This chitchat was driving him crazy. “Do you have any news to share?”
“Yes!” All of a sudden she came alive. “I called the refuge. The man who helped us said Fausto adapted well and yesterday they took him out in the woods. This morning he didn’t come back.”
“That means he’s found a way to survive.”
“I know. I’m really glad. We know he’ll be happy now.”
Stefano gripped his phone tighter. “How do you feel about that?”
“Fausto is back home. What more could we ask?”
“We couldn’t.”
He heard her sigh. “You’ve got a long flight ahead of you.”
“Not too bad. I’ll sleep most of the way. We’ll have dinner on the plane for the short flight to Domodossola. Now I have to go. We’re getting ready to take off. See you tonight.”
“Be safe.”
“You, too.”
He hung up and climbed the steps, anxious to get back to Lanza. After chatting with his pilot and steward, he walked to his bedroom. Once they’d attained cruising speed and the seat belt light had gone off, he prepared to pass out until it was time for the descent.
The whole nightmare of the cave-in was over and his wife would be meeting him at the airport in Rome. Maybe now he could actually get some sleep.
Stefano couldn’t believe it when the steward knocked on his door and told him it was almost time to fasten his seat belt. He really had needed the sleep. They were about to make their approach.
He shaved and freshened up, then slipped on the same gray suit he’d worn the night they’d left on their honeymoon. His pulse picked up speed as he moved to the club car to check on the dinner menu and get ready for the landing.
The jet taxied along the tarmac. The second it came to a stop, he leaped from his chair. His steward opened the door so he could rush down the stairs.
Like magic, Lanza stepped out of the taxi parked nearby. She, too, had chosen to wear the same suit with the lace hem. She’d even done her hair up with the same pearl clip and the necklace he’d given her. Princess Lanza Rossiano was in evidence once more.
He drew closer to her, noticing a nerve throbbing at the base of her throat where the pearl lay. She was even more beautiful than he remembered when they’d said goodbye at the chalet. Those blue eyes met his for a breathless moment.
Stefano wanted to crush her in his arms, but this wasn’t the place in front of his staff or the taxi driver. Instead, he pressed a kiss to her cheek and cupped her elbow. “Come on. Our dinner is waiting for us.”
He helped her up the steps and inside to the club compartment of the jet. The steward brought her coat and luggage. After she sat down and fastened her seat belt, he did the same and before long they were in the air. The moment they could unbuckle, the steward served them a pasta dinner with shrimp.
“I told him to serve us soon because this flight won’t take us long.”
She started to eat. “You asked me earlier if I had any news. I decided to wait and tell you what my aunt told me. She said that while we were gone, my parents had the second floor of the east wing of the palace restored to a home for us.
“It has three bedrooms, a kitchen, sitting room, den, an office with the latest computer software for you, a terrace, two bathrooms, a living room, everything we could want. It’s their wedding gift to us.”
“That’s very generous of them. I’ll thank them as soon as possible. Now I’d like some advice from you.”
“What is it?”
“I have to fly to Argentina the day after tomorrow. The timing is terrible since I’ve just returned from Mexico.”
She didn’t react to the news, but he knew it came as a surprise that he was leaving again so soon. “This meeting with my engineers in Puerto San Julian in the northwestern part of the country was planned before Alberto died and can’t be changed.”
“Father wouldn’t expect you to.”
But what about you, Lanza?
“We’ve been putting in a new process, which increases the purity of gold by electrolysis. I won’t bore you with all the details, but by use of an electric current the gold can be restored to a highly pure metallic state, leaving the impurities separate.”