‘I do?’ Evanthia asked, picking one of the suitcases up.

‘I can do it,’ Alessandra answered with a smile. ‘Thank you for the offer.’

Evanthia started talking, gesturing wildly.

Not having the faintest idea what the housekeeper was saying or what her gestures meant, Alessandra smiled and nodded politely. Eventually Evanthia bustled off after making gestures Alessandra thought might have indicated food.

As soon as she was alone in her room she set about unpacking, hanging her clothes in the empty dressing room.

A dressing room that would only ever contain feminine clothes.

Silly little Alessandra, she thought, folding into drawers the new underwear she’d brought expecting her husband to remove them.

She could wear bloomers and he would neither know nor care.

marriage could be like a small nursery garden that, with some care and attention, might—just might—bloom into something substantial.

Christian could be someone in whom she could trust, not only with her baby but with

taken all those little seedlings and ripped them up, a reminder that he’d never

wedding night? Out of duty? To consummate

He must have made love to her because she was there and he could. She

own lack of sexual experience that

to sleep

just imagining asking that question. The humiliation of

special and fulfilling had been all

a bed with her more than once? She’d shared two nights with him; she should feel special.

doing anything they hadn’t previously agreed. She had to accept things as they were, not as she now wished they

would be like the green land surrounding the villa. Flat and one-dimensional and not a

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