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He’d tried to hold her hand, but she’d pulled it away He’d tried again—reached out to touch her stomach—but she’d literally flinched

He’d tried to jolly her along after the consultant had left the rooht in a trance And unable and unwilling to jump out of it

They’d travelled back to the penthouse in a silence punctuated only by the business calls he’d had to take—calls he’d been able to do nothing about, stoking the fla the eain after the weekend How could he not? And as he’d done so he had felt heraway from him in a blizzard, sed up into another world, hidden froht, muffled, unreachable

He’d insisted on the scan the ht it would bring the He’d assumed she’d move in with hiot back they were still working on that She wanted to stay independent, living in her little flat until they left to be h that was only in two days’ time

So all he could do ait And plan And hope that in these moments when the enor in a scruht be crushed, as if with one wrong o—all he could do was pray Because he’d never have the energy to fight like this again There would never be another chance, when everything was laid out for him It was now or never

They were going straight froe, the beautiful old rounds in the north of London, where the youngest British Ballet dancers boarded and attended lessons—to the airport, and then on to be married in private in Rome

There would be a few guests—his closest friends, as well as his mother and David Ruby hadn’t wanted to invite anyone, and nothing he’d done to try and persuade her to talk about her father or contact her mother had succeeded

It was a strange relationship, he had to admit They seemed to be as distant and he and his own e How could he? As long as Ruby and the baby were OK, his o round

He turned froht his eye This tiirls He watched the bodies He probably hadn’t looked much different himself once

‘Matteo!’

He looked round at the sound of her voice and there she was And, God help him, even at thirty paces he could feel the punch of that smile like a squeeze on his heart Because now he could read it He could see that it wasn’t full and free It was a shter and better and bolder than anyone he had everhiding behind it

But when she really smiled—when he ot all about her troubles and he saho she really was—that hen he felt as if he had pulled her back froht her indoors, set her by the fire And he’d watch as the roses bloomed in her cheeks and the sparkle shone from her eyes

‘Hi,’ he said, striding over the grass towards her, never taking his eyes fro down at him

She opened her arracefully, hypnotically ‘Beautiful day,’ she said, indicating the grounds

‘Even ht up to her and putting his ar the way she melded into hiether like two halves of a whole He placed a kiss on her cheek, and then on the other, and then, because he wanted more and he didn’t care who saw, he took one from her lips

She smiled ‘I have a reputation to maintain here, you know’

‘I know,’ he said, tucking her under his ar them down the steps ‘Hoere your classes today?’