The Italian Billionaire's New Year Bride

The frown on her forehead deepened. Her head flicked from side to side. “In a cupboard, in here?”

In a place this size, how would they ever find it?

But Phoebe managed to shake off the enormity of the task quickly. Matteo had come all this way on New Year’s Eve to find a family heirloom. The least she could do was be helpful. “Any clues? Do you know any more about it?”

He hesitated. “I know it’s red. And it’s their wedding album.”

“Whose wedding album?”

He sucked in a deep breath. “My parents’.”

“They lost their wedding album?” She didn’t mean for it to come out like that—as if she almost couldn’t believe someone would lose something so precious.

She watched him swallow as he waved his hand. “There was a lot going on the last time we were here. My mother was—ill. My father just recently died and my sister would really like to find the album.”

There it was again. That little feeling she sometimes got around Matteo. He was telling her something—but not everything. Not that it was any of her business. She had no right to pry and ask questions. But she couldn’t pretend she wasn’t curious.

She pushed herself up onto her knees, mirroring his position. “Okay, so we’re looking for a red wedding album somewhere in this house. Do you have any idea at all where it might be?”

He shook his head. Phoebe put her hand on her chin and thought hard. “Okay, so I’ve been in some of the cupboards in the bedrooms and bathrooms—and I’ve definitely been in every one of the kitchen cupboards, and each of them were empty. There might have been some old cleaning products, or dishcloths, but I haven’t found anything personal at all. In fact—” she leaned a bit and looked around the room “—this place, these books, are the most personal things that I’ve found. But these didn’t belong to your family.”

Matteo’s face fell a little. “Maybe this is all a wild-goose chase.”

She hated that. She hated seeing him look defeated. She grabbed his hand. “Get up. Let’s think about this.” Matteo stood next to her, as she started to walk around. She smiled at him and followed his example from earlier. “Let’s play hide and seek. So, we don’t think it’s deliberately hidden somewhere?”

He shook his head.

“Okay, then, if you’d just moved in somewhere new—” she glanced at Matteo again “—and you had young kids—and you had plans to pretty much renovate the whole house—where would you put something precious? Where would someplace safe be?”

Matteo looked around too, as if he were trying to follow her train of thought. He gave her a hopeful smile. “Let’s find out.”

* * *

Almost two hours later they sagged back into the library. Even though the clean-up crew had been through the entire house more than once, it turned out that poking around the back of cupboards could still leave your hair and clothes covered in dust.

He was tired. He was definitely cranky. And even the woman who’d already had some sleep seemed to be flagging. He was ready to give up. The snow was still thick and heavy outside and it looked as if the gritters hadn’t made it onto the roads yet. He’d definitely be spending the rest of the night here.

Phoebe flopped down for a few minutes onto the bedclothes that were still strewn across the rug, putting her hands on her belly. She almost drummed a tune on her flat stomach as she spoke to herself.

“What makes sense? The bedroom cupboards are all empty. You wouldn’t put something as fragile as a photo album in the kitchen or any of the bathrooms. The main dining room and living room cupboards are empty. And I nearly broke my back trying to scramble up into the attic space.”

Matteo couldn’t help himself. He started to laugh. Maybe it was being overtired. Maybe it was just frustration that he couldn’t get away from the one place he didn’t want to be. Or maybe it was the sight of Phoebe’s legs hanging from the attic and doing her best impression of a spider trying to cling to any surface.

She opened her eyes and stared up at him. “Matteo Bianchi, are you laughing at me?”

Before he had a chance to answer she sat bolt upright again and smacked her hand off her forehead. “Oh, my goodness. We’re idiots. Complete idiots.”

Matteo shook his head. “What? What is it?”

Phoebe spread her arms wide. “What was the one place you know your family didn’t have any immediate plans for?”

Matteo shook his head again. He was still tired. He’d been tempted to lie down on one of the beds that Phoebe had already dressed upstairs, regardless of whether it would ruin the look of the room or not.