The Dutiful Wife by Penny Jordan Read Free Book Online Page A

their need and love for one another in the most intimate way possible. Perhaps it was their mutual lack of physical affection from their parents that meant that the physical intimacy they shared was so very special to them, so cherished by them. Saul didn’t know. He only knew that to hold Giselle in his arms was to want to go on holding her.
    ‘I have to, Giselle,’ was all he could say to her. ‘I didn’t want to at first—everything you’ve said, I felt too. But perhaps there is more to my ancestry than I’ve ever previously allowed for. Aldo was right; it is my duty to do the best I can for the people of this country.’
    With every word Saul spoke Giselle’s heart sank further and her panic increased—until she felt that her fear was threatening to choke her.
    ‘I can see that I’ve shocked you,’ Saul admitted. ‘But please, darling, try to think how much we can do here together, how much we can improve the lot of the people. Please try to understand that this is where my duty lies, where our future together lies.’
    ‘What about your duty to me? To us? You say you promised Aldo you would take his place, but what about your promise to me before we got married? What you’re going to do changes everything between us. It threatens everything that matters most to me and all that I believed mattered most to you as well.’
    ‘Oh, sweetheart.’ Saul was remorseful as he heard the anxiety in her voice, guessing that what was worrying her was the personal freedom she felt they would lose to their shared royal duty. Saul had no intention of allowing that to happen. ‘My taking Aldo’s place here doesn’t affect us or our relationship. I would never allow anything to do that,’ he assured her. ‘I know that this change in our plans must seem daunting, but we shall still be us, Giselle. Our love for one another won’t change. I would never let it.’
    Giselle’s reaction to his news was not the one he had hoped for, Saul admitted, but he wasn’t going to let her antagonism towards it come between them. As a successful businessman he knew that sometimes plans had to be changed at a moment’s notice, and that in order to survive in a modern and highly competitive business market a person needed to adapt, to see opportunities and not problems, and to change any problems into opportunities. He had believed that Giselle shared that mindset, but now her refusal to take on board the opportunities for the greater good that lay in this change in their circumstances was creating a barrier between them, and Giselle, with her angry accusations, seemed determined to enforce it. He was a man who was usedto taking control and exercising that control—and he was determined to do that now.
    ‘This isn’t helping either of us,’ he told her firmly. ‘I accept that I made an error of judgement in believing that you had already guessed what had happened and were with me in this change to our lives and the way forward. I should have checked that I was right instead of simply assuming I was. I acknowledge that you’ve every right to be angry with me about that, but accusing me of not considering our relationship—our marriage—and not putting it first is neither fair nor honest. Nothing about what we share has changed or can be changed by outside circumstances. Only you and I have the power to do that.
    ‘Think about it. Giselle,’ he pleaded with her, getting up and coming towards her. ‘Think about how much good we could do here together, working for the people. Think about how fate brought us together—two people who shared the damage done to them by the deaths of their parents and all that went with that—and ask yourself if fate isn’t once again at work here, bringing us both together again to a place and a time where we can do so much for people who have so little. You of all people can surely understand the sense of responsibility I feel towards these people through my blood? I admit that I did not feel