LITMIR.BIZ

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behind it.

      Then again, he’d taken a lot about Tatiana Beaufort on face value when he’d allowed his parents and her mother to manoeuvre them into an arranged marriage. So it had come as something of a surprise when she’d told him unemotionally on their wedding night that she was aware of its orchestration. She was even aware that he had a mistress, she even knew her name. And he’d had to revise his opinions of his wife further when she’d suggested that a year’s grace for them both might be a good idea. A year, at least, for her to make up her mind whether to make it a real marriage.

      He had agreed and, a year later, was still revising his opinions. Yes, there was something irrepressible about Tatiana Beaufort, there probably always would be, but he’d been wrong about the lack of substance. Just how to quantify it was not so simple, however.

      There was no doubt she’d made the best of this first year of their ‘marriage in name only’ or marriage by contract, as she’d called it. She’d relished the role of mistress of his several homes, breathing life and comfort and colour into them. She’d entertained with charm and originality. She’d travelled extensively with him and given the appearance of being a proper wife to the outside world, and she’d been genuinely interested in the process of cultivating pearls.

      She had also added stature to the Constantin family by means of her charity work. She was a born social worker and she spent a lot of time working unpaid in a legal aid office. The only thing she hadn’t done to date to completely fulfil his parents’ expectations was to present them with a grandchild. Which, of course, was what it had all been about in the first place.

      His parents were deeply family oriented, and it had been a cross to bear that they’d only been able to have one child. Therefore all their hopes rested on him, and they took an abiding interest in every aspect of his life. Occasionally this was claustrophobic and exasperating, but mostly he bore it with equanimity and did his own thing anyway. But when he’d reached thirty and shown no inclination to marry and provide the dynasty with heirs his mother had decided to take matters into her own hands.

      From the first suitable girl she’d paraded in front of him, he’d been quite aware of what was going on. He’d even been slightly amused at her ingenuity. Then he’d grown exasperated by her persistence and gone into evasion mode. But this had hurt her feelings and then two things had happened simultaneously—he’d felt guilty and she’d come up with Tatiana Beaufort, the daughter of an old friend of hers. And there was one aspect of the Beaufort girl that had been impossible to ignore. Her family had been pioneers in the Kimberley district of Western Australia—it was a very old, respected name, and she came with two vast cattle stations.

      Not that he gave a damn about the old, respected name, although he’d known his mother would like nothing better than to add a Beaufort to the Constantin family. But the cattle stations were something else…Between them, should he and Tatiana Beaufort marry, they would own a fair slice of the Kimberley and beef prices were in the process of doubling.

      He’d still had no plans to actually do it, though, until it had become obvious that if his mother was a matchmaker of some skill, Tatiana’s mother, Natalie, was even better. Cool and subtle, she had presented her daughter beautifully, and it was, Alex had decided, rather like sparring with an accomplished business rival. Perhaps, he reasoned, this was why he’d become determined to find out why Natalie Beaufort, whose daughter could have married anyone, had seemed equally determined it should be him.

      And finally she’d put her cards on the table. Tatiana, she felt, had been left extremely vulnerable to fortune-hunters since her father had died. Moreover, before her father had died, she’d led a very sheltered life. He’d been a strict, old-fashioned father, apparently, and the result was that Tatiana, although well-educated and very expensively ‘finished’, had had a mostly convent education with little contact with the real world.

      ‘She could so easily fall into the hands of an unscrupulous man, Alex,’ Natalie had said, and shuddered delicately.

      Reviewing her daughter’s air of breathless anticipation as he had known it at the time, Alex had agreed—although tacitly. ‘What about love, though? I’m sure girls like Tatiana believe in love,’ he’d added with some cynicism.

      Natalie had waved an elegant hand. ‘Is there anyone less wise than a young girl who believes herself in love for the first time?’

      He’d raised his eyebrows and agreed with her again, but this time he’d said, ‘Maybe, but how do you propose to make her think she’s in love with me? In other words, would she agree to an arranged marriage?’

      Natalie had taken her time in answering. She’d looked him over comprehensively, then murmured, ‘If you couldn’t make a young, impressionable girl fall in love with you, Alex Constantin, who could?’

      Alex had met her eyes impassively and she’d laughed softly. ‘Sorry, but I’m sure it’s true. The other thing is, you have your own cattle stations—who would be better placed to take over the running of Beaufort and Carnarvon than you?’

      ‘Mrs Beaufort,’ he’d replied rather grimly, ‘this is your daughter’s future we’re talking about, not a couple of cattle stations.’

      Natalie had shrugged. ‘Your own mother shares my…belief that a well-arranged marriage has as much chance if not more of success than…what else might befall Tatiana.’

      ‘My own mother,’ he’d stated, ‘has been parading a series of girls before me in the hope that I’ll fall in love with one of them.’

      ‘But all of them eminently suitable, I have no doubt.’

      ‘It is still not the same as cold-bloodedly choosing a husband for your daughter,’ he’d retorted.

      ‘Then I’ll tell you this, Alex. Tatiana is already a little in love with you.’

      This had pulled him up short, although he hadn’t allowed Natalie Beaufort to see it. And, as he sometimes did, he’d mentioned the matter to his father. George Constantin had handed the reins of the Constantin empire over to him several years previously but he still liked nothing better than to be consulted. Yet it had come as something of a surprise to Alex to learn that his father was as keen as his mother for him to marry Tatiana Beaufort.

      ‘I didn’t even know you were aware of what was going on,’ he’d told his father with a lurking smile.

      George had shrugged and confessed that he’d left all the details up to his wife, but of all the girls she’d found he had to confess that he thought none could hold a candle to Tatiana. She had looks, she was well-bred, apparently virtuous, and she was young enough to accept a gentle moulding into being a suitable wife. ‘And,’ he’d added, ‘your grandmother actually suggested and campaigned for me to marry your mother—look how well that turned out.’

      ‘It’s a different day and age now.’

      ‘Maybe.’ George had studied him keenly. ‘But would I be wrong in assuming that since Flora Simpson returned to her husband marriage has not been on your agenda?’

      Alex hadn’t replied and George had gone on. ‘Your mother and I aren’t getting any younger, Alex. We’d given up hope of having children and thought we were past it when you came along. I think nothing means so much to your mother than to see you happy and with a family. Me too. And, if love has…disappointed you, maybe this is the best way. But the decision has to be yours, of course.’

      Alex had glanced at him wryly and thought of telling him that due to his connivance he, Alex, now had a breathless girl a little in love with him, he was being pursued by the queen of all matchmakers and he was actually cherishing unworthy thoughts for a man of integrity—Beaufort and Carnarvon to be precise, to add to the Constantin empire.

      But it was only human nature, he had assured himself, to wonder what would happen to Beaufort and Carnarvon if they were left to the mercy of a twenty-year-old girl with a mother who had a reputation of having only one use for money and that was to spend it—perhaps that was why they hadn’t been left to her in the first place?

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