The Italians: Angelo, Rocco & Stefano: Wife in the Shadows / A Dangerous Infatuation / The Italian's Blushing Gardener. Sara Craven

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СКАЧАТЬ you now become my wife, the package will be withdrawn and my dealings with the bank, which are already public knowledge, will be cancelled altogether with potentially disastrous results.

      ‘Please understand that I have no intention of allowing such a thing to happen. Galantana provides a living for too many people in these difficult times, and I will not jeopardise my company’s current success or the future of my workforce and suppliers while I have the power to avoid such a catastrophe.’

      He looked at her, his mouth twisting wryly. ‘You clearly do not want me as a husband. Bene. Let me be equally frank and say that I do not desire you as a wife.

      ‘I suggest therefore that we regard our marriage as nothing more than a business deal—a temporary inconvenience that can be speedily concluded once Galantana’s expansion has been paid for.

      ‘As we shall be sharing no more than a roof, a discreet annulment can be arranged, and you will receive a generous settlement in return for your co-operation.’ He smiled at her coaxingly, willing her to soften. ‘So—what do you say?’

      Stormy colour warmed her face. ‘That it’s the most flagrantly immoral idea I’ve ever heard, and you must be mad to think I’d ever agree.’

      Angelo stayed silent for a moment, irritation warring with disappointment within him. She might be quiet, he thought, but she was certainly not biddable. He would have to be more direct in his approach.

      ‘I think madness will be waiting for us if you refuse.’ He allowed a grim note to enter his voice. ‘If the deal with Credito

      Europa fails, I shall have no reason to hide the truth about that night at Largossa. I shall tell Prince Damiano about the trick your cousin Silvia played on us both, and why, and point out that there is no reason for our engagement to each other to continue. I believe you can imagine what might follow.’

      He bent and picked up a pebble from the ground, then dropped it into the water.

      Ellie stared down as the ripples began to spread slowly but surely, becoming wider all the time.

      It did not need any great exercise of the imagination, she thought bitterly. The consequences of Silvia’s reckless behaviour had always been there, like shadows on the edge of a room. A very public divorce from Ernesto would probably be the least of it. The shadows would touch them all.

      She said, ‘This is like—blackmail.’

      ‘Call it rather a matter of expediency.’ His voice was level. ‘If there is no marriage between us, the Barzados would no longer be silent, but rush to add their own embellishments to the existing gossip. Do you truly wish to be the centre of stories of midnight orgies at the Largossa estate, Elena? Be responsible for the damage to the Damiano reputation?’

      ‘No.’ She almost choked on the word. ‘Certo che no. Of course not.’

      He shrugged. ‘Then it can all be quite simply avoided. There will be a wedding ceremony and, after it, life will go on much as it does now, except that you will live at my house at Vostranto.’

      He ignored her faint gasp and continued, ‘It is quite large enough to accommodate us both without awkwardness. In any case, I intend to remain at my apartment in Rome during the week, so you will have little more of my company than you endure at present.’ He smiled coldly. ‘Perhaps less. And your nights you may spend alone with my goodwill. Let that be clearly understood.’ He shrugged again. ‘Then after an interval—a year, two years perhaps—we can set about dissolving the marriage, and you will be rich and free.’

      As she hesitated, he added quietly, ‘Elena, I beg you to think how much we both and others have to lose if you persist in rejecting me.’ He paused. ‘Believe me, if there was another choice to be made, I would take it.’

      For a long moment, dizzy with uncertainty, she stared down at the flagstones at her feet, imagining them cracking apart, herself falling through the gap helplessly into some abyss.

      In a voice she barely recognised, she said, ‘You promise—you give me your word that you’ll leave me alone. That you won’t …’ She broke off in embarrassment, not knowing what to say.

      ‘I guarantee you will have nothing to fear from me.’ His mouth twisted. ‘I think our previous encounter was enough for us both.’

      ‘Yes.’ Her voice was small, stifled, as she tried hard not to think about those brief shocked and shocking moments, and the greater nightmare that had so swiftly followed. That still enveloped her in spite of his assurances.

      And yet …

       I do not desire you as a wife.

      Words that were, perhaps not quite as comforting as they should have been. That—if she was totally honest—stung a little in their indication that she had somehow fallen short of a standard that was none of her making. That she had not even known was required of her.

      ‘So may I tell the Prince that you have consented to be my bride?’

      She lifted her head and looked at him, her eyes enormous in her pale face. ‘If there is no other way, then I suppose—yes.’

      His brows lifted mockingly. ‘You are graciousness itself.’

      ‘If you wanted a more generous reply,’ she said, ‘you should have asked a more willing lady.’

      ‘On the contrary, Elena,’ he said softly. ‘I think you will suit my purpose very well.’

      He reached for her hand and made to raise it to his lips, but Ellie snatched it back, flushing.

      ‘Perhaps you’d restrict your overtures to those times when we have an audience to convince, Count.’

      There was a pause, then he said courteously, ‘Just as you wish, signorina.’

      But Ellie knew that in that moment’s silence she’d detected anger, like a flare of distant lightning, and even though she wrote it off as a typical male reaction to a dent in his machismo, she found the discovery oddly disturbing just the same.

      They were married two weeks later at a very quiet ceremony held in the palazzo‘s private chapel.

      Ellie refused outright, despite all persuasions, to wear a conventional white gown and veil, and chose instead a silken slip of a dress, high-necked and long-sleeved in a pretty shade of smoky blue.

      Signora Luccino looked at it askance, but her brows lifted in open disapproval when she heard that the pressure of work currently being experienced by the bridegroom had caused the postponement of the tradition luna di miele. Indefinitely.

      ‘You astonish me, my dear Angelo,’ she said majestically. ‘I would have thought your new bride should take precedence over any matter of business.’

      Angelo gave her a cool smile. ‘You concern yourself without necessity, Zia Dorotea. Vostranto will provide us with all the peace and seclusion we could ever wish. Is it not so, carissima?’ he added, turning to the new bride in question, who was silently praying for the entire farce to be over and done with, and as soon as possible.

      The one bright spot in a hideous day, she reflected, had been the absence of Silvia, who was, it seemed, СКАЧАТЬ