The Bride of Montefalco. Rebecca Winters

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      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 СКАЧАТЬ