A Proposal From The Italian Count. Lucy Gordon

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       CHAPTER ONE

      THE WORLD WAS full of light and glamour. Excitedly Jackie danced this way and that, rejoicing in the vision of her beautiful self that appeared in the mirror. Music played in the distance, inviting her into a universe in which she was the heroine.

      But abruptly the dream ended. As she opened her eyes the real world fell back into place. The mirror’s reflection showed not the luscious beauty of her fantasy but Jackie Benton, a slender young woman with a face that was intelligent, but not beautiful.

      She sighed, easing herself out of bed.

      Surrounding her was the austere bedroom where she spent every night. By now she had hoped to leave it behind, move to a new home and a more exciting life. But fate had arranged things differently, confining her to Benton’s Market—the little shop where she lived and worked.

      She’d spent most of her life in the tiny apartment over the shop that her father, George Benton, had started twenty years earlier. He had fought to make it a success, always struggling with money worries, and raising his daughter alone when his wife had left him.

      In his last years Jackie had been forced to run the shop alone—something that had given her an unexpected satisfaction.

      She was clever and hardworking, able to retain information about all the stock, and produce it at a moment’s notice. Something which had at first impressed her father.

      ‘You really remembered all that?’ he would exclaim. ‘Well done! You’re in the right business.’

      ‘I get it from you,’ she had reminded him. ‘I remember when I was a child there were lots of times you made people gulp at what you could remember without having to look it up.’

      It had been a happy moment, uniting father and daughter. He had been proud—not only of her memory but her ability to choose the best stock. Knowing this, she had felt her confidence grow, and she had begun to see herself as a serious businesswoman.

      Just occasionally her father had given her a little warning advice. Once, when a temporary employee had flounced out in a temper, he’d said, ‘Did you have to be so hard on him?’

      ‘I wasn’t hard on him,’ she’d protested. ‘I just pointed out that he’d got something wrong. And he had.’

      ‘You might have been a bit more tactful.’

      ‘Oh, come on, Daddy,’ she had said, in a teasing voice. ‘What you mean is that a woman mustn’t tell a man that he’s wrong in case he’s offended. But we’re not living in the nineteenth century.’

      He’d patted her hand. ‘You may not be, darling, but a lot of men are. You’re a bit too fond of giving orders.’

      ‘Too fond for a woman, you mean? You think I should just go along with him? Even when I know he’s an idiot?’

      They had laughed fondly together, but she’d come to understand that he had been making a fair point. She had learned to speak with more care, but it was still exasperating to have to do so when she knew she was an expert.

      She had gradually come to enjoy the feeling of being in command—not merely of their employees but of the whole running of the place. She had chosen stock and it sold well. She’d had the instincts of a talented businesswoman, and they had given her hope for the future.

      But her hard work had come too late. Matters had started getting worse, owing to the mountain of her father’s debts that had piled so high that even her commercial success could not completely deal with it. Finally her father had been forced to sell the shop.

      By then his life had been drawing to a close. Rik, the new owner, had reluctantly allowed them to stay in the little apartment upstairs, and Jackie had continued to work in the shop—but only part-time, so that she could always hurry upstairs to check that her father was all right. She nursed him gladly, giving him everything in her power in return for the loving care he had always shown her.

      ‘It’s so hard for you...to be caring for me and working downstairs as well,’ he had said once. ‘Such a burden.’

      ‘Stop it, Dad. You could never be a burden to me. Never.’

      ‘Bless you, darling. I wanted to leave the shop to you. I’d have been proud to give you a legacy. I hoped once—But there. It just didn’t work out.’

      She would have loved to own the shop. So much of its success was due to her work, and it still held the atmosphere created by her beloved father. But she had known she must abandon that dream.

      Her father had died a few days later. And then Rik had offered her a lifeline.

      ‘You’re welcome to stay if you become full-time. You can go on living here.’

      She’d thought carefully before agreeing. She disliked Rik—an ill-tempered man in his forties—But she had accepted the job because it would give her a little time to work out her plan to escape into a new life—one in which she would have her own business, organising everything, using the talents she’d so gladly discovered.

      Her dislike of Rik was well-founded. He had a high opinion of his own knowledge and skills, but Jackie felt that he actually knew very little. He made silly mistakes for which he blamed her.

      She had tried to save money, hoping that soon she would be able to afford to leave and explore new possibilities. But it had been a hopeless task. Following George’s death had come the discovery of more debts that he hadn’t managed to pay, even with the money he’d made from selling the shop. Her savings had soon been swallowed up by them. And she had no hope of saving much more, given the meanly low pay Rik allowed her.

      ‘I give you a fair wage,’ he would say. ‘You live here for nothing. If you worked somewhere else you’d have to pay for accommodation.’

      It was true. Frantically she had hunted for another job, but hadn’t been able to find one that paid enough to solve the problem. Now she felt trapped, and with no obvious way out she just had to hope for a miracle!

      She showered and dressed carefully. She presented a picture of efficiency—ideal for the work that consumed her life—but her looks didn’t please her. She considered herself far too plain.

      She opened her laptop and logged on to her bank to check the state of her account. The result made her groan with despair. She had very little money, despite her attempts to live frugally.

      Dispirited, she opened an astrology website, and read her prediction.

      The fates are planning a startling new beginning for you. The sun in Jupiter will bring things you never anticipated, and decisions that will change your life.

      In her dreams, she thought wryly. Last week it had said she was going to be a millionaire. And look how that had turned out.

      She read the prediction again, trying to see it as the approach of the miracle she longed for, and then hurried downstairs and opened up the shop. She served a couple of customers, then spent some time looking around.

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