‘No. You know how I feel about the museum and I thought you would be keen for me to get on with the work as we’d planned.’
‘Without telling me first that you were going?’
‘I knew you were busy today, so I was going to tell you tonight.’
‘In bed or out of it?’
‘That’s not fair, Raffa. I was going to tell you as soon as I saw you. It was a last-minute thing—I had no idea your grandmother was going to London, and the connections to Skavanga are excellent from there.’
He was beyond fury, beyond words. He shook his head as he struggled for control. ‘You could at least have done me the courtesy of speaking to me before leaving the island with our unborn child. But then I suppose you’ve got everything you want out of me now, so it’s time for you to go—’
‘No!’ Leila’s face was a mask of outrage as she interrupted him. ‘That’s never been the type of relationship we have. Please be reasonable, Raffa.’
‘Reasonable?’ What place did reason have to play where the birth of his child was concerned? ‘You’re not going anywhere, Leila.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ she said as he moved to bar the door. ‘You can’t stop me leaving. Short of locking me in and making sure I miss that flight, I’m going home tomorrow. It’s time for me to leave. You won’t share your hang-ups with me, so we’ve gone as far as we can. I told you everything, Raffa.’ Looking disappointed in him, she shook her head. ‘And you’ve told me precisely nothing. You want to control everything without giving me any reason for why you must do so—and if I can’t understand you, what chance have we got? I wouldn’t just walk out without saying anything. I was going to thank you before I left—’
‘You were going to thank me?’ he echoed, leaning back against the ancient door. ‘Am I supposed to be grateful for that?’
But everything Leila said was right. He couldn’t open up to anyone, not even Leila, but he had been utterly convinced that she would stay.
‘Raffa, please,’ she said, closing the lid of her suitcase. ‘It’s all arranged. My onward ticket’s booked. It’s not as if I’m disappearing as you and my brother so often do. You know where I am. You can come visit any time you want.’
Leila was dictating terms now? ‘Dios, Leila! You’re having my baby. You can’t just walk out like this.’
‘Were you planning to hold me prisoner on the island until I gave birth?’
The silence hung between them and then she laughed without humour. ‘You were,’ she whispered incredulously.
‘I only want to keep you safe.’
‘There you go again—I don’t understand why this obsession with keeping me safe when I’m just as safe in Skavanga. You can’t micromanage the birth, as if it were a business, Raffa.’
Leila couldn’t know the depth of his fears for her, and as he couldn’t tell her they had reached stalemate.
‘I’m leaving the country, Raffa,’ she stated firmly. ‘But I’ll only be a plane ride away, so please don’t be angry with me.’
‘Am I to suppose my grandmother called you up out of the blue?’