body, and she cursed the reality that she was not mentally prepared for the confrontation about to take place.

      ‘Roula told me everything.’

      Angel looked bemused. ‘Everything about...what?’ he demanded with curt emphasis.

      ‘That she’s been your mistress for years, that you always go back to her eventually.’

      ‘I don’t have a mistress. I’ve never had one. Before you, I’ve never wanted repeat encounters with the same woman,’ Angel told her almost conversationally, dark golden eyes locked to her strained face. ‘You must’ve misunderstood something Roula said. There’s no way that she told you that we were lovers.’

      ‘There was no misunderstanding,’ Merry framed stiffly. ‘She was very frank about your relationship and about the fact that she expected it to continue even though you were married.’

      ‘But it’s not true. I don’t know what she’s playing at but her claims are nonsense,’ Angel declared with harsh emphasis. ‘Is this all we’ve got, Merry? Some woman only has to say I sleep with her and you swallow the story whole?’

      Merry clasped her trembling hands together and tilted her chin, her spine rigid. ‘She was very convincing. I believed her.’

      ‘Diavolos! You just judge me out of hand? You believe her rather than me?’ Angel raked at her in a burst of incredulous anger, black curls tumbling across his brow as he shook his head in evident disbelief. ‘You take her word over mine?’

      ‘She’s your friend. Why would she lie about such a thing?’

      ‘How the hell am I supposed to know?’ Angel shot back at her. ‘But she is lying!’

      ‘She said you’d been lovers for years but that you’ve always had other women,’ Merry recounted flatly. ‘I will not accept you being with other women!’

      Angel settled volatile eyes on her and she backed away a step at the sheer heat she met there.

      ‘Then try not to drive me into being with them!’ he slammed back. ‘I have not been unfaithful to you.’

      ‘She did say that you hadn’t been with her since you got married but that eventually you would return to her because apparently you always do.’

      ‘You are the only woman I have ever returned to!’ Angel proclaimed rawly. ‘I can’t believe we’re even having this stupid conversation—’

      ‘It’s not a conversation, it’s an argument,’ she interrupted.

      ‘I promised you that there would be no other women,’ Angel reminded her darkly. ‘Didn’t you listen? Obviously, you didn’t believe—’

      ‘Your reputation goes before you,’ Merry flung back at him bitterly.

      ‘I will not apologise for my past. I openly acknowledge it but I have never cheated on any woman I have been with!’ Angel intoned in a driven undertone. ‘I grew up with a mother who cheated on all her lovers and I lived with the consequences of that kind of behaviour. I know better. I’m honest and I move on when I get bored.’

      ‘Well, maybe I don’t want to hang around waiting for you to get bored with me and move on!’ Merry fired back with ringing scorn. ‘Maybe I think I’m worth more than that and deserve more respect. That’s why I’m calling time on us now before things get messy!’

      ‘You’re not calling time on us. That’s not your decision to make,’ Angel delivered with lethal derision. ‘We