Modern Romance November 2016 Books 5-8. Rachael Thomas

want that for our child too? I was going to call you...’

      He laughed and it was the bitterest sound she had ever heard. ‘Sure you were.’

      ‘I bought a phone this morning. If you look to your left you’ll see it’s charging. I was going to call in order to hear for myself what your feelings were for our child and to apologise for taking your money and make arrangements to return some of it to you. I didn’t realise how much I’d taken.’

      ‘How could you not know you’d taken two hundred thousand euros?’

      ‘I knew how much but I didn’t know its value. I’ve never handled money before. The palace has always paid for everything. I’d no idea how much anything costs because I’ve never had to pay or go shopping for it.’

      The anger in his expression had gone but a hardness had replaced it. Nathaniel stroked his stubbled jaw and nodded with narrowed eyes. ‘You have to come back with me. It’s the only way I can save my development. I will not have an accusation of fraud hanging over me.’

      If she’d known how to scream, it would have been the time to do it. But Catalina had never screamed in her life. But she had never been so angry and frustrated and scared, not ever.

      ‘I need a drink,’ she muttered. ‘I’m going to make tea. Would you like one?’

      He looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. Which she feared she was in danger of doing. ‘Did you hear me?’

      ‘Yes, I heard you.’ And now she wanted to shout, something else she had never done before. She’d never raised her voice, never behaved in any way that might be judged unfitting for a princess. ‘I thought I’d found my freedom and now you want to snatch it away from me again.’

      ‘I have no choice.’

      ‘You do. You can walk away.’ She switched on the half-full kettle.

      ‘Walk away from a two hundred million euro development?’

      ‘Why not? You have hotels and clubs and complexes all over the world. You’re a billionaire.’ She shook two teabags from a box and put them into a floral teapot.

      ‘Is that why you thought it was all right to help yourself to my cash?’

      ‘No.’ She really did feel tremendous guilt for that. ‘I know I shouldn’t have done it but I was desperate. The opportunity presented itself and I took it.’

      ‘The opportunity presented itself,’ he mimicked her. ‘Is that what you’ll use in your defence when the police question you about it?’

       CHAPTER EIGHT

      ICE FLOODED CATALINA’S VEINS. ‘You would do that? You’d call the police?’

      ‘You’d better believe I would,’ he said grimly. ‘If you refuse to return with me then you leave me no choice. I don’t want to make threats...’

      ‘Then don’t.’

      ‘There’s a permanent video camera set up in my office.’

      The ice in her veins solidified.

      ‘It’s a security measure I take as I often have large amounts of cash delivered while the banks are closed. The feed quite clearly shows you in your nightwear opening the briefcase, then less than ten minutes later shows you stuffing most of the cash into your handbag. Come back with me and you can destroy the evidence yourself.’

      ‘That’s blackmail.’

      ‘It is. I don’t want to use it but quite honestly, mon papillon, I refuse to let your family destroy everything I’ve built up. I’ve never cared about my personal reputation but my professional reputation does mean something. Your father’s accusations will hang over me until he publicly retracts them, which he won’t do until you return. I will not have my child thinking I’m a criminal.’ He flashed her a bitter glance. ‘And I want you by my side for the rest of the pregnancy because I don’t trust that the minute you’re out of my sight you won’t take off with our baby again.’

      ‘Does our child mean that much to you?’

      ‘How can you doubt that when I married you to get my legal rights?’

      ‘You married me to protect your development.’

      ‘There were a number of factors but, trust me, the development was bottom of the list. I want our child and I want to be a father.’

      As he spoke, Catalina lifted the kettle and poured the boiling water into the pot. The motion pulled back the sleeve of her jumper.

      ‘What have you done to yourself?’ he asked, distracted as he caught sight of a surgical bandage around her wrist.

      She dropped a tea cosy onto the pot. ‘I burnt it on the oven when I was taking a casserole out of it a couple of days ago.’

      ‘And your fingers?’

      ‘I cut them slicing the vegetables for the casserole.’ Her body rigid, she took milk from a fridge and poured it into two mugs.

      Never in his wildest imagination could Nathaniel have pictured Catalina in such a domestic setting. His chest twisted to think of her hurting herself.

      ‘How do you know how to make a casserole?’

      ‘I can read.’ The look she fixed him with was almost, almost a glare. ‘I can follow instructions. There are shops in Benasque that sell cookbooks.’

      She removed the tea cosy, swirled the pot then poured their tea. She pushed his mug towards him.

      ‘You haven’t spent my money stocking up on bone china?’

      Without any warning, the tea cosy, which she’d been about to put back on the pot, went flying past his head. ‘Is that your entire opinion of me?’ she demanded, her voice rising an octave. ‘That I’m a useless princess who spends her time worrying about the cup she drinks from? Has it not occurred to you that I have never been given the choice over anything I do, and that includes the blasted cups I drink from?’

      It was the closest he’d heard her come to raising her voice or swearing.

      She took a visibly deep breath. ‘I’m in an impossible position here. Whatever threats you make, you can’t force me to return. This is Spain. The ownership rights you have over me in Monte Cleure do not apply here. I’m a free woman.’

      He almost laughed. ‘You consider yourself a free woman when you’re funding your “free” lifestyle with money you stole from me?’

      ‘I took your money because I was desperate. I’m your wife. I may not have many rights of my own but even in Monte Cleure maintenance for my well-being and for the well-being of my child is one of them. That’s how I justified it.’ She caught his eye and sighed. ‘But I can see that you are in an impossible position too.’

      ‘So you will come back with me of your own free will?’ He’d known even as he’d threatened her that he would never go to the police. But he also knew he couldn’t allow her to stay here. She was carrying his child. She was his.

      The proprietorial direction of his thoughts caught him off-guard.

      Catalina had proven herself a woman of unknown quantities, someone who would steal...

      But she stole that money because she could see no other way out. She did it to protect your child.

      It didn’t change what she had done. She could make all the excuses in the world but it didn’t change anything.

      Nothing could reverse what he’d done long ago either. And with Catalina he had tried to atone for those mistakes he’d made all those years ago. He’d done the right thing. He’d tried to protect her from himself and she’d run away.

      She’s