There was no reply.
In her silence Le Breton read his answer.
His hands tightened on her wrists, and a baulked look crossed his face.
So the black barrier was one that neither love nor gratitude would make her cross willingly.
There were some bitter moments for him, as he realised this. For all his wealth and power, for all his scheming, despite the fact that Pansy confessed to loving him, she refused to be his wife. It seemed that nothing he could do would bring her into his arms in the willing way he wanted.
Pansy was the first to speak.
In that crushing grip on her wrists, she read an agony of pain and disappointment, that her one desire now was to soothe.
"It's not you, Raoul. It's the idea," she said in a low voice.
"So the idea of marrying me is repugnant. And yet you love me?"
She nodded.