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You’re the wife he had to have. Never the wife he wanted. Now he’s learned he doesn’t need you and he’s already looking for distance.
Had she been living a fool’s dream, building castles in the air? Sheknewhe didn’t love her. Just because she’d fallen in love with him, she’d told herself he might eventually feel the same way about her.
The fact is, he’s happier without you around. You were always the outsider. You never fitted here. You weren’t even his first choice of bride!
Her emotions hit rock bottom. Did he feelanythingfor her apart from lust? As for manipulating her towards a separation via the career she loved, did he think that the easiest way, or was he trying to be kind?
The thought he mightpityher, on top of his deviousness, was the final straw.
She dragged in a shallow breath then another and another but couldn’t suck in enough oxygen. She needed to think and she couldn’t do that here.
Swallowing choking emotion, furious with herself for her naivety, Annalena stumbled from the room.
Benedikt’s worry grew when he found their new rooms deserted, bar the team refurbishing the floorboards. He’d pinned his hopes on finding her there. He’d already tried their current suite and questioned every staff member he saw, but none had seen Lena.
Returning to the office twenty minutes ago, he’d only got as far as Matthias’s desk when his assistant said he’d seen the Queen hurrying down the corridor, visibly upset.
Matthias never exaggerated and Lena never broadcast her emotions in public. If she looked upset something was badly wrong. Benedikt had spun on his heel and gone to find her.
Unease gripped him. What had happened? Why hadn’t she waited to talk with him? He’d thought they could discuss anything now that she trusted him.
Lena spoke with him openly and they’d found commonality in their odd childhoods, separate from their peers, always different, coping with others’ expectations while finding their own way in the world.
He’d told her things he’d hugged to himself all his life. Lena insisted that his tendency to strategise and command weren’t proof that he’d inherited even worse traits from his father. She saw positives in his character and her habit of asking for clarification on decisions made him pause more often now before taking action.
She’d changed his life, given him so much.
The thought of her hurting created a physical ache.
His gaze lighted on the walled garden beyond the window where his mother had so often sought refuge. Had Lena gone there too? He strode towards an exit.
Pausing outside the summerhouse, he breathed deep. Whatever was wrong, Lena needed him strong and supportive.
‘Lena! Sweetheart?’
For a moment he didn’t see her against the light streaming in the windows, then a shadow shifted, a figure moving to sit up straight on the sofa.
Relief caught his breath as he strode across and sank down beside her. ‘What’s wrong?’
Her mouth was drawn with pain and her eyes were pink and puffy. His alarm intensified. Lena didn’t cry. Even when he’d cornered her into an unwanted marriage she’d been upset and defiant, not teary.
‘Your grandmother?’
Had something happened to the old lady? The two were close. He reached for Lena’s hand but she pulled away.
The gesture, small but definite, made everything inside him go cold and still. ‘Lena, what is it?’
Instead of turning to him as he’d got used to, she fixed her gaze on the far side of the room. Something surged inside him, a stark emotion so powerful he’d swear his heart stopped.
‘I needed time alone to think.’
Her voice was dull, her shoulders slumped. This wasn’t the woman he knew. And why time alone? Often as not they shared the challenges facing them, bouncing ideas off each other. Just yesterday Lena had used him as a sounding board for a complication that had arisen in her research team.
‘Talk to me, Lena. What’s on your mind?’
Slowly she turned, chin lifting in that familiar way. But there was something different this time.
‘It’s been good getting back into more research work. I missed it and you’re right, it’s really where I belong.’