Mail-order Bridegroom Part 80

at all.Kate stopped."Oh," she said brightly."Then. . you got to the party after all?""I was the host," he reminded her shortly."But you had to go to Montreal. I thought Sophia and Stephanos. . ."But what did it matter, really, who was the host? He had been there and she hadn't.

"I- I'm sorry. I wanted to be there. But I had this crisis come up. The

Barlowes --' " Don't worry about it. " He turned and went back to shaving,concentrating on his reflection, ignoring her.Kate watched him, dismayed. She felt shut out, frantic. She swallowed and bit her lip.

"I missed you," she offered after a moment.

Damon made a non-commit al sound and kept on shaving.

"You had work to do," he said after a moment, excusing her. And it didn't

sound as if he cared at all.

Kate felt her throat tighten. She stepped back into the bedroom. "ShallI--shall I fix us some breakfast?"He shook his head."I've eaten. I have to get to the office.""It's Sunday.""I have work to do."And, fifteen minutes later, he left. He didn't even come into the kitchen to say goodbye. She heard the door shut and, by the time she ran to open it the lift door was sliding shut and he was gone.

Kate closed the door and slowly dragged herself back to the kitchen.

Last night's storms had disappeared, leaving a cloudless blue sky.

Bright winter

light still shone in the wide gla.s.s, but it seemed to Kate as if a cloud had blotted the sun.

After breakfast she went to Sophia's. She didn't want to be alone and, even though she knew that going to Sophia's would get her more deeply involved with the family, she told herself that Sophia would appreciate help with the girls.

Sophia was, in fact, delighted.

"They're driving me crazy," she admitted.

"They're getting so excited about the holiday. They were allowed to attend

the first half- hour of the party last night. It was supposed to mollifythem. I think it was a mistake.""If I'd been there I could have kept them away," Kate said.

"No, if you'd been there, Damon would have monopolised you." Sophia smiled.Kate doubted that. He hadn't seemed to care at all. She wondered if he'deven noticed she was gone. "Would you like me to take the girls to the parkfor a while?"

"Would you? Just for an hour or so." Sophia yawned.

"The baby didn't give me any rest last night."

Sophia retired to her bedroom while Kate bundled the girls into their jackets

and mittens. The door to the study opened as they were leaving. Stephanos

smiled at them.

"You're back," he said to Kate, and he seemed more pleased to see her than Damon had.

"Kate's going to take us skating again. Papa," Leda told him.

"Can you come, too?"

"Please, Papa," begged Christina.

"Girls, your father has plenty of work to do," Kate said quickly, but

Stephanos shrugged.

"Why not?"

Kate opened her mouth to protest, then realised she couldn't. Not in front

of the girls. Stephanos seemed

to know what she'd been going to say, though, for he gave her a brief smile.

"Don't worry," he told her, "I've learned my lesson."

"What lesson. Papa?" Christina demanded.

Stephanos shrugged into his jacket and opened the door for them.

"It's not important, little one," he said gently. "Let go." The girls were delighted to have their father along. And as they walked tothe park, Kate felt less self- conscious and apprehensive in his presence aswell. Stephanos had come a long way from the lecherous man who'd sought ananny and something more. Damon had been right: he'd never made a move onher again. In fact, over the past couple of months Kate had seen him growincreasingly more doting when it came to Sophia. And now his interest seemed to extend to the girls as well.

He^helped them lace up their skates, then stood back and watched, a proud father expression on his face, as they let go of his hands and skated away.

"Amazing," he said after a moment.

"One minute they're babies, the next they're off to school. I missed a lot of it."

Kate didn't say anything, just stood watching the girls. Privately she agreed, but she didn't imagine he wanted to hear it.

"I owe it to you, waking me up," he said.

"You and Damon."

Then she did look at him.

"What?"

He had the grace to look embarra.s.sed.

"Watching you two fall in love made me take another look at Sophia. At what

I'd had with her and was in danger of losing."

Kate could feel her own cheeks warm. She looked away, not wanting Stephanos to see the guilt on her face.

"I'm not saying this to embarra.s.s you," he told her. "I'm trying to say thanks."

"You're welcome," she mumbled.

"When I married Sophia, I was in love with her. Desperately in love.I'd have done anything for her. Including going to work in her familybusiness, which was what. she wanted. Including always coming in second toDamon. "

Kate shot him an oblique glance, interested in what he was saying, edging closer, still however, keeping most of her visible attention on the girls.

"I don't like admitting it, but it began to get on my nerves.Everything I did, everything I tried, it seemed as if the whole familythought Damon could have done better. I got mad. And--' he raked a handthrough his hair- I started staying away. Going out on my own. Finding myown friends. What the. h.e.l.l? I thought. What do they care? I figured Iwas a disappointment to Sophia. "

"She never said that to me," Kate told him quickly. "I think she loves you very much."

"I do, too," Stephanos admitted.

"But it took you to make me see it."

He dug his toe in the newly fallen snow.

"I thought Damon was only marrying you to make sure I kept my hands off. I thought, good, serves him right, getting in a marriage like that, him so bound and determined to do everything right. And then I saw that he really loved you."

Kate bunked."You did? When?""Everywhere. Right from the first. The way he looked at you. How attentive he was. How he didn't let you out of his sight on the island."s.e.x, Kate told herself. It was because he valued her physically. Butsomewhere deep inside she felt a shaft of hope.

"And if you'd seen him last night when you weren't there."

"What happened last night?"

"He came rus.h.i.+ng in late straight from the plane from Montreal. He didn't

even change. And he wanted to know where you were.""And that shows how much he loves me?" Kate knew she might be betraying her doubts to Stephanos, but she couldn't help it. She needed to know what heknew."If he didn't, he'd have been drooling all over Eleni.""Who's Eleni?""A friend of Pan's. Gorgeous woman. Her father was a colleague of Mr Alexakis. Bleni's got a business of her own now--something in textiles--but Pan says she'd give it up in a minute if the right man came along."

"Damon?"

Stephanos scowled at her."Of course not. He's married to you. Oops, there goes Leda, right on hernose!" And Stephanos took off across the ice rink to rescue his daughter.

Damon loved her.

Kate wished she could believe it. With all her heart and all her soul, she wished that the man she loved loved her.

Sometimes, like in the middle of the night when he turned to her in pa.s.sion

or in the middle of Christmas afternoon when he walked behind her chair and

brushed a hand across her hair, she could almost believe he did.

Or maybe then she was just better able to fool herself. For certainly other times he seemed preoccupied, distracted, as if he really wasn't a part of her world at all.