37. Private Moments of a New Family

CHAPTER 37

PRIVATE MOMENTS OF A NEW FAMILY

M eanwhile, at Villa Montblanc

“Should we let him sleep?” Donald asked after he kissed Nicoletta awake. The late afternoon rays of the sun were barely bleeding along the edges of the velvet drapes, the scarlet fabric lending a vivid red to their wash on the surrounding walls.

Nicoletta tittered. “If he sleeps too long, he won’t easily go to bed when he’s supposed to later tonight,” she reasoned.

“He looks like an angel.”

“He can be. Sometimes,” she whispered, sitting up so she could reach down and snag her chemise with a crooked finger. “Sometimes he pretends he is a spoiled aristocrat.” When she pulled the chemise over her head, Donald made a sound of disappointment, and she grinned. “Like someone else I know,” she added in a tease.

Donald scoffed. “When have I ever behaved like a spoiled aristocrat?” he argued.

“The day you left Catania.”

Blinking, he sat up and stared at her as she smoothed the garment into place and moved to step off the bed. “What?”

She turned and placed a hand on Antony’s shoulder to shake him awake. “Had you stayed only one more day, you would have learned the truth of the matter as I did. You would have been offered a position. A place to live. We could have...” She let the sentence trail off when Antony stirred and rolled over to finally sit up. His sleep-tousled curls were wilder than usual.

“Papa?”

Donald’s gaze turned to Antony, his heart clenching at hearing the simple word.“ Figlio ,” he replied, grinning despite his momentary offense at hearing Nicoletta’s claim. “Time to wake and dress for dinner,” he said. “Tonight you’ll meet your... zio ,” he added, struggling to remember the word for ‘uncle’.

“Zio?” the boy repeated, his attention going to his mother.

“Uncle David,” she said. “And your cousins— cugini —Randy and Tom.”

His eyes rounded. “When?”

“Before dinner. Now you must go find your nurse and get dressed,” she said, helping him to crawl off the bed. Once his feet hit the floor, he was off and running toward the door. A moment later, his footfalls could be felt as he hurried down the corridor.

Nicoletta turned her attention back to David, sighing when she saw his look of hurt. “What’s done is done,” she said with a shrug. “We’ll speak no more of it.”

David climbed out of the bed and rushed around it to take her into his arms. “I will regret for the rest of my life leaving you as I did,” he whispered into her hair. “I was young and naive and... heartbroken.”

She pulled away to look up at him. “As was I,” she murmured.

“I will make it up to you,” he said. “Tonight, I’m going to tell my family that we’re coming with them. We’ll bring Antony, and we’ll see all the sights this island has to offer.”

She nodded, a wan smile replacing her momentary melancholy. “We leave in a week?” she asked.

He nodded, remembering only the month before the sense of anticipation he had felt upon learning they would be leaving the Gisborn estate to head to London in only a week. The chaos of packing and preparing. “Can we manage, do you suppose?” he asked.

“The servants will help,” she said. “And speaking of servants, I must ring for my lady’s maid and bathe,” she added, stepping out of his hold. Her gaze traveled up and down his naked body. “As for making it up to me, you will stay in my bed every night. Make love to me every night and every morning,” she insisted.

Donald blinked twice. “My lady, you do realize that’s not a punishment?”

She gave him a teasing grin. “Even if I require it of you more than that?”

He shook his head and chuckled. “Who’s the spoiled aristocrat now?” he teased. At seeing her expression briefly change to puzzlement, he added, “I’m going to adore being married to you.”

She gave him a shoo’ing motion with a hand. “Go off to your own bedchamber and leave me. We have guests arriving soon.”

His eyes rounded. “My own bedchamber?” he repeated. “Where is that?”

She pointed to an adjoining door. “Through there.”

Donald gathered up his clothes and did as he was told, his laughter loud when he stood in the center of a huge master bedchamber and surveyed his elegant surroundings. “I’m really going to adore being married to you,” he called out.

Back in the mistress’ bedchamber, Nicoletta grinned. “I’ll remember you said that when we are old and wrinkled.”

Chuckling, Donald pulled on his clothes before he headed out the door to discover what had become of his trunk.