At least the royal pair would not be present, she thought with relief. Apparently, Prince Vitale’s mother had abdicated after a huge scandal and, now that Vitale was about to become King, he and his pregnant wife were much too involved in official business to spare the time for a family dinner in London.
With such grand people in the family, would Zac’s lofty relatives criticise her the moment she was out of hearing? Would they be shocked by his choice of someone like her? Would they try to persuade him to change his mind at the last minute and not marry her? After all, a waitress with two children in tow was no great catch for a very wealthy and educated man. She would never be his equal in the eyes of the world. Perhaps they would simply shake their heads in surprise and remind themselves that Zac needed an heir and that it might as well be Freddie as any other woman. Perhaps they simply wouldn’t care either way.
That evening, Zac long gone and the children readied for bed, Freddie got dressed for the dinner she was dreading with Zac’s father and his girlfriend and his elder brother and his wife. It bothered her that he had told her so little about himself and she worried that she would stumble in conversation and reveal her ignorance.
Zac stood at the passenger door of the limo watching Freddie descend the steps, her tiny feet in pearlised shoes, ultra-careful in the high heels, her clutch pinned between white-knuckled fingers, her state of nerves patent. But she looked absolutely amazing, like a delicate doll in silver, shapely legs as fragile as the rest of her, big brown eyes anxiously pinned to him.
‘You look fantastic,’ he told her bracingly, wishing she weren’t a virgin, wishing he could lower the privacy shields and pounce on her in the car to live out every fantasy she had awakened. But intelligence warned him to hang onto his self-control. She would trot out all sorts of excuses when he finally tackled her but Zac had already reached his own conclusions: she was scared of sex, scared of everything he made her feel. The last thing she needed from him was more pressure. He would have to be rather more subtle than nature had made him if he didn’t want to risk frightening her off.
‘Thanks,’ she said tautly, settling into the limo to fiddle unnecessarily with her clutch bag while studiously avoiding his attention. ‘So, your father married twice and that’s where Angel and Vitale come from but he had an affair with your mother and she was in love with someone else.’
Zac lounged back with a sigh. ‘Both Charles and Antonella were on the rebound when they met in Brazil. If Afonso hadn’t returned to my mother, Charles would’ve married her as soon as he was free to do so. My father seems to fall in love with every woman he sleeps with. He’s a very tender-hearted man.’
‘But your mother still loved your stepfather even though he treated her so badly? I mean, ditching her when they were engaged to go off with another woman?’ Freddie prompted in surprise, stealing a glance at him, loving how elegant he was in his dinner jacket. Clean-shaven for once without a hint of his usual stubble, his perfect features were revealed from the smooth planes of his high cheekbones to the strong angle of his jawline. His deep-set heavily lashed light eyes gleamed and, caught staring, she reddened, her mouth running dry, all concentration evaporating simultaneously.
Zac shrugged. ‘I never understood her obsession but Afonso Oliveira was it for my mother. She worshipped the ground he walked on and believed he had done a wonderful thing in overlooking her humble background to choose her as a wife.’
‘How was her background humble when she was born into so much wealth?’ Freddie asked in disbelief.
‘She was the illegitimate daughter of a black maid and some people, notably those of my stepfather’s ilk, looked down on her for that. My grandfather ignored my mother’s existence because he was equally snobbish. Afonso was from a similar aristocratic background. The Oliveiras had long since run through their family fortune but that was less important than their reputation and their impressive family tree.’
‘Your mother had a sad life.’ Freddie sighed reflectively. ‘She didn’t really fit anywhere.’
‘Life is what you make of it. Her attachment to Afonso was toxic. Getting too attached to anyone is dangerous,’ Zac pronounced grimly. ‘Think of how attached you are to Eloise and Jack and the sacrifices you’re prepared to make to keep them!’
Unexpectedly, Freddie smiled. ‘But, loving them has enriched my life in so many other ways. Yes, I could have made different choices but they’re my family and they make me happy. I have no regrets.’
The dinner was being held in a private room at an exclusive restaurant. Freddie remembered Charles Russell and his eldest son, Angel, joining Zac for coffee one morning. But the two women, one brunette and one elegant, much older blonde, were completely new to her. The blonde turned out to be Sybil, Charles’ girlfriend and also, it seemed, Merry’s grandmother.
Zac kept one arm wrapped protectively round Freddie’s spine as he introduced her to everyone. Angel’s wife, Merry, admired Freddie’s ring, but although both women were charming Merry seemed a little uncomfortable around Freddie and Zac, while Zac’s father treated Freddie for all the world as though she was his dream choice of bride for his youngest son.
They took their seats while Freddie noted what the other two women were wearing and recognised that Zac had not brought her to the party overdressed. Merry and Sybil sparkled with jewellery and sported stylish outfits sprinkled with the kind of little handmade embellishments that screamed haute couture. Merry talked about her little girl and asked her about Eloise and Jack. Zac shared Eloise’s current obsession with dragons. Charles was asking when he could hope to meet the children when Freddie rose at the last minute to follow the other two women out to the cloakroom.
‘I just felt so awkward meeting Freddie!’ Merry was exclaiming loudly in the corridor as she and her grandmother rounded a corner. ‘I wish Jazz hadn’t told me what Zac got up to at the royal ball.’
‘What did he get up to?’ the older woman asked as Freddie automatically speeded up in the hope of hearing the rest of the tantalising exchange.
‘Apparently, Zac disappeared into a private room with two women that work at the palace. Obviously, they went in there to have sex. Jazz said he didn’t even blush when he reappeared. He’s shameless,’ Merry contended in a pained voice. ‘But that was only two weeks ago. How am I supposed to treat Freddie like a happy bride-to-be when I know that Zac was still playing away so recently?’
‘Well, I think you have to give Zac the benefit of the doubt because only the individuals in that room know what actually happened there. I also think you need to remind yourself that you are very happy with a man who enjoyed an equally raunchy reputation before he married you,’ the other woman commented wryly.
Snatching in a breath, Freddie had frozen where she stood as she listened. Merry and her grandmother were talking about Zac. Apparently, he had had sex with two women at the Lerovian ball that Freddie had declined to attend. Two women. Shock rippled like a lightning bolt through Freddie, jarring every bone and muscle. A wave of fierce jealousy ripped through her in the aftermath as she realised that, without ever thinking too deeply about it, she had come to look on Zac as hers. Yet while coming on to her, pretending to want her, he had still been having sex with other women. That knowledge cut into her like a knife and made her feel like a fool. How many other women had he dallied with since they met? Appalled and deeply wounded, she walked stiffly into the cloakroom as the other women were leaving and managed a vague smile even though she felt like a zombie.
How could she marry a man she couldn’t even trust to be faithful? She had taken exclusivity for granted in their relationship but it was not something they had actually discussed. She had made stupid,
