The Frenchman's Love-Child

CHAPTER TEN

ALL the colour in Tabby’s face had faded away. Giddy with the force of her disturbed emotions, she turned on her heel and walked away from Veronique.

Veronique was lying. Of course, Christien couldn’t have been engaged when Tabby had come back into his life. Christien would have said so. Christien was always such a stickler for honesty. There was no way he could have been Veronique’s fiancé, no way on earth! Dry-mouthed and trembling, Tabby lifted a glass of champagne off a waiter’s tray and downed it in one.

She espied Christien out in the entrance hall and sped out there at the speed of light to catch him on his own before anyone else could intercept him. ‘Veronique just showed me her engagement ring-’

Christien vented what sounded like a French swear word. ‘I was planning to tell you after the wedding, ma belle.’

Tabby studied him in sick disbelief and took a step back from him. ‘You mean…it’s true? You were engaged to her? When did you and her split up?’

‘We’ll discuss this later in private,’ Christien decreed, distrusting the overwrought wobble in Tabby’s voice and the furious look of hurt and condemnation in her green eyes.

‘When did you break it off with her?’ Tabby snapped.

His lean, strong face clenched. ‘What I had with Veronique is not relevant to what I have with you.’

‘She just called me a scrubber for the second time in my life…and this time, thanks to you, I deserve it!’ Tabby accused, but her voice was shaking because her heart felt as if it were breaking up inside her.

‘Veronique called you a…what?’ Christien growled in raging disbelief. ‘You must have misheard her-’

‘Like heck I did. She called me one four years ago as well. Imagine you being so dumb you didn’t even realise she was determined to hook you that far back. But as far as I’m concerned now she can have you back…and she’s welcome to you!’ Tabby slung in fierce conclusion before she stalked back into the ballroom.

Dark anger flaring, Christien went to find Veronique.

‘I’m sorry, but Tabby is lying to you.’ Veronique sighed in sympathy. ‘I think she must be feeling jealous and she’s made up this nonsense in a silly attempt to destroy our friendship. Don’t be too hard on her. Quite naturally, she’s feeling insecure.’

His narrowed gaze probed the gleam in her pale blue eyes. Sly? His lean, strong face was grim. ‘I am satisfied that Tabby is telling me the truth. If you abuse her again or spread gossip about her or our child, I’ll sue you through every court in France until you’re ruined.’

Veronique had gone white with shock.

‘I make a bitter enemy and I will protect her with the last breath in my body.’ Christien’s intonation was cold as ice. ‘Leave my home. You’re not welcome here.’

Having submerged herself in the crush of dancers to evade the risk of Christien’s pursuit, Tabby emerged at the far side of the floor. She helped herself to another glass of champagne and drank it down in the hope that the alcohol would help her stay smiling until the last guests had departed. At the far end of the room Matilde Laroche was chatting with relatives. The older woman did not deserve the embarrassment of the newly engaged couple having an open fight at the party she had arranged.

Unfortunately, however, reflections that caused Tabby a great deal of pain and humiliation were already bombarding her from all directions. Christien could only have decided to marry her because of Jake. No wonder Veronique hated her guts! Doubtless Matilde had kept quiet about his having been engaged to Veronique because she also believed that Christien should marry her grandson’s mother.

Christien found Tabby taking refuge out on the balcony beyond the ballroom and he breathed in deep when she spun away refusing to look at him. ‘Veronique wasn’t invited this evening and I made the initial mistake of crediting that she had gatecrashed in a spirit of goodwill. But I told her to leave and she’s gone and I assure you that she will not trouble you again-’

‘Go away…I hate you!’ Tabby gulped back the sob threatening her voice.

‘Tabby-’

‘Did you or did you not sleep with me when you were engaged to another woman?’ Tabby demanded shakily.

In the moonlight, Christien almost groaned out loud.

‘You lying, cheating…when I think of the grief you gave me when I lied about my age four years ago and here you are…’ Words failed Tabby in her angry distress and she stalked past him.

A lean hand snapped round her elbow. ‘Don’t do this to us. Just let it go. I remained silent about Veronique because I didn’t want to wreck things-’

Tabby tried to pull free. ‘Let go of me!’

‘I can’t let you walk away in this mood-’

‘I’ll scream if you don’t!’

Christien removed his hand with a flourish. ‘This is insane. You know how it has been between us from the minute we met again.’

‘Lust!’ Tabby fired at him in disgust.

Tears were threatening to flood her eyes when she returned to the ballroom. Sean stopped in front of her. ‘What’s up? Are you all right?’

‘Dance with me,’ she begged.

The music was slow and Sean groaned. ‘I’m no good at these ones.’

Tabby wrapped her arms round his neck and mumbled, ‘Just shuffle.’

‘Have you had a row with Christien?’

‘Why would you think that?’

‘Oh, no good reason…just he’s standing at the edge of the floor looking furious with both hands clenched into fists as if I’m making a pass at you,’ Sean said.

‘Ignore him.’

‘He’s a big guy and hard to ignore. He is also very jealous. I noticed that the first time I met him. If I let a single finger stray, he’ll haul me off the floor and kill me, so try not to stumble or do anything that he might misinterpret.’ Sean sighed.

‘He’s not jealous…why would he be jealous of me?’

‘Possibly because he’s one of those intense types who goes overboard when he falls in love-’

‘In love?’ A sour little laugh fell from Tabby’s lips.

‘He’s been bitten deep by it too. Doesn’t like to see you laughing with another bloke either,’ Sean remarked even more uneasily, holding her back from him at a careful and circumspect distance.

The minute the music paused, Christien strode up and Sean released her with patent relief. Tabby collided with scorching golden eyes and twisted her head away, but Christien was too fast for her and he drew her close.

‘I know you’re angry with me…but don’t start flirting with other guys-’

The champagne was bubbling through her like petrol hitting a bonfire. ‘I’ll do as I like!’

Christien closed his arms round her. ‘Fais ce que je dis…do as I say. Stay calm-’

‘I want to scream at you,’ she gasped chokily.

‘Scream all you like…just don’t flirt. It drives me crazy-’

‘How can you act jealous of me after the way you’ve behaved? When did you get engaged to her?’ Tabby snapped at him like a bristling cat ready to pounce on prey.

‘We should talk about this when you’ve sober-’

‘Are you suggesting I’m drunk?’

‘No, I’m doing you the justice of assuming that you only screech when you’ve had too much champagne,’ Christien murmured tautly.

‘Answer my question-’

‘We got engaged six months ago. It was-’

Tabby lifted her arms and brought them down to break his hold. Frozen-faced and rigid-backed, she walked away. The last hour of the party seemed to fly. Later she could not have said whom she spoke to or what she said, but her cheekbones ached with the smile she kept glued in place. Six months, was all she could think in an agony of jealous hurt. Six months!

When the final merrymaker departed, Christien closed a hand over hers and urged her into the library. She snatched her fingers free of his, folded her arms and finally threw her head high to stare back at him. ‘I can’t marry you now…’

He lost colour, lean, darkly handsome features setting hard. ‘I would have told you about the engagement after the wedding. It wasn’t important but I knew that you would regard it in a different light-’

‘Your engagement to another woman wasn’t important? Wasn’t the least you owed her fidelity? And didn’t I deserve honesty? Do you think I’d have had anything to do with you if I’d known you belonged to someone else-?’

‘Belong? What am I? A trophy?’ Christien made a sudden angry slashing movement with one brown hand, his frustration unconcealed. ‘Last year, Veronique and I talked about how we had got into the habit of using each other as partners on certain social occasions. We were friends and it worked well. We discussed marriage from a practical point of view. I needed a hostess and she valued high social status and a husband who would not interfere in her career, for she is ambitious. We decided that we could have a successful marriage without the emotional entanglements that so often lead to disillusionment-’

‘It sounds like one very creepy arrangement to me,’ Tabby sniped.

‘Fidelity was not required from me. It was not part of our agreement.’ Glittering golden eyes sought and held hers, willing her to listen and understand. ‘I tell you that only because I don’t want you feeling guilty about what happened between us-’

‘Veronique told you that you could sleep around?’ Tabby gave him an aghast appraisal. ‘And you accepted that? That’s disgraceful!’

‘Not in her opinion. Veronique does not attach importance to such matters.’

‘Well, it’s just as well that I’m not marrying you, because if you played away on me, I’d make your life hell!’ Tabby launched fiercely. ‘In fact hell would feel like a four-star paradise by the time I’d finished with you!’

It threw her off balance when Christien seemed to almost smile at that threatening declaration. ‘I know,’ he acknowledged. ‘But tell the average single male that he can have a beautiful, accomplished wife and do as he likes behind closed doors with other women and he’ll go for it…until he finds that there’s something better-’

‘Well, I think it’s disgusting!’ Tabby spun away.

‘But I’m with you now-’

Tabby vented a humourless laugh. He was only with her because all Veronique’s beauty and accomplishments had proved to be worthless in the face of a three-year-old son in his own handsome image. If Jake had not existed and Tabby had been willing to settle for being a kept woman in that opulent house in the Loire valley, Christien would have stayed engaged to Veronique and he would eventually have married her. She could not forgive him for that. She just could not forgive him for choosing to marry her solely for the benefit of their son. After all, she was not his friend, who inspired his respect and admiration as the brunette did!

There was nothing Christien would not do for Jake. She had seen his relief when the consultant had told them that Jake’s asthma was unlikely to get worse and that he looked set to outgrow it. Christien adored his son. He didn’t say it, didn’t need to say it, just lit up with tender pride and protectiveness around Jake and got down on his knees to play with toy cars as if it were the most fun he had ever had. Her wretched eyes misted over. No, she could not fault him for loving Jake. That would be unfair. But she had a right to her own self-esteem and it was being battered into the ground by the cruel confirmation that the only true interest the guy she loved had in her was her wanton talent for meeting his every passionate demand in bed.

‘I’m really sorry that you’ve been upset by this,’ Christien breathed grittily. ‘But it doesn’t touch us. Can’t you see that? I wasn’t in love with Veronique and she wasn’t in love with me either. I offended her pride by rejecting her. But you and I…we have so much more-’

Her throat ached. ‘Yeah…great sex.’

‘Zut alors…don’t talk like that, don’t try to talk down what we have.’

‘I’ve never forgotten the way you dumped me four years ago,’ she confided tightly. ‘You didn’t even have the grace to tell me. You let me come up to your family’s villa chasing after you-’

His black brows pleated. ‘When…when was that?’

‘The day I flew back home with my stepmother, Lisa. Veronique met me at the door. I had to face the humiliation of your very good friend telling me I’d been ditched and that you were going to have to change your mobile phone number to shake me off!’

Christien took a hasty step forward and reached for both her hands. ‘Veronique had no right. She went behind my back. I never discussed you with her, nor would I have allowed her to speak to you in such a way. But at the time I did believe that you were seeing another guy,’ he reminded her. ‘I wasn’t expecting you to come to the villa-’

‘I don’t care. You hurt me then…and tonight you hurt and humiliated me again and I can’t forgive you…won’t forgive you!’ Tabby’s aching eyes were wide to ensure the gathering tears stayed out of sight and she didn’t trust herself to listen to his arguments in his own defence. He was downright gorgeous and she loved him, but just then she hated him too. Trailing her fingers free, she yanked the ring off her finger before she could lose her nerve and set it down on the console table beside her.

‘No…’ Christien grated.

Tabby fled upstairs. She wouldn’t let herself cry. She took a nightdress from her bedroom and stole across the corridor to Jake’s room where she knew she would not be disturbed. Distressed as she was, she was asleep within minutes of climbing into the twin bed next to her son’s. Around dawn she wakened and went for a shower to freshen up. Her head was sore. Too much champagne, just as Christien had said. The night before, she had been all drama and brave defiance. Now in the cold light of day she was trying to imagine what it would do to Jake if the promised wedding failed to take place. He was so excited. And it was not as if Christien were in love with Veronique. But what would it do to her to love Christien without return for years on end? It would humble her, damage her confidence.

The second time she wakened, she was back in her own bed and she sat up in bewilderment. His back turned to her, Christien was lodged by the windows, the curtains partially opened to let the sunlight flood into the elegant room.

‘I moved you in here because we have to talk,’ he breathed harshly.

‘No…I don’t know what to say to you-’

Christien swung round. The lines of strain grooved between his nose and mouth were matched by the brooding darkness of his gaze. ‘I should have asked you just to listen. I’ll do the talking.’

Tabby looped a straying strand of hair off her brow in an effort to hide that she was still reeling from the way events had overtaken them the night before.

‘That day four years back, when you tried to see me at the villa and Veronique spoke to you instead, I was probably drunk. After I’d dealt with the formalities of my father’s death and my mother shut herself away here demanding to be left alone, I spent the rest of that hideous week drunk.’

Green eyes huge, Tabby gaped at him because he had told her something she would never have suspected for herself, for he always seemed so much in control. ‘Perhaps I should’ve thought of that. Naturally you were having trouble coping-’

Christien dug lean hands into the pockets of his well-cut trousers. ‘It was getting by without you I was struggling to handle,’ he ground out in a driven undertone.

The silence stretched and stretched.

‘Zut alors…I was planning to marry you and then I saw you with the biker and it all went pear-shaped on me. When our fathers died in that car accident, I wanted you,’ he bit out. ‘But pride wouldn’t let me have you, so I drank myself into a stupor to ensure I didn’t weaken.’

Tabby blinked. She was transfixed. He had been planning to marry her?

Christien shrugged a broad shoulder with something less than his usual grace. ‘I didn’t like feeling like that. I watched my mother sink into despair without my father. They had always been very close and for a while after his death she did not want to live without him. It was terrifying to watch. I decided I didn’t want to feel like that about any woman ever.’

‘I can understand that…’ Tabby mumbled, and yet she could offer nothing to match his unhappy experience.

Her stepmother had had shallow affections. Aside of a few noisy crying jags, the discovery that she was not as prosperous a widow as she had hoped had infuriated Lisa and ensured that her grief had been even more short-lived.

‘Were you serious when you said you were planning to marry me then?’ Tabby prompted hesitantly. ‘I mean, you were furious with me for lying about my age. How could you have been thinking about marrying me?’

‘How not?’ Clear dark golden eyes met hers in fearless acknowledgement. ‘I still wanted you. In the end that’s all it came down to.’

Still wanted her but much against his will, she translated. But she was still deep in shock. While being very moody and unsentimental about it, Christien was nonetheless giving her riveting information about what he had felt for her in the past. He was so tense, though, that she felt a sudden shout might shatter him to pieces and she was touched.

Christien expelled his breath in a slow, measured hiss. ‘Once you lied to me about your age because you didn’t want to lose me. In the same way I chose to hold fire on telling you that I was engaged to Veronique on terms that you would never understand. Why? I didn’t want to lose you.’

‘Didn’t you?’ Her voice felt all strangled inside her throat.

‘That summer we were first together, I was in love with you. What else could it have been? That kind of madness that means you can’t bear to be apart for even a few hours?’ Christien rested shimmering golden eyes on her. ‘I wouldn’t admit it to myself but I had never felt for anyone what I felt for you-’

Her nose wrinkled and she made a frantic attempt to fight the tears threatening. ‘Oh Christien…’ she said thickly.

‘When Solange left you the cottage, I used it as an excuse to see you again in London. I had no need to make that a personal visit and I could have made more effort to discourage you from moving to Brittany-’

‘But I was so determined to make a new life here…I think that you weren’t the only one of us hiding from the truth-’

Christien spread graceful brown hands in an inconclusive motion. ‘Nothing went to plan then…but then I had no true strategy. Around you, I don’t think straight,’ he confessed with fierce reluctance. ‘I just needed to see you, be with you, make love to you, and that first time I did not even recall that Veronique was a part of my life!’

Tabby scrambled off the bed, crossed the carpet and closed her arms round him tight. She was satisfied for, to her way of thinking, he had not had a normal engagement with the other woman and she could not judge him for his lack of fidelity to a woman who had told him that he might do as he liked.

‘But I ended my engagement to Veronique immediately afterwards. I felt guilty but I didn’t hesitate,’ Christien confirmed.

‘Immediately afterwards?’ It was though yet another weight fell from Tabby’s troubled heart, for she needed to know that she could trust him.

‘I saw her in Paris and came back to Brittany that evening but you had already left the cottage. Unfortunately something foolish I said out of guilt to Veronique-that I was not thinking of marriage with you-very probably made her even angrier when she learned that I had in fact decided to marry you just as fast as I could.’ Christien volunteered with a grimace.

‘That’s right…at that point you were dreaming of refurbishing the cottage into a delightful residence for a convenient mistress…am I right?’

Beautiful dark golden eyes glinting with wariness, Christien finally nodded.

‘You see, I know you…I know how your mind works,’ Tabby warned him with newly learned assurance. ‘The idea of marrying me only came after you found out about Jake and when you realised I wasn’t up for the living-in arrangement-’

‘Can’t you tell when a guy’s ready to do anything to get you?’

‘Nope…I need it spelt out.’ Tabby was hardly breathing as she said it, for she was beginning to believe her wildest dreams had come true without her even appreciating it. It was the way he was looking at her.

Christien scooped her up and sat down on the edge of the bed with her cradled in his arms. ‘I love you, ma belle. I love you like crazy.’

Tabby heaved an ecstatic sigh. She had not even dared to hope and there he had been sneakily hiding his feelings from her. ‘You should have told me that ages ago-’

‘It took me a painfully long time to appreciate how I felt-’

Tabby gazed up at him with a dreamy smile. ‘I thought it was Jake…I thought you were only marrying me for him-’

‘No, he’s fantastic, but you are in a class all your own,’ Christien confided thickly. ‘I want to marry you to make you mine-’

‘What do you think I am…some trophy?’ Tabby teased.

‘My trophy.’ Framing her face with not quite steady hands, he tasted her lush mouth with a hungry fervour that threatened to blow her away.

Tabby quivered. ‘I love you so much,’ she finally told him.

‘You do?’ His charismatic smile flashed out and his beautiful eyes were tender on hers. ‘Even though I’ve screwed up on innumerable occasions?’

‘I like it when you screw up-’

‘You were supposed to tell me I don’t…feed my ego,’ Christien lamented.

‘Your ego is healthy enough-’

‘I’m mad for you,’ he breathed raggedly.

‘We’ll be married tomorrow-’

‘Tomorrow might as well be a hundred years away. I ache with wanting you-’

‘It’ll be a very exciting honeymoon,’ Tabby promised shamelessly, nestling close to provoke, really loving his desperation.

‘We could go for a drive, mon amour,’ Christien groaned. ‘Book into a hotel-’

‘No…your mother has me booked into a beauty salon for half of the day as it is-’

‘That’s stupid…you’re gorgeous just the way you are. Don’t let them cut your hair.’

Tabby glanced up to see Jake peering round the edge of the door at them.

‘Kissy stuff.’ Jake pulled a face. ‘It’s yucky!’

‘I think we should start as we mean to go on. Lock the door on him and let your nightie fall off again,’ Christien informed her huskily.

‘I’m worth waiting for,’ Tabby swore with a cheeky smile. She curved into the wonderful reassuring warmth and strength of his big, muscular body and, when Jake hurtled over to join them, gathered Jake in close as well. She was loved. She was loved by both of them, which just made her feel incredible.

Her wedding outfit was a two-piece composed of an embroidered and beaded fitted bodice the same rich green as her eyes and a flowing ivory skirt. An emerald and diamond tiara was anchored to her head, her diamond necklace was at her throat and her wedding present from her groom was the superb diamonds that hung from either ear.

Christien could not take his appreciative gaze from her. He led her up the steps and into the mairie for the civil ceremony as though she were a queen. The church blessing followed in the little chapel down the street. Holding hands, they posed for photographs afterwards, her eyes shining, his eyes resting on her with pride and a love he couldn’t hide.

The reception was held in the Ritz Hotel in Paris. Alison Davies and her boyfriend looked on in surprise as Tabby took all the luxury and the attention in her stride. Indeed, the bride’s bubbly personality and assurance were much admired and, in her radius, the groom was less cool than his reputation suggested. His less discreet relatives hinted that parental opposition had kept the young couple apart. Their guests began talking of the match as a ‘grande passion’. That Tabby was penniless and neither stick-thin nor a classic beauty had been noted. That Christien looked at his bride as though she were as irresistible as Cleopatra was also noted. That Tabby had succeeded where the much-disliked Veronique had failed was sufficient to ensure that she would become a great social success.

Before leaving the hotel, the bridal couple entrusted their son, Jake, to the care of his grandmother, Matilde. A limo whisked them to the airport where they boarded Christien’s private jet for their flight to a honeymoon hideaway in the Tuscan hills.

Only when the jet was airborne did Christien remove a letter from his inside pocket. ‘This was delivered to me just before the reception. It’s from my great-aunt, Solange-’

‘Solange?’ Tabby echoed in disconcertion. ‘How could it be?’

‘Solange wrote it the same day that she changed her will so that you could inherit the cottage. She instructed the notaire that her letter was only to be given to me in the event of our marriage.’

Tabby was challenged to translate the letter written in the old lady’s spidery handwriting.

Christien came to her rescue. ‘In opening, Solange apologises to me for leaving a part of the Duvernay estate outside the family-’

‘She does?’ Tabby exclaimed.

‘And goes on to congratulate me for marrying you, thereby reuniting the cottage with the estate again-’

‘Oh, that’s magic!’ Tabby was tickled pink. ‘Obviously you only married me to get the cottage back.’

‘Solange concludes by advancing the hope that we enjoy a long and happy life together and states that she always knew we were made for each other.’ A rueful charismatic smile curved Christien’s handsome mouth. ‘She must have guessed even then that I loved you.’

Tabby’s eyes stung. ‘I wish I had,’ she muttered. ‘I’d have stormed past Veronique and confronted you that day. You’d have been too drunk to play it cool and you’d have admitted that you had seen Pete kissing me…and we’d have got it all sorted out there and then.’

With a sigh, Christien pulled her into his arms and held her close. ‘I was a real smart ass in those days and I was fighting loving you. I’m more mature now-’

‘I suppose I was too young to get married then.’

With incredible tenderness, he kissed the sprinkling of tears off her cheeks. ‘I adore you. I appreciate you so much more now. Think of all the time we have ahead of us, ma belle.’

Her sunny smile began to blossom again and his own slow-burning smile broke out, stunning golden eyes lingering on her with intense appreciation. She found his mouth, dallied there with deliberate provocation, listened to his breathing fracture.

‘Make mad, passionate love to me,’ she whispered.

‘Hussy…’ Christien growled adoringly, and he carried her into the sleeping compartment because she was laughing so hard that she could hardly walk.