Page 37 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4
All she had done was make Sebastian feel as ifheweren’t good enough. He felt as though he were on trial. She shivered at that idea, that she could have subjected him to feeling like that. She was cold in the early morning light filtering through the windows because she hadn’t closed the curtains, cold inside and out because Sebastian wasn’t with her, lighting up her world the way he usually did. And hadn’t she taken that for granted?
That he would keep on trying? Keep on trying to prove himself?
Her heart sank. Love was supposed to be kind and caring and generous but what had she given him? Reaching a sudden decision, Bunny sprang out of bed, weary and heavy-eyed but determined to set that date for Sebastian and apologise for all the insecurities that had subconsciously trapped her. She pulled on a robe and went to look for him.
In an unfamiliar house, that wasn’t an easy task. She checked several empty bedrooms, marvelling that such a large property was maintained simply for the couple of annual family get-togethers Sebastian tolerated for the sake of courtesy. If he ever forgave her for infuriating him to such an extent, she would suggest that he found somewhere else for such meetings because he had admitted that he didn’t use the Athens house on any other occasion. Unhappily, no bedroom contained him. She returned to her room and showered and dressed, seriously worried that she had no idea where he had gone.
It was one of her bodyguards who let her into that secret by asking her when she wished to head to the airport for their return flight to the UK. ‘What does Sebastian want?’
He frowned in bewilderment. ‘Mr Pagonis flew to Switzerland at six this morning…’
And belatedly she recalled him mentioning something about that change of flight plan while she had been dressing for that awful dinner the night before. Gloom set in then, over her solitary breakfast. She tried to phone him. The call, unusually, wasn’t answered. Convinced he still wasn’t speaking to her, she desisted from sending a flood of texts, although it was a challenge when she knew that it would be a week before she saw him again.
She travelled back to Knightsmead, feeling as though she were carting around her own very personal little black cloud. She had been selfish, unreasonable and shortsighted and she wasn’t accustomed to seeing such traits in herself, sothatknowledge couldn’t lift her spirits.
She spent a lot of her time with her family that week, until suspicious eyes began to turn in her direction and pretending that everything was fine became too much of a strain. For the first time in her pregnancy, she felt nauseous and reckoned it was simply nerves and a lost appetite. Her brother John called in when she was working in the library.
‘Don’t be trying to lift that,’ he warned her when he found her crouched over a book box.
‘No, don’t worry, I’m just digging through it. There are books that need restoration and I’m setting them aside first…new bindings, torn pages. Some of them are very old and need special care,’ she explained.
‘Parker said he’d bring us tea and snacks in here. I’ve only got an hour before my next appointment. Do you mind if I leave you being industrious and go and have a snoop round your fabulous home for myself?’ her brother enquired with amusement.
‘Not at all. Go ahead,’ she encouraged, because, unlike the rest of her family, John had been too busy to come for the original tour she had offered them. Like her, he was into history and would enjoy browsing alone more.
She rose on her socked feet off the rug. Sebastian had warned her that she was to lift nothing as well. Well, so much for his caring side, she thought painfully, when his polite phone calls had done nothing to mend the breach between them. Did he sulk? This was where you discovered that Mr Perfect wasn’t, after all, Mr Perfect, she reflected heavily. But then she hadn’t tackled the controversial subject of when they might marry on the phone either, she acknowledged wearily.
She lifted the heavy family bible she wanted to place on the upper gallery table where—according to Parker—it had always sat. Being almost as old as the library, Parker was a font of knowledge about such matters.
She carted the giant book with care in her gloved hands and mounted the wooden staircase. Reaching the gallery, she settled the old family bible back in its former resting place. Flushed with success, she started down the stairs again at speed and, whether it was the socks on her feet or the gloves she wore for handling ancient books, she slid like a sledder at the top of a mountain on a big run. With a sharp cry of alarm, she tried to right her balance, but it was too late. She went bumpety, bumpety bump down the stairs and landed awkwardly with a twisted ankle.
Parker burst in with all the urgency of an ambulance and knelt down by her side, wringing his worn hands in horror and dismay. ‘Miss Woods… Miss Woods, what do I do?’
‘I’ll handle this…’ John appeared, frowning down at her. ‘You went up those stairs without shoes on, didn’t you? And those stupid slippery gloves? Do you have a death wish?’ he asked quietly as Parker sped from the room, thoroughly unsettled by her accident.
Bunny didn’t rise to the bait, because of course John the ever practical was right. ‘I’ve hurt my ankle, probably going to have a few bruises on my bottom as well,’ she groaned as he helped her up and into the nearest armchair.
She withstood a lecture about being more careful now that she was pregnant and hung her head, misery choking her. Just then she didn’t care about anything and she knew she had not hurt her baby, only her ankle and her back. She deserved the bruises for being so careless, she thought miserably as her brother bandaged her ankle for her, offered to take her to the hospital if she was apprehensive and looked relieved at her refusal.
Parker brought in the tea with an air of satisfaction. ‘Mr Pagonis is on his way home,’ he announced.
‘But he’s not supposed to be back for another couple of days!’ Bunny gasped in surprise, underlaid with a strong sense of relief. The sooner she saw him, the sooner she could cross the chasm of the separation she had caused. And she glanced down at herself, noting her ancient comfy jeans, her shapeless sweater, the kind of clothes she put on when she was in a down mood. That wasn’t how she wanted to greet Sebastian. Having shared a cup of tea with her brother before he rushed off, she hobbled awkwardly upstairs to shower and change.
Restricted as she was, everything took longer than usual and it hurt hovering on one leg to dry her hair and put on some make-up. The results, however, far outweighed the discomfort. She limped into the dressing room for fresh undies, donning pretty lace pastels in a soft green before rifling in the closet for a dress. It was a little chilly for a dress but she shouldn’t be thinking of such practicalities, she warned herself, tugging the stretchy dark green designer garment over her head and shimmying her hips while wondering uncertainly whether going barefoot would be sexier than wearing only one shoe.
Sebastian, as he surged upstairs like a man on a mission, however, had far more pressing concerns. Parker had phoned him while he was in a meeting in Geneva and his brain had gone pretty blank during that brief call, only parts of it staying with him. An accident…a fall…her brother, the doctor, with her. It had traumatised him: the prospect of losing Bunny and the baby, the very idea of them being ripped from his world. Slowly, on the flight back home, he had pulled himself together and another phone conversation with John had reassured him that no great harm had been done, only to Parker, who had panicked.
They were okay, they were okay, Sebastian kept reminding himself, but nothing could dim his urgent need to see Bunny in the flesh. He stopped dead in surprise when he saw her balancing on one leg by gripping one of the posts of the bed, striving to get her foot into one high heel.
‘What are you doing?’ Sebastian demanded, crossing the room so fast that he left her breathless and lifting her off her feet to lay her down on the bed. ‘John said you had to rest it and with the amount of bandaging he’s put on your foot, you couldn’t get it into a shoe.’
‘You’re so practical,’ Bunny muttered in shaken complaint because popular belief would have suggested that Sebastian should have paused to note how groomed she was looking and to express his appreciation. Unhappily, Sebastian was more interested in probing her ankle and her foot, undoing the bandage, putting it on more tightly and in a different style, his attention wholly directed at her injury.
‘We’ll have to get those stairs carpeted so that they’re less slippery. You’re always running round barefoot,’ he said in his most prosaic comment yet.
Bunny feasted her eyes on his bent dark head, the gleam of the steel hoop in one ear, the line of his hard jaw, the perfection of his classic nose and wide sensual mouth. Butterflies flew in celebration in her stomach. The core at the heart of her pulsed and her heartbeat quickened. ‘I missed you so much,’ she said tensely. ‘I’ll marry you tomorrow if you want.’
‘What?’ Sebastian glanced up at her in bewilderment, his brain still visualising the potential damage to her foot. Brilliant dark-as-coal eyes assailed hers.‘Tomorrow?’
