Page 18 of Unveiled As The Italian's Bride
‘Yes,’ he said, voice low. He shot her a look from under thick, sooty lashes. ‘But...perhaps you would agree to come with us both...?’
‘It’s a deal.’ She smiled and her heart fluttered when he slowly smiled back.
CHAPTER FOUR
OFCOURSETHEYmust go—and not to the local town! Venice and no less would do!
Antonio practically ushered them to the front door the following morning when Kate tentatively mooted the idea, making sure to dilute it with lots of apologies for leaving him, but he was having none of it.
‘This old man has no intention of standing in the way of two lovebirds!’ He had winked at them both while Angelina had been busy weighing up various breakfast options, all home-baked and spread on the vast marble-topped ten-seater which limply tried to pass itself off as a casual kitchen table.‘And no need to hurry back!’ he had boomed, a far cry from the pallid, uncertain man of a day ago. ‘I have things lined up.’
‘Things?’ Dante, in the middle helping himself to a bread roll and filling it with cheese, moved as he ate and half-peered at his laptop, which was open and blinking with emails. ‘What things?’
Antonio huffed with a flush. ‘As it happens, I remember I have an appointment with the consultant this morning.’
‘What?’ Dante slammed shut his computer, glanced at his watch and then at his uncle. ‘Time?’
‘I am not following you.’ Antonio busied himself with breakfast, making a deal out of pouring himself some coffee and stirring sugar into it while avoiding eye contact with Dante.
‘Time of your appointment?’
‘You will be in Venice! Beautiful winter weather out there, and a lovely time of year to visit—fewer crowds! Did you know that there are over three hundred bridges in Venice? Staggering!’
Dante caught Kate’s eye and she raised her eyebrows sympathetically.
‘I feel it might be impossible to be in two places at once, Antonio.’
‘If that is your way of telling me that I am not capable of making my way to see a doctor without having my hand held, son, then I will try not to take offence!’
‘Antonio...!’
‘Angelina, why don’t we go and get changed to go out...?’ This from Kate, who was vaguely wondering how it was that she and Dante had managed to morph into ‘lovebirds’when the picture they’d so far presented was of two people who barely knew one another and certainly weren’t keeling over with loving looks.
‘Stay!’ Dante swung to look at her, adding in a gentler voice, that was nevertheless still thick with frustration, ‘Please.’ He looked at Angelina and smiled tersely. ‘Angelina, perhaps you might go to your room and, eh, get ready, as Kate has suggested? We will be with you in a matter of minutes.’
Accustomed to doing as she was told, Angelina didn’t utter a word of protest. She immediately headed to the door. For a few seconds Kate found it hard to recall that look on Dante’s face the evening before, when there had been something there, something warm and a little uncertain, but quietly happy after he had settled his daughter. This was now the face of the distant father she was accustomed to. The man who had been raised to be as cold and remote as his own parents had been, as Antonio had explained.
Instead of pulling back, though, Kate had to bank down a peculiar surge of warmth and empathy towards this harsh, complex man who was suddenly fleshing out into a three-dimensional guy as compelling as he was good-looking. She didn’t want or needcompelling, however.
She slowly turned to look at them both as the door quietly closed behind Angelina. She sat at the table so that now she and Antonio were both sitting, while Dante stood towering above them. He radiated power and intent while Antonio bristled with pious self-defence.
‘Do you really think I would let you face those demons on your own, Antonio?’ Dante asked quietly, relenting sufficiently to pull up one of the chairs, which made him no less forbidding in Kate’s opinion. ‘You were frightened half to death when you summoned me here to tell me the news of your diagnosis. You were still frightened even after I’d spoken to your consultant myself, and tried to relay to you the optimism which you should have been feeling. And yet you sit here and tell me that it’s somehow now offensive for me to insist on coming with you to your appointment?’
‘Indeed I do!’ Antonio countered robustly, which Kate personally found impressive.
‘Indeedyou do?’
‘I had a little blip.’ Antonio lifted his shoulders with elegant dismissal, although his eyes were a little shifty when he looked away after a couple of seconds. ‘We all do. Tell me you have never had the occasional little blip in your life, Dante! I appreciate everything you have done, and...’
He half-smiled and shot Kate a sly, sideways glance. ‘Perhaps the glad tidings of your marriage plans have fortified me.’ He beamed, reaching across to pat Dante on the arm. ‘Yes, indeed, I feel I have put my finger on it! I am a new man, son. A new man with renewed purpose, and one who would very much like to face down my own demons without anyone by my side giving me advice on how to do it!’
Dante flung himself back in the chair, raked his fingers through his hair and looked utterly bewildered for a few seconds.
Kate, watching him, was tempted to smile.
He had been deprived of doing the one thing he so badly wanted to do, which was to see his uncle through troubling times, and yet she knew from her own experience that everyone had to grope their way forward on their own terms.
‘If you’re sure, Antonio...’
