LITMIR.BIZ

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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 have a clue what you meant. You never explained. You just closed down.’ She sighed. ‘Enough. I’m over it or at least I should be. Falling in love with a toe-rag when I was a kid hasn’t defined my life and it won’t define me now. Neither will this inheritance. I have a lovely life back in England. I’ll do what I need to do and go home and let you get on with it.’

      ‘And let Victoir have his way.’

      ‘He’s head of the entire castle administration. You think I have any way of figuring out any better plan?’

      ‘You could try.’

      ‘And walk away from my life in England?’ She shook her head and the dressing felt suddenly very heavy. ‘Why would I do that? You were asked to change your life when you were nineteen and you made it clear that was impossible. Why should I even contemplate doing the same?’

      So that went well.

      Or not.

      Leo left Anna’s ward and stood in the corridor, staring at the plain, whitewashed wall in front of him.

      Memories of ten years ago were all around him. Of Anna’s white, shocked face as he’d told her he couldn’t marry her. Of her reaction of total betrayal.

      But how could he have done better? How could he have explained the contempt and hatred that was felt toward her family? As soon as he’d found out who she was, he’d felt his own dumb adolescent heart break. How to explain that his studies, his time in England, his hopes for his future and the trust his people had put in him, they’d all be destroyed if their relationship went further.

      Ten years ago he’d faced a bleak choice. Marry Anna and take her back to Tovahna? Impossible. If her uncle accepted her as part of the family she—and he—would have been incorporated into a family he hated. The community who’d scraped to give him an education would have been betrayed.

      And being honest, he had to accept there’d been another problem that had been bone deep. He and his mother had been dependent on charity since his father had died. To marry a Castlavaran and take her home, for her to be accepted as part of the Castlavaran family, and for him to be married to her… It’d be the story of Cinderella turned on its head, and at nineteen, sexist as it was, the idea had made him feel ill.

      He’d tried to think of other options. Moving overseas, anywhere where two doctors could make a living without baggage? Cutting all ties to her family and to his island?

      He couldn’t do it. As soon as he’d heard her name he’d known he had to turn away.

      So now… She was still angry? Maybe she had the right to be.

      As he’d grown older he’d realised he should have explained better, but at nineteen, bewildered by the complexity of a love he’d been subsumed by, he’d hardly been able to get words out. To explain to his carefree, joyous Anna the abject poverty of his country, the hurt her family had inflicted on his… Explanations would have achieve nothing, he’d decided. It was better to walk away fast.

      ‘Leo, I said you should charm the Castlavaran. I didn’t say propose!’ Carla’s voice from the end of the corridor made him start. It was incredulous.

      ‘What?’

      ‘Luisa said she heard you talking about marriage!’

      What the…? ‘She was mistaken.’ He turned to face her, willing his expression to be bland.

      ‘She was sure.’

      ‘We spoke in English. How’s Luisa’s English?’

      ‘Poor,’ she admitted. ‘But she was adamant marriage was in the mix somewhere. She said you sounded intense. If not marriage… You weren’t being accusatory, were you?’

      ‘I wasn’t.’ He sighed and decided to be honest. ‘We do have…baggage. Anna and I met at med school when I didn’t know who she was. We were in the same class for six months. I haven’t heard of her for years.’

      ‘And

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