He was sex on legs, she decided. It wasn’t fair for a guy to have so much…so much…Andreas.
‘You look beautiful,’ he murmured, crossing to meet her, and she tried to glower.
‘I look exactly the same as last night.’
‘Not so. Your nose has started to peel. Just a little.’
‘Leave my nose out of it.’
‘But it’s such a beautiful nose…
‘Andreas…’ Her voice broke and he stepped back. He’d been about to lightly touch her nose. Now he looked down at her in concern.
‘You haven’t had a good day?’
‘What do you think?’ she snapped. ‘You give me these appalling options and then you walk away and leave me with nothing to do but think and think and think.’
‘So what have you thought?’ he asked gravely and she tried to make her mind focus.
What had she thought?
‘That you’re a nutcase,’ she muttered. ‘That what you’re demanding is unbelievable. Totally unjustified.’
To her astonishment he smiled and kissed her lightly on the forehead, then led her over to the table.
‘I agree. I thought so last night. I left you and thought what we were asking was a one-sided agreement where we win. You get to play a princess but I, of all people, should accept that this is no great bargain.’
She felt as if all the wind had been sucked out of her. Andreas held back the chair and waited ’til she sat. She plumped down and stared at him.
‘Well, then?’ she managed.
‘Well, then,’ he agreed gravely, and rounded the table to sit opposite.
‘So I can go home?’
‘You see, you can’t,’ he said apologetically. ‘The fate of too many people would be changed irrevocably for the worse if you refuse to marry me.’
‘Then nothing’s changed.’
‘Only my attitude,’ he said softly. ‘And the rules. I’ve spent the day negotiating. Oh, and shopping.’
‘Shopping,’ she said blankly. ‘You’re kidding.’
He smiled again. ‘Sophia?’ he called.
Nikos had disappeared back to the kitchen, back to Sophia’s comfortable presence. But he came out now, holding the door wide so Sophia could come after him.
Sophia was carrying…
A puppy.
It wasn’t just a puppy. Holly rose in astonishment as she saw the creature held in Sophia’s ample arms. It was a border collie, a ten-to-twelve-week-old bundle of wriggling pup, black and white, with big, intelligent eyes and a tail that was threatening to wag so hard a lighter pup might have taken off like a hovercraft.
‘He’s attached to you already, Your Highness,’ Sophia told Andreas, reproving. ‘He didn’t like you leaving him in the kitchen. See? He finds you and his tail starts to whir again.’
‘What…?’ Holly could barely get the words out.
‘You see, there was something absent,’ Andreas explained. He didn’t walk forward to the pup but instead stood back and watched Holly’s face. ‘Yesterday I saw you and I thought there was something missing. And then…it came to me. From the first time I saw you back at Munwannay, you had a shadow. Always. A black and white shadow wherever you went. Deefer, I believed you called him.’
‘Deefer Dog,’ Holly murmured, stunned.
‘An ancient cattle dog.’
‘A border collie.’ Like this pup. She couldn’t keep her eyes off the pup in Sophia’s arms.
‘My people told me everything about your circumstances,’ Andreas said, still watching her. ‘But there was no mention of a dog. There was no dog on the place when our people inspected it.’
‘I haven’t had a dog since Deefer died.’
He frowned. ‘Deefer was an old dog when I was there.’
‘Yes,’ she said, not trusting herself to go further. In truth Deefer had lived for only three weeks longer than Adam. Her baby and then her dog…
‘Can I ask why you never bought another?’
‘My father wouldn’t have one.’ The puppy was wriggling in excitement. She longed to reach out and touch him…
She wouldn’t. This was seduction at its finest.
‘But it’s a farm. A working farm,’ Andreas said, obviously still waiting for an explanation. She had to try and give him one.
‘Yes, but…it was also my father’s folly. Deefer wasn’t Deefer’s real name. He had a pedigree a mile long. All our dogs did. He was Cobalt Royal Rex or some nonsense. Deefer for short. But when he died that was it. My father had such pride-he’d never have a mongrel on our place and pedigree working dogs cost a fortune. I was never permitted to have another dog.’
‘You were never permitted…’ Andreas’s face was calmly assessing. ‘Yet according to my sources, you did all the work.’
‘It was my father’s farm. He made the business decisions.’
‘He made the decision to run the place into the ground rather than sell up and move on while he could.’
‘It was my decision, too,’ she snapped. ‘You think I didn’t have a choice? But I loved it. I love it still. Adam’s still there-and I want to go home.’
She gulped and dug her fingers into her palms and fought desperately for control while Andreas and Nikos and Sophia watched gravely on.
And then, as if coming to a decision right there, right then, Andreas lifted the little dog into his arms and he carried him across to Holly.
‘Sit,’ he ordered and she sat, for she couldn’t think of anything else to do, at the elegant table with the exquisite silverware and crystal and candles.
He put the pup on her knee and he lifted her hands and placed them on the pup’s collar.
‘This is my troth,’ he said gently.
‘Your troth,’ she said numbly.
‘My vow,’ he said, and then as Nikos and Sophia went to move away he made a curt hand signal for them to stay. ‘No. I want witnesses. This is not for public consumption but I know that you two can be discreet. You two of all our people will know what is happening. Holly, I’m asking you to marry me, for the sake of our people. For the sake of our country. But I’m saying that I’ll not hold you to this marriage for a moment longer than needs be. As soon as the fuss has died down-as soon as it’s seen that I’ve done the honourable thing by you and that my family can’t be called to account-we can’t be dispossessed by our past-then you can go home. Back to Munwannay.’