‘I can’t wait to tell her our news. I know she’ll be so happy for us. I’ll only be two minutes, I swear…’
CHAPTER NINE
FOUR tall, dark men, all remarkably handsome and wearing elegant morning suits with natty grey-striped waistcoats and white cravats, stood in the vestry of the church of St Augustine.
‘Kerry told you she would only be two minutes on the phone and you believed her?’ Misty’s husband, Leone Andracchi, gave Luciano a highly amused scrutiny. ‘You’ve a lot to learn, and now that there’s four of them it will only get worse from here on in—’
‘You’re not kidding.’ Ione’s husband, Alexio Christoulakis, grimaced. ‘I once threw Ione’s phone in the bath to stop it ringing—’
‘I bet you were popular.’ Leone laughed. ‘I chucked one out the window.’
Freddy’s husband, Crown Prince Jaspar al-Husayn, smiled with a certain amount of oneupmanship. ‘I used the excuse of health concerns and banned mobile and digital phones from our private apartments.’
‘Nice one, Jaspar,’ Leone murmured with frank appreciation. ‘In the near future I suspect I’m about to become very much more health-scare aware.’
Engaged in wondering if the bridal limo was on the way down to the village, Luciano was too tense to be amused. It was his wedding day and he was just grateful it had finally arrived. Ten days had passed since his marriage proposal, and for nine of those days Luciano had got no closer to Kerry than a phone call! The very evening of the day that Kerry had agreed to marry him, two of her sisters and their husbands had flown in to make his acquaintance. While that meeting had gone off very much better than he might have expected, Misty had insisted on organising the entire wedding and Ione had whisked Kerry off to Paris to buy her bridal trousseau. What Luciano had dimly imagined would be a small, intimate occasion had turned into a three-ring circus and Kerry had not got the chance to return to Tuscany before the wedding took place.
From the imposing porch of the Villa Contarini, Kerry watched her grandmother, her three sisters and those of her nephews and nieces playing an active role in the ceremony board the waiting line of cars. When the cars had driven off, she did a slow, wondering spin in front of a glittering Venetian glass mirror: the dream that she had begun dreaming almost the very first time she laid eyes on Luciano da Valenza was at last coming true.
Her gown was a bias-cut column of white duchesse satin with a crystal-beaded neckline. The classic style contrived to make her look taller, and the exquisite diamond tiara which Freddy had loaned her only added to that flattering impression. Freddy had also given her a very pretty seed-pearl and lace garter. Misty had presented her kid sister with an eye-poppingly sexy set of lingerie and Ione had given her a truly amazing pair of designer shoes that were studded with diamonds.
‘I fell for them but Alexio has got this weird hang-up about me wearing shoes with jewels on them, so I bought them for you instead,’ Ione had confided. ‘Trust me, you’ll feel a million dollars in them!’
Emerging from that recollection with a helpless smile, for Ione was so rich that she had little concept of how other people lived, Kerry raised her gown a couple of inches to watch her shoes sparkle in the sunlight, and Ione was right, those shoes did make her feel fantastic. It was time for her and her grandfather to head for the church. She would be precisely three minutes late.
‘I don’t think you’ll get the chance to read anything during the church service, Grandpa.’ With a grin, Kerry removed the book that Hunt O’Brien was reaching for before he could get lost between its pages again and set it aside.
‘You look very lovely, my dear,’ the old man said fondly. ‘At a time in life when there are usually few surprises left, your grandmother and I feel very blessed. Your late mother has left us a wonderful legacy in her daughters and their children.’
Her throat tight with tears, Kerry gave her grandfather a hug for recognising what was most important: Carrie had given Kerry and her siblings the gift of life. Only in getting to know and love her sisters had Kerry finally overcome the sad sense of aloneness which had nagged at her since she was a child.
Seated in the limousine that would take her to the church, Kerry thought about the nine incredibly busy days that had just passed. While she had very much enjoyed spending time with her sisters and their respective families, she had missed Luciano almost more than she could bear. When she had contacted her father to tell him about her marriage plans, Harold Linwood had told her that she was making a fool of herself and had turned down her wedding invitation. She had not expected much from the older man but his contemptuous dismissal had hurt.
Miles’s warm and accepting response to the same announcement had been very welcome. She was really looking forward to seeing her stepbrother at the reception but was a little anxious as to how Luciano would react to the younger man’s presence. Ought she to have mentioned that Miles was on the guest list beforehand?
By the time Kerry walked down the aisle of the flower-bedecked church with Freddy acting as matron of honour and her twin sisters as her bridesmaids, all such superfluous concerns had left her. Luciano broke with tradition to watch her approach, and the wondering appreciation in his steady gaze made her feel like the most beautiful bride in the world. With simple dignity and warmth, Hunt O’Brien read the Bible readings for the ceremony, first in Irish and then in English. Kerry’s heart was soon full to overflowing, and afterwards she could never recall posing for the flurry of photos taken as they all emerged from the picturesque stone church.
‘You’ve got glitter on your shoes,’ Luciano told her helpfully as he assisted her into the limo that would ferry them back to the villa for the reception.
‘That’s not glitter. Those are genuine jewels,’ Kerry confided with a helpless giggle. ‘Ione’s gift. I think they’ll have to go in a special display box afterwards.’
‘Dio mio…’ Luciano was astonished but his proud dark head lifted and he frowned as something outside the church stole his attention from his bride’s amazing footwear.
‘What is it?’
Luciano tore his incredulous gaze from Miles Linwood’s smug, smiling face in the crowd and focused back on his bride. ‘What the hell is your stepbrother doing here?’
His harsh intonation made Kerry pale. ‘I invited him—’
‘You should have discussed that with me,’ Luciano cut in grimly. ‘No Linwood ought to be at my wedding!’
Kerry lifted her chin. ‘Luciano…you just married a Linwood.’
‘I don’t think of you as one of them. If I did, I couldn’t have married you.’ Lean, strong face set in hard, uncompromising lines, Luciano surveyed her with chilling golden eyes. ‘It was Linwoods who banded together, stitch
ed me up and put me in prison for five years. Think hard about where your loyalties lie, mia carina.’
Shock had claimed Kerry, for she had been quite unprepared for the level of his hostility towards her stepbrother. ‘It’s not a matter of that—’