Page 19 of Hired By The Forbidden Italian
NOTHING,NOTEVENmixing with the kids at her fee-paying school who had come from wealthy families, could have prepared Sophie for the assault on her senses at what life looked like when you moved in the world of the uber-rich.
With back-to-back meetings before a departure date that seemed dizzyingly soon, Sophie saw precious little of Niccolo over the next three days.
He had arranged for professionals to help with the final stages of the house clearance, which had been in limbo for the past couple of weeks.
He had texted her with just a day’s notice.
Friday morning at nine. I would say that I can get cover for Annalise for the day, but I have a feeling that she might enjoy the bedlam.
She did, and so did Sophie when, at a little after five on Friday, she had looked at how much had been accomplished. Not everything, but there was hardly anything left to do, with the remainder of her personal belongings all delivered to Niccolo’s house, where he had assured her they could remain until her contract was over.
And, as he had predicted, Annalise had enjoyed every second of the chaos of packing and clearing, and oddly it was an exercise that had hurt far less than Sophie had expected.
Had she been subconsciously putting off the final hurdle because of the pain she had anticipated? The memories she would have had to dust down and look at?
With Annalise there and the packing men in and out and an alarming but stimulating trip staring her in the face, she had dusted down those memories but then cherished them instead of being broken up by them.
It had been fun packing for Annalise.
‘Have you ever been on your dad’s yacht?’ she had asked as they had sifted through the sizeable wardrobe of designer summer clothes, selecting some, discarding others.
Annalise had shrugged and said, without skipping a beat and without any hint of sadness, that she hadn’t.
‘He doesn’t come on holiday with us,’ she’d explained, standing up and showing Sophie a swimsuit with frills and a pattern of fish which she exclaimed was her favourite in the whole world. ‘Aunty Eva and I go, and sometimes Daddy joins us, but he’s always on his computer when he comes anyway.’
‘And do you mind?’ Sophie had asked casually, thinking of her own idyllic childhood with her doting parents.
‘It’s nice he’s around more now. I liked going to see him in his office in the sky.’ She had smiled and looked at Sophie with her big, dark, serious eyes. ‘And it’ll be nice on the boat, especially as there’s a pool. Daddy has a house in the country and there’s a pool there, but I only get to go with Aunty Eva for a week over summer and then Daddy comes for a week, but he prefers to be in London.’
Niccolo left ahead of them for his yacht to make sure everything was in place.
He had expanded on who would be there: the powerful Italian family, rooted in tradition, who would be able to confer as one in the same place, and six outsiders from legal and accounting professions, who would take care of all the nuts and bolts to secure the deal.
Sophie had semi-absorbed this information. She wouldn’t be there to socialise. She would be there with her working hat on, whatever Niccolo might have implied to the contrary.
They would stay aboard the boat for four days while every small detail was finalised in between ensuring the clients relaxed and had some enjoyable downtime.
She decided that one sensible black swimsuit would suffice. She had several racier ones, but as she’d fished them out and looked at them they had reminded her of a time long gone and she had stuffed them in the bag of things to be donated to charity.
It was surprisingly exciting to think about having some time abroad, even if it would be of a very brief duration and even if she would be working while she was there.
She’d always loved the thrill of travelling and it was something she had foolishly never even thought about until it had been snatched away in the face of all her financial woes.
What had she expected?
The first-class flight over to Cagliari Airport, yes.
She didn’t think that Niccolo would consider flying anything but First. She was still impressed, however, with just how pampered she had felt. First-class flights had always been out of her parents’ league. Annalise, accustomed to nothing else, took it all for granted, amusing herself with some of the fun activity books they had bought together the day before.
What Sophie had definitelynotexpected was the limo to the airfield and then the helicopter waiting to whisk them off to his superyacht.
With the sun beating down, they had been ushered like royalty from plane to limo to a small field where a black helicopter was on standby.
Luggage had been dealt with by staff who had been virtually invisible, taking care of every single thing so that she and Annalise had nothing to do but look around and absorb the scenery.
From the air-conditioned comfort of the limo, Sophie had gazed at the coloured houses and buildings, tightly packed together in hues of reds and yellows and oranges, climbing neatly up the hill and descending to the sea, which glittered like a jewel, dotted with the bobbing white of small boats.
Annalise gasped and squealed, her excitement making Sophie smile.
