His mouth set. The sooner he’d settled the business here and was back in San Lucenzo the better.
But it had been good to start getting to know Ben.
Paolo’s son.
His expression softened
I’ll make sure he’s OK, Paolo—I promise you.
Lunch had been just as much an ordeal as breakfast. Once again, the source of both her concern and her relief had been that Ben had dominated the proceedings, talking nineteen to the dozen to Prince Enrico. All she’d been required to do was sit there and try to eat through a throat that was getting tighter every moment.
What had happened? Why was Prince Enrico back here? He’d said he’d talk to her later—but when was later?
It was after lunch, it transpired. As they left the dining room he turned to her.
‘Settle Ben with some toys, if you please. I shall await you in the library.’
‘He has a nap after lunch. I’ll come down when he’s asleep.’
He gave a curt nod, and she took Ben upstairs, nerves jumping.
Typically, Ben took for ever to go to sleep, and her nerves were stretched thin by the time she could finally leave him, curtains closed, door ajar, and head downstairs.
He was, as he had said, in the library. A raft of daily papers, in both English and Italian, were on the low table, and he was sitting in a leather chair perusing The Times.
Surely such a respectable newspaper had not carried such a scurrilous story? she wondered.
But the page he was reading seemed to be about international politics. He cast the paper aside and stood up, indicating the chair opposite him, across the hearth of the unlit fire.
‘Please sit down.’ His voice was cool..
She sat nervously, stomach knoting.
‘We must resolve, as a matter of urgency, as I am sure you will appreciate, the matter of my nephew’s future.’
Lizzy stared.
‘What do you mean?’ she said.
A flicker of irritation showed briefly in the dark eyes, then it was suppressed.
‘I appreciate,’ he said carefully to her—as if, Lizzy thought, she was stupid, ‘that the news of Ben’s parentage has come as a profound shock to you. Nevertheless, I must ask you to focus on the implications of that discovery. Like yourself, his father’s family were, unfortunately, but in the tragic circumstances understandably, equally unaware that Paolo had a son. Now that this is no longer the case, obviously steps will be taken as soon as possible to rectify the situation.’
She was still staring blankly.
‘Rectify?’ she echoed.
She saw him take a breath. ‘Of course. Ben will now make his life in San Lucenzo.’
Cold went down Lizzy’s back. She could feel it—as if her spine was turning to ice.
‘No.’
The word was instinctive. Automatic.
She saw the Prince’s face first tighten, then take on the same expression that it had had when she had failed to recognise him. Disbelieving.
She didn’t care. Didn’t care about anything. Except to refute, absolutely, what she had just heard him say.