Rags To Riches Collection. Rebecca Winters

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СКАЧАТЬ murmured to her in Italian the lullaby ‘Stella Stellina’—Star, Little Star—that he had often sung to his son.

      Sophie stopped crying and focused her big brown eyes on him. If she was his daughter he would love her as he had loved Nicolo, Cesario vowed fiercely. But what would he do about Sophie’s guardian? Beth had convinced him with her utter devotion to the baby that she loved Sophie as much as if she were her own child. It would not be fair to send her away.

      Perhaps he could employ her as Sophie’s nanny? he brooded. That way they could both be part of the baby’s life. But he did not relish the idea of Beth living at the castle while he was plagued by this damnable fascination with her. She had only been here for two days and he was racked with an unprecedented hunger to possess her slender body.

      In many ways it would be easier if Sophie was not his. That way he could send Beth back to England with a clear conscience and get on with his life. No doubt he would soon forget her once she could no longer cast her siren spell over him with her slanting green eyes, he thought self-derisively.

      The sound of her voice dragged him from his thoughts. ‘I knew you had a magic touch,’ she said as she emerged from the small kitchen area adjoining the nursery, holding a bottle of baby formula. ‘Nothing normally pacifies Sophie when she’s due a feed.’

      The way Sophie responded to Cesario was uncanny, Beth thought when he carefully transferred the baby into her arms and she settled down in a chair to feed her. Was it possible that she somehow sensed Cesario was her father? Was it blood calling to blood? And if that was true then surely Sophie belonged here at the Castello del Falco.

      Sophie was almost asleep by the time she had finished her milk, and after laying her in the cot Beth walked over to the window where Cesario was standing, looking out at the impenetrable darkness that cloaked the castle and the surrounding mountains.

      ‘I think she’ll settle now—until she wakes for her early-morning feed,’ she murmured, feeling her heart give a little flip when she glanced at him and found that he had turned his head and he was watching her with an indefinable expression in his grey eyes.

      ‘You should get to bed too, after your eventful day. I hear you’ve sweet-talked Filomena into allowing your dog to sleep in her kitchen?’

      She flushed and gave him an anxious look, relieved to see amusement in his eyes rather than annoyance. ‘Harry was lonely on his own in the stables.’

      Dark brows winged upwards. ‘Harry?’

      ‘I had to call him something,’ Beth said defensively. ‘When I was a little girl we had a dog called Harry who I loved to bits. But my father said he had enough to do looking after my mother and he sold him.’ She sighed. ‘Filomena says her sister might give Harry a home. I won’t be able to take him back to England with me, and it wouldn’t be fair to keep a dog in a one-bedroom flat on the fifth floor.’

      ‘It doesn’t sound an ideal place to bring up a child, either.’

      She bit her lip. ‘No, it isn’t. If it turns out that Sophie is not your child, I’ll apply to the local council to see if we can be rehoused. Somewhere with a garden for her to play in would be nice.’ She thought of the beautiful castle gardens and imagined Sophie as a toddler, running across the grass. ‘But there’s a long waiting list for housing in London.’

      ‘Agreeing to be the guardian of your friend’s baby was a huge undertaking,’ Cesario said brusquely. ‘You are young and you have your whole life ahead of you—a career, relationships. You have sacrificed the independent life you could have had to bring up another woman’s child.’

      ‘My life is different, certainly, but I don’t regard having Sophie a sacrifice. I love her more than anything, and I intend to do everything I can to give her a happy childhood.’

      Beth gave a faintly wistful smile. ‘When I was a little girl I dreamed of being a ballerina. I was desperate to go to ballet classes like the other girls at school, but Mum couldn’t afford it—especially after my father left us. When Sophie is older I want her to have the opportunity to do everything she wants to do.’

      Cesario dragged his gaze from Beth’s earnest face and resumed his contemplation of the night sky, where silver stars were now pinpricking the velvet blackness.

      ‘You have a ridiculously soft heart, Beth Granger,’ he said roughly. He paused. ‘So who planted Alicia Devington’s diamond earrings in your room?’

      Beth gave him a startled look. In the darkened nursery his profile seemed all angles and planes, and the glimmering moonlight flickering over his scar made him look as harsh and unyielding as his ancestors who had once strode along the battlements of the Castello del Falco.

      She swallowed, before replying shakily, ‘Hugo Devington.’

      His head swivelled round and he pierced her with an intent stare. ‘Why would Hugo Devington have wanted you to appear to be a thief?’

      ‘Because he needed a reason to sack me after I’d threatened to—’ She broke off and stared down at her fingers as she twisted them together, sickened by unpleasant memories that she had spent the past six months trying to forget. She sensed Cesario’s impatience and forced herself to continue. ‘After I threatened to tell Mrs Devington that her husband had tried to. assault me.’

      ‘What do you mean by assault?’

      Colour flared on her cheeks. ‘Sexually,’ she muttered.

      ‘Santa Madre! You mean he raped you?’ Cesario felt a violent urge to find Hugo Devington and tear him limb from limb.

      ‘No—it didn’t get that far. At first he just used to make comments about my body, and if I ever happened to be alone in a room with him he would stand too close and.’ her blush deepened ‘.pat me on the bottom, but then make a joke of it.’

      She sighed. ‘I didn’t know what to do, so I just tried to keep out of his way. But then one evening, when Mrs Devington was out, he called me into his study, saying he wanted to discuss one of his sons.’ She unconsciously twisted her fingers tighter together, unaware that Cesario had noted the betraying sign of her distress. ‘Well, to cut a long story short, he tried to kiss me. I pushed him away, of course, and then he got angry and grabbed me. He put his hand up my skirt and tried to…touch me. I managed to fight him off, but he came after me, and so I threatened that I would tell his wife what he had done. I hoped that would be the end of it—that he wouldn’t try anything again—but the next day Mrs Devington’s earrings went missing, and when she searched the house she found them in my room. She wanted to call the police and have me arrested, but Hugo stopped her and said it would be better if I was sacked and left Devington Hall immediately.’

      ‘Why didn’t you insist that the police were called?’ Cesario demanded. ‘You hadn’t stolen the earrings, so why didn’t you try to defend yourself? Why didn’t you report to the police that Devington had sexually assaulted you?’

      ‘I had no proof. No one would have believed my word over that of a famous barrister. You didn’t believe me,’ she reminded him.

      ‘Last night I wasn’t aware of all the facts.’ He looked uncomfortable. ‘I owe you an apology. I’d just received a report from my private investigator and I had no reason not to believe that what he’d heard about you was true.’

      Beth bit her lip. ‘Why do you believe СКАЧАТЬ