Page 35 of Unveiled As The Italian's Bride
‘I’ll confirm arrangements with you by mid-afternoon tomorrow,’ he stated, flatly breaking whatever temporary spell he had put her under and she, in turn, replied with equal cool restraint.
‘Okay—and, just for the record, if my uniform here is to dress up, then your uniform will be to dressdown.’
‘Is that a challenge?’ Dante murmured, lazing back, looking as if he was enjoying himself.
‘Maybe,’ Kate murmured, lowering her gaze. ‘Maybe we both have to accept challenges when it comes to this...arrangement.’
Which didn’t help when, three days later, Kate found herself at the small station that serviced the nearest town to where her parents lived.
It was bitterly cold. Light snow was falling, an ominous scattering of flurries, like an appetiser for what was to come.
She wondered what might be going through Dante’s head. His original plan had been to follow her out and allow her some breathing space to set the scene with her parents. Vital breathing space, as far as she was concerned, because she would be able to use that brief window to assuage potential apprehension about the speed of her mysterious engagement...whilst simultaneously planting a few useful seeds about having her head in the clouds and barely being able to think straight. She hoped that would generate dark forebodings about marrying in haste and repenting at leisure.
As it happened, everything had changed at the last minute. A series of urgent meetings with the board members of the family empire had been expedited by two weeks because of unrest in the ranks following Antonio’s announcement that he would be stepping down. As the successor to the proverbial throne, Dante had informed those fractious elements within the various companies that he would be giving them a fortnight to get their heads together and table whatever questions they might have about the way forward.
‘So I’ll come out with you,’ he had informed her hours before she’d been due to leave, thereby putting paid to any hopes for a relaxing trip back. ‘It will give me an extra two days out there and I can return earlier, get prepared for a lively board meeting. You, of course, may stay on as you wish.’
‘I...maybe...’ Kate had prevaricated, as she had wondered what else could go awry.
The weather, she thought now, gazing worriedly at the heavens. The weather could go awry. It often did in this part of the world, where fields, mountains and rivers met the open blank canvas of a horizon only intermittently interrupted with towns and small villages.
She had hummed and hawed and in the end told him very little about her parents. When she thought about him meeting them and the inevitable awkwardness, she felt sick. Part of her expected her parents to be quiet and overwhelmed, saving their disapproval for when she was on her own, and that would be fine. A couple of days of stilted politeness would be bearable.
‘It might have been a better idea to be driven here, wouldn’t you agree?’ Dante murmured from next to her and she snapped her attention to him. He was dressed for the cold but in the manner of someone not accustomed to having to put up with it too much—overcoat, dark jeans, a dark polo and some shoes that were not recommended for tramping through slush.
The station was busy and she could see people glancing at him with curiosity. He stuck out like a sore thumb. She had dumped the fancy gear in exchange for the clothes she normally wore in this part of the world and was sensibly dressed in various layers with a waterproof and heavy-duty,faux-fur-lined boots. It was late January, and she had known that winter here would not be nearly as polite and cheerful as winter in Italy.
Even in the first-class compartment, the train had not been a luxurious experience, especially when she compared it to their last luxurious joint experience, which had been on his yacht.
‘Certainly not,’ she said stoutly and, when his eyebrows shot up, she added for good measure, ‘This is what travel is like here.’
‘Really?’ Dante murmured drily. ‘And so nothing to do with the “dressing down” instructions you issued before we left...’
‘Which,’ Kate countered sarcastically, ‘I note you didn’t take on board.’
‘If you look, you’ll see that I’m wearing boots and jeans.’
‘They’re designer,’ she scoffed, and Dante grinned.
‘Was that not allowed? I can’t quite remember.’
‘We should go get a taxi.’
‘Will there be a rank of them?’
‘Possibly nota rank,’ Kate admitted, leading the way and huddling into her waterproof as the snow began to gather pace.
‘Kate,’ Dante said gently, slowing her down so that she reluctantly turned to him. ‘Why not let me to handle this?’
‘What?’
‘Let me get someone to collect us from...remind me what this station is called?’
She told him and then said sceptically, ‘How are you going to materialise a driver from thin air?’
‘You’d be surprised what I can achieve.’
He pulled out his phone, spoke for a few minutes in rapid Italian and then looked at her smugly.
