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‘You’re welcome to visit any ti if, in a roundabout, devious way, she was being accused of being a jealous, possessive wife likely to resent and distrust any female friend of her husband’s

‘Oh, that wouldn’t do Angel wouldn’t allow that,’ Roula declared ‘He wouldn’t consider that appropriate in the circueh he never justifies his lifestyle, he’s like most men: keen to avoid conflict’

Merry’s eyes had steadily widened throughout that speech as she struggled to work out what the other woement?’ she heard herself ask baldly ‘I’ to’

Roula Paulides settled cynically ael’s mistress I have been for years’

For a split second, Merry didn’t believe that she had heard that announce her brain into incredulous inactivity, leaving her staring back at her companion in blank disbelief

Roula lifted and dropped a thin shoulder in acknowledgement ‘It’s how he lives and I have never been able to refuse Angel anything If you and I can reach an accommodation that we can both live with, all our lives will run much more smoothly I’m not the jealous type and I hope you aren’t either’

Merry sucked in a shuddering breath ‘Let ht You ca with my husband?’

‘Oh, not recently Angel has no need of ht noith a neife in his bed,’ the Greek woer a novelty, he will return to one in his life I accept that I’ve always accepted that and if you are wise and wish to remain his wife you will accept it too You can’t own hie him’

Merry looked beyond Roula, unnerved by the sudden throbbing intensity of her low-pitched voice and the brash, hard confidence hich she spoke, the suggestion that she knew Angel better than anyone else On the hill above the village sat the Paulides hoel had casually identified as being where Roula lived Shock inging through Merry in giddy waves of increasingly desperate denial, her fingers curling into defensive claws on her lap It couldn’t be true, it couldn’t possibly be true that Angel had soement with the other woman that he had remained silent about

‘You seem shocked, but why? We were childhood friends and have always been very close We understand each other very well,’ Roula told her calmly ‘In the sael would inevitably end upyou He doesn’t love you any hter I’m here now only to assure you that I will never try to interfere in your e in any way and that I hope you will not be spiteful and try to prevent Angel fro me’

Merry sed hard at that unlikely hope ‘What’s in this weird arrangement for you?’ she asked bluntly

Roula vented a laugh and tossed her head ‘I have a share of hi to settle for that I’ve loved hiirl He rescued my father from bankruptcy and financed the set-up of er I hoped that he would eventually see me as a possible wife, but of course that hasn’t happened Marrying the enes’

Nausea stirred in Merry’s tu on it was a challenge Roula ed to el, unashamedly did what it took to hold onto her s that there would be other women and eventually a wife she would have to share him with

But such acceptance was nowhere within Merry’s grasp She was an all-or-nothing person She had told Angel before she agreed to marry him that he could have no other women in his life and that she expected coreed to that boundary Had he lied? Had he expected her to change herto be so discreet that she never found out that he sometimes slept with Roula Paulides?