eyes reflecting the sky overhead and the faint breeze ruffling his hair. This was merely a game to him, she thought wretchedly.
‘Did you like the roses?’ he asked with cool detachment. She stared at him for a moment, nonplussed by his control.
‘They’re lovely.’ She smiled nervously. ‘You must have bought the shop out.’ What on earth did he expect her to say?
‘A rose for every month we have been apart.’ There was no expression in the smooth voice. ‘How are you going to convince me you are adamant our marriage is at an end?’ he asked in the same tone of voice. ‘I feel you still want me on a physical level but I also know that you have remained celibate since our break so I do not doubt your control of your physical desires. But nevertheless, you do want me, don’t you?’
This total change of front into cool quietness puzzled her. Yesterday he had been volatile, passionate and angry. Today, at first thoughtful and reflective-and now.? Now she wasn’t sure but she didn’t like it and she didn’t trust him an inch. She had once, implicitly, and look where it had got her!
‘I have a suggestion to make that I would like you to consider very carefully,’ he continued softly. ‘You know me, Leigh, you know I do not give in easily.’ She smiled inwardly. The understatement of the year. ‘My proposal is that you come back to live with me for three months.’ Her eyes shot up to meet his but he was ready for her, his hand already raised for silence. ‘This will not involve you doing anything you do not wish to do, either on a physical level or a social one. You understand?’ She nodded silently, her eyes enormous in the chalkwhiteness of her face. ‘If, at the end of that time, you are able to tell me coldly and dispassionately that you still want a divorce, I will make sure you get one immediately. You have my word on that.’
‘And if I can’t?’ She forced a note of mockery into her voice to hide its trembling.
‘Then you become my wife again in every sense of the word.’
‘This is ridiculous.’ She rose from the bench to look down at him, her hands clenched into fists at her side and her heart-shaped face fiery. ‘I don’t need to do this! We have been apart for five years. I can get a divorce now if I want one, with or without your consent.’
‘Maybe.’ He smiled coldly. ‘But maybe not. We would see. But that is by the by. The real issue is that I would not be satisfied.’ He stared at her proudly, his face ruthlessly arrogant. ‘I need to know you mean what you say, that you are absolutely sure; only then would I leave you alone.’
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