Bittersweet Love - Cathy Williams [66]
‘Are you sure?’ The registrar looked around his little audience. ‘No more surprises?’ He glanced at Claire. ‘Surely an outburst is due from your corner?’
Claire grinned, her composure back in place. ‘None that I can think of, sir.’
The registrar mumbled something under his breath that didn’t sound terribly amused, and then launched into his little speech, which he knew off pat.
As far as Natalie was concerned, it all went in one ear and out of the other. She was simply far too aware of Kane’s presence next to her to pay any attention to what the registrar was saying. He could have been casting spells and she would not have been any the wiser. Did she mean so much to Kane that he would actually have put a stop to her marrying Eric, if that was what she had intended to do?
No, she told herself rationally. He just would not see anything so terribly wrong in doing it because he was convinced that she felt nothing for Eric, and the reason that he felt that way was because he knew the power that he himself had over her.
So don’t start over-reacting, she thought, and just remember that you will never be free to do anything with him anyway, because there’s the baby. Mistakes are made to be learnt from, and there’s nothing romantic about his gesture. At bottom, it’ s probably just selfish after all.
As soon as the short service was over, he hustled her out of the room, ignoring Eric’s piqued question to Natalie as to whether she had forgotten that they were all going to have a bite to eat. Natalie looked over her shoulder helplessly. ‘I’ll join you later,’ she said with a miserable attempt at an apologetic smile, and Kane growled.
‘I wouldn’t bank on it.’
As soon as the door was shut behind him, she wriggled against his grip, finally giving up, and said in a high voice, ‘You can’t do this.’
‘No?’ Kane said softly. ‘And who exactly is going to stop me?’
‘I’ll scream,’ she threatened, and he raised his eyebrows.
‘No, you won’t,’ he said calmly, leading her out into the sunshine. ‘You’re far too curious to find out what all that was about.’
Natalie hated to admit it, but he was right She had no intention of screaming. She allowed herself to be led to where his car had been parked on double yellow lines, and she sat in silence as he pulled away from the kerb, away from the centre of the city.
‘Where are you taking me?’ she asked, and before he could answer she added sarcastically, ‘I don’t suppose it would do any good telling you that I just want to get back to work.’
‘You suppose right.’ His hands were resting loosely on the steering-wheel, and even though his voice was composed enough there was an element there that she couldn’t quite recognise and had never heard before. Or maybe it was just her imagination playing tricks on her.
‘How many more times do I have to tell you to leave me alone?’ she asked, and he didn’t answer. There was an air of tension about him, even though he seemed relaxed enough.
The car cruised out of London, on to the M4, where it picked up speed on the motorway. Natalie looked at the vanishing and comforting crowds of the city with dismay. Where on earth were they heading?
‘Windsor,’ he said, reading her mind and glancing across to her. ‘We need to talk.’
‘Why did you barge into the register office?’
‘That’s one of the things we need to talk about.’ His profile was hard and clean, and she couldn’t glean a thing from it. He only ever revealed what he wanted to be seen, and right now it was very little.
She turned to stare out of the window. Outside the scenery, not particularly charming, flashed past her, and she was only aware that they had reached Windsor when the car turned off the motorway and skilfully manoeuvred the small, picturesque streets, dominated by the castle looming over the town like a benevolent patriarch.
He was, she realised, as involved with his thoughts as she was, and she didn’t know whether that made her feel any better or not.
The car pulled