LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER SEVEN

      ANOTHER CAR DREW up at the harbour and Winnie waited while the car seat was installed, freezing into stillness as Eros approached her and extended Teddy, who was sleepily snuffling and tear-stained. Her husband’s silence unnerved her as much as the chill in the emerald-green eyes welded to her flushed and discomfited face. Eros turned the sports car and drove off ahead of them, her transport whisking her at a more sedate pace back up to the house on the hill and the reception she had vacated in such a panic. Still half-asleep, Teddy clung to her.

      Emerging from the vehicle, Winnie stilled and bit at the soft underside of her lower lip. ‘What now?’ she whispered unevenly as Eros stalked up to her.

      Eros’s brilliant gaze flashed like a storm warning between lush black lashes. ‘Now we entertain our guests until their departure. Luckily for us, your grandfather is not known for his company manners. That he left early with your sisters will not surprise anyone. You went down to the harbour merely to say goodbye to your family.’

      His icy intonation had scoured every scrap of colour from Winnie’s cheeks. ‘We have to talk.’

      ‘After the wedding,’ Eros traded with sardonic emphasis. ‘I refuse to parade my mistakes in front of an audience.’

      Her teeth clenched so tightly at his ready admission that marrying her had been a mistake that she hurt her gums. Even so, she swallowed hard on an acid retort because, whether she liked it or not, discretion made better sense, particularly when it would protect Teddy from witnessing the conflict between his parents.

      What remained of the afternoon and early evening felt unbearably long and was an unimaginable strain for Winnie. Her jaw ached from smiling and with the amount of effort required to keep Teddy entertained and in a good mood. It felt like a relief to pop her son into a bath after a quick supper and then hand him over to the hovering nanny until it occurred to her that she still had to face Eros.

      For a bridegroom, Eros had contrived to give her a very wide berth since their return to the reception and when one of the guests had expressed surprise at the newly married couple’s failure to take to the dance floor, Eros had smoothly concocted the excuse that his bride was suffering from a recently sprained ankle that was still tender.

      Yes, Winnie was learning all sorts of unwelcome facts about the man she had married, facts that were distinctly unsettling. Eros was outrageously nimble and versatile in a tight corner and a far better dissembler than her grandfather, who had struggled to conceal his hostility throughout the wedding. With Machiavellian cunning, Eros had masked his suspicions yet still contrived to coolly outmanoeuvre the older man. Eros had played them all, she recognised angrily, let her make an absolute fool of herself traipsing down to the harbour while knowing from the outset that as long as he retained physical possession of their son, she was unlikely to leave. Eros had won by using Teddy as a weapon and that infuriated her.

      As she hovered in the doorway of the fully furnished nursery, listening to Teddy’s drowsy little snuffles as he drifted off to sleep, Eros materialised by her side. She hadn’t heard his approach and she flinched back a step.

      ‘Let’s go downstairs,’ he suggested, his tone perfectly pleasant and in no way threatening.

      But Winnie wasn’t hoodwinked because she gazed up into that lean, darkly handsome face and collided with green sea-glass eyes as cool and cutting as ice shards and her tummy turned over sickly as if she were falling from a great height.

      ‘I’ve dismissed the staff for the night,’ Eros volunteered. ‘They’ll clean up tomorrow. The nanny, Agathe, will be staying, however, for Teddy’s benefit.’

      ‘I am capable of looking after my son on my own,’ Winnie framed curtly.

      ‘Are you?’ Eros sounded dubious on that score.

      Determined to retain her temper, Winnie compressed her generous mouth as she traversed the stairs ahead of him.

      ‘After all,’ Eros continued, refined as a polished steel rapier in her wake, ‘you were ready to sacrifice my relationship with Teddy, regardless of how losing his father would affect him.’

      ‘No, I wasn’t. You would still have had access to him whenever you wanted!’ Winnie argued vehemently as she whirled round in the echoing hall, which was far too grand in size and space for comfort.

      His beautiful shapely mouth curled in disagreement. ‘Not if your grandfather had anything to do with it. I think we both know that Stam had every intention of writing me back out of Teddy’s life!’

      ‘That may be true but I’m Teddy’s parent and I wouldn’t have allowed that to happen,’ Winnie claimed with spirit, too overwrought to stand still and walking restively through the huge reception room ahead, which was still littered with glasses. Indeed with all the debris from the wedding reception, it made her think of a ghost ship abandoned by its crew.

      ‘Thankfully

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