Mistress of His Revenge (Bought by the Brazilian #1) by Chantelle Shaw Page A

retrospect she knew she should have explained the situation to her brother months ago, but she had spent so many years caring for him after their parents’ divorce and she still felt an instinctive need to try to protect him.
    Ten years ago Cruz had not understood how worried she had felt about leaving her brother in England. He had accused her of wanting to return to her comfortable life at Eversleigh Hall, but, in the end, the arguments about where their baby would be born had been immaterial. Seventeen weeks into her pregnancy she had started to bleed heavily. Cruz’s mother had driven her to the hospital because Cruz had been at work at the mine. By the time he had arrived at her bedside Sabrina had had to tell him that he was no longer going to be a father.
    She had called her baby boy Luiz. A lump formed in her throat. Memories of the miscarriage had become less painful over time, but seeing Cruz again had brought it all back. She had been consumed by grief and guilt that the miscarriage was somehow her fault and had sought refuge at Eversleigh, resuming her role of parent to her brother as a way of helping her through the mourning process. For a long time she had hoped that Cruz would come to her and they would be able to grieve for their child together. But weeks and months had passed and she had not heard from him.
    He had not wanted her once she was no longer carrying his child. He did not want her for herself now, Sabrina thought bitterly. He had made the insulting proposition that she could sell her body to him for the price of the red diamond. But even more insulting—and hurtful, damn it—was his admission that he had only chosen her to be his mistress rather than any of the blonde bimbos who flocked round him because of her breeding. He made her sound like a prize heifer!
    As she passed the portraits hanging in the hall she paused by a painting of the daughter of a previous Earl Bancroft who had lived in the time of the notorious womaniser King Charles II. According to a family story retold through generations, Lady Henrietta had become a mistress of the king in return for him settling the huge debts her father had left when he died, thereby saving Eversleigh Hall from being sold and allowing Henrietta’s younger brother to inherit the earldom and the estate.
    Heaven help her. Perhaps whoredom was in her genes! Sabrina thought wryly.
    Her mind kept on replaying her confrontation with Cruz and she had no appetite for the chicken salad the housekeeper had prepared for her. The TV failed to hold her attention, and she switched it off and went into her studio where she carried out restoration work on Eversleigh Hall’s collection of antique furniture. But the detailed work of applying gold leaf to a Georgian cabinet that she had spent weeks restoring seemed a waste of time when there was a strong chance that the cabinet would have to be sold with the house.
    In the library that her father had used as his study she began to search the drawers in the desk for the map Cruz had spoken of. It was unlikely that Earl Bancroft would have put something that he presumably valued highly in such an obvious place, but it had occurred to her that if she could find the map it was possible she could make a deal with Cruz.
    Half an hour later, Sabrina had found nothing of interest apart from a couple more bills that she had been unaware of and that required paying immediately. Lying at the bottom of the last drawer she opened was a photograph of her parents on their wedding day. The cracked glass in the frame summed up her parents’ marriage, she mused. Neither her mother nor father looked happy, but the old earl, Sabrina’s grandfather, had insisted that his grandchild could not be born out of wedlock.
    Her parents must have had a brief spell of marital harmony which had resulted in Tristan being born. But her father had soon grown bored of family life. Deserted by her husband for long periods, Lorna Bancroft had started an