The Stephanides Pregnancy

CHAPTER TEN

IN THIRTY minutes, the private jet would be landing on Greek soil.

Betsy went off to tidy herself. She wondered if her black shift dress and jacket looked a little funereal. She had put her hair up in an effort to look cool and restrained and now she decided it made her look plain. Cristos might not want her back, but she didn't fancy the idea of him looking at her and wondering what he had ever seen in her.

For the whole month, she had stayed at Ashstead, the Stephanides country house in Devon. The first week she had done nothing but cry and sleep. At the start of the second week she had dutifully gone to London to visit her family, accept their commiserations over her miscarriage and admire Gemma's engagement ring. When she returned to Devon, she began going out for long country walks. Her appetite came back and a sparkle returned to her eyes. Patras came to stay for two days and, although she had to ban him from trying to behave like a heavy-handed marriage guidance counselor, she really enjoyed his company and absolutely adored all the stories he told her about Cristos as a boy. By the end of the fourth week, when Cristos had his PA call her to relay her travel arrangements, she was feeling thoroughly rested.

But while she had come to terms with her grief, she found it quite impossible to come to terms with the prospect of losing Cristos. Even worse the, concept of surrendering Cristos to Petrina, who she was convinced was wholly undeserving of him, kept her awake at night. She missed him every hour of every day. A hundred times over, she almost lifted the phone to ring him just to hear the sound of his voice. Only the question of how she would explain herself prevented her from succumbing to temptation.

After the jet landed at Athens, Betsy was ferried across the airport to board a helicopter. When the flight winged out across the Aegean Sea she wondered where on earth she was being taken, yet in another sense she didn't care enough to try and ask. If journey’s end meant politely accepting that her marriage was over, she would just as soon remain an eternal traveler. As she'd left London her spirits had been buoyed up by the knowledge that she would soon be seeing Cristos again. Fear of what he would be telling her had plunged her into the downward descent of misery.

So preoccupied was she that when the helicopter landed she scrambled out without the smallest idea of where she was. A few hundred feet away the turquoise sea shimmered in the, late afternoon sunlight and the golden beach bore not a single footprint. Disbelieving the evidence of her own eyes, she discounted the strong sense of recognition that was trying to persuade her that she was back on the island of Mos again. In that mood, she hurried round the helicopter and there, nestling below the headland, sat the little villa with the terracotta roof.

Kicking off her shoes, which were sinking into… the sand, and discarding her jacket, Betsy sped on towards the house. A figure appeared in the doorway and her steps faltered and started to slow. Shock slivered through her: it was Cristos. Sheathed in tailored beige chinos and a black shirt, he looked drop-dead gorgeous. He stayed where he was, waiting for her to come to him. To a woman starved of the sight of him, he was the equivalent of a feast after a famine.

Several feet from him, Betsy froze in her tracks. She was bewildered by the shock of finding herself back on the island and she hated the fact that she'd been taken by surprise. 'What is this set-up? What on earth is going on?'

'You're going to be angry with me,' Cristos imparted.

'Don't tell me what you think I'm going to do… tell me why I would be angry.' Suddenly she stalked forward and pushed past him to peer indoors with suspicious eyes. 'Do you have Petrina in there?' she demanded.

His astonishment was unfeigned. 'Is that a joke?

Petrina wouldn't dream of gracing a place as primitive as this with her presence.'

Still very much on the defensive, Betsy folded her arms. 'I don't think it's primitive but I do think it's extremely tasteless to bring me back here.'

The deafening roar of the helicopter taking off again drowned out all possible exchanges for a couple of minutes. Betsy threw her bright head back and pursed her lush mouth. 'How am I supposed to get back to Athens?'

'You're not…at least not without me,' Cristos informed her. 'I'm afraid you've been kidnapped for the second time in your life.'

'Kidnapped?' Betsy parroted.

'When you and I were last here, things were very simple. 1 thought it would be a good idea to take our marriage back to basics too.'

Betsy could not believe her ears. 'Are you telling me… that you lured me out here with the intention of keeping me on this island against my will?'

Cristos nodded.

Betsy had fallen very still. 'To save our marriage?' 'I appreciate that it would be more ideal if 1 gave.

you a choice, but 1 want the chance to do some tough negotiating and if you can't walk away from the table, it gives me an advantage.'

'True… on the other hand, 1 might not want to walk. away,' Betsy pointed out a little unevenly. 'Hasn't that occurred to you?'

'That's not how you've been behaving. No visits, no phone calls, an enforced separation,' he reminded her bleakly.

Betsy stopped hiding behind her pride. 'I didn't want you to stay with me just because we were marrried.1 wanted to give you the chance to choose… and 1 really did think that you might choose Petrina.'

'Even after all you and 1 have been to each other?' Cristos framed in apparent amazement.

'She told me you loved her-'

'You've met Petrina… but when?' Cristos demanded, taken aback.

Betsy explained about the visit she had received at the hospital.

Cristos swore under his breath in his own language; 'Theos mou…if 1 had known 1 would not have been responsible for my actions. How could she be so cruel? You had only just lost our child. You were vulnerable then.' His clear dark golden eyes were bitterly angry. 'There was no love in my relationship with her-respect, familiarity, and tolerance? perhaps. I thought that that was all there was. I honestly believed I wasn't missing anything… and then I met you.'

And then I met you! Betsy savored that admission, for, if Petrina had only qualified for respect and tolerance, he was making it sound as though Betsy herself had made much more of an impression. He had never loved Petrina. The relief of learning that fact made her feel dizzy. He had set her worst fear to rest.

'Everything got so complicated with you.' Cristos raked long fingers through his cropped black hair. 'You told me you loved Rory. When I saw you toogether at our wedding, I believed you still loved him-'

'No… no!' Words of eager disagreement tumbled from Betsy. She closed her hands over his. 'I grew out of Rory a long time before I even realized it. That's allover and done with-'

Rueful golden eyes flared over her anxious face. 'I was so angry and jealous on our wedding day that I almost· wrecked our marriage before it even began!' 'But you said you believed me when I explained about Rory.'

'Wasn't that also the evening that you gave me multiple-choice answers on that subject?'

At that reminder, Betsy reddened. 'It's been a very long time since I thought I loved him. I was trying to save face. You put me on the spot but you weren't giving me any answers about how you felt about Petrina,' she reminded him. 'I needed reassurance too.'

'Once I knew you were pregnant, I didn't have to think about how I felt about you;' Cristos acknowledged, tugging her gently indoors and out of the strong sunlight that he could see was making her uncomfortable. 'I knew I wanted to marry you. I didn't have a moment's doubt. It was that simple-'

'But it wasn't simple for me,' she protested.

'It was only simple for me because I loved you. I didn't appreciate it then, but that was why marrying you was such a simple decision for me.'

'You love me…' Betsy blinked in bemusement, not certain she was hearing him right. 'When did you decide you loved me?'

'At our wedding. I saw you with Rory and I wanted to rip him apart. But I realized that if I didn't want to lose you, I would have to try and pretend that I hadn't seen anything that bothered me.' His dark eyes momentarily reflected the bleakness of that recollection. 'That was a major challenge, pethi mou. But it was also the moment when I appreciated that there was virtually nothing I would not do to keep you and that I loved you.'

Betsy's eyes were stinging like mad. 'You love me… honestly?'

His slow, devastating smile slashed his darkly handsome features. 'D~ you think I'd kidnap just anybody?'

Betsy surprised both herself and him by bursting into floods of tears.

In consternation, Cristos hauled her into his arms. 'Theos mou… what's wrong? What did I say?'

'You said you loved me… and I've been so miserable the last few weeks and I needn't have been!' she sobbed helplessly.

He bent down and swept her off her feet to carry her into the air-conditioned cool of the bedroom. 'The last month has been hell for me too,' he admitted rawly, 'but I didn't want to be unreasonable and crowd you. I wanted to be with you but you didn't seem to want to be with me-'

'That's not how I felt. But we only got married because I'd fallen pregnant,' Betsy reminded him jaggedly, her breath catching in her throat. 'When I lost the baby, I thought there was no reason for you to want to stay with me any more and that our marriage was over-'

'You crazy woman… how could you have been so blind?' Cristos demanded incredulously. 'We were really happy together. It was insane. I was living through the most stressful time of my entire life at the office and coming home to paradise with you. I've never been so happy in my life…in fact I didn't know it was possible for one person to make such a difference. Yes, it was devastating when you had the miscarriage but we still had each other-'

'But we didn't… I went back to England. You're probably going to find it hard to believe but I love you too!' Betsy gasped apologetically.

Cristos vented a startled laugh and shook his handsome dark head in amazement. 'Patras said no woman could be interested in hearing what a smart-mouthed kid I had been unless she loved me. I didn't believe him.'

'He was right… he had me hanging on his every word. When he came to stay, I was just missing you so much…' Betsy squeezed out tearfully.

'You love me!' Without warning Cristos lifted her up in the air like a doll and spun her round and back against him.

'Oh, that was so cool…' Betsy whispered with immense appreciation, stretching up to frame his face with her spread fingers and survey him with loving pleasure. 'But now I finally believe you're mine.'

His stunning dark golden eyes clung to hers. 'Always, agape mou.'

'So what happened to that.., you weren't looking for me to love you stuff?' Betsy enquired saucily.

'That was my pride talking.'

She wound her arms round his neck and pushed into the hard, muscular heat of his big, powerful body. He answered her encouragement by kissing her breathless. Crushing her to him, he muttered thickly, 'I'd love it if we tried for another baby some time-'

Inspired by a project that had such immediate appeal to her own heart, Betsy leant back from him to say, 'Would right now be too soon?'

The strain etched in his lean, powerful face evaporated. 'I was afraid that I was going to upset you and that maybe you wouldn't want to risk a second pregnancy-'

'We just had bad luck. Oh, I do wish that you'd told me how you felt when I was in hospital,' Betsy admitted unsteadily, her emotions very close to the surface.

'That I'd like us to try again? One of my female cousins warned me on no account to mention anything like that in case you felt I wasn't showing proper respect for the child we had just lost,' Cristos confided in a taut undertone. 'I didn't want to risk hurting you.'

'I wouldn't have felt like that… I was just desperate for some sign from you that you still saw us and our marriage as having a future,' Betsy explained. "-

'Our future is together, pethi mou. I went through hell when you went back to England,' Cristos admitted raggedly, gazing down at her with adoring intensity. 'Never again do 1 want to go· through the agony of wondering if I've lost you-'

'From now on, you won't have that worry,' Betsy assured him with sunny good humor and newly learned confidence. 'You won't even get time off for good behavior.'

Cristos threw back his handsome dark head and laughed with true appreciation. 'I love you,' he intoned then with smouldering intensity and she dragged him down to her and found his sensual mouth for herself.

Almost a year later, Betsy gave birth to their daughter, Karisa. Karisa was followed eighteen months afterwards by the arrival of a son, Darian.

Overjoyed with his two great-grandchildren, Patras Stephanides bought the island of Mos and gave it to Cristos and Betsy to mark their fourth wedding anniversary.