LITMIR.BIZ

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design and your money behind it, such a place could be a celebrity magnet. He hired architects years ago, trying to persuade your cousin that it wouldn’t intrude on his privacy. One of those architects left his plans in a local cab and the driver had them broadcast all over the country in minutes. It came to nothing, though. Your cousin wouldn’t have seen anything in it for him, and that was all that interested him. Now, your head...’

      ‘So he urgently wants the underground closed off because...’

      ‘It wouldn’t do to let it get out that the proposed idyllic retreat can be broached by twelve-year-olds.’ He was right by her bed now, too close for comfort, but then anywhere in this tiny room was too close for comfort. ‘Your head, Anna. I’m here to examine you, not talk about plans that have nothing to do with me.’

      That shut her up.

      He checked her head, not disturbing the dressing over the gash but simply noting the extent of bruising. He checked her eyes, her vision, and then retreated to the end of the bed to read the obs chart. Time for discussion was over.

      ‘Headache?’ he asked as he finished reading.

      ‘Only when I laugh, and when you’re here I find it difficult to even smile.’

      He didn’t respond.

      ‘Any dizziness?’

      ‘When I stand up fast but that’s to be expected.’

      He nodded. ‘Take it easy for a few days, then. Do what Victoir suggests. Go lie in your castle and enjoy your view.’

      Oh, enough. She pushed herself to her feet and glared. ‘That’s mean. What have I ever done to you, Leo Aretino, to make you act like I’m something the cat dragged in?’

      ‘That’s an exaggeration.’

      ‘It’s not. What have I done?’

      ‘You haven’t done anything.’

      ‘Once upon a time you asked me to marry you.’

      ‘That was a long time ago.’ He closed his eyes—remembering?—and when he opened them there was a hint of softness there. Regret? ‘We all do stupid things when we’re young. Proposing to someone you barely know might count as one of them.’

      ‘You did know me, though. You slept with me for—’

      ‘I don’t want to go there. It’s history.’

      ‘Which is affecting how you’re treating me right now.’

      ‘I’d be treating you the same if we hadn’t slept together.’

      ‘That’s a lie and you know it. I watched you train as a doctor. I’ve seen you with patients. You’re caring and kind, and last night you couldn’t stop yourself moving in for a hug. Now I’m not going to be a patient any more, you’re back to cold and sarcastic and all the things you suddenly became the moment you learned who my mother was.’

      ‘Anna...’

      ‘You owe it to me, Leo,’ she said, calmly now. ‘It’s a question that’s hung over me for years. I know I should have put it aside, but I’ve never understood. I suspect I’ll be spending a bit of time here now, not only in your country but in this town. We may well meet again.’ She took a deep breath, because what she was about to say was a concept so big she was having trouble getting her head around it. ‘I may even be the one who decides on funding for this hospital.’

      ‘Are you blackmailing me?’ He was suddenly incredulous. ‘What are you saying? Tell me why I didn’t marry you or you’ll cut off our funding?’

      Whoa. It was her turn to be angry now.

      She’d been confused about Leo for years. They’d had a glorious six months and then nothing. She’d felt hurt, betrayed, sick at heart, but he wouldn’t talk of it. For what had remained of their training, he’d avoided any tutorial she was in. They’d been scrupulously polite when they’d been forced together.

      She’d hurt every time she’d looked at him.

      She’d been a kid, though, and those feelings should have long gone. She was now an experienced doctor in charge of her world—mostly—and there was no way she was letting this man insult her. Her anger was holding sway but she had herself in hand.

      ‘Do you think I’d do that? Blackmail?’ Her voice was so quiet that maybe only her dogs would have understood. It was the voice she used when she’d found them with a cornered, injured hedgehog.

      Just before they’d decided never to annoy a hedgehog again.

      ‘It’s nothing to do with me, what you do,’ Leo snapped.

      ‘If I cut off your hospital funding, of course it’s something to do with you.’ She was having trouble getting the words out. ‘You really think I would?’

      ‘It’s your right. Heaven knows, we’ve had to fight for what we have. You know you own this building? As landlord—’

      ‘You think I’d close you down?’

      ‘You’re a Castlavaran.’

      ‘So you think ruthlessness is genetic. It’s like the name comes with a money-sucking piggy bank welded to my head.’

      ‘I know the terms of your inheritance,’ he said wearily. ‘Of your Trust. You have no choice. Money goes into castle maintenance or your comfort. Our funding’s limited to providing provisional medical care for Castlavarans and castle staff. We stretch that as far as we can, to provide for the rest of the island. The Trust’s been in place for hundreds of years, written into the fabric of our constitution. You think we don’t know that you can’t break it?’

      ‘I know I can’t break it but I’m not about to change things. Your hospital is safe.’

      ‘That’s great. Thanks very much.’

      ‘Stop the sarcasm.’ She was getting very close to yelling. ‘So I’m not threatening your hospital but there’s still so much I don’t understand. Ten years ago... Isn’t it about time you told me why you wouldn’t marry me?’

      The junior nurse who’d helped her shower appeared at the door. Her eyebrows hit her hairline.

      She disappeared, really, really fast.

      Uh-oh.

      Anna had spent enough time in hospitals to know what she’d just said would be all over the hospital—all over the country!—in minutes. Hospital grapevines were the same the world over.

      Maybe she shouldn’t have said it.

      But, then, this guy had hurt her. Badly. For ten years she’d needed an explanation and right now she felt strong enough—and angry enough—to demand it.

      ‘I told you why I couldn’t marry you.’ He raked his fingers through his dark hair, a gesture she remembered. A gesture she could almost feel. She knew what it was like to have those fingers...

      Don’t go there.

      ‘You said there were family problems,’ she threw at him. ‘You said you could never marry a Castlavaran. You said if you did then you couldn’t come home.’

      ‘Which was the truth.’

      ‘And I said if the feud’s that bad then we could leave, go to Australia or Canada. I was ready to go anywhere with you, Leo. But you walked away.’

      ‘I walked back here. To a country that needed me.’

      ‘So you couldn’t face family hostility. You chose your family over me.’

      ‘I chose my country over you. I still do.’

      ‘What, like I’m still available?’

      ‘I never said that. I never meant—’

      ‘I don’t

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