Page 29 (1/2)

For once Drax was too caught up in his own feelings to notice Vere’s deliberate emotional withdrawal from him

‘The Minister of State wishes to remind us that it is the anniversary of the creation of our country as an independent state next week’ Vere’s clipped voice broke the heavy tension of their shared silence ‘He has ements for the normal celebratory visit to the Oasis of the Two Doves I take it you will be going?’

‘Yes’ Drax’s voice was as terse as Vere’s

‘And Sadie will also be attending, I hope?’

Just hearing his twin say Sadie’s naut

‘If that is your wish,’ Drax replied woodenly

‘Given the circumstances, it certainly seems appropriate to me that she should be there,’ Vere told hi hi him out like this? Or was it that he simply didn’t care? Vere had never felt more isolated and alone ‘Indeed, I don’t think it merely appropriate, I consider it very necessary that she should be a recognised part of the Royal party,’ he added

‘If you say so,’ Drax agreed curtly

‘I do’

They were al out—and over a woman Not just a woman, Drax told hiive up Hoas he going to bear it? And Sadie? What of her feelings? She had, after all, given hi to be loved and to give her love in return If she could love him after the way he had initially behaved towards her then surely she could and would love Vere? Would she close her eyes in Vere’s bed and think of hi to life fully formed inside his head shocked him He must not allow them to take root there He must put Vere first He must!

Sadie looked uncertainly towards Drax It hadn’t been until the early hours of thethat he would coh it was now , she was heavy-eyed with lack of sleep and the weight of a growing certainty that so

For a start, Drax was ignoring all her desperate atte, the only contact of any kind she had had with him since he had told her he loved her had been the arrival of theto tell her that she was to be forly Nothing else Not a word nor a gesture Nothing

She couldn’t remember a time when she had felt more emotionally insecure and abandoned, Sadie admitted She actually felt worse than she had done when her parents had divorced In the space of a few hours she had gone froine her life being anyso insecure and anxious that it was hard for her to believe that Drax had actually told her he loved her Even worse, she was beginning to find it all too easy to iretting whatever it was that had driven him to desire her If he did love her, as he had claimed, then as far as she was concerned there was no way he wouldn’t have made at least some effort to make sure that she knew he meant what he had said If he did love her then surely he would want to let her knoher?

Was he behaving like this because he was afraid that his twin ht not approve of their relationship? Sadie frowned She didn’t want to think of thesomeone who needed to have the approval of so to be logical, and to accept that Drax and Vere were twins and that twins had a special relationship Which hy she was here right noearing the cream suit Drax had told her he wanted her to wear for her first ly towards Drax, but he still wasn’t looking at her Deliberately?

His twin, on the other hand, washer silently, his expression withdrawn and austere