The Purest of Diamonds? by Susan Stephens Page A

of us,’ he said as they waited for the lift to arrive. ‘I almost threw my first diamond away— After you.’ He stood back as the doors slid open. He stabbed the lift button and they soared upwards. ‘My father, who wasn’t noted for his tolerance, brought a particularly big stone back from India. I didn’t know the value of this dull-looking rock and kept it in my bedroom for over a week before he found it.’
    She laughed, but it sounded forced. She would rather have been talking about the subject closest to her heart, until Raffa said, ‘My father was always mad with one child or another.’ His eyes narrowed as he thought back, remembering. ‘We children hadn’t been factored into his life plan. We were more of an inconvenience to him than anything else. An inconvenient consequence of his own reckless actions—’
    Her heart shrank as she listened to him. They’d both been reckless, but if she had anything to do with it their baby would be anything but an inconvenient consequence. It would be a much-loved child.
    ‘My family isn’t close like yours is, Leila,’ he went on. ‘I don’t have a great role model to look back on, hence no wife, no children and no intention on my part of ever changing the status quo.’
    ‘So you don’t want children?’ Her question echoed in the small steel cab.
    ‘No. I don’t,’ Raffa said flatly. ‘I’ve told you things I haven’t told anyone before,’ Raffa admitted wryly as they walked outside into the brilliant sunshine. ‘Must be your honest face.’
    ‘I’ll respect your confidence.’ Her stomach churned at the thought of her less than honest relationship with Raffa.
    ‘I’m sure you will. And I apologise if I sounded short down there. I didn’t mean to.’
    ‘The past kicks back sometimes. Raffa, there’s—’
    He broke off to speak to one of the technicians walking across the car park. They were all coming out for lunch now, and when he turned back to her the moment had gone.
    ‘I trust you, Leila Skavanga. I can’t say that about many people.’
    This was getting worse by the moment. ‘I trust you too,’ she said on a dry throat, only wishing she could turn the clock back and blurt out the truth about their baby the moment she walked down the steps of the aircraft.
    ‘Let’s get back,’ he said. ‘I’m hungry, aren’t you?’
    ‘Starving.’
    ‘Then I have to get back to my building work. I hope you’ve learned enough this morning to keep you busy planning.’
    ‘Absolutely,’ she confirmed. Raffa telling her about his past had explained so much about him. He was obsessive about his work at the castle, the ruin he was rebuilding brick by brick, perhaps as an exercise in pushing the memories of his crumbling childhood behind him. This was not the time to raise the subject of a child, however much it would be loved, that was going to be born as the result of yet another reckless coupling.
    ‘We’ve got a fair moving into the grounds of the castle tomorrow,’ he revealed as they approached the Jeep. ‘I’ll be up early sorting that out—so have breakfast without me.’
    ‘Don’t worry about me,’ she said as he opened the door for her. ‘I can entertain myself. Is the fair part of your plan to open more of the castle to the public?’
    ‘That’s right,’ Raffa said as he swung into the driver’s seat beside her.
    This was better than being at daggers drawn with him. She would find a way to tell Raffa about the baby, but it would be a way that wouldn’t pour more acid on the wounds he’d brought with him from his past. Perhaps friendship was the only way forward for them, she thought wistfully, flashing a glance across, but, as she’d always been wary of expecting too much out of life, wasn’t it better to settle for less and be contented?
    * * *
    She woke the next morning feeling warm inside. The baby made her feel this way. Nothing could dilute her joy, not even the guilt inside her. She could already picture the