Free The Dutiful Wife by Penny Jordan

meet—together.’
    Giselle nodded her head.
    Together. Surely one of the sweetest words in the English language—even if right now it felt bittersweet to her.

Chapter Five
    I T WAS DARK BY THE time they returned to the city and the palace. The light from the electric flambeaux set into the palace walls bathed the ancient stone in a golden glow that warmed it but also cast deep, dark shadows of hidden places and dangers.
    Light and dark, truth and deceit, love and the loss of that love.
    Giselle almost missed her footing as they climbed the steps to the palace, Saul slightly behind her as he paused to speak with the major-domo. Instantly he was there, his hand on her arm to steady her, and the look he gave her was one of protective caring love.
    She had to tell him. It couldn’t wait any longer.
    In the familiar privacy of their own quarters she stood facing the gently lit courtyard.
    The apartments had their own kitchen, into which Saul had disappeared, returning with two cups of coffee which he put down on the coffee table in front of the matt black leather sofa.
    ‘I want to get started on the reconstruction plans as soon as possible,’ he told her, coming towards her. Hefrowned when Giselle stepped back from him. ‘What is it?’
    ‘There’s something I have to tell you. Something important we need to…to discuss.’
    ‘What?’
    Giselle took a deep breath. ‘Now that you’re stepping into Aldo’s shoes you’re going to need an heir. It will be expected of you that you hand rulership of the country on to a child of your own blood.’
    ‘Well, yes, I dare say it will be,’ Saul agreed carelessly, as though it wasn’t something he had given any thought to. Before she could tell him that she could not be the mother of that heir, he continued, ‘But not yet. You and I have good sound reasons for not wanting to have a child, and those reasons still stand. Right now the country needs so much done to help its people that the reality is that you and I will not have the kind of time to give that we both agree a child needs. Of course we will be based here and not travelling the world as much as we have done, but our time will still be committed to the work that needs to be done. An heir is still a child, and a child needs its parents’ love and attention. We both know that better than most, Giselle.’
    With every word Saul spoke the tight band around her heart loosened a little more. She was being granted a reprieve. Fate was allowing her some precious extra time with Saul. Several years of time, according to what Saul was saying to her, and Giselle had no reason to suspect that he was not being honest.
    Saul looked at Giselle. She looked tired and anxious, so he immediately went to her, refusing to allow her tostep back from him this time as he put his hands on her shoulders. Their bodies were apart, but still close enough for him to smell her scent and remember how it felt to bury his face against her skin and breathe in the scent of her, as if he were taking part of her into himself, renewing the pitcher inside that he needed to keep filled to the brim with closeness to her.
    The intensity of their relationship and what they felt for one another had shocked him initially. Whilst it wasn’t quite true to say that he had been afraid of his own passionate reaction to Giselle when he had first realised he was falling for her, he could certainly admit that he had initially been floored by it—even shocked by it. Wanting to be so completely close to another person hadn’t been the kind of thing he had expected from or for himself. Emotional entanglements of any kind simply hadn’t been ‘him’. His childhood, and what he had perceived as his mother’s rejection of him in favour of the orphaned children she helped in her capacity as aid director for a major charity, had made him wary of allowing anyone close to him, and determined never to allow anyone to breach his emotional defences.
    And then there had