Page 14 of Unveiled As The Italian's Bride
‘Is he?’
Angelina, who had been sprawled on one of the chairs playing games on her tablet, sat up, alert and bristling with excitement.
‘You never said! Naughty!’
‘He only confirmed the timings last night. Are you pleased?’
‘How long is he going to be there?’
‘I’m not sure, darling. Hopefully, the whole time...’ She felt the familiar tug on her heartstrings at Angelina’s breathless, childish thrill at the thought of having her dad around for several days on end. He was so busy—he lived life in the fast lane, with time spent with his daughter precious and erratic, although in fairness, when hewaswith her, he was one hundred percentwithher.
She watched as Angelina leapt off the chair and danced around the room for a couple of minutes.
She was a beautiful child with very, very long dark hair, soulful dark eyes and her father’s smooth, olive complexion. Serious most of the time, when she laughed her face lit up, and she was laughing now. In that moment, a streak of rebelliousness shot through Kate like an injection of adrenaline.
It would be easy to fall into a routine of fading into the background, but she had made a start laying down her own rules, and she wasn’t going to allow him to nod and agree and then proceed to do exactly as he wanted.
He was that kind of guy, from everything she had seen over time. He lived a charmed life surrounded by people who did as he told them to. She had never met his parents, but hanging in one of the many formal living areas was an imposing oil painting of them together and they looked formidable, as formidable as their only son.
In this mutually beneficial arrangement, however, he was no more in charge of her than she was of him and gut instinct told her that it was important to remember that.
His chauffeur would drive them from Milan to the outskirts of Venice, where Dante was already with his uncle. The next few hours were spent packing and then travelling in the luxury of Dante’s car, one of his fleet of cars, and the least sporty but the most comfortable.
It was a shame they couldn’t detour to see Lake Como or explore Verona, with its Roman amphitheatre. Kate had only ever read about Verona when she had had her head buried in Shakespeare’sRomeo and Julietand had been intrigued by the romance of a city she’d never previously heard of.
It was cold and dark, and the shadowy landscape that flashed by as the car ate up the miles only hinted at the splendid beauty of hills, valleys and the sprawling vineyards that produced the Prosecco for which the region was so famed.
Kate gazed out, her mind half on the retreating dark shapes of hills and mountains standing guard around the swirling dunes of the perfectly aligned vineyards. In summer the sight would be magnificent, a sea of green interrupted by glorious clutches of houses and churches, each small town worth seeing in its own right.
Nerves were kicking in. Next to her, Angelina was slumped, asleep. As plans went, this one made sense, and the end result would be worth every second. But, as Antonio’s mansion drew closer, she wondered how easy it would be to coexist with Dante who was so cold, so intimidating, with those flashes of warmth and humanity so few and far between.
It was one thing laying down laws. It was another having the will power to follow through.
She had mentioned nothing to her parents and was toying with the idea of keeping it all under wraps. Her parents would be appalled and disappointed at anything that smacked of an arranged marriage. They had never spent a day apart, except for when her father had been in hospital. So what would be the point in breaking their hearts? She would be able to return to see them, perhaps not for entire weeks at a time, but certainly frequently. She could easily talk about loans, bonuses and her employer’s generosity when it came to justifying the sums of money she would be spending on them.
Honestly, they were both naïve when it came to anything financial. Why else had they ended up as they had? The small deception would be simple enough to achieve. Only the discomfort of knowing that she was lying to them, or at the very least being incredibly economical with the truth, gave her pause for thought.
It was after eight by the time they finally made it to Antonio’s palace, a frothy, wintry, extravagant concoction nestled in huge grounds and woodland. Half of it was lit like a Christmas tree, the other half in darkness. Antonio only used part of his grand house.
The car slowed as they eased up the tree-lined avenue and circled the courtyard before slowing to a stop. Before they could all emerge, the front door was open and Antonio was briefly silhouetted, before being quickly ushered inside by Dante, who towered over his uncle. Kate tensed, roused Angelina and was thankful for the distraction of her excitable chattering as they hurried inside and the front door closed against the bracing wintry weather outside.
And then the gravity of the road she was about to go down hit her. Antonio stooped to embrace Angelina; Dante looked at her with those dark, deep, cool eyes as he reached down to swing his daughter up into a bear hug. The overwhelming grandeur of the palace, with its pale marble floors and intricately sculpted ceilings, spoke to a life lived in a different world.
She wasn’t just going to be playing a part for a limited period of time. She was going to be entering the world of one of Italy’s most exalted families, moving amongst people she would otherwise never have met in a million years, and she was going to have to do it with credibility.
How on earth was that going to work out?
Apprehension and excitement hit her in equal measure. As she stepped towards Dante, she felt a momentary keening towards him as the one solid point in a world that had suddenly been turned on its head and, as though reading her mind, he steadied her, placing his arm around her shoulders.
‘Are you all right?’ he murmured, voice low as Antonio, still stooping, engaged with a suddenly lively Angelina.
‘It’s been a long day...’
‘Of course.’ He drew back and began ushering them towards the kitchen, while giving orders for the bags to be taken up to their respective quarters.
She looked amazing. How had he failed to pay attention to the clear-eyed beauty shyly hiding behind her dutiful subservience? There was nothing obvious about her but, dressed in that casually elegant outfit, she was somehow so intensely alluring that he was shocked at his own reaction. He didn’t want to be sabotaged by his body, and had no intention of allowing that to happen, but he was still disconcerted enough to remove himself and put some distance between them.
‘I should take Angelina up,’ Kate offered. ‘Is it the usual room?’
