The Bride of Montefalco
The Bride of Montefalco
Rebecca Winters
Rachel Valentine is the wine buyer for the Valentine family's exclusive Bella Lucia restaurants, and her relationship with master winemaker Luc Chartier should be strictly business…. Romanced by the beautiful Alsace vineyards, and seduced by the charismatic Luc, Rebecca can't help but fall in love. But their one night of passion is followed by a shocking revelation about Luc's past. Heartbroken, Rebecca returns home - only to discover that she is pregnant with Luc's child.
BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT
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Natasha Oakley
Harlequin Romance
“Sorry I’m late.” He spoke into her ear.
Ally jerked her head around, assailed by the familiar scent clinging to his skin.
“Gino—”
She’d never been so happy to see anyone in her life.
“I’ve missed you, bellissima,” he whispered against her lips before capturing her mouth.
He drew her close, like a lover who’d been anticipating this moment and could no longer hold back.
Ally had been so caught off guard her mouth opened to the urgent pressure of his, and she found herself kissing him back in a slow, languorous giving and taking she’d never experienced in her life.
The background laughter of the crowd faded. All Ally was aware of was the throbbing of her heart against his solid male chest.
Rebecca Winters
The Bride of Montefalco
Rebecca Winters, whose family of four children has now swelled to include three beautiful grandchildren, lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the land of the Rocky Mountains. With canyons and high Alpine meadows full of wildflowers, she never runs out of places to explore, and they—along with her favorite vacation spots in Europe—often end up as backgrounds for her Harlequin Romance
novels. Writing is her passion, along with her family and church. Rebecca loves to hear from her readers. If you wish to e-mail her, please visit her Web site at www.rebeccawinters-author.com
Don’t miss
Matrimony with His Majesty
by Rebecca Winters
Coming in April in Harlequin Romance
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
“LIEUTENANT DAVIS?”
The Portland police detective looked up from his computer.
“I’m glad you got here so fast, Mrs. Parker.”
“Your message indicated it was urgent.”
“It is,” he said in a solemn tone. “Come in and sit down.”
Ally took a chair opposite his desk.
“I take it there’s been a new development in the case.”
“Major.” He nodded. “The woman who died in the car accident with your husband four months ago has finally been identified through dental records and a DNA match-up.”
Though Ally had buried her husband two months ago, she’d needed this day to come if she were ever to find closure. Yet at the same time she’d been dreading it because it meant getting painful facts instead of wallowing in useless conjecture.
“Who was she?”
“A thirty-four-year-old married female from Italy named Donata Di Montefalco.”
Finally the woman had a name and a background.
“The Italian authorities have informed me she was the wife of the Duc Di Montefalco, a very wealthy, prominent aristocrat from a town of the same name near Rome. According to the police investigating the case, her husband has had his own people searching for her all these months.”
“Naturally,” Ally whispered. Had he been in love with his wife? Or had his marriage been unraveling like Ally’s?
Though the detective had never said the words, she knew he suspected her husband of having been unfaithful. So had Ally who’d known her marriage was breaking down but hadn’t wanted to believe it.
Jim had changed so much from the seemingly devoted family man she’d first married, she’d slowly fallen out of love with him though she wasn’t able to pinpoint the exact moment it happened.
During the latter part of their two and half year marriage she’d seen signs that something was wrong. The long absenses from home because of his work, the lack of passion in his lovemaking when he did come home, his disinterest in her life when he made brief, unsatisfactory phone calls home, his desire to put off starting a family until he was making more money.
Despite the fact that there was still no definitive proof of an affair, this news gave added credence to her suspicions.
A fresh stab of pain assailed her. She needed to get out of his office to grieve in private.
Though she’d already had two months to absorb the fact that he hadn’t died alone, a part of her had hoped the other woman would have been middle-aged. Possibly an older woman he’d given a lift to because of the storm. But this latest information put that myth to rest. It increased her turmoil that she hadn’t loved him as much as she should have, otherwise why hadn’t she confronted him before it was too late?
“Thank you for calling me in, Lieutenant.” Any second now and she was going to lose control. Living in denial was the worst thing she could have done. Her guilt worsened to recognize she hadn’t fought harder to recapture the love that had brought them together in the first place.
“I appreciate what you’ve done to help me.”
She got up to leave. He walked her to the door of his office.
“I’m sorry I had to call you in and remind you of your loss all over again. But I promised to let you know when I had any more information.
“Here’s hoping that in the months to come, you’ll be able to put this behind you and move on.”
Move on? a voice inside her cried hysterically. How did you do that when your husband had died at the lowest ebb in your marriage?
How did you function when your dreams for a happy life with him were permanently shattered?
The detective eyed her with compassion. “Would you like me to walk you out to your car?”
“No thank you,” she murmured. “I’ll be all right.”
She hurried out of his office and down the hall to the front door of the police station.
Dear God—how was it possible things had ended like this? Nothing was resolved. If anything, she was riddled with new questions.
Her thoughts darted to the woman’s husband. He would have only just learned his wife’s body had been found and identified. Besides months of suffering since her disappearance and now this loss, he had to be wondering about Jim’s importance in Donata’s life.
Wherever the Duc Di Montefalco was at this moment, Ally knew he was in hell.
She could relate…
“Uncle Gino? How come we’re going to stay at your farm for a while?
Rudolfo Giannino Fioretto Di Montefalco, known only to his family and a few close friends as Gino, eyed his eleven-year-old niece through the rearview mirror. The girl sat next to Marcello, Gino’s elder brother.
“Because it’s summer. I thought you and your father would enjoy getting out in nature instead of being cooped up in the palazzo.”
“But what if Mama comes back and we’re not there?”
Gino braced himself. The dreaded moment had come.
He pulled up to the side of the farmhouse. In the dying rays of the sun, the cypress trees formed spokes across the yellowed exterior.
He turned in his seat to make certain Sofia was holding her father’s hand. Since Marcello had been stricken with Alzheimer’s and could no longer talk, it was one of the ways she could express her love and hope to feel his in return.
“I have something to tell you, sweetheart.”
A full minute passed. In that amount of time the color had drained from his niece’s face. “What is it?” she asked in a tremulous voice. The strain of going months without knowing anything about her mother had robbed Sofia of any joie de vivre.
“Sofia, I have some bad news. Your mama, she was in a car accident, and…she died.”
Four months ago in fact, but Gino had only been informed of her death last night. Today he’d been making preparations for Sofia’s move to the country with Marcello.
The details surrounding the tragedy were something neither she nor the trusted staff both at the palazzo and the farmhouse needed to know about.
His gaze took in Sofia’s pain-filled expression. When his news computed, he heard the sobs of an already heartbroken girl who buried her dark brown head against her father’s shoulder.
Marcello looked down at her, not comprehending, not able to comfort his daughter.
Gino felt her sobs from the front seat. Tears welled in his throat. Now that Donata’s body had been found and identified, the nightmare of her disappearance was over. But another one had just begun…
His motherless, already introverted niece was going to need more love and understanding than ever.
As for Gino, once he’d arranged with the priest for a private memorial service away from prying eyes so Sofia could say goodbye to her mother in private, he needed to increase security to protect his family from the press.
Carlo Santi, the region’s top police inspector and one of their family’s best friends was doing his best to stop information from the police department leaking to the various newspapers and media in Rome and elsewhere. But there were those rabid, insatiable vultures from the tabloids who invaded without mercy, always lurking to find something juicy on Gino and his family. It was the price they paid for their title and wealth.
If it weren’t for Carlo running interference for him all these months, the situation could have gotten uglier much sooner.
With the sudden debilitating onset of Marcello’s disease two years ago, Donata’s selfish streak had created havoc in his brother’s marriage, and had damaged their daughter irreparably. In Gino’s opinion, Donata had to have been one of the world’s most insensitive, neglectful wives and mothers on record.
He’d fought hard to protect his brother and niece from the worst of her flaws.
As a result he’d been forced to guard the family secrets with a certain ruthlessness that Donata enjoyed publicizing to anyone who would listen. Her indiscriminate venting had made its way to the press, casting a pall over all their lives, Gino’s in particular. Through innuendo she’d made him out to be the grasping, jealous brother-in-law who wanted her and the title for himself.
The only thing Donata hadn’t ever considered was her own death.
Once the media got wind of the accident that took her life, everything Gino had done to keep family matters private was about to become a public scandal. The fact that an American man close to Donata’s age had been driving the car when they’d been killed provided the kind of fodder to cause a paparazzi frenzy. This kind of story would sell millions of papers with far reaching consequences for Sofia. His niece could be destroyed by the facts, let alone the malicious rumors surrounding them.
Aside from physically removing the two in the back seat to a protected place away from media invasion, there didn’t seem to be a thing in hell he could do about unscrupulous journalists digging up old lies on him in order to sell more newspapers. Since his teens, battling the press had been the story of his life. Now it was about to be the story of Sofia’s, but not if he could help it!
The orchestra conductor put down his baton. “Take a ten minute break. Then we’ll pick up the Brahms at bar 20.”
Thankful for the respite, Ally placed her violin on the seat and filed out of the music hall behind the other members of the string section.
She walked down the corridor where she could be alone and reached in her purse for her cell phone.
She was expecting a call back from her doctor. After the meeting with the detective yesterday, she’d developed a migraine that still hadn’t gone away. To her dismay there was no message from the doctor. Maybe he’d tried her house phone and had left one.
Sure enough when she retrieved her messages, she learned his nurse had called in a prescription for the pain. If she could just get some relief…
Right now nothing seemed real. The hurt of her failed marriage and the circumstances surrounding Jim’s death had gone too deep.
There was one more message, but she’d wait until she got home because the throbbing at the base of her skull refused to let up.
“Ally?” Carol called to her. “Are you all right?”
“I-it’s a migraine giving me grief. Do me a favor and tell the maestro I had to go home, but I’ll be here in the morning for rehearsal.”
The Portland Philharmonic Orchestra’s end of May concert was the day after tomorrow.
“I will. Don’t worry about your violin. I’ll take it home with me and bring it back tomorrow.”
“You’re an angel.”
After getting a drink from the fountain, Ally found the strength to leave the building and head for her car.
Once she’d stopped at the pharmacy where she’d taken one of her pills on the spot, she drove straight home and went to bed with an ice bag across her forehead.
An hour passed before she started to feel a little better. But there was no pill to stop the questions that wouldn’t leave her alone.
For one thing, she wanted to see the place where Jim had died. Her mother hadn’t thought it a good idea because visiting the scene of the accident would be too painful.
But Ally couldn’t be in any more pain than she was right now. She needed to look at the bridge where Jim’s car had skidded on ice into the river. It had happened during a blizzard outside St. Moritz, Switzerland.
She also felt a compulsion to see Donata’s family home, maybe even commiserate with the Duc on the phone after she arrived in Montefalco. He wouldn’t be human if he didn’t have questions, too. Maybe talking together would help both of them cope a little better with the tragedy.
Filled with a sense of purpose she hadn’t felt in months, she reached for her cell to phone the airlines. Using her credit card she booked a flight out of Portland for the next day. She would fly to Switzerland, then Italy.
By midafternoon she felt well enough to drive to the bank for traveler’s checks. The decision to do something concrete about her situation was probably more therapeutic than taking pills because she found the energy to get packed and arrange for her neighbor to bring in her mail while she was gone.
Once she’d showered, she took another pill and went to bed. When she awakened the next morning she felt considerably better.
With her car safely parked in the garage, all she had left to do was phone for a taxi. While she waited for it to come, Ally listened to the message that had been on her home phone since yesterday morning.
“Hey, Jim! This is Troy at the Golden Arm Gym. Since new management is taking over, we’ve been cleaning out the lockers. I found something pretty valuable of yours. I don’t have a phone number or address on you, so I’ve been calling all the J., Jim or James Parkers in the city trying to find you. Call me back either way so I can cross you off the list. If you’re that Jim, drop by within twenty-four hours or it’ll be gone.”
Ally had buried her husband two months ago. Just hearing someone ask to speak to him today of all days sent a chill through her body. This call was like a ghost from the past.
Since Jim had never joined a gym, she phoned the number to let them know.
“Golden Arm Gym.”
“Is Troy there?”
“Speaking.”
“You’re the person who called my house yesterday morning. I’m Mrs. James Parker, but I’m afraid you have the wrong Jim Parker.”
“Okay. The Jim I’m looking for works in Europe a lot, and he doesn’t have a wife. Thanks for letting me know.”
He clicked off, but Ally’s fingers tightened around the receiver. Much as she wanted to dismiss his words, she couldn’t. Too often in her marriage she’d ignored little signs because she hadn’t wanted to believe anything could be wrong.
But those days were over. She was no longer the naïve idealist he’d married.
Once the taxi arrived, she instructed the driver to stop by the gym. It was on the other side of Portland near the freeway leading to the airport. There was no time to lose.
The driver waited while she hurried inside the gym.
When she entered, there were several people already working out. The trainer at the counter flashed her a look of male interest.
“Hi!”
“Hello. Are you Troy?
“That’s right.”
“I’m Mrs. Parker, the woman you spoke to this morning.”
He squinted at her. “I thought you told me I had the wrong person.”
“Something you said forced me to reconsider. Did this Jim tell you what kind of work he did in Europe?”
“Yeah. He sells ski wear. In fact we worked out a deal. I gave him free workouts in exchange for his top of the line ski equipment.”
She took a fortifying breath. “Then that was my husband.”
He blinked. “What do you mean ‘was’?”
“Jim died four months ago.”
“You’re kidding. So that’s why I haven’t seen him around. What happened?”
“He died in a car accident.”
Had there been other women before Donata, and she’d happened to be the unlucky one who’d gone off the bridge with him?
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Parker. Maybe I misunderstood about him not being married.”
She shook her head. “No. I’m quite sure you didn’t. When did he join this club?”
“About a year ago.”
A whole year?
Struggling to remain composed, she pulled the wallet from her purse. Inside was a little photo holder. She showed him the one of Jim.
The other man stared at it, then nodded. “Just a sec and I’ll get what he left here.”
Half a minute later he came out of his office with an unfamiliar looking silver laptop. The power cord had been taped to it.
He tore the attached slip in half. “Sign here.”
Ally complied, trying her best not to tremble.
“Thank you for the call, Troy. I’m anxious to keep anything that belonged to my husband.”
“Of course. I’m glad you came when you did, otherwise we’d have sold it. I really am sorry about your husband.”
“So am I,” she muttered in a dull voice.
She’d known nothing about the purchase of this laptop. Jim’s company had supplied him with the one he’d always used to do business.
The only reason for this computer to exist meant he’d had something to hide.
She would have to take it to Europe with her. She didn’t have time to go back home. After she returned to the States, she’d look inside. If she discovered painful secrets, hopefully by then she’d be better able to handle them.
After going out to the cab, she packed the laptop in her suitcase then told the driver to step on it.
As she sat back in the seat, she shuddered to realize that her husband had been working out in a gym for eight months, and she’d had no knowledge of his activities. He must have stopped by either coming or going to Switzerland on business.
It was one thing to recognize that the two of them had drifted apart, but quite another to realize he’d been living a separate and secret life. How humiliating to be confronted by the truth in front of Troy, a total stranger to her.
Oh, Jim. What happened to the man I married? Did I ever really know you?
Ally was beginning to wonder…
With the aid of the staff, Gino helped his grieving Sofia and her father into the limo outside the local parish church. They’d just buried Donata in the adjacent cemetery. It had all been carried out in secret while word of her death had finally been announced by the media.
One day when the furor had died down, he would have her remains removed and buried on the grounds of the Montefalco estate in the family plot.
“I’ll join you at the farm in a few minutes, sweetheart.”
Sofia’s face was ravaged by fresh tears. “Don’t take too long.”
“I promise. I just want to say goodbye to a few people and thank the priest.”
She nodded before the farmhouse caretaker Paolo drove the car away.
Vastly relieved this part was over, he turned swiftly to Carlo whom he’d asked to wait until they could talk in private.
“The onslaught has started in earnest, Carlo.”
“What’s going on?”
“One of the security guards at the palazzo just left a message that a woman claiming to be Mrs. James Parker tried to get in to see Marcello a few minutes ago. It’s another ploy on the part of the paparazzi to ruin my family.”
The other man pursed his lips. “I must say I’m surprised they’d be audacious enough to impersonate the wife of the deceased.”
Gino grimaced. “Nothing surprises me anymore. She came in a taxi. As a precaution, the guard wrote down the license plate number.”
Carlo’s brows lifted. “Want me to track her down and have her vetted?”
Gino was way ahead of him.
“If you could locate her, I’d like to do the interrogating for a change.”
“What’s your plan?”
“How long could she be held at the jail?”
“Only twelve hours. If you can’t make the charges stick, then we’d have to release her.”
Gino’s eyes glittered. “Don’t worry about that. She’s going to wish she’d never ventured into my territory.”
Carlo pulled out his pocket notepad. “Give me the plate number. I’ll alert the desk sergeant at the jail to cooperate with you.”
“As usual, I’m indebted to you.”
“Our families have been close for years. I’m not about to see you and Sofia destroyed.”
Those words meant more to Gino than his friend would ever know.
“Grazie, Carlo.”
There was a jarring knock on the bedroom door.
“Signora Parker?”
Ally had only been in bed an hour and groaned in disbelief. Her long connecting flights from Oregon to Switzerland, then Rome, had been bad enough. But it was the horrendous day she’d spent on a hot, overcrowded train to reach the hilltop town of Montefalco that had done her in.
To compound her troubles, every hotel in the town had been booked months in advance for some festival. If her taxi driver hadn’t taken pity on her and brought her to his sister’s house to sleep, she would have been forced to return to Rome for the night. Perish the thought!
The rapping grew louder.
“Signora!”
Ally couldn’t work out what was happening.
“Just a moment!”
She sat up, unconsciously running a hand through her short, blond curls. They made her look younger than her twenty-eight years.
Grabbing her robe lying across the end of the bed, she slipped it on, then hurried over to the door and opened it.
The elderly woman looked tired. Ally thought she sounded out of breath.
“Quickly! You must get dressed! A car from the Palazzo Di Montefalco has come for you.”
Ally’s green eyes widened. “But that’s impossible!”
Earlier in the day she’d been turned away from the palace gates by armed guards. No one knew where she’d gone after she’d gotten back in the taxi.
“You have to be a very important person for the Duc Di Montefalco himself to send for you. Hurry! You must not keep the driver waiting,”
“I’ll be out as soon as I can. Thank you.”
Unless one of the guards had followed the taxi here, Ally was mystified as to how he’d known where to find her.
But that didn’t matter now. In a few minutes she was finally going to meet with the man she’d flown thousands of miles to see. After her futile attempts to reach him by phone from Rome before boarding the train, and then the fiasco that took place earlier in front of the palace, she’d almost given up hope.
She shut the door and reached for her suitcase. In a few minutes she’d donned fresh jeans and a green print blouse. At one-thirty in the morning she didn’t feel like dressing in the suit she’d brought.
Once she’d put on her sneakers, she finished the little packing she had to do. Before leaving the room, she found her purse and left two hundred dollars on the dresser.
One more look around to make sure she hadn’t left anything behind and she joined the older woman who stood in the foyer waiting.
Ally rushed up to her. “I’m so sorry you had to be wakened at this late hour because of me. Especially after you were kind enough to take me in. I’ve left money on the dresser for you and your brother. Thank you again for everything, including the delicious meal and the chance to shower. Please tell your brother thank you, too. I don’t know what I would have done without your help.”
The other woman nodded impatiently. “I’ll tell him. Now you must go!”
She opened the door onto an ancient narrow alley. The woman’s house was one of several built at street level. Yet all Ally could see was a gleaming black sedan parked right outside the door.
The light from the foyer illuminated the gold falcon insignia of the Montefalco crest emblazoned on the hood.
As Ally ventured over the threshold, a man dressed in black like the palace security guards stepped away from the stone wall connecting the houses.
Since Ally was only five foot five, she was immediately aware of a tall, solidly built male with hair black as night. Something about his imposing demeanor and the almost hawkish features that distinguished him from so many other Italian male faces she’d seen today sent a little shiver of alarm through her body.
With breathtaking economy of movement he relieved her of her purse and suitcase.
“Give that back!” she cried. Ally tried to wrest the suitcase from his hand, but it was no use. She was no match for him. Besides, he’d already stashed everything in the trunk.
She felt his glance mock her before he opened the rear door.
The interior light revealed a broad shouldered man of unquestionable strength. The sun had darkened his natural olive toned skin. He was more than conventionally handsome. The words splendid and fierce came to Ally’s mind before she climbed in the back seat.
Following that thought she wondered if she wasn’t crazy to let a total stranger whisk her away from her only place of refuge in this foreign country. She didn’t know a soul here except the taxi driver and his sister.
Worse, she’d somehow lost her cell phone during the train ride, so she couldn’t call for help. Someone had probably pilfered it.
The premonition that she might need a phone to the outside world was growing stronger as he climbed in behind the wheel and set the locks.
After he turned on the engine, they shot down the empty alley to the main road. Three blocks later and Ally sensed she was in trouble.
Instead of climbing to the top of the hill, the driver drove them through the lower streets of the town. He appeared to have a destination in mind that wasn’t anywhere near the ochre-colored ducal palace clinging to the side of the cliff.
Rather than leave the old woman’s protection at such an unorthodox hour, Ally should have obeyed her instincts and stayed in her room until morning.
She leaned forward in the leather seat. “This isn’t the way to the palace.” She’d said it in as steady a voice as she could muster.
“Please take me back to that woman’s house.”
The enigmatic guard ignored her demand and kept driving until they entered another alley behind some municipal buildings.
“Where are you taking me?”
“All in good time, signora.” The first words out of his mouth were spoken in impeccable English with only a slight trace of accent.
He pulled in front of a steel door with a single light shining overhead. In the next instant he’d come around to her side of the car and opened the door for her.
“After you, signora.”
She lifted her proud chin, refusing to budge. “Where have you brought me?”
His heavily lashed eyes looked like smoldering black fires.
“The Montefalco police station.”
Police? “I don’t understand.”
“Earlier this evening you asked to speak to the Duc Di Montefalco, did you not?”
“Yes. Are you telling me I didn’t have the right?”
“Let’s just say he doesn’t grant interviews.”
“I didn’t want an interview. I’ve flown a long way to talk to him in private.”
He shifted his weight, drawing her attention to the play of raw muscle power in his arms and chest.
“Anyone who wants to make contact with him has to go through me.”
That explained why she could never get anywhere on the phone or in front of the security guards.
Ally couldn’t prevent her gaze from traveling over his distinctive masculine features. Those piercing eyes were framed by startlingly black brows. Never had she looked into such an arresting face.
“Are you a police officer who doubles as one of his bodyguards or something?”
A dangerous smile curled the corners of his mocking mouth. “That’s one way of describing me.”
CHAPTER TWO
A STRANGE chill rippled across Ally’s skin. “How did you know where to find me?”
“The guards took down the license plate of your taxi. A simple phone call to the driver told me what I needed to know.”
As easy as that.
“I told the palace guards who I was. They didn’t even try to help me.”
His lips twisted unpleasantly. “Any woman could claim to be Mrs. James Parker.”
“But that’s who I am! I have my passport to prove it.”
“Passports are a dime a dozen. I believe that’s the American expression.”
She shook her head in exasperation. “Why are you being so hateful to me? I came to Italy expressly to meet with Mr. Montefalco for very personal reasons. You act like I’ve committed some crime.”
“Trespassing is a crime,” he muttered just loud enough to heighten her anxiety.
“This is impossible! I demand you call the American Embassy and let me talk to someone in charge.”
His mouth formed a contemptuous line.
“No one there will be available before morning.”
“In America you’re innocent until proven guilty!” she flung at him, starting to feel desperate.
“Then you should have stayed there, or wherever you really came from, signora,” he retorted in a voice of ice.
Trapped and painfully tired, Ally made the decision not to fight him. He was too formidable an adversary. This was all a terrible mistake, the kind you were supposed to be able to laugh about after you’d returned home from being abroad.
Once this man went through her belongings and found out the truth of her identity, she didn’t expect an apology. However she could hope for a quick release and the chance to talk to Mr. Montefalco before too much more time passed.
Wrapping her dignity around her like a cloak, she got out of the car and waited for him to open the door.
He pressed a button on the wall of the building. In a minute the door swung open electronically.
She’d never been inside a jail of any kind. In the small reception area there were two armed police officers, one of them seated at a desk.
They nodded to her captor.
After an exchange in Italian she couldn’t possibly understand, he left her in their charge and disappeared out the door.
“Wait—” she called out to no avail.
At that point she was photographed, fingerprinted and escorted down a passageway to a tiny room with a cot and a chair.
The door closed behind her, leaving her to her own devices.
The whole situation was so surreal, she wondered if she was hallucinating on the painkiller she’d taken before going to bed. It had been a preventive measure to ward off another sick headache.
Suddenly she heard the click of the electronic lock and the door opened. She swung around in time to see the driver who’d abducted her step inside. The door shut behind him, enclosing her in this tiny closet of a holding cell with a man who could overpower her before she took her next breath. He’d brought her purse with him.
“During your interrogation you have your choice of the chair or the bed, signora.”
She was feeling pretty hysterical about now.
“I’d rather stand.”
“So be it.”
He opened her purse. After examining the contents including her wallet and bottle of medication, he pulled out her passport.
She watched him study the picture that had been taken three years earlier. At that point in time she’d been a radiant fiancée with long blond hair and sparkling green eyes, anticipating a skiing honeymoon in the French Alps with Jim.
Ally could no longer relate to that person.
The stranger’s enigmatic gaze flicked to her face and hair. He scrutinized her as if trying and failing to find the woman in the photo.
He put the passport in his pocket, then tossed her purse with its contents on the cot next to the pathetic looking lump that was supposed to be a pillow.
Only now did she realize her suitcase was still in his car.
“I’d like my luggage. There are things I need,” she explained. “I have to have it, you know? Like clean clothes?”
“First things first, signora. Until I get the answers I’m looking for, we’ll be at this all night. Since you already appear unsteady on your feet—no doubt from fear that you’ve been caught in the act—I suggest you sit down before you pass out.”
“In the act of what?” Ally questioned, totally shocked by his assumption she’d done something wrong.
“We both know you’re one of the unscrupulous paparazzi, willing to do anything for an exclusive. But I’m warning you now. After trying to impersonate someone else, you’re facing a prison sentence unless you start talking.”
“I am Mrs. James Parker.”
“Just tell me the name of the tabloid that sent you on this story.”
Heat swept through her body into her face. “You’re crazy!” she blurted in exasperation. “My name is Allyson Cummings Parker. I’m an American citizen from Portland, Oregon. I only arrived in Rome from Switzerland this afternoon, or—or yesterday afternoon. I’m all mixed up now about the time. But I’m the widow of James Parker. He was a ski clothes salesman who worked for an American manufacturing company called Slippery Slopes of Portland. He died in a car accident outside St. Moritz, Switzerland, with Mr. Montefalco’s wife four months ago!”
“Of course you are,” he said in a sarcastic aside that made her hackles rise.
Her breathing grew shallow.
“Since you tracked me down through the taxi driver, he’ll tell you he picked me up at the train station, and had to do all the translating while I tried to find a room because I don’t speak Italian.”
Her captor nodded. “He admitted you put on a convincing performance. That is…until you gave yourself away by asking him to drive you to the palazzo. That was your fatal mistake.”
Her hands curled into fists. “How else was I supposed to talk to Mr. Montefalco? He doesn’t list his phone number. When I reached Rome, I was on the phone with an Italian operator for half an hour trying to get a number for him.”
“He doesn’t talk to strangers. If you were an innocent tourist who didn’t have a place to spend the night, you would have been much more concerned about that than brazenly attempting to ramrod your way into the ducal palace that has always been off limits to the public.”
“But I didn’t know that!”
“You’re a good liar, I’ll grant you that, but it was a dangerous act of idiocy on your part no matter how greedy you are for money. It’s the one credential you sleazy members of the media carry every time you trespass on sacred ground for a story. You have no decency or thought for the precariousness of the situation. None of your kind has a conscience.”
He folded his arms, eyeing her with chilling menace.
“As you’re going to find out, I don’t have one, either. So you can start talking now, or look forward to being incarcerated here indefinitely.”
Her mouth had gone dry. “You’re going to be sorry you’re treating me like this,” she warned him with a mutinous expression. “When Mr. Montefalco finds out I’m here anxious to talk to him, you’ll be lucky if it’s only your job you lose.”
His black eyes felt like lasers, scanning beneath the surface for any abnormalities.
“Who sent you to do their dirty work?” he rapped out as if she hadn’t spoken. “Tell me now and I’ll use my influence with the judge to get you off with a light sentence.”
A pulse throbbed at the corner of his hard jaw. He was in deadly earnest. That made the situation so much worse for Ally.
She spread her hands. “Look—there’s been a huge misunderstanding here. If you think my passport and driver’s license are doctored, then look at my airline tickets again. It proves I just flew here from Portland, with a stopover in Switzerland to see where my husband’s accident happened.”
His gaze searched hers relentlessly. “You call that proof when you could have flown from Italy to Oregon on your tabloid’s money to begin your impersonation? You’re wasting my time.”
He pressed a button above the door, no doubt sending a signal that he was ready to leave. This was a nightmare!
“No—don’t go yet—” she begged as the door swung outward.
He paused in the aperture, almost filling it with his tall, powerful body.
“Please—” she beseeched him. “There’s someone you could call who will vouch for me. His name is L—”
She broke off talking because she suddenly realized she didn’t want him to talk to Lieutenant Davis. She would be too embarrassed for the detective to know she’d flown here to satisfy her curiosity about Donata. It was a private matter she’d rather no one else knew about. Until she talked to Mr. Montefalco, it was absolutely crucial her activities and whereabouts remain a secret to everyone including her mother. Ally’s mom thought she was spending the weekend with friends from the orchestra. If she knew the truth, there would have been a battle Ally couldn’t have handled.
“Yes?” her adversary mocked again. “You were saying?”
He stood still as a tree trunk. By now she was so beside herself she felt light-headed. Her ears started to buzz.
Out of self-preservation she sank down on the end of the cot and lowered her head so she wouldn’t faint.
“Anything you’d like to confess before lights out, signora?” he asked without an ounce of concern or compassion.
His voice sounded far away. Ally had to wait until the worst of her weakness had passed before she could talk.
By then, he’d gone…
Vaguely disturbed by the woman’s insistence that she really was the wife of Donata’s last lover, Gino sped faster than was prudent through the dark streets toward his family home at the top of the mount. He wanted total privacy before searching the woman’s suitcase. En route he phoned Carlo.
“Thank you for helping me carry out my plan. The suspect is in her cell, but I realize we won’t be able to hold her for long. I asked the desk sergeant to run her passport through the scanner for verification, then report to you. Do me a favor and let me know what he finds out. When we’ve learned it’s counterfeit, I’ll expose her in my own way so she never gets another job. I’m sick of the media.”
Once they’d hung up, he used his remote to enter the estate.
After slipping in a private side entrance to the palazzo with his prisoner’s luggage, he entered Marcello’s study and set it on one of the damask couches.
Upon opening it, he was surprised to see how lightly she traveled. The interior was redolent of her flowery scent. There were only a few changes of outfits and feminine underclothing, all modest and for the most part American brands.
Frowning because he couldn’t find a camera or film, in fact nothing that sent up a red flag, his hands dug deeper.
“What’s this?”
He felt something solid, wrapped in a towel.
“I knew it!” he whispered fiercely as he pulled out a silver laptop.
No wonder she’d wanted to hold on to her luggage.
He carried it over to the desk and plugged it into the wall adaptor.
“You and your paper are about to be exposed. Believe me, signora, you’re going to pay—”
He turned it on, then sat down in the leather chair and waited to see what flashed on the screen.
He was ready to seize on anything that linked her to one of the tabloids.
Her home page popped up. He immediately clicked on her favorite pictures icon. Before long he came face-to-face with photos of Donata.
Gino let out a curse. He counted thirty pictures showing his sister-in-law in various stages of dress and undress. The outdoor pictures had been taken in Prague. He recognized the landmarks.
How in the hell had that impossibly green-eyed imposter gotten hold of these?
Donata, Donata.
He gritted his teeth. If these were to make it onto the streets… If Sofia were ever to see them…
He felt his gut twist in reaction.
There was only one reason why the champagne-blonde with the voluptuous curves locked up in the cell hadn’t gone public with them yet. Perhaps she’d decided to approach Marcello first to extort more money from him than her paper would pay out.
Sick to the depth of his being because he knew these photos were only the tip of the iceberg, he packed up the laptop, closed her suitcase and carried both out to the truck he kept on the estate.
Leaving by a hidden road that came out on a side street, he headed for the jail.
Later at the farmhouse when he had the luxury of time, he’d delve into the e-mails and other secrets of the computer’s hard drive. Until then, Gino would break her down until she was grist.
He wanted the name of the tabloid she worked for, how many more photos existed and the length of time she’d been on Donata’s trail in order to obtain those particular photos.
Ally heard the door open. When she saw a tall dark figure coming toward her before it closed again, she let out a bloodcurdling scream and pulled the sheet over her head. “Nightmares, signora?” sounded the devilish voice of her captor. “With the kinds of things you have on your conscience, I can’t say I’m surprised.”
“Get out!” she shouted into the darkness. “The only person I’ll speak to is a diplomat from the American Embassy. Do you understand me?”
“I’m afraid you’re going to have a long wait.”
She heard something scrape against the cement floor. She shivered to realize he’d pulled the chair next to her bed and had sat down.
“What you’re doing is against the law!”
He gave a caustic laugh.
Fear of a sort she’d never known before emboldened her to say the first thing that came into her mind.
“What a tragedy that such a lovely, beautiful town produces monsters like you.”
The rhythm of his breathing changed, letting her know she’d struck a nerve. Good!
“For someone in your kind of trouble,” he began in a frighteningly silky voice, “I’d advise you to stop fantasizing and tell me everything before the chief prosecutor of the region gets here and you’re arraigned before the magistrate.”
She sat up on the cot and pressed herself into the corner of the wall, as far away from him as possible.
“Whether you believe me or not, I’m Mrs. James Parker. So far, all you’ve told me is that I trespassed. But I don’t see how I did that when the guards wouldn’t let me past the gate.”
She heard him shift in the chair.
“If you’re telling the truth, and you really are the hapless wife who was the last person to know what your husband was up to, explain what those pictures are doing in your laptop.”
Pictures? Ally rubbed her bloodshot eyes with her palms. She was so desperately tired, maybe she was dreaming this horror story.
“I asked you a question, signora.”
No—she wasn’t dreaming. He was sitting there next to her, intimidating her by his very presence. All two hundred pounds of him, hard as steel physically and every other way.
“It’s my husband’s laptop. I don’t know anything about any pictures.”
She heard a sharp intake of breath.
“So you carried his laptop with you all the way to Montefalco for no particular reason?”
“I didn’t say that!” she protested. “I told you earlier that I came to have a private talk with Mr. Montefalco and no one else.”
“In order to show him the photographs and extort thousands of dollars in the process.”
Thousands of dollars? What pictures would be worth that kind of money? She took a deep breath, scared of what she might discover.
“If there are pictures, I haven’t seen them.”
At her hotel in St. Mortiz, Ally would have looked inside the laptop, but she hadn’t brought an adaptor to fit in the foreign outlet and figured she would have to wait until she returned to Portland. Part of her knew that was just an excuse. She didn’t want to know.
“I planned to talk to him about things that aren’t your business or anyone else’s.”
After a pause, he said, “You can tell me. I have his ear.”
“Prove it! For all I know you’re just a lowly policeman pretending to be Mr. Montefalco’s bodyguard.”
Suddenly he was on his feet. She could feel his rage as he pushed the chair away. She hid her face behind the sheet even though it was dark in the room.
Still bristling she said, “Now you know how it feels to be told you’re a liar and a sleazy con artist out to cash in on someone’s private tragedy. I repeat.” Her voice throbbed. “I’m not saying another word until I can speak to someone from the Embassy.”
While she waited for his response, the door opened, then slammed shut.
The next thing she knew the light in her cell went on.
She checked her watch, which she’d changed to Italian time on the train. It said 7:30 a.m.
How long were they going to leave her in here before allowing her to freshen up?
In desperation she dragged the chair over to the door so she could push the button he’d pressed earlier.
Suddenly the door swung open, almost causing her to fall.
A guard she didn’t recognize waited for her to climb down, then ordered her to follow him.
She grabbed her purse and trailed him down the hall and around the corner to the bathroom. There was no sign of her captor. She sincerely hoped she would never have to see or talk to him again.
After brushing her hair and putting on some lipstick, she felt a little more human. When she emerged minutes later, the guard escorted her back to her cell where a tray of food was waiting on the chair.
Just looking at the chair reminded her how her interrogator had shoved it across the room in a fit of anger.
In spite of the precariousness of her situation, the fact that she’d been able to infuriate him caused her to smile.
The guard noted it before disappearing.
Locked in once more, her gaze fell on the sparse continental breakfast. Rolls and coffee. But she wasn’t about to complain. It might be a long time before she was allowed to eat again, so she consumed everything in short order.
She kept thinking about those pictures he’d mentioned. Jim had evidently stored some in one of his files. Maybe they were photos of all the women he’d had affairs with in Europe. At this juncture she didn’t put anything past him. Her husband had truly lived a double life.
Ally let out a sound of abnegation.
What a fool she’d been not to have confronted him when she’d first suspected there was another woman.
Her abductor’s words stung more than ever.
If you’re telling the truth, and you really are the hapless wife who was the last person to know what your husband was up to, explain what those pictures are doing in your laptop.
Ally hadn’t been hapless. It was a case of not wanting to admit something was wrong and have her mother say, “I told you so. A man with good looks and knows it can’t be satisfied with one woman.”
Ally didn’t believe that. She knew too many attractive couples who had wonderful marriages.
Hers had started out that way, but when she saw changes happening, she should have questioned him point-blank. But she’d been scared. They could have talked things out and maybe salvaged their marriage. Now it was too late. There was no use wishing she’d acted on her suspicions a long time ago.
She looked around her claustrophobic cell. What she needed to do was get out of here.
Her abductor was waiting for her to cooperate. Maybe if she made up a lie, he’d believe her and allow her to go free with a slap on the wrist.
Without hesitation she pushed the chair over to the door and climbed up to press the button.
While she waited for a response, she put it back against the wall.
In a minute the door swung open to reveal the guard who’d brought her breakfast.
“Signora?”
“I hate it in here and I’m ready to talk.”
He took the tray off her bed and started out the door.
“Did you hear me?” she cried. “I’m ready to confess!”
He shot her an oblique glance before the door closed.
“Ooh—” She pounded her fists against it. “What kind of a lunatic place is this?” she shouted.
When she realized she was only hurting herself, she gave it up and walked around her cell, trying to rub the pain from the sides of her hands.
Five minutes later she experienced déjà vu to hear the door open and see her captor enter the room. When she glimpsed the forbidding look in those fiery black eyes, she backed away from him.
“You’re ready to tell the truth, signora?”
“Yes, but not in here. I can’t abide enclosed places.”
He gave an elegant shrug, reminding her what an amazing physique he had.
“It’s either in here, or not at all.”
“Oh all right!” She took a deep breath. “It’s true I pretended to be Mrs. Parker to get the duc’s attention.
“I do freelance stories for a local magazine in Portland. One of my boyfriends works for the police department and once in a while he tells me something interesting.
“A couple of months ago he told me his boss was working on a missing persons case involving a married man from Portland and another woman who died with him in Europe. Just the other day he mentioned that they’d finally identified the woman and had pictures of her.
“I asked him if he would let me see them. He did, so I scanned them and downloaded them to my laptop.
“All I wanted to do was talk to the woman’s husband and ask if I could do an exclusive story on him. In case he didn’t believe I was serious, I planned to show him the pictures. But I wouldn’t have allowed them to be published, or have bribed him for money. I just wanted to write about his heart-wrenching ordeal. Americans love stories about wealthy, titled people with problems. It makes them feel better about their own less glorious lives.
“So now that you know the truth, please let me go. All I want is my passport and suitcase back. If you’ll send for a taxi, the driver will take me to the train.
How about it? You let me out of here and I’ll go straight home to Portland.”
His eyes held a frightening gleam.
“You’re lying through your pearly-white teeth, signora, but I give you credit for your amazing resourcefulness.”
His wintry smile daunted her. “As it happens, I never told you the nature of those photos. If you’d known what they contained, you wouldn’t have placed your source’s job in jeopardy. All you’ve done is convince me you’re a liar.”
He was bluffing…
“How typical,” she mocked. “If I were a man, you would have said ‘good try.’ But since I’m a woman, I can’t be trusted.”
One black brow quirked.
“Aren’t you? So far you’ve told me two diametrically opposing lies, none of which hold water. While I’m still here, want to try for a third? I have nothing more important to do for the moment.”
“Okay.” She felt all the stuffing go out of her. “I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll give you a hundred dollars if you’ll let me go. No one will need to know.”
“If it were a hundred thousand dollars, I wouldn’t take it.”
He was impossible!
“Look— All I wanted to do was speak to Mr. Montefalco. This is between him and me, no one else.”
He pursed his lips. “Why is that, signora?”
She lifted solemn eyes to his.
“Because it’s very sad and very personal.”
He put his hands on hips, the picture of the ultimate male. “I’m his closest confidant. You can tell me anything. If it will make you feel any better, you can whisper it to me. I promise it will remain sacrosanct.”
Something in his tone had her halfway believing him, but it didn’t matter.
“How do I know you’re not wearing a listening device?”
“You don’t,” he clipped out. “You’ll have to trust me.”
She leaned close to him. “Sorry, but I have to talk to him alone.”
The nearness of her heart-shaped mouth and the flowery scent her body gave off, stunned him as much as the words that fell from those enticing lips underlining her intransigence.
She couldn’t be Mrs. James Parker. Any man married to her wouldn’t have felt the urge to turn to Donata or any other woman for that matter.
“If you won’t let me out of here,” she continued in a low voice, “then bring Mr. Montefalco to me. I want to talk to him, and I believe he’ll be anxious to talk to me. We might find we’re a comfort to each other.”
With his body still reacting to the warmth of her breath on his ear, Gino found himself reluctant to put distance between them. But he had to no matter how much the imploring look in her eyes and the haunting appeal in her voice persuaded him to believe she was finally telling him the truth.
He’d just stepped away, rubbing the back of his neck in an unconscious gesture of frustration when the door opened to reveal one of the guards. He informed Gino that Inspector Santi wanted him on the phone.
Without saying a word to her, he strode down the hall to the office, hardening himself against her sound of protest. In truth he was oddly reticent to find out she was the beautiful dust of the enemy.
He picked up the receiver, then turned his back toward the desk sergeant.
Knowing the jail phone was tapped he said, “Inspector? I’ll call you back on my phone.” After replacing the receiver, Gino pulled out his cell and rang him on the other man’s private line.
Keeping his voice low he said, “Carlo? What did you find out?”
“She is Mrs. Parker, Gino.”
While his thoughts took off in a dozen directions, Carlo kept talking. “I guess I’m not surprised. She’s a widow grieving for her husband.”
Gino had proof of that. He’d just come from her cell. She’d claimed that she’d sought out Marcello in the hope of giving and receiving comfort. But if that was true, how did she explain the laptop? Something didn’t ring true.
“She said she’d been in St. Moritz to visit the scene of the accident,” Gino murmured.
“It’s unfortunate she chose this time to come to Italy when the press is just waiting for anything they can do to sensationalize this case. She’s the last person you should be seen with.”
Gino agreed. All it would take was a photo of the two of them together caught by one of the lurking paparazzi, and the hellish situation would escalate overnight.
“You need to leave the jail and let me handle this, Gino. I’ll instruct the sergeant to free her. One of the guards will escort her to Rome by train and put her on the next plane for the States.”
Gino grunted a response as he listened to his friend. Though Carlo made a lot of sense, Gino couldn’t forget that Mrs. Parker had come all this way with that laptop to see Marcello for a specific reason. Since she’d put herself in jeopardy to accomplish her objective, Gino couldn’t let her go until he’d found out what was so important she’d risked everything, even jail, to make contact.
“I’m sure you’re right, Carlo. I’ll leave it up to you.”
“That’s good. You need to stay as far removed from her as possible.”
He would as soon as he’d had time to talk to her away from other people. “Grazie, Carlo. It seems that’s all I ever say to you.”
“Forget it. Ciao, Gino.”
Ally had been sitting on the cot wondering what was going on when the door flew open.
It was the same guard as before.
“Come, signora. You’ve been released. Please to follow me.”
Hardly able to believe it, she grabbed her purse and started after him.
“What about my suitcase?”
“It is here,” he said once they’d reached the reception area of the jail.
Convinced her abductor had confiscated the laptop, she leaned over to open the catches and sure enough, she discovered it was gone.
For some inexplicable reason, which was absurd considering her circumstances, she wished he were still here so that in front of his colleagues, she could accuse him of absconding with it.
She shut the lid and lifted her head. “What about my passport?”
“You’ll be given it after you board your flight for the U.S.”
She almost blurted that she couldn’t leave Montefalco yet, but she stopped herself in time. All she needed was to make that mistake and then be shuffled back to her cell for defying him.
She took a deep breath to calm down. When she boarded her jet, she would claim to be ill and ask to be put on a later flight. Once she found a hotel room in Rome, she would figure out another plan to reach Mr. Montefalco.
“Very well. I’m ready whenever you are.”
The jail door swung open. Another guard stood outside in front of a white police car and held the rear door open for her. Unlike her captor, he didn’t help her with her luggage. No doubt he considered her a lowlife reporter who didn’t deserve common courtesy.
She pushed her case across the seat and climbed in.
When their car emerged from the alley, throngs of tourists filled the walkways. The guard wound his way through the charming streets for the short ride to the depot.
She hated the thought of another hot train ride, but there was no help for it.
“Come, signora.”
The guard had parked the car in a VIP zone. He escorted her through the crowded station and out to the quay.
After a brief talk with one of the conductors, he boarded the train with her and put her in a second class compartment already filled except for one seat in the middle. She had to put her suitcase on the shelf above without his assistance.
“I’ll be in the corridor until we reach Rome, signora.” The warning that she shouldn’t try anything to escape was implicit.
Her cheeks hot with anger, she sat down, trying to avoid the interested stares of the other passengers.
No sooner had the guard stepped out of the compartment and disappeared than the train began to inch forward.
Ally was so exhausted after spending a wretched night in that jail cell, she rested her head against the back of the seat. Dispirited by everything that had happened, she closed her eyes for a few minutes, needing sleep. The first thing she would do when she could finally be alone in a hotel room was to crash.
Soon she lost track of time and was almost out for the count when she felt a hand on her arm.
“Signora?” sounded a deep male voice with a vaguely familiar timbre.
She came awake with a cry of alarm.
When she saw her striking captor still dressed in black, standing there bigger than life carrying her suitcase, the breath rushed from her lungs. She blinked up at him, wondering if he was real, or if she was dreaming.
“W-what’s going on?”
His hooded eyes played over her features, awakening her senses in spite of her fatigue, or maybe because of it.
“I relieved the other guard. We’re getting off at the next stop. Come with me.”
Though she felt so groggy she didn’t know how she’d be able to walk, she realized this man was her only chance to get Jim’s laptop back, and maybe find an entrée to Mr. Montefalco.
Clutching her purse, she got up and followed him out of the compartment and down the corridor. The train had already begun to slow down.
When it came to a stop, several people were waiting to climb on board. But he stepped off the stairs first, and held out his hand to help her. Feeling distinctly light-headed from sleep deprivation, she found his strong grasp oddly reassuring.
To her surprise he kept hold of it as he led her out of the small station to a truck parked along the road. It wasn’t anything like the black sedan from the palazzo she’d ridden in last night.
Heavens—was it only last night? Ally felt all mixed up and confused. She had to be confused to be happy this enigmatic stranger had rescued her from that awful train.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked once he’d turned on the engine.
“To a place where you can eat and sleep in that order.”
That sounded so wonderful, she wanted to cry.
“Why would you do that for me when you had me jailed for false credentials, trespassing and impersonating someone else?” her voice trembled.
His hands tightened on the steering wheel. She could tell because his knuckles went white.
“I’ve found out you’re who you said you were.”
She jerked her head away from him so he wouldn’t see her eyes smarting.
“You mean you now believe I’m Mrs. Parker…”
“Yes.”
“I see. So now that you know my name, what does Mr. Montefalco call you?”
There was a curious silence, then, “Gino.”
She stirred restlessly in the seat.
“Which may or may not be your real name, but at least it’s something to call you.”
“Besides bastard you mean?” he interjected in a wry tone.
Caught off guard, Ally laughed softly. She couldn’t help it.
“Actually that’s what I felt like calling the guard when he wouldn’t help me with my suitcase on the train. Even at your worst, you were more of a gentleman.”
She heard him draw in what sounded like a tortured breath. “I owe you an apology.”
She flicked him a covert glance. “If I ever get to meet your employer, I’ll be able to vouch for your fierce loyalty to him. It’s no wonder he keeps you on his payroll. Every man who’s a target should have such a trusted bodyguard.”
By now they’d left the little village of Remo and were driving through fields of sunflowers with a hot Italian sun shining down.
“How do you know so much about him?”
She studied her hands. “I know very little apart from the obvious facts.”
“Which are?” he prodded.
“He’s rich, titled and has lost his wife. If he loved her desperately, then my heart goes out to him.”
“What about your heart?” he whispered.
“If you’re asking if it was shattered by my husband’s death, then yes.” If you’re wondering if his probable infidelity has wounded me, then yes. But because she’d waited too long to try to fix what was wrong between them, Jim’s unexpected death had brought on guilt she couldn’t seem to throw off.
Gino drove along the maze of country roads with what appeared to be long accustomed practice and expertise.
Once upon a time she would have loved traveling through the countryside, but right now she was numb to the world around her.
The next time he stopped, her bleary eyes took in a yellowed, three-story farmhouse that looked quite ancient.
“Where are we?”
“My home,” he announced before helping her from the car.
He carried her suitcase and told her to follow him. She didn’t question him as they entered the foyer and climbed some stairs to the next floor.
He opened a door on his left. “You’ll be comfortable in here, Mrs. Parker. The en suite bathroom is through that door. I’ll ask my housekeeper Bianca to bring you a tray. Sleep well. We’ll talk later.”
“Yes, we will. I’d like my husband’s laptop back.”
“All in good time.”
As she was coming to find out, it was his favorite saying.
He placed her suitcase on the aged hardwood floor, then left and shut the door behind him.
Straight ahead of her was a four-poster double bed with a comfy looking white quilt. She was so tired, she removed her outer clothes and climbed under the covers. Ally didn’t remember her head touching the pillow.
CHAPTER THREE
ON GINO’S way down to the kitchen, Sofia met him in the dining room. “Who’s that lady you brought home with you, Uncle Gino?”
Gino had to think fast. “An acquaintance of mine who wanted to see the farm. She’s flown all the way from the States, and is so tired, I told her to sleep before I introduced her to you.”
“Oh.”
“Where’s Bianca?”
“Out on the back terrace with Luigi and papa.”
That was just as well. He tousled Sofia’s hair. “Our guest needs food. Do you want to help me fix it?”
“Yes.”
She started walking to the kitchen with him.
“What does she like?”
“Can you imagine her not liking anything Bianca cooks?”
“I guess not.”
His morose niece needed her friends. Now that he was home, he would arrange for it. Together they made a plate of ham, fresh bread, salad, fruit and hot tea.
“Can I go with you to take it to her?”
“Of course.”
“What’s her name?”
“Signora Parker.”
“Does she speak Italian?”
“No.” Not according to the taxi driver. “It will give you a chance to practice your excellent English with her.”
“Is she a farmer, too?”
Gino was equally curious about the wife of Donata’s lover. “Why don’t you ask her later?” It would be interesting to hear her answer.
They went up the stairs. He tapped on the door. “Signora?”
“I’ll peek,” Sofia offered and opened the door a crack. After tiptoeing inside, she came back out again.
“She’s sound asleep.”
Gino wasn’t surprised. “We’ll fix her another plate later.”
Once back in the kitchen, they worked together to clean things up while he devoured the meal meant for the intriguing woman sleeping beneath his roof.
“She has pretty hair. It looks like the color of fairy wings.”
That was as good a description of gossamer as you could get. He eyed his brunette niece he loved.
“Not many people we know have hair that particular shade do they?”
“I don’t know any,” she declared.
Neither did Gino.
“What do you say we call Anna’s mother and see if your friend can stay over with us for a few days.”
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Rebecca Winters
Rachel Valentine is the wine buyer for the Valentine family's exclusive Bella Lucia restaurants, and her relationship with master winemaker Luc Chartier should be strictly business…. Romanced by the beautiful Alsace vineyards, and seduced by the charismatic Luc, Rebecca can't help but fall in love. But their one night of passion is followed by a shocking revelation about Luc's past. Heartbroken, Rebecca returns home - only to discover that she is pregnant with Luc's child.
BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT
You’re invited to a royal wedding!
From turreted castles to picturesque palaces, these kingdoms may be steeped in tradition, but romance always rules!
So don’t miss your VIP invite to the most extravagant weddings of the year!
Your royal carriage awaits….
And don’t miss
Crowned: An Ordinary Girl
by
Natasha Oakley
Harlequin Romance
“Sorry I’m late.” He spoke into her ear.
Ally jerked her head around, assailed by the familiar scent clinging to his skin.
“Gino—”
She’d never been so happy to see anyone in her life.
“I’ve missed you, bellissima,” he whispered against her lips before capturing her mouth.
He drew her close, like a lover who’d been anticipating this moment and could no longer hold back.
Ally had been so caught off guard her mouth opened to the urgent pressure of his, and she found herself kissing him back in a slow, languorous giving and taking she’d never experienced in her life.
The background laughter of the crowd faded. All Ally was aware of was the throbbing of her heart against his solid male chest.
Rebecca Winters
The Bride of Montefalco
Rebecca Winters, whose family of four children has now swelled to include three beautiful grandchildren, lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the land of the Rocky Mountains. With canyons and high Alpine meadows full of wildflowers, she never runs out of places to explore, and they—along with her favorite vacation spots in Europe—often end up as backgrounds for her Harlequin Romance
novels. Writing is her passion, along with her family and church. Rebecca loves to hear from her readers. If you wish to e-mail her, please visit her Web site at www.rebeccawinters-author.com
Don’t miss
Matrimony with His Majesty
by Rebecca Winters
Coming in April in Harlequin Romance
!
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
“LIEUTENANT DAVIS?”
The Portland police detective looked up from his computer.
“I’m glad you got here so fast, Mrs. Parker.”
“Your message indicated it was urgent.”
“It is,” he said in a solemn tone. “Come in and sit down.”
Ally took a chair opposite his desk.
“I take it there’s been a new development in the case.”
“Major.” He nodded. “The woman who died in the car accident with your husband four months ago has finally been identified through dental records and a DNA match-up.”
Though Ally had buried her husband two months ago, she’d needed this day to come if she were ever to find closure. Yet at the same time she’d been dreading it because it meant getting painful facts instead of wallowing in useless conjecture.
“Who was she?”
“A thirty-four-year-old married female from Italy named Donata Di Montefalco.”
Finally the woman had a name and a background.
“The Italian authorities have informed me she was the wife of the Duc Di Montefalco, a very wealthy, prominent aristocrat from a town of the same name near Rome. According to the police investigating the case, her husband has had his own people searching for her all these months.”
“Naturally,” Ally whispered. Had he been in love with his wife? Or had his marriage been unraveling like Ally’s?
Though the detective had never said the words, she knew he suspected her husband of having been unfaithful. So had Ally who’d known her marriage was breaking down but hadn’t wanted to believe it.
Jim had changed so much from the seemingly devoted family man she’d first married, she’d slowly fallen out of love with him though she wasn’t able to pinpoint the exact moment it happened.
During the latter part of their two and half year marriage she’d seen signs that something was wrong. The long absenses from home because of his work, the lack of passion in his lovemaking when he did come home, his disinterest in her life when he made brief, unsatisfactory phone calls home, his desire to put off starting a family until he was making more money.
Despite the fact that there was still no definitive proof of an affair, this news gave added credence to her suspicions.
A fresh stab of pain assailed her. She needed to get out of his office to grieve in private.
Though she’d already had two months to absorb the fact that he hadn’t died alone, a part of her had hoped the other woman would have been middle-aged. Possibly an older woman he’d given a lift to because of the storm. But this latest information put that myth to rest. It increased her turmoil that she hadn’t loved him as much as she should have, otherwise why hadn’t she confronted him before it was too late?
“Thank you for calling me in, Lieutenant.” Any second now and she was going to lose control. Living in denial was the worst thing she could have done. Her guilt worsened to recognize she hadn’t fought harder to recapture the love that had brought them together in the first place.
“I appreciate what you’ve done to help me.”
She got up to leave. He walked her to the door of his office.
“I’m sorry I had to call you in and remind you of your loss all over again. But I promised to let you know when I had any more information.
“Here’s hoping that in the months to come, you’ll be able to put this behind you and move on.”
Move on? a voice inside her cried hysterically. How did you do that when your husband had died at the lowest ebb in your marriage?
How did you function when your dreams for a happy life with him were permanently shattered?
The detective eyed her with compassion. “Would you like me to walk you out to your car?”
“No thank you,” she murmured. “I’ll be all right.”
She hurried out of his office and down the hall to the front door of the police station.
Dear God—how was it possible things had ended like this? Nothing was resolved. If anything, she was riddled with new questions.
Her thoughts darted to the woman’s husband. He would have only just learned his wife’s body had been found and identified. Besides months of suffering since her disappearance and now this loss, he had to be wondering about Jim’s importance in Donata’s life.
Wherever the Duc Di Montefalco was at this moment, Ally knew he was in hell.
She could relate…
“Uncle Gino? How come we’re going to stay at your farm for a while?
Rudolfo Giannino Fioretto Di Montefalco, known only to his family and a few close friends as Gino, eyed his eleven-year-old niece through the rearview mirror. The girl sat next to Marcello, Gino’s elder brother.
“Because it’s summer. I thought you and your father would enjoy getting out in nature instead of being cooped up in the palazzo.”
“But what if Mama comes back and we’re not there?”
Gino braced himself. The dreaded moment had come.
He pulled up to the side of the farmhouse. In the dying rays of the sun, the cypress trees formed spokes across the yellowed exterior.
He turned in his seat to make certain Sofia was holding her father’s hand. Since Marcello had been stricken with Alzheimer’s and could no longer talk, it was one of the ways she could express her love and hope to feel his in return.
“I have something to tell you, sweetheart.”
A full minute passed. In that amount of time the color had drained from his niece’s face. “What is it?” she asked in a tremulous voice. The strain of going months without knowing anything about her mother had robbed Sofia of any joie de vivre.
“Sofia, I have some bad news. Your mama, she was in a car accident, and…she died.”
Four months ago in fact, but Gino had only been informed of her death last night. Today he’d been making preparations for Sofia’s move to the country with Marcello.
The details surrounding the tragedy were something neither she nor the trusted staff both at the palazzo and the farmhouse needed to know about.
His gaze took in Sofia’s pain-filled expression. When his news computed, he heard the sobs of an already heartbroken girl who buried her dark brown head against her father’s shoulder.
Marcello looked down at her, not comprehending, not able to comfort his daughter.
Gino felt her sobs from the front seat. Tears welled in his throat. Now that Donata’s body had been found and identified, the nightmare of her disappearance was over. But another one had just begun…
His motherless, already introverted niece was going to need more love and understanding than ever.
As for Gino, once he’d arranged with the priest for a private memorial service away from prying eyes so Sofia could say goodbye to her mother in private, he needed to increase security to protect his family from the press.
Carlo Santi, the region’s top police inspector and one of their family’s best friends was doing his best to stop information from the police department leaking to the various newspapers and media in Rome and elsewhere. But there were those rabid, insatiable vultures from the tabloids who invaded without mercy, always lurking to find something juicy on Gino and his family. It was the price they paid for their title and wealth.
If it weren’t for Carlo running interference for him all these months, the situation could have gotten uglier much sooner.
With the sudden debilitating onset of Marcello’s disease two years ago, Donata’s selfish streak had created havoc in his brother’s marriage, and had damaged their daughter irreparably. In Gino’s opinion, Donata had to have been one of the world’s most insensitive, neglectful wives and mothers on record.
He’d fought hard to protect his brother and niece from the worst of her flaws.
As a result he’d been forced to guard the family secrets with a certain ruthlessness that Donata enjoyed publicizing to anyone who would listen. Her indiscriminate venting had made its way to the press, casting a pall over all their lives, Gino’s in particular. Through innuendo she’d made him out to be the grasping, jealous brother-in-law who wanted her and the title for himself.
The only thing Donata hadn’t ever considered was her own death.
Once the media got wind of the accident that took her life, everything Gino had done to keep family matters private was about to become a public scandal. The fact that an American man close to Donata’s age had been driving the car when they’d been killed provided the kind of fodder to cause a paparazzi frenzy. This kind of story would sell millions of papers with far reaching consequences for Sofia. His niece could be destroyed by the facts, let alone the malicious rumors surrounding them.
Aside from physically removing the two in the back seat to a protected place away from media invasion, there didn’t seem to be a thing in hell he could do about unscrupulous journalists digging up old lies on him in order to sell more newspapers. Since his teens, battling the press had been the story of his life. Now it was about to be the story of Sofia’s, but not if he could help it!
The orchestra conductor put down his baton. “Take a ten minute break. Then we’ll pick up the Brahms at bar 20.”
Thankful for the respite, Ally placed her violin on the seat and filed out of the music hall behind the other members of the string section.
She walked down the corridor where she could be alone and reached in her purse for her cell phone.
She was expecting a call back from her doctor. After the meeting with the detective yesterday, she’d developed a migraine that still hadn’t gone away. To her dismay there was no message from the doctor. Maybe he’d tried her house phone and had left one.
Sure enough when she retrieved her messages, she learned his nurse had called in a prescription for the pain. If she could just get some relief…
Right now nothing seemed real. The hurt of her failed marriage and the circumstances surrounding Jim’s death had gone too deep.
There was one more message, but she’d wait until she got home because the throbbing at the base of her skull refused to let up.
“Ally?” Carol called to her. “Are you all right?”
“I-it’s a migraine giving me grief. Do me a favor and tell the maestro I had to go home, but I’ll be here in the morning for rehearsal.”
The Portland Philharmonic Orchestra’s end of May concert was the day after tomorrow.
“I will. Don’t worry about your violin. I’ll take it home with me and bring it back tomorrow.”
“You’re an angel.”
After getting a drink from the fountain, Ally found the strength to leave the building and head for her car.
Once she’d stopped at the pharmacy where she’d taken one of her pills on the spot, she drove straight home and went to bed with an ice bag across her forehead.
An hour passed before she started to feel a little better. But there was no pill to stop the questions that wouldn’t leave her alone.
For one thing, she wanted to see the place where Jim had died. Her mother hadn’t thought it a good idea because visiting the scene of the accident would be too painful.
But Ally couldn’t be in any more pain than she was right now. She needed to look at the bridge where Jim’s car had skidded on ice into the river. It had happened during a blizzard outside St. Moritz, Switzerland.
She also felt a compulsion to see Donata’s family home, maybe even commiserate with the Duc on the phone after she arrived in Montefalco. He wouldn’t be human if he didn’t have questions, too. Maybe talking together would help both of them cope a little better with the tragedy.
Filled with a sense of purpose she hadn’t felt in months, she reached for her cell to phone the airlines. Using her credit card she booked a flight out of Portland for the next day. She would fly to Switzerland, then Italy.
By midafternoon she felt well enough to drive to the bank for traveler’s checks. The decision to do something concrete about her situation was probably more therapeutic than taking pills because she found the energy to get packed and arrange for her neighbor to bring in her mail while she was gone.
Once she’d showered, she took another pill and went to bed. When she awakened the next morning she felt considerably better.
With her car safely parked in the garage, all she had left to do was phone for a taxi. While she waited for it to come, Ally listened to the message that had been on her home phone since yesterday morning.
“Hey, Jim! This is Troy at the Golden Arm Gym. Since new management is taking over, we’ve been cleaning out the lockers. I found something pretty valuable of yours. I don’t have a phone number or address on you, so I’ve been calling all the J., Jim or James Parkers in the city trying to find you. Call me back either way so I can cross you off the list. If you’re that Jim, drop by within twenty-four hours or it’ll be gone.”
Ally had buried her husband two months ago. Just hearing someone ask to speak to him today of all days sent a chill through her body. This call was like a ghost from the past.
Since Jim had never joined a gym, she phoned the number to let them know.
“Golden Arm Gym.”
“Is Troy there?”
“Speaking.”
“You’re the person who called my house yesterday morning. I’m Mrs. James Parker, but I’m afraid you have the wrong Jim Parker.”
“Okay. The Jim I’m looking for works in Europe a lot, and he doesn’t have a wife. Thanks for letting me know.”
He clicked off, but Ally’s fingers tightened around the receiver. Much as she wanted to dismiss his words, she couldn’t. Too often in her marriage she’d ignored little signs because she hadn’t wanted to believe anything could be wrong.
But those days were over. She was no longer the naïve idealist he’d married.
Once the taxi arrived, she instructed the driver to stop by the gym. It was on the other side of Portland near the freeway leading to the airport. There was no time to lose.
The driver waited while she hurried inside the gym.
When she entered, there were several people already working out. The trainer at the counter flashed her a look of male interest.
“Hi!”
“Hello. Are you Troy?
“That’s right.”
“I’m Mrs. Parker, the woman you spoke to this morning.”
He squinted at her. “I thought you told me I had the wrong person.”
“Something you said forced me to reconsider. Did this Jim tell you what kind of work he did in Europe?”
“Yeah. He sells ski wear. In fact we worked out a deal. I gave him free workouts in exchange for his top of the line ski equipment.”
She took a fortifying breath. “Then that was my husband.”
He blinked. “What do you mean ‘was’?”
“Jim died four months ago.”
“You’re kidding. So that’s why I haven’t seen him around. What happened?”
“He died in a car accident.”
Had there been other women before Donata, and she’d happened to be the unlucky one who’d gone off the bridge with him?
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Parker. Maybe I misunderstood about him not being married.”
She shook her head. “No. I’m quite sure you didn’t. When did he join this club?”
“About a year ago.”
A whole year?
Struggling to remain composed, she pulled the wallet from her purse. Inside was a little photo holder. She showed him the one of Jim.
The other man stared at it, then nodded. “Just a sec and I’ll get what he left here.”
Half a minute later he came out of his office with an unfamiliar looking silver laptop. The power cord had been taped to it.
He tore the attached slip in half. “Sign here.”
Ally complied, trying her best not to tremble.
“Thank you for the call, Troy. I’m anxious to keep anything that belonged to my husband.”
“Of course. I’m glad you came when you did, otherwise we’d have sold it. I really am sorry about your husband.”
“So am I,” she muttered in a dull voice.
She’d known nothing about the purchase of this laptop. Jim’s company had supplied him with the one he’d always used to do business.
The only reason for this computer to exist meant he’d had something to hide.
She would have to take it to Europe with her. She didn’t have time to go back home. After she returned to the States, she’d look inside. If she discovered painful secrets, hopefully by then she’d be better able to handle them.
After going out to the cab, she packed the laptop in her suitcase then told the driver to step on it.
As she sat back in the seat, she shuddered to realize that her husband had been working out in a gym for eight months, and she’d had no knowledge of his activities. He must have stopped by either coming or going to Switzerland on business.
It was one thing to recognize that the two of them had drifted apart, but quite another to realize he’d been living a separate and secret life. How humiliating to be confronted by the truth in front of Troy, a total stranger to her.
Oh, Jim. What happened to the man I married? Did I ever really know you?
Ally was beginning to wonder…
With the aid of the staff, Gino helped his grieving Sofia and her father into the limo outside the local parish church. They’d just buried Donata in the adjacent cemetery. It had all been carried out in secret while word of her death had finally been announced by the media.
One day when the furor had died down, he would have her remains removed and buried on the grounds of the Montefalco estate in the family plot.
“I’ll join you at the farm in a few minutes, sweetheart.”
Sofia’s face was ravaged by fresh tears. “Don’t take too long.”
“I promise. I just want to say goodbye to a few people and thank the priest.”
She nodded before the farmhouse caretaker Paolo drove the car away.
Vastly relieved this part was over, he turned swiftly to Carlo whom he’d asked to wait until they could talk in private.
“The onslaught has started in earnest, Carlo.”
“What’s going on?”
“One of the security guards at the palazzo just left a message that a woman claiming to be Mrs. James Parker tried to get in to see Marcello a few minutes ago. It’s another ploy on the part of the paparazzi to ruin my family.”
The other man pursed his lips. “I must say I’m surprised they’d be audacious enough to impersonate the wife of the deceased.”
Gino grimaced. “Nothing surprises me anymore. She came in a taxi. As a precaution, the guard wrote down the license plate number.”
Carlo’s brows lifted. “Want me to track her down and have her vetted?”
Gino was way ahead of him.
“If you could locate her, I’d like to do the interrogating for a change.”
“What’s your plan?”
“How long could she be held at the jail?”
“Only twelve hours. If you can’t make the charges stick, then we’d have to release her.”
Gino’s eyes glittered. “Don’t worry about that. She’s going to wish she’d never ventured into my territory.”
Carlo pulled out his pocket notepad. “Give me the plate number. I’ll alert the desk sergeant at the jail to cooperate with you.”
“As usual, I’m indebted to you.”
“Our families have been close for years. I’m not about to see you and Sofia destroyed.”
Those words meant more to Gino than his friend would ever know.
“Grazie, Carlo.”
There was a jarring knock on the bedroom door.
“Signora Parker?”
Ally had only been in bed an hour and groaned in disbelief. Her long connecting flights from Oregon to Switzerland, then Rome, had been bad enough. But it was the horrendous day she’d spent on a hot, overcrowded train to reach the hilltop town of Montefalco that had done her in.
To compound her troubles, every hotel in the town had been booked months in advance for some festival. If her taxi driver hadn’t taken pity on her and brought her to his sister’s house to sleep, she would have been forced to return to Rome for the night. Perish the thought!
The rapping grew louder.
“Signora!”
Ally couldn’t work out what was happening.
“Just a moment!”
She sat up, unconsciously running a hand through her short, blond curls. They made her look younger than her twenty-eight years.
Grabbing her robe lying across the end of the bed, she slipped it on, then hurried over to the door and opened it.
The elderly woman looked tired. Ally thought she sounded out of breath.
“Quickly! You must get dressed! A car from the Palazzo Di Montefalco has come for you.”
Ally’s green eyes widened. “But that’s impossible!”
Earlier in the day she’d been turned away from the palace gates by armed guards. No one knew where she’d gone after she’d gotten back in the taxi.
“You have to be a very important person for the Duc Di Montefalco himself to send for you. Hurry! You must not keep the driver waiting,”
“I’ll be out as soon as I can. Thank you.”
Unless one of the guards had followed the taxi here, Ally was mystified as to how he’d known where to find her.
But that didn’t matter now. In a few minutes she was finally going to meet with the man she’d flown thousands of miles to see. After her futile attempts to reach him by phone from Rome before boarding the train, and then the fiasco that took place earlier in front of the palace, she’d almost given up hope.
She shut the door and reached for her suitcase. In a few minutes she’d donned fresh jeans and a green print blouse. At one-thirty in the morning she didn’t feel like dressing in the suit she’d brought.
Once she’d put on her sneakers, she finished the little packing she had to do. Before leaving the room, she found her purse and left two hundred dollars on the dresser.
One more look around to make sure she hadn’t left anything behind and she joined the older woman who stood in the foyer waiting.
Ally rushed up to her. “I’m so sorry you had to be wakened at this late hour because of me. Especially after you were kind enough to take me in. I’ve left money on the dresser for you and your brother. Thank you again for everything, including the delicious meal and the chance to shower. Please tell your brother thank you, too. I don’t know what I would have done without your help.”
The other woman nodded impatiently. “I’ll tell him. Now you must go!”
She opened the door onto an ancient narrow alley. The woman’s house was one of several built at street level. Yet all Ally could see was a gleaming black sedan parked right outside the door.
The light from the foyer illuminated the gold falcon insignia of the Montefalco crest emblazoned on the hood.
As Ally ventured over the threshold, a man dressed in black like the palace security guards stepped away from the stone wall connecting the houses.
Since Ally was only five foot five, she was immediately aware of a tall, solidly built male with hair black as night. Something about his imposing demeanor and the almost hawkish features that distinguished him from so many other Italian male faces she’d seen today sent a little shiver of alarm through her body.
With breathtaking economy of movement he relieved her of her purse and suitcase.
“Give that back!” she cried. Ally tried to wrest the suitcase from his hand, but it was no use. She was no match for him. Besides, he’d already stashed everything in the trunk.
She felt his glance mock her before he opened the rear door.
The interior light revealed a broad shouldered man of unquestionable strength. The sun had darkened his natural olive toned skin. He was more than conventionally handsome. The words splendid and fierce came to Ally’s mind before she climbed in the back seat.
Following that thought she wondered if she wasn’t crazy to let a total stranger whisk her away from her only place of refuge in this foreign country. She didn’t know a soul here except the taxi driver and his sister.
Worse, she’d somehow lost her cell phone during the train ride, so she couldn’t call for help. Someone had probably pilfered it.
The premonition that she might need a phone to the outside world was growing stronger as he climbed in behind the wheel and set the locks.
After he turned on the engine, they shot down the empty alley to the main road. Three blocks later and Ally sensed she was in trouble.
Instead of climbing to the top of the hill, the driver drove them through the lower streets of the town. He appeared to have a destination in mind that wasn’t anywhere near the ochre-colored ducal palace clinging to the side of the cliff.
Rather than leave the old woman’s protection at such an unorthodox hour, Ally should have obeyed her instincts and stayed in her room until morning.
She leaned forward in the leather seat. “This isn’t the way to the palace.” She’d said it in as steady a voice as she could muster.
“Please take me back to that woman’s house.”
The enigmatic guard ignored her demand and kept driving until they entered another alley behind some municipal buildings.
“Where are you taking me?”
“All in good time, signora.” The first words out of his mouth were spoken in impeccable English with only a slight trace of accent.
He pulled in front of a steel door with a single light shining overhead. In the next instant he’d come around to her side of the car and opened the door for her.
“After you, signora.”
She lifted her proud chin, refusing to budge. “Where have you brought me?”
His heavily lashed eyes looked like smoldering black fires.
“The Montefalco police station.”
Police? “I don’t understand.”
“Earlier this evening you asked to speak to the Duc Di Montefalco, did you not?”
“Yes. Are you telling me I didn’t have the right?”
“Let’s just say he doesn’t grant interviews.”
“I didn’t want an interview. I’ve flown a long way to talk to him in private.”
He shifted his weight, drawing her attention to the play of raw muscle power in his arms and chest.
“Anyone who wants to make contact with him has to go through me.”
That explained why she could never get anywhere on the phone or in front of the security guards.
Ally couldn’t prevent her gaze from traveling over his distinctive masculine features. Those piercing eyes were framed by startlingly black brows. Never had she looked into such an arresting face.
“Are you a police officer who doubles as one of his bodyguards or something?”
A dangerous smile curled the corners of his mocking mouth. “That’s one way of describing me.”
CHAPTER TWO
A STRANGE chill rippled across Ally’s skin. “How did you know where to find me?”
“The guards took down the license plate of your taxi. A simple phone call to the driver told me what I needed to know.”
As easy as that.
“I told the palace guards who I was. They didn’t even try to help me.”
His lips twisted unpleasantly. “Any woman could claim to be Mrs. James Parker.”
“But that’s who I am! I have my passport to prove it.”
“Passports are a dime a dozen. I believe that’s the American expression.”
She shook her head in exasperation. “Why are you being so hateful to me? I came to Italy expressly to meet with Mr. Montefalco for very personal reasons. You act like I’ve committed some crime.”
“Trespassing is a crime,” he muttered just loud enough to heighten her anxiety.
“This is impossible! I demand you call the American Embassy and let me talk to someone in charge.”
His mouth formed a contemptuous line.
“No one there will be available before morning.”
“In America you’re innocent until proven guilty!” she flung at him, starting to feel desperate.
“Then you should have stayed there, or wherever you really came from, signora,” he retorted in a voice of ice.
Trapped and painfully tired, Ally made the decision not to fight him. He was too formidable an adversary. This was all a terrible mistake, the kind you were supposed to be able to laugh about after you’d returned home from being abroad.
Once this man went through her belongings and found out the truth of her identity, she didn’t expect an apology. However she could hope for a quick release and the chance to talk to Mr. Montefalco before too much more time passed.
Wrapping her dignity around her like a cloak, she got out of the car and waited for him to open the door.
He pressed a button on the wall of the building. In a minute the door swung open electronically.
She’d never been inside a jail of any kind. In the small reception area there were two armed police officers, one of them seated at a desk.
They nodded to her captor.
After an exchange in Italian she couldn’t possibly understand, he left her in their charge and disappeared out the door.
“Wait—” she called out to no avail.
At that point she was photographed, fingerprinted and escorted down a passageway to a tiny room with a cot and a chair.
The door closed behind her, leaving her to her own devices.
The whole situation was so surreal, she wondered if she was hallucinating on the painkiller she’d taken before going to bed. It had been a preventive measure to ward off another sick headache.
Suddenly she heard the click of the electronic lock and the door opened. She swung around in time to see the driver who’d abducted her step inside. The door shut behind him, enclosing her in this tiny closet of a holding cell with a man who could overpower her before she took her next breath. He’d brought her purse with him.
“During your interrogation you have your choice of the chair or the bed, signora.”
She was feeling pretty hysterical about now.
“I’d rather stand.”
“So be it.”
He opened her purse. After examining the contents including her wallet and bottle of medication, he pulled out her passport.
She watched him study the picture that had been taken three years earlier. At that point in time she’d been a radiant fiancée with long blond hair and sparkling green eyes, anticipating a skiing honeymoon in the French Alps with Jim.
Ally could no longer relate to that person.
The stranger’s enigmatic gaze flicked to her face and hair. He scrutinized her as if trying and failing to find the woman in the photo.
He put the passport in his pocket, then tossed her purse with its contents on the cot next to the pathetic looking lump that was supposed to be a pillow.
Only now did she realize her suitcase was still in his car.
“I’d like my luggage. There are things I need,” she explained. “I have to have it, you know? Like clean clothes?”
“First things first, signora. Until I get the answers I’m looking for, we’ll be at this all night. Since you already appear unsteady on your feet—no doubt from fear that you’ve been caught in the act—I suggest you sit down before you pass out.”
“In the act of what?” Ally questioned, totally shocked by his assumption she’d done something wrong.
“We both know you’re one of the unscrupulous paparazzi, willing to do anything for an exclusive. But I’m warning you now. After trying to impersonate someone else, you’re facing a prison sentence unless you start talking.”
“I am Mrs. James Parker.”
“Just tell me the name of the tabloid that sent you on this story.”
Heat swept through her body into her face. “You’re crazy!” she blurted in exasperation. “My name is Allyson Cummings Parker. I’m an American citizen from Portland, Oregon. I only arrived in Rome from Switzerland this afternoon, or—or yesterday afternoon. I’m all mixed up now about the time. But I’m the widow of James Parker. He was a ski clothes salesman who worked for an American manufacturing company called Slippery Slopes of Portland. He died in a car accident outside St. Moritz, Switzerland, with Mr. Montefalco’s wife four months ago!”
“Of course you are,” he said in a sarcastic aside that made her hackles rise.
Her breathing grew shallow.
“Since you tracked me down through the taxi driver, he’ll tell you he picked me up at the train station, and had to do all the translating while I tried to find a room because I don’t speak Italian.”
Her captor nodded. “He admitted you put on a convincing performance. That is…until you gave yourself away by asking him to drive you to the palazzo. That was your fatal mistake.”
Her hands curled into fists. “How else was I supposed to talk to Mr. Montefalco? He doesn’t list his phone number. When I reached Rome, I was on the phone with an Italian operator for half an hour trying to get a number for him.”
“He doesn’t talk to strangers. If you were an innocent tourist who didn’t have a place to spend the night, you would have been much more concerned about that than brazenly attempting to ramrod your way into the ducal palace that has always been off limits to the public.”
“But I didn’t know that!”
“You’re a good liar, I’ll grant you that, but it was a dangerous act of idiocy on your part no matter how greedy you are for money. It’s the one credential you sleazy members of the media carry every time you trespass on sacred ground for a story. You have no decency or thought for the precariousness of the situation. None of your kind has a conscience.”
He folded his arms, eyeing her with chilling menace.
“As you’re going to find out, I don’t have one, either. So you can start talking now, or look forward to being incarcerated here indefinitely.”
Her mouth had gone dry. “You’re going to be sorry you’re treating me like this,” she warned him with a mutinous expression. “When Mr. Montefalco finds out I’m here anxious to talk to him, you’ll be lucky if it’s only your job you lose.”
His black eyes felt like lasers, scanning beneath the surface for any abnormalities.
“Who sent you to do their dirty work?” he rapped out as if she hadn’t spoken. “Tell me now and I’ll use my influence with the judge to get you off with a light sentence.”
A pulse throbbed at the corner of his hard jaw. He was in deadly earnest. That made the situation so much worse for Ally.
She spread her hands. “Look—there’s been a huge misunderstanding here. If you think my passport and driver’s license are doctored, then look at my airline tickets again. It proves I just flew here from Portland, with a stopover in Switzerland to see where my husband’s accident happened.”
His gaze searched hers relentlessly. “You call that proof when you could have flown from Italy to Oregon on your tabloid’s money to begin your impersonation? You’re wasting my time.”
He pressed a button above the door, no doubt sending a signal that he was ready to leave. This was a nightmare!
“No—don’t go yet—” she begged as the door swung outward.
He paused in the aperture, almost filling it with his tall, powerful body.
“Please—” she beseeched him. “There’s someone you could call who will vouch for me. His name is L—”
She broke off talking because she suddenly realized she didn’t want him to talk to Lieutenant Davis. She would be too embarrassed for the detective to know she’d flown here to satisfy her curiosity about Donata. It was a private matter she’d rather no one else knew about. Until she talked to Mr. Montefalco, it was absolutely crucial her activities and whereabouts remain a secret to everyone including her mother. Ally’s mom thought she was spending the weekend with friends from the orchestra. If she knew the truth, there would have been a battle Ally couldn’t have handled.
“Yes?” her adversary mocked again. “You were saying?”
He stood still as a tree trunk. By now she was so beside herself she felt light-headed. Her ears started to buzz.
Out of self-preservation she sank down on the end of the cot and lowered her head so she wouldn’t faint.
“Anything you’d like to confess before lights out, signora?” he asked without an ounce of concern or compassion.
His voice sounded far away. Ally had to wait until the worst of her weakness had passed before she could talk.
By then, he’d gone…
Vaguely disturbed by the woman’s insistence that she really was the wife of Donata’s last lover, Gino sped faster than was prudent through the dark streets toward his family home at the top of the mount. He wanted total privacy before searching the woman’s suitcase. En route he phoned Carlo.
“Thank you for helping me carry out my plan. The suspect is in her cell, but I realize we won’t be able to hold her for long. I asked the desk sergeant to run her passport through the scanner for verification, then report to you. Do me a favor and let me know what he finds out. When we’ve learned it’s counterfeit, I’ll expose her in my own way so she never gets another job. I’m sick of the media.”
Once they’d hung up, he used his remote to enter the estate.
After slipping in a private side entrance to the palazzo with his prisoner’s luggage, he entered Marcello’s study and set it on one of the damask couches.
Upon opening it, he was surprised to see how lightly she traveled. The interior was redolent of her flowery scent. There were only a few changes of outfits and feminine underclothing, all modest and for the most part American brands.
Frowning because he couldn’t find a camera or film, in fact nothing that sent up a red flag, his hands dug deeper.
“What’s this?”
He felt something solid, wrapped in a towel.
“I knew it!” he whispered fiercely as he pulled out a silver laptop.
No wonder she’d wanted to hold on to her luggage.
He carried it over to the desk and plugged it into the wall adaptor.
“You and your paper are about to be exposed. Believe me, signora, you’re going to pay—”
He turned it on, then sat down in the leather chair and waited to see what flashed on the screen.
He was ready to seize on anything that linked her to one of the tabloids.
Her home page popped up. He immediately clicked on her favorite pictures icon. Before long he came face-to-face with photos of Donata.
Gino let out a curse. He counted thirty pictures showing his sister-in-law in various stages of dress and undress. The outdoor pictures had been taken in Prague. He recognized the landmarks.
How in the hell had that impossibly green-eyed imposter gotten hold of these?
Donata, Donata.
He gritted his teeth. If these were to make it onto the streets… If Sofia were ever to see them…
He felt his gut twist in reaction.
There was only one reason why the champagne-blonde with the voluptuous curves locked up in the cell hadn’t gone public with them yet. Perhaps she’d decided to approach Marcello first to extort more money from him than her paper would pay out.
Sick to the depth of his being because he knew these photos were only the tip of the iceberg, he packed up the laptop, closed her suitcase and carried both out to the truck he kept on the estate.
Leaving by a hidden road that came out on a side street, he headed for the jail.
Later at the farmhouse when he had the luxury of time, he’d delve into the e-mails and other secrets of the computer’s hard drive. Until then, Gino would break her down until she was grist.
He wanted the name of the tabloid she worked for, how many more photos existed and the length of time she’d been on Donata’s trail in order to obtain those particular photos.
Ally heard the door open. When she saw a tall dark figure coming toward her before it closed again, she let out a bloodcurdling scream and pulled the sheet over her head. “Nightmares, signora?” sounded the devilish voice of her captor. “With the kinds of things you have on your conscience, I can’t say I’m surprised.”
“Get out!” she shouted into the darkness. “The only person I’ll speak to is a diplomat from the American Embassy. Do you understand me?”
“I’m afraid you’re going to have a long wait.”
She heard something scrape against the cement floor. She shivered to realize he’d pulled the chair next to her bed and had sat down.
“What you’re doing is against the law!”
He gave a caustic laugh.
Fear of a sort she’d never known before emboldened her to say the first thing that came into her mind.
“What a tragedy that such a lovely, beautiful town produces monsters like you.”
The rhythm of his breathing changed, letting her know she’d struck a nerve. Good!
“For someone in your kind of trouble,” he began in a frighteningly silky voice, “I’d advise you to stop fantasizing and tell me everything before the chief prosecutor of the region gets here and you’re arraigned before the magistrate.”
She sat up on the cot and pressed herself into the corner of the wall, as far away from him as possible.
“Whether you believe me or not, I’m Mrs. James Parker. So far, all you’ve told me is that I trespassed. But I don’t see how I did that when the guards wouldn’t let me past the gate.”
She heard him shift in the chair.
“If you’re telling the truth, and you really are the hapless wife who was the last person to know what your husband was up to, explain what those pictures are doing in your laptop.”
Pictures? Ally rubbed her bloodshot eyes with her palms. She was so desperately tired, maybe she was dreaming this horror story.
“I asked you a question, signora.”
No—she wasn’t dreaming. He was sitting there next to her, intimidating her by his very presence. All two hundred pounds of him, hard as steel physically and every other way.
“It’s my husband’s laptop. I don’t know anything about any pictures.”
She heard a sharp intake of breath.
“So you carried his laptop with you all the way to Montefalco for no particular reason?”
“I didn’t say that!” she protested. “I told you earlier that I came to have a private talk with Mr. Montefalco and no one else.”
“In order to show him the photographs and extort thousands of dollars in the process.”
Thousands of dollars? What pictures would be worth that kind of money? She took a deep breath, scared of what she might discover.
“If there are pictures, I haven’t seen them.”
At her hotel in St. Mortiz, Ally would have looked inside the laptop, but she hadn’t brought an adaptor to fit in the foreign outlet and figured she would have to wait until she returned to Portland. Part of her knew that was just an excuse. She didn’t want to know.
“I planned to talk to him about things that aren’t your business or anyone else’s.”
After a pause, he said, “You can tell me. I have his ear.”
“Prove it! For all I know you’re just a lowly policeman pretending to be Mr. Montefalco’s bodyguard.”
Suddenly he was on his feet. She could feel his rage as he pushed the chair away. She hid her face behind the sheet even though it was dark in the room.
Still bristling she said, “Now you know how it feels to be told you’re a liar and a sleazy con artist out to cash in on someone’s private tragedy. I repeat.” Her voice throbbed. “I’m not saying another word until I can speak to someone from the Embassy.”
While she waited for his response, the door opened, then slammed shut.
The next thing she knew the light in her cell went on.
She checked her watch, which she’d changed to Italian time on the train. It said 7:30 a.m.
How long were they going to leave her in here before allowing her to freshen up?
In desperation she dragged the chair over to the door so she could push the button he’d pressed earlier.
Suddenly the door swung open, almost causing her to fall.
A guard she didn’t recognize waited for her to climb down, then ordered her to follow him.
She grabbed her purse and trailed him down the hall and around the corner to the bathroom. There was no sign of her captor. She sincerely hoped she would never have to see or talk to him again.
After brushing her hair and putting on some lipstick, she felt a little more human. When she emerged minutes later, the guard escorted her back to her cell where a tray of food was waiting on the chair.
Just looking at the chair reminded her how her interrogator had shoved it across the room in a fit of anger.
In spite of the precariousness of her situation, the fact that she’d been able to infuriate him caused her to smile.
The guard noted it before disappearing.
Locked in once more, her gaze fell on the sparse continental breakfast. Rolls and coffee. But she wasn’t about to complain. It might be a long time before she was allowed to eat again, so she consumed everything in short order.
She kept thinking about those pictures he’d mentioned. Jim had evidently stored some in one of his files. Maybe they were photos of all the women he’d had affairs with in Europe. At this juncture she didn’t put anything past him. Her husband had truly lived a double life.
Ally let out a sound of abnegation.
What a fool she’d been not to have confronted him when she’d first suspected there was another woman.
Her abductor’s words stung more than ever.
If you’re telling the truth, and you really are the hapless wife who was the last person to know what your husband was up to, explain what those pictures are doing in your laptop.
Ally hadn’t been hapless. It was a case of not wanting to admit something was wrong and have her mother say, “I told you so. A man with good looks and knows it can’t be satisfied with one woman.”
Ally didn’t believe that. She knew too many attractive couples who had wonderful marriages.
Hers had started out that way, but when she saw changes happening, she should have questioned him point-blank. But she’d been scared. They could have talked things out and maybe salvaged their marriage. Now it was too late. There was no use wishing she’d acted on her suspicions a long time ago.
She looked around her claustrophobic cell. What she needed to do was get out of here.
Her abductor was waiting for her to cooperate. Maybe if she made up a lie, he’d believe her and allow her to go free with a slap on the wrist.
Without hesitation she pushed the chair over to the door and climbed up to press the button.
While she waited for a response, she put it back against the wall.
In a minute the door swung open to reveal the guard who’d brought her breakfast.
“Signora?”
“I hate it in here and I’m ready to talk.”
He took the tray off her bed and started out the door.
“Did you hear me?” she cried. “I’m ready to confess!”
He shot her an oblique glance before the door closed.
“Ooh—” She pounded her fists against it. “What kind of a lunatic place is this?” she shouted.
When she realized she was only hurting herself, she gave it up and walked around her cell, trying to rub the pain from the sides of her hands.
Five minutes later she experienced déjà vu to hear the door open and see her captor enter the room. When she glimpsed the forbidding look in those fiery black eyes, she backed away from him.
“You’re ready to tell the truth, signora?”
“Yes, but not in here. I can’t abide enclosed places.”
He gave an elegant shrug, reminding her what an amazing physique he had.
“It’s either in here, or not at all.”
“Oh all right!” She took a deep breath. “It’s true I pretended to be Mrs. Parker to get the duc’s attention.
“I do freelance stories for a local magazine in Portland. One of my boyfriends works for the police department and once in a while he tells me something interesting.
“A couple of months ago he told me his boss was working on a missing persons case involving a married man from Portland and another woman who died with him in Europe. Just the other day he mentioned that they’d finally identified the woman and had pictures of her.
“I asked him if he would let me see them. He did, so I scanned them and downloaded them to my laptop.
“All I wanted to do was talk to the woman’s husband and ask if I could do an exclusive story on him. In case he didn’t believe I was serious, I planned to show him the pictures. But I wouldn’t have allowed them to be published, or have bribed him for money. I just wanted to write about his heart-wrenching ordeal. Americans love stories about wealthy, titled people with problems. It makes them feel better about their own less glorious lives.
“So now that you know the truth, please let me go. All I want is my passport and suitcase back. If you’ll send for a taxi, the driver will take me to the train.
How about it? You let me out of here and I’ll go straight home to Portland.”
His eyes held a frightening gleam.
“You’re lying through your pearly-white teeth, signora, but I give you credit for your amazing resourcefulness.”
His wintry smile daunted her. “As it happens, I never told you the nature of those photos. If you’d known what they contained, you wouldn’t have placed your source’s job in jeopardy. All you’ve done is convince me you’re a liar.”
He was bluffing…
“How typical,” she mocked. “If I were a man, you would have said ‘good try.’ But since I’m a woman, I can’t be trusted.”
One black brow quirked.
“Aren’t you? So far you’ve told me two diametrically opposing lies, none of which hold water. While I’m still here, want to try for a third? I have nothing more important to do for the moment.”
“Okay.” She felt all the stuffing go out of her. “I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll give you a hundred dollars if you’ll let me go. No one will need to know.”
“If it were a hundred thousand dollars, I wouldn’t take it.”
He was impossible!
“Look— All I wanted to do was speak to Mr. Montefalco. This is between him and me, no one else.”
He pursed his lips. “Why is that, signora?”
She lifted solemn eyes to his.
“Because it’s very sad and very personal.”
He put his hands on hips, the picture of the ultimate male. “I’m his closest confidant. You can tell me anything. If it will make you feel any better, you can whisper it to me. I promise it will remain sacrosanct.”
Something in his tone had her halfway believing him, but it didn’t matter.
“How do I know you’re not wearing a listening device?”
“You don’t,” he clipped out. “You’ll have to trust me.”
She leaned close to him. “Sorry, but I have to talk to him alone.”
The nearness of her heart-shaped mouth and the flowery scent her body gave off, stunned him as much as the words that fell from those enticing lips underlining her intransigence.
She couldn’t be Mrs. James Parker. Any man married to her wouldn’t have felt the urge to turn to Donata or any other woman for that matter.
“If you won’t let me out of here,” she continued in a low voice, “then bring Mr. Montefalco to me. I want to talk to him, and I believe he’ll be anxious to talk to me. We might find we’re a comfort to each other.”
With his body still reacting to the warmth of her breath on his ear, Gino found himself reluctant to put distance between them. But he had to no matter how much the imploring look in her eyes and the haunting appeal in her voice persuaded him to believe she was finally telling him the truth.
He’d just stepped away, rubbing the back of his neck in an unconscious gesture of frustration when the door opened to reveal one of the guards. He informed Gino that Inspector Santi wanted him on the phone.
Without saying a word to her, he strode down the hall to the office, hardening himself against her sound of protest. In truth he was oddly reticent to find out she was the beautiful dust of the enemy.
He picked up the receiver, then turned his back toward the desk sergeant.
Knowing the jail phone was tapped he said, “Inspector? I’ll call you back on my phone.” After replacing the receiver, Gino pulled out his cell and rang him on the other man’s private line.
Keeping his voice low he said, “Carlo? What did you find out?”
“She is Mrs. Parker, Gino.”
While his thoughts took off in a dozen directions, Carlo kept talking. “I guess I’m not surprised. She’s a widow grieving for her husband.”
Gino had proof of that. He’d just come from her cell. She’d claimed that she’d sought out Marcello in the hope of giving and receiving comfort. But if that was true, how did she explain the laptop? Something didn’t ring true.
“She said she’d been in St. Moritz to visit the scene of the accident,” Gino murmured.
“It’s unfortunate she chose this time to come to Italy when the press is just waiting for anything they can do to sensationalize this case. She’s the last person you should be seen with.”
Gino agreed. All it would take was a photo of the two of them together caught by one of the lurking paparazzi, and the hellish situation would escalate overnight.
“You need to leave the jail and let me handle this, Gino. I’ll instruct the sergeant to free her. One of the guards will escort her to Rome by train and put her on the next plane for the States.”
Gino grunted a response as he listened to his friend. Though Carlo made a lot of sense, Gino couldn’t forget that Mrs. Parker had come all this way with that laptop to see Marcello for a specific reason. Since she’d put herself in jeopardy to accomplish her objective, Gino couldn’t let her go until he’d found out what was so important she’d risked everything, even jail, to make contact.
“I’m sure you’re right, Carlo. I’ll leave it up to you.”
“That’s good. You need to stay as far removed from her as possible.”
He would as soon as he’d had time to talk to her away from other people. “Grazie, Carlo. It seems that’s all I ever say to you.”
“Forget it. Ciao, Gino.”
Ally had been sitting on the cot wondering what was going on when the door flew open.
It was the same guard as before.
“Come, signora. You’ve been released. Please to follow me.”
Hardly able to believe it, she grabbed her purse and started after him.
“What about my suitcase?”
“It is here,” he said once they’d reached the reception area of the jail.
Convinced her abductor had confiscated the laptop, she leaned over to open the catches and sure enough, she discovered it was gone.
For some inexplicable reason, which was absurd considering her circumstances, she wished he were still here so that in front of his colleagues, she could accuse him of absconding with it.
She shut the lid and lifted her head. “What about my passport?”
“You’ll be given it after you board your flight for the U.S.”
She almost blurted that she couldn’t leave Montefalco yet, but she stopped herself in time. All she needed was to make that mistake and then be shuffled back to her cell for defying him.
She took a deep breath to calm down. When she boarded her jet, she would claim to be ill and ask to be put on a later flight. Once she found a hotel room in Rome, she would figure out another plan to reach Mr. Montefalco.
“Very well. I’m ready whenever you are.”
The jail door swung open. Another guard stood outside in front of a white police car and held the rear door open for her. Unlike her captor, he didn’t help her with her luggage. No doubt he considered her a lowlife reporter who didn’t deserve common courtesy.
She pushed her case across the seat and climbed in.
When their car emerged from the alley, throngs of tourists filled the walkways. The guard wound his way through the charming streets for the short ride to the depot.
She hated the thought of another hot train ride, but there was no help for it.
“Come, signora.”
The guard had parked the car in a VIP zone. He escorted her through the crowded station and out to the quay.
After a brief talk with one of the conductors, he boarded the train with her and put her in a second class compartment already filled except for one seat in the middle. She had to put her suitcase on the shelf above without his assistance.
“I’ll be in the corridor until we reach Rome, signora.” The warning that she shouldn’t try anything to escape was implicit.
Her cheeks hot with anger, she sat down, trying to avoid the interested stares of the other passengers.
No sooner had the guard stepped out of the compartment and disappeared than the train began to inch forward.
Ally was so exhausted after spending a wretched night in that jail cell, she rested her head against the back of the seat. Dispirited by everything that had happened, she closed her eyes for a few minutes, needing sleep. The first thing she would do when she could finally be alone in a hotel room was to crash.
Soon she lost track of time and was almost out for the count when she felt a hand on her arm.
“Signora?” sounded a deep male voice with a vaguely familiar timbre.
She came awake with a cry of alarm.
When she saw her striking captor still dressed in black, standing there bigger than life carrying her suitcase, the breath rushed from her lungs. She blinked up at him, wondering if he was real, or if she was dreaming.
“W-what’s going on?”
His hooded eyes played over her features, awakening her senses in spite of her fatigue, or maybe because of it.
“I relieved the other guard. We’re getting off at the next stop. Come with me.”
Though she felt so groggy she didn’t know how she’d be able to walk, she realized this man was her only chance to get Jim’s laptop back, and maybe find an entrée to Mr. Montefalco.
Clutching her purse, she got up and followed him out of the compartment and down the corridor. The train had already begun to slow down.
When it came to a stop, several people were waiting to climb on board. But he stepped off the stairs first, and held out his hand to help her. Feeling distinctly light-headed from sleep deprivation, she found his strong grasp oddly reassuring.
To her surprise he kept hold of it as he led her out of the small station to a truck parked along the road. It wasn’t anything like the black sedan from the palazzo she’d ridden in last night.
Heavens—was it only last night? Ally felt all mixed up and confused. She had to be confused to be happy this enigmatic stranger had rescued her from that awful train.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked once he’d turned on the engine.
“To a place where you can eat and sleep in that order.”
That sounded so wonderful, she wanted to cry.
“Why would you do that for me when you had me jailed for false credentials, trespassing and impersonating someone else?” her voice trembled.
His hands tightened on the steering wheel. She could tell because his knuckles went white.
“I’ve found out you’re who you said you were.”
She jerked her head away from him so he wouldn’t see her eyes smarting.
“You mean you now believe I’m Mrs. Parker…”
“Yes.”
“I see. So now that you know my name, what does Mr. Montefalco call you?”
There was a curious silence, then, “Gino.”
She stirred restlessly in the seat.
“Which may or may not be your real name, but at least it’s something to call you.”
“Besides bastard you mean?” he interjected in a wry tone.
Caught off guard, Ally laughed softly. She couldn’t help it.
“Actually that’s what I felt like calling the guard when he wouldn’t help me with my suitcase on the train. Even at your worst, you were more of a gentleman.”
She heard him draw in what sounded like a tortured breath. “I owe you an apology.”
She flicked him a covert glance. “If I ever get to meet your employer, I’ll be able to vouch for your fierce loyalty to him. It’s no wonder he keeps you on his payroll. Every man who’s a target should have such a trusted bodyguard.”
By now they’d left the little village of Remo and were driving through fields of sunflowers with a hot Italian sun shining down.
“How do you know so much about him?”
She studied her hands. “I know very little apart from the obvious facts.”
“Which are?” he prodded.
“He’s rich, titled and has lost his wife. If he loved her desperately, then my heart goes out to him.”
“What about your heart?” he whispered.
“If you’re asking if it was shattered by my husband’s death, then yes.” If you’re wondering if his probable infidelity has wounded me, then yes. But because she’d waited too long to try to fix what was wrong between them, Jim’s unexpected death had brought on guilt she couldn’t seem to throw off.
Gino drove along the maze of country roads with what appeared to be long accustomed practice and expertise.
Once upon a time she would have loved traveling through the countryside, but right now she was numb to the world around her.
The next time he stopped, her bleary eyes took in a yellowed, three-story farmhouse that looked quite ancient.
“Where are we?”
“My home,” he announced before helping her from the car.
He carried her suitcase and told her to follow him. She didn’t question him as they entered the foyer and climbed some stairs to the next floor.
He opened a door on his left. “You’ll be comfortable in here, Mrs. Parker. The en suite bathroom is through that door. I’ll ask my housekeeper Bianca to bring you a tray. Sleep well. We’ll talk later.”
“Yes, we will. I’d like my husband’s laptop back.”
“All in good time.”
As she was coming to find out, it was his favorite saying.
He placed her suitcase on the aged hardwood floor, then left and shut the door behind him.
Straight ahead of her was a four-poster double bed with a comfy looking white quilt. She was so tired, she removed her outer clothes and climbed under the covers. Ally didn’t remember her head touching the pillow.
CHAPTER THREE
ON GINO’S way down to the kitchen, Sofia met him in the dining room. “Who’s that lady you brought home with you, Uncle Gino?”
Gino had to think fast. “An acquaintance of mine who wanted to see the farm. She’s flown all the way from the States, and is so tired, I told her to sleep before I introduced her to you.”
“Oh.”
“Where’s Bianca?”
“Out on the back terrace with Luigi and papa.”
That was just as well. He tousled Sofia’s hair. “Our guest needs food. Do you want to help me fix it?”
“Yes.”
She started walking to the kitchen with him.
“What does she like?”
“Can you imagine her not liking anything Bianca cooks?”
“I guess not.”
His morose niece needed her friends. Now that he was home, he would arrange for it. Together they made a plate of ham, fresh bread, salad, fruit and hot tea.
“Can I go with you to take it to her?”
“Of course.”
“What’s her name?”
“Signora Parker.”
“Does she speak Italian?”
“No.” Not according to the taxi driver. “It will give you a chance to practice your excellent English with her.”
“Is she a farmer, too?”
Gino was equally curious about the wife of Donata’s lover. “Why don’t you ask her later?” It would be interesting to hear her answer.
They went up the stairs. He tapped on the door. “Signora?”
“I’ll peek,” Sofia offered and opened the door a crack. After tiptoeing inside, she came back out again.
“She’s sound asleep.”
Gino wasn’t surprised. “We’ll fix her another plate later.”
Once back in the kitchen, they worked together to clean things up while he devoured the meal meant for the intriguing woman sleeping beneath his roof.
“She has pretty hair. It looks like the color of fairy wings.”
That was as good a description of gossamer as you could get. He eyed his brunette niece he loved.
“Not many people we know have hair that particular shade do they?”
“I don’t know any,” she declared.
Neither did Gino.
“What do you say we call Anna’s mother and see if your friend can stay over with us for a few days.”
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Rebecca Winters
Тип: электронная книга
Жанр: Современные любовные романы
Язык: на английском языке
Издательство: HarperCollins
Дата публикации: 16.04.2024
Отзывы: Пока нет Добавить отзыв
О книге: Rachel Valentine is the wine buyer for the Valentine family′s exclusive Bella Lucia restaurants, and her relationship with master winemaker Luc Chartier should be strictly business…. Romanced by the beautiful Alsace vineyards, and seduced by the charismatic Luc, Rebecca can′t help but fall in love. But their one night of passion is followed by a shocking revelation about Luc′s past. Heartbroken, Rebecca returns home – only to discover that she is pregnant with Luc′s child.