That, too, was all about the baby and she respected him for his alacrity in accepting responsibility, but he was no closer to seeing now than he had been months ago that a loveless union was worse than no union at all and he didn’t love her. He was willing to take care of her because she would be the mother of his child and he was, as he had pointed out in various ways, an Italian traditionalist through and through. But not once had he mentioned love.
Rose could see all the advantages in marrying him. He would be a generous husband and a fantastic father, but she knew him well. Playing the dutiful husband to a woman he didn’t love would grind him down and, over time, inevitably, his eyes would begin to wander. And, looking the way he did, it would be all too easy for temptation to meet opportunity.
There was no such thing as guaranteed fidelity within a marriage but, as far as Rose was concerned, most marriages at least started out with the expectation. For her, it would be like waiting for an axe to fall and there was no way she was going to do that.
But it was hard. When they made love, the feeling of total completeness was as uplifting as it was painful.
‘What was the change of plan?’ Rose asked, leading him towards the sitting room. Too much standing about tired her out these days.
Normally, he would sit next to her on the squashy sofa, but this time he settled for the chair by the fire.
‘We need to regulate this situation,’ Gabriel said abruptly. He had waited for her to raise the subject of the man leaving the house, but she hadn’t. She obviously thought that they would have missed each other by a few minutes and he was damned if he was going to ask questions. He felt sick with rage and jealousy.
‘Regulate…?’ Rose was baffled by the statement. She yawned and was startled when he asked her, rather coldly, if she would mind staying up so that she could listen to what he had to say.
‘What’s the matter?’ Rose asked, suddenly sitting up. ‘What’s wrong? Is it work?’
‘Work couldn’t be better,’ Gabriel said icily. ‘And if I appear to be in a bad mood it’s because I am angry with myself for allowing this situation to go as far as it has done. It is no longer satisfactory for us to be living apart. In three months time you will give birth to our child and I don’t intend to remain an occasional visitor to your house.’ Nor, he thought savagely, do I intend to let other men have contact with my child!
‘But, Gabriel, we’ve talked about this!’
‘And, like a fool, I have indulged your crazy desire to maintain your freedom!’
‘It’s got nothing to do with maintaining my freedom!’ Rose told him painfully. ‘What exactly do you think I’m going to with this so called freedom I’m desperate to maintain? When I’m at home with a baby?’
Gabriel ignored that. He couldn’t think straight. In his mind, the only thing he could see was that man leaving the house. He burned to lay into her, demand to know what the hell she was playing at, inviting strange men into her house, and he loathed his own weakness in feeling so desperate.
‘Good. Then we compromise. And I really don’t care if you refuse, Rose, because I will simply stay put until you agree.’
‘What’s brought on this change of mood?’
‘A clear head,’ Gabriel snapped. ‘You don’t want to marry me. Fine. You’re right. I cannot drag you kicking and screaming up the aisle, although how your conscience allows you to jeopardise the stability of our child’s future is beyond me.’
‘I don’t know h…’
Gabriel raised one imperious hand to silence her protest. ‘But there is a limit to what I will tolerate. If you won’t marry me, then you will live with me.’
‘Be your mistress?’
‘Call it whatever you like. The description is immaterial.’ He gave one of those nonchalant shrugs of his although his eyes remained very firmly focused on her dazed face.
‘I don’t see the point,’ Rose muttered, but she was exhausted by his drip, drip technique. He had used a sledgehammer to crack a nut but once he had clocked into the fact that she wasn’t budging, Gabriel had changed his techniques and over the months had become the master of subtlety, making small but consistent measures to chip away at her resolve. Sometimes she had the unsettling suspicion that part of his persistence came from the fact that she presented a challenge he felt compelled to overcome. It was a disturbing thought.
‘What was the urgency to rush over here at this hour to discuss this?’ she asked, stifling a yawn. ‘I’m really tired.’
‘I’ll bet.’
Something in Gabriel’s voice made Rose stiffen. Now she knew that something was wrong. ‘What does that mean?’
‘What do you think it means?’ Gabriel threw out belligerently.
‘I have no idea. Are you going to tell me or are you going to try and make me guess?’
‘Who was he?’ Gabriel heard himself ask the question and it was as if his vocal cords were functioning without the agreement of his brain, because he certainly hadn’t intended to reduce himself by asking.
‘Who was who? What are you talking about?’
‘Don’t give me that butter wouldn’t melt in your mouth act! I wasn’t born yesterday, Rose!’ He sprang to his feet and began pacing the room, releasing some of the high voltage energy that was threatening to make him really explode with her. He daredn’t look at her bewildered expression when it must be obvious to her exactly what he was talking about. I mean, he thought savagely, how many men did she entertain when he wasn’t around?
Now frankly disturbed, Rose padded across to where he was standing by the window, arms folded, his eyes aggressive slits. She placed her hand worriedly on his arm and he shrugged it off.
‘I have no idea what you’re on about.’
‘There was a man leaving this house when I drove up,’ Gabriel said, struggling to maintain his composure. ‘Why do you think I flew over here? What do you imagine I meant when I told you that my plans had changed? I heard his voice in the background when I spoke to you earlier on the phone and, sure enough, I get here and what do I find? A man leaving this house. Cool as a cucumber! And you acting as though nothing’s happened! Well, it won’t do! You’re going to move in with me and that’s the end of it!’
‘Are you jealous, Gabriel?’ Rose couldn’t squash an excited flutter of hope. If he was jealous, surely that meant that he felt more for her than lust, which would pass, and a sense of duty?
‘Should I be? I come here, I see a strange man leaving your house late at night…Tell me, should I be? Furthermore, I notice you still haven’t told me who the hell he is! No need. I can guess! What’s-his-name off the business course! Am I right?’ He looked away from her and tried not to imagine the worst. Somewhere inside, he knew that his fears were groundless but, like a leaf caught up in a storm, he was incapable of anchoring himself. ‘I hadn’t realised that you two were still in contact.’
‘We’re not.’
‘No? The figure leaving the house was really just a figment of my imagination?’
