The Purest of Diamonds(61)

                ‘Get home fast?’ he suggested.

                ‘Why not here?’ she challenged, glancing around.

                ‘Because everyone will be pouring out of work soon, and I don’t want to frighten them.’

                ‘Here in the shadows quickly?’ She was looking over her shoulder at a handy covey of trees.

                ‘Better still, in the car quickly. I love an element of danger, don’t you?’

                ‘Yes, I do,’ Leila agreed with her mouth very close to his lips. ‘It’s far more exciting.’

                ‘And you’re the quiet sister?’

                ‘That’s what they call me.’

                ‘Then they are mistaken.’

                ‘Thank goodness for that,’ she said, shooting him a wicked look as she climbed into the car.

                He followed and knelt in the footwell, pulling Leila forward to the very edge of the seat.

                * * *

                The next week was highly charged at night, and hectic by day. They shared bed, bath and every available surface in his apartment at the castle, while in their working hours he took Leila through each department in turn so she could understand the process of turning polished gems into priceless works of art. She was an able student on both sides of the divide, and inevitably they grew even closer, sharing humour, facts and preferences, and learning more about each other every day. He was confident she’d stay on. Why would she leave the island when she had everything she could possibly need right here?

                He was feeling upbeat when he went to collect Leila for supper, and when he knocked on the door of her turret room, she called, ‘Come in...’

                ‘What the hell?’ There had been nothing in her voice to give him the slightest clue that he would find her packing a suitcase.

                ‘Your grandmother rang to say she was taking the jet to London tomorrow,’ Leila explained cheerfully, shaking out a dress. ‘She asked if I’d like to hitch a lift with her.’

                ‘She did what?’ he interrupted softly.

                ‘She didn’t tell you?’

                ‘What do you think, Leila?’ Impulsive trips were right up his grandmother’s street, but why had she asked Leila along? And why the hell had Leila accepted her invitation. Why was Leila leaving?

                ‘Why didn’t you tell me? When were you going to tell me, Leila? When you got back to Skavanga?’

                ‘Don’t be angry with me, Raffa. We both knew I couldn’t stay here for ever.’

                ‘That’s news to me.’

                ‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘I always said I’d be going back to Skavanga to have the baby. I never misled you. I told you several times.’

                She had, but he had thought she would come round—that she had come round.

                ‘I need to get back before I’m too far down the road with this pregnancy, so I can start planning the exhibition.’

                ‘The exhibition?’ he echoed with disbelief. ‘Can’t you leave that to someone else?’