Free The Scorsolini Marriage Bargain by Lucy Monroe Page B

so.”
    The king shrugged, the casually confident movement at odds with his frail appearance. “The surgery has a very high success rate, but there is always a risk in things like this. It will be as God wills.”
    “I don’t believe it is your time.”
    “Neither do I,
cara
, but it would be remiss of me not to settle last minute issues with my heir.”
    Therese
looked to
Claudio
. She did not know why. He was no longer her champion…if he ever had been. Certainly she could not expect any sort of comfort from that direction, but she’d gotten used to relying on him.
    Their eyes met and his dark gaze held…nothing. She blinked and turned her head, unable to deal with that as she all at once realized that while their marriage had not been the love match of the century, there had been intimacy. She recognized it only now that it was gone.
    Always before when their gazes met, she had seen a recognition of herself and her place in his life in his eyes. To see nothing of the kind now made her realize that perhaps there had been more to her marriage than she had thought, but whatever there had been—it was gone now.
    “Go home and rest. I will it,” King
Vincente
said, managing to sound arrogant and in charge even in his weakened state.
    She had no trouble seeing how he had kept news of his heart attack from his sons until he desired it to reach them.
    “I will leave,” she said, knowing he would take the words for acquiescence. But she’d lived enough years around politicians to know how to appear to make a promise without doing anything of the kind.
    She would leave…the hospital room.
    “Good.”
    She leaned down and kissed both his cheeks. “Be well, Papa. For all our sakes.”
    “I will do my best.”
    She forced another smile. “I’m sure you will.”
    She could not make herself meet
Claudio
’s gaze again. “See you later,” she said in his direction and walked from the room.
    She went directly to the waiting room where she knew she would find the others and she sent Tomasso and
Maggie
on their way.
Maggie
was dead on her feet and it didn’t take much persuasion to get Tomasso to leave so his pregnant wife could be put to bed.
    Therese
took up residence in the waiting room, having the small comfort that if King
Vincente
took a turn for the worse, this time she would be on the spot. She curled up on the sofa and watched the television sightlessly as it created a sort of white noise to the background of her unhappy thoughts.
    She woke up to the sound of voices.
Claudio
, his brother
Marcello
, his wife Danette and Flavia were talking in hushed tones as if trying not to wake her.
    Therese
sat up. A suit jacket that had been placed over her like a blanket fell off one shoulder.
Claudio
’s scent and warmth from his coat surrounded her, comforting her when it should do anything but in the current situation. He must have found her here earlier and covered her.
    He turned to face her, even though she’d made no sound. His face was an impenetrable mask. “You did not go back to the palace.”
    “I never said I would.”
    “You said you would leave.”
    “I did.” She looked away from his regard, no more capable of dealing with this new remote
Claudio
than she had been earlier. “The hospital room.”
    “But not the hospital.”
    “No.”
    “Why not?”
    “I wanted to be here in case something else happened.”
    “You knew Papa and I assumed you would leave with Tomasso.”
    She shrugged, dislodging the suit coat further. “I am not responsible for assumptions brought about by two men’s arrogant belief that the rest of the world will fall in with their plans simply because they say so.”
    Flavia chuckled. “That is telling him,
Therese
. Do not let this bossy son of mine believe he rules you completely.”
    “There is no chance of that, Mamacita.”
    Therese
was fairly certain she was the only one who heard the harsh undertone in
Claudio
’s voice, but to her ears it was as loud as if he’d