PAGAN ADVERSARY Read Online Free PDF Page A

Damn you!
    There was a silence. She had begun to shake again inside, and she
    gulped at the transient comfort the hot coffee gave her, although in
    terms of Dutch courage she might have done better to opt for the
    sherry, she thought.
    He said at last, 'Miss Masters—if this unhappy business between us
    were to become a legal battle— what do you imagine a judge would
    say about the circumstances in which you are trying to raise my
    nephew?'
    Harrier did not meet his gaze. 'I believe—I hope that he would say I
    was doing my best,' she said wearily.
    'I do not doubt that for a moment. But is that what you truly want—a
    battle in the courts—to make Nicos the subject of gossip and
    speculation and lurid newspaper stories?'
    'I'd have thought you would be used to such things.'
    'But I am not the subject under discussion,' he said too softly. 'We are
    speaking of a two-year-old child, who may one day be embarrassed
    and emotionally torn by our past battles.'
    She gave him an incredulous glance. 'That's blackmail!'
    He shrugged. 'I would prefer to describe it as a valid possibility. He is
    already old enough to sense conflict and be disturbed by it.'
    'And therefore I should just be prepared to hand him over,' Harriet
    said bitterly. 'I think not, Mr Marcos. Doesn't it occur to you that
    Nicky might one day wonder why I let him go so easily, and be hurt
    by it? You're not denying that you intend to separate us permanently?'
    'No,' he said. 'That has always been my intention.'
    'At least we understand each other,' she said huskily. 'I refuse to let
    Nicky go under such circumstances.'
    'What are you hoping for?' His voice was suddenly harsh. 'A place
    under my roof for yourself? A more generous financial offer than the
    one already made? If so, you will be disappointed.'
    'I want nothing from you,' Harriet said vehemently. 'The fact that
    we've even met is your doing, not mine.'
    He gave her a weary look. 'Why are you being so stubborn? You are
    scarcely more than a child yourself. You cannot wish to bear such a
    burden unaided for perhaps twenty years longer.'
    Put like that, it sounded daunting, but Harriet had always faced up to
    what her responsibilities to Nicky would entail.
    'I might ask you the same thing,' she countered. 'All this time you
    haven't displayed the slightest interest in Nicky. We could both have
    starved or been homeless for all you knew. Yet now you want
    him—why?'
    'Because it is my duty to care for him,' he said. 'Kostas would have
    expected it, whatever the .relations were between us. The child is of
    my blood.'
    'And mine.'
    'Nevertheless,' he said, 'if Kostas had wished you to have charge of
    the boy, he would have left a document—a will, even a letter saying
    so. Yet he did not—is it not so?'
    Harriet finished her coffee and put the mug down. 'No, there was
    nothing,' she said after a pause. 'They were so young—too young to
    be thinking about wills— anything of that kind.'Alex Marcos' mouth
    twisted. 'When one has responsibilities Thespinis Masters, one is
    never too young, and it is never too soon to make provision for the
    future. Kostas knew, in fact, that if the worst happened, I would take
    charge of Nicos. He was always happy to shelve his responsibilities.'
    Harriet was uneasily aware that her own solicitor had deplored the
    absence of a will, but she had been too fond of her late brother-in-law
    to meekly hear him criticised.
    'Kostas was too busy being happy and making my sister happy to
    worry about the worst happening. He was a warm, loving man, so
    what does it matter if he wasn't perhaps the greatest businessman in
    the world?'
    'If he had stayed with the Marcos Corporation, then it might have
    mattered a great deal,' Alex Marcos said coldly. 'But we stray towards
    matters that do not concern you. You will do well to reflect, Miss
    Masters. At the moment, you claim that Nicky has your whole heart.
    That is—commendable. But with the money I have offered you, you
    could buy