‘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.

preceding weeks she’d allowed herself to believe their marriage could be like a small nursery garden

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

ripped them up, a reminder that he’d never wanted the garden in the first place. He’d put her subtly but firmly in

why had he made love to her on their wedding night? Out of duty? To consummate it and make

to her because she was there and he could. She could have been any

lack of sexual experience that had failed to

he expect them to sleep together again

The

that an experience she’d found so special and fulfilling had been all one-sided. Christian had been going through the

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

and chided herself. Christian wasn’t doing anything they hadn’t previously agreed. She had to accept things as they were,

be like the green land surrounding the villa. Flat and one-dimensional and

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