Rags To Riches Collection. Rebecca Winters

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      He shook his head. ‘Forget it—it doesn’t matter. I have other news that will be of far more interest to you. As I suspected, the noises we heard last night were caused by a landslide farther down the mountain.’

      Recalling recent news reports of the devastating mudslides in India caused by the monsoon, Beth gave him a worried look. ‘Was anyone hurt?’

      ‘Fortunately there are no houses on that part of the mountain. But it is a significant slide, and the road to Oliena is blocked—which means that we are temporarily cut off. We cannot get down to the town and no one can reach us here—including the doctor who I arranged to carry out the DNA test.’

      She stared at him as the implication of his words sank in. ‘So what can we do?’

      He shrugged. ‘We can’t do anything except wait for the road to be cleared. And that could be several days at least.’ He anticipated her next question. ‘I rode out to take a look. Heavy machinery will have to be brought in to move the boulders.’

      ‘But if the test can’t be done for days, and it takes time for the results to come back, I could be stuck here for weeks.’ The boss of the cleaning company where she worked would not keep her job open indefinitely, Beth thought worriedly.

      Cesario glanced around the sunlit courtyard, and then up to the mountains which encircled the castle. ‘I can think of worse places to be stuck,’ he drawled. ‘Look at it this way—our enforced captivity will give us the chance to get to know one another better, which could be important if it turns out that Sophie is my child.’

      His words evoked a flare of fierce excitement in Beth that her sensible nature quickly quashed. Cesario’s only interest in her was because of her role as Sophie’s guardian. She would be a fool to allow her fascination with him to continue. But her heartbeat quickened when he glanced down at her and his mouth curved into a slow, sensual smile.

      ‘Dinner will be at eight o’clock tonight. I look forward to your company, Beth,’ he murmured, before he urged his horse on and rode out of the courtyard.

CHAPTER FIVE

      BETH only owned one dress, and like most of her clothes she had bought it from a charity shop. Unlike the rest of her uninspiring wardrobe, however, the deep green evening dress was an exquisite creation from a well-known fashion house. Deceptively simple, with a sweetheart neckline, narrow shoulder straps and a floaty layer of chiffon over the silk underskirt, it was a testament to superb tailoring.

      ‘I can’t believe you paid next to nothing for a couture gown,’ Mel had complained. ‘Have you any idea how much that dress would have cost to buy new?’

      Having never visited a designer boutique, Beth had only been able to guess. Haute couture was way beyond her means, and she had wondered how Mel could afford expensive clothes.

      ‘Sometimes men like to buy me presents,’ Mel had explained vaguely. ‘We both know it’s a tough world, and I’m not going to refuse if some guy wants to spend his money on me.’

      Memories of her closest friend brought tears to Beth’s eyes. The years of abuse Mel had suffered as a child had given her a hard edge, and only Beth had understood that Mel’s brittle outer shell had disguised the scared little girl who still lived inside her.

      ‘We don’t need stupid foster parents,’ Mel had declared. ‘We’re as close as sisters and we don’t need anyone else.’

      Now Mel was gone, and her dying wish had been for Beth to be a mother to her baby daughter. ‘Love Sophie for me,’ she had whispered with her last breath. Beth had given her word. It was a promise she had vowed to keep for ever, and if a DNA test proved that Cesario was Sophie’s father she was determined to convince him that she must play a role in the baby’s life.

      Her stomach dipped at the prospect of having dinner with him as an image of him as she had seen him in the courtyard filled her mind. Even with that cruel scar he was the most devastatingly sexy man she had ever met. He exuded an air of strength and power, and when he had smiled at her she had felt again that strange sensation as if an arrow had pierced her heart.

      She must not let her imagination run away with her, she told her reflection firmly. But she could do nothing about the glitter of excitement in her eyes or the flush of pink on her usually pale cheeks, and her hand shook a little as she applied a coat of tinted gloss to her lips. Her just-washed hair was too silky to wear up so she left it loose, wishing that she had luscious curls rather than her sleek, dead straight style.

      The only piece of jewellery she possessed was a gold locket containing a photo of her mother. Flat ballerina pumps that she had dyed the same shade as her dress completed her outfit. With a final glance in the mirror she walked through the door from her room into the nursery and smiled at the maid, Carlotta, who was to watch over Sophie for the evening.

      Assured that the baby was fast asleep, and that Carlotta would call her if she woke, Beth stepped into the corridor and discovered Teodoro waiting to escort her down to the dining room. She caught his look of faint surprise and guessed he was remembering the ghastly wool coat she had been wearing when she had arrived at the castle the previous night. It had not been one of her better purchases from the charity shop, she thought wryly, but she had needed a winter coat and it had been all she could afford.

      Like the ballroom, the dining room was a huge, high-ceilinged room, with dark wood-panelled walls and an enormous, intricately carved fireplace. Patterned rugs on the stone floor gave some much needed colour to the rather sombre décor. A long polished oak table stretched the length of the room and Beth estimated that thirty or more people could be seated at it. Only two places were set at one end of the table, however, and as she entered the room Cesario swung round from the window where he had been staring into the darkness outside and walked towards her.

      * * *

      The simmering anger that had gripped Cesario following the telephone call he had taken half an hour ago burned hotly inside him as his eyes roamed over Beth. To his disgust, he could not control the sharp tug of desire that arrowed through him and wondered how he could have dismissed her as unworthy of a second glance when she had first arrived at the castle.

      She was as slender as a reed in a green dress which emphasised the vivid colour of her eyes. Other than a faint sheen of gloss on her lips her face was bare of make-up, and he was once again struck by her air of innocence. But he knew now that it was an illusion, he thought darkly. For all the simplicity of her dress, he could tell that it was couture and undoubtedly expensive. Either wages for office cleaners were higher than he had realised, he mused sardonically, or Beth had acquired the dress the same way she had helped herself to a pair of diamond earrings.

      His jaw hardened, but he disguised his fury with a smile that only those who knew him well would have recognised—and feared.

      ‘Good evening, Beth.’

      His eyes lingered on her for a moment, watching the soft stain of colour flare along her delicate cheekbones, and he felt a spurt of savage triumph that she could not hide the betraying sign of her awareness of him. He had no control over the sudden quickening of his pulse, and it took all his will-power to turn his head from her and glance at his butler.

      ‘That will be all, thank you, Teodoro. Please see that Miss Granger and I are not disturbed.’

      The click of the door as СКАЧАТЬ