The Duke's Secret Wife

‘Oh, yes, I’ll be fine,’ Isabelle assured him emphatically. ‘Really I will.’

It was nothing less than the truth. Whatever his faults—and he had plenty of them—Luis was not a thug. He was hot-tempered, ruthless, totally convinced of his supremacy above all others, arrogant as the devil, but he would never knowingly hurt her.

At least not physically.

Emotionally it was a very different matter. That way he could hurt her simply by existing. By existing and not loving her as much as she had loved him. And when that ‘not loving’ had turned to hate, that was when he had totally devastated her soul.

But she wasn’t prepared to give in to him so easily. If you let him, Luis was perfectly capable of riding roughshod over anyone else’s feelings.

‘But I can’t come with you now, Luis. I’m at work—this is my job. I have this tour to finish.’

‘I am aware of that, mi angel.’

If she had hoped to disconcert him, then clearly it hadn’t worked.

‘And that is why I have made arrangements…’

One long, bronzed hand was lifted in an autocratic gesture, summoning someone from the darkness of a shop front.

‘Señor Morris!’

Isabelle’s heart sank to somewhere on the pavement, beneath the soles of her neat ankle boots, as, in answer to the command, the errant Andy, resplendent in his highwayman costume, appeared out of the shadows and strolled towards them, a slightly sheepish grin on his boyish face.

‘I’ll take over for you, Izzy,’ he said. ‘I know the rest of the route from here—and all the stories.’

‘But…’

She tried to protest but her weak-voiced interjection was ignored as Luis took things right out of her hands.

‘Señoras y señores, thank you for your patience with this unexpected interruption to your evening. I trust you realise that I would never have acted in this way if I had not thought it was the only thing I could do. Andrew here will be your guide from now on. If you will follow him…’

And they did. Isabelle could only stand and watch as the group headed off, with Andy launching straight into the familiar patter about the history of Clifford’s Tower. What else could she possibly do? Luis had outmanoeuvred her, checkmated her like a chess Grand Master.

Not that she was going to give in without a fight.

‘So now they’ve gone…’

Whirling, she faced Luis, her chin coming up defiantly, her eyes flashing challengingly.

‘What exactly did you want to talk to me about?’

‘Not here.’ He shook his dark head.

‘Yes! Here and now!’

If he was going to tell her that he agreed to a divorce, then she wanted it over and done with. Wanted the words spoken, the blow delivered. It was like waiting to hear that some part of her had to be amputated. Better to get it done, quickly and sharply. Hopefully, the event would hurt less that way. It was the pain that was waiting for her in the future that she couldn’t bear to think about.

‘Say what you have to say, Luis…’

‘I said not here! I do not want the whole world knowing my business.’

He couldn’t just blurt this out cold, here in the street. If he did, he was sure she would just laugh in his face and walk away.

‘My car is parked just here. We will go back to your house.’

‘We will do no such thing!’

Each minute she spent with him was only making things so much worse. Making it harder to let him go a second time. After those long, lonely years without him, just the sight of him was like a banquet to someone dying of starvation. She couldn’t look at him enough, couldn’t take enough of him in to appease her hungry senses.

And if she ever let him into her home, then it would be much worse. She would never be able to forget that he had been there; never erase the shadow of his presence from her flat.

‘Isabella…’

The low growl was a warning not to try his patience further.

‘It is late and I have no wish to make a public spectacle of myself by discussing what should be a very private matter between a husband and wife in the street like this. You will get into my car and I will drive you to your house—’

‘I will…you will,’ Isabelle tossed in, imitating the autocratic tone of his command with bitter satire. ‘Whatever happened to please and thank you, Luis? Or does your lordship not use such courtesies with the peasants?’

His breath hissed in between his teeth, warning her that he was very close to losing his grip on his barely reined-in temper.

‘Please,’ he said with a sarcasm that matched her own. ‘Isabelle, I just want to talk.’

‘But it’s what you want to talk about that worries me. You’ll have to tell me more than that, Luis, or I’m not going anywhere with you.’

‘Muy bien!’

His hands flew up in a gesture that was a perfect blend of exasperation and resignation.

‘All right! We will do it your way if that’s what you prefer! The reason I am here, Isabella, is because…’

‘Because you want to end our marriage,’ Isabelle supplied unhappily when he paused, seeming uncharacteristically at a loss for words. ‘You don’t have to spell it out, Luis. I sent you that letter, after all. I guessed from the start that you were here to arrange for our divorce.’

‘Then you guessed wrong, querida. Totally wrong. I have not come here looking for a divorce. On the contrary, I am here because I want you to come back to me.’

CHAPTER TWO

‘I WANT you to come back to me.’

When she had been expecting something so totally different, the words made no sense at all to her.

‘Come—back?’ she managed through shock-stiffened lips. ‘I don’t…’

‘Come back, as in return to me.’

Luis sighed his exasperation.

‘You are, after all, my wife.’