The Sicilian's Mistress

‘Don’t be snide.’

‘Of course, some gorgeous flame from my past could still throw herself across the church steps and prevent me from reaching the altar—’

‘That’s not funny!’ Milly cut in hotly.

‘Milly…proceed to the bedroom door. That’s the large wooden oblong with the handle. Open the door, walk down the stairs and get into the transport waiting,’ Gianni instructed with gentle satire. ‘If you keep me hanging around at that church, I’ll—’

‘You’ll what?’ Milly whispered in breathless interruption as she moved towards the door.

‘You’ll find out tonight,’ he promised, in a roughened sexy undertone that made her heartbeat accelerate at the most astonishing rate.

‘I’m going to be awfully late, Gianni…’

‘I won’t wait.’

‘You will,’ she muttered, smiling, and finished the call.

On her way down the stairs, she was amazed by the number of staff bustling in and out of the ballroom, and she was about to ask what was happening when Robin Jennings strolled out of the drawing room to extend his arm to her with a broad grin.

‘Gianni wanted me to surprise you.’

Milly gave the older man a delighted smile and a welcoming hug. ‘I’m so glad you’re here to share this day with me.’

After that first surprise, the surprises simply got larger. The church car park and the road outside were packed with luxury cars. As Robin helped her out of the limo Gianni’s security men surged forward to shield her from a pack of eager photographers and journalists shouting questions.

‘What’s going on?’ Milly voiced her bewilderment in the church porch.

‘Gianni did mention that he wanted to show you off to the whole world,’ Robin Jennings confided then. ‘Only I didn’t realise he meant it so literally.’

There wasn’t even standing room left in the church.

Gianni watched Milly walk down the aisle with glittering dark eyes of appreciation.

The simple ceremony filled her with emotion and optimism. Some day soon, she swore, she would be able to tell Gianni how much she loved him without him acting as if it was verbal abuse of the most offensive kind.

‘Why didn’t you tell me you were inviting all these people?’ Milly squealed, the minute she got him on his own in the limo. ‘We’ll be in all the newspapers tomorrow, and you know how you hate that sort of stuff! Everything that’s happened to me will come out as well.’

Gianni’s dark, deep flashing eyes shimmered with amusement. ‘In the words of one of my PR team…“just like a fairytale”. Less than cool, but romantic. You’re a living cross between the Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. I’m still working on being a prince.’

‘Did you really say you wanted to show me off to the whole world?’

Slight colour burnished his stunning cheekbones. ‘I don’t remember.’

Plunged into a reception for five hundred guests back at Heywood House, Milly found her wedding day an increasingly breathless whirl.

Around three that afternoon she slid away to speak privately to Davina Jennings. After the older woman had listened to Connor’s excited chatter and cuddled him, she explained that Edward had now become a junior partner in Jennings Engineering.

‘He’s bearing up very well to having lost you, I have to admit,’ Davina confided ruefully. ‘With hindsight, I can see that Edward was rather more interested in the partnership than he was in you. You made the right decision.’

Davina pressed a very familiar item of jewellery into Milly’s hand. ‘The bracelet. You left it behind in your room.’

‘But I can’t keep it. It belonged to your grandmother,’ Milly protested.

‘You’re always going to be part of our family, Milly,’ the older woman told her gently. ‘But now that you’ve got your memory back, I’d love to know how you acquired the bracelet in the first place.’

‘A couple of days before the accident, I bought it off a market stall.’ Milly had turned the silver bracelet over and noticed the word ‘Faith’ inscribed on the back. It hadn’t occurred to her that it might be a name. She had seen it in the light of a message to have faith, keep faith no matter how difficult things might seem. She had clasped it round her wrist like a talisman the same day she’d boarded the train to Cornwall.

‘The bracelet belongs with you now. At least you liked it enough to buy it,’ Davina remarked wryly. ‘Enough of that. Have the police been in touch with you about the accident?’