How To Propose To A Princess (The Princess Brides 3)

“Several friends of mine live in apartments this size. Everything’s cozy.”

He darted her a glance. “In my case it’s colorless, but it serves my needs.”

Nico’s behavior puzzled her. He’d been distant since she’d run out to the car after he’d picked her up. Something had to be bothering him. He hadn’t even tried to kiss her. Maybe a scheduling problem hadn’t been the real reason for his not showing up on the pediatric ward Thursday evening. She started to feel anxious.

“It hasn’t hindered your ability to make us a feast.” She drank her coffee. “This manicotti is fabulous, Nico. I’ve had seconds of everything. But now I want to know what’s on your mind. Since picking me up, you’ve been different. I don’t believe it has anything to do with my being a princess, or that my bodyguard followed us here and you feel threatened.”

He sat back in his chair with his coffee, eyeing her steadily. “You’re right. The truth is, I haven’t been completely honest with you.”

Her heart thudded. “About what?”

“About my life.”

She kneaded her hands beneath the table. “I don’t understand.” Fausta cocked her head, causing her hair to sway against her face. “What exactly are you saying?”

“The facts are that I’ve always considered my time here in Domodossola to be temporary.”

Her expression sobered. “Why? You’re an established physician.”

“That may be true, but since I earned my first paycheck as a doctor, I’ve been actively looking for my parents.”

She blinked. “Are you serious?”

“Yes. I’m praying to find one or both of them and make them a part of my life if it’s possible.”

“You mean all these years, despite everything, you’ve continually hungered for them?”

“That’s the right word. When you and I first met, you asked me if I had applied for Domodossolan citizenship. I should have told you then that I planned to put down roots in the country where my parents had been born, where my mother gave birth to me. It’s been my goal in life.”

“I had no idea, but how hard life must have been for you to feel such an emptiness without them.”

He nodded. “You can’t imagine. Every day I go to my computer or answer a phone call in the hope that today will be the day I hear the news I’ve been wanting for years. I have so many questions.

“In what country will I find them? Who was my father? How did my parents meet? Were they the same nationality? Are they both still alive? Had they been married, or had they simply slept together? Had she been a single woman who’d been left abandoned?”

“Oh, Nico,” she whispered, lowering her head.

“I’ve always come back to the notion that my mother could have been like other penniless girls in their teens who was forsaken and had to give up her baby. To my mind that seems the most plausible reason I ended up at an orphanage. If that’s the case, I want to find her and help take care of her if she’s still struggling and wants to be reunited.”

Fausta’s eyes had grown misty. “My heart aches for you, Nico. How did you know where to start?”

“I’ve only been able to work with two available clues. The first was that the Mother Superior told me I’d come to the orphanage at the age of two understanding a few words in Italian. That meant I’d been raised by at least one parent who spoke Italian.”

“Of course. What was the second?”

“She told me the exact date I was put in the orphanage. I arrived with five other toddlers at the same time. Why an influx of six children at the same time on the same day, with all of us were wearing the same nondescript clothing?”

“That’s all you’ve had to go on?” she asked.

“It’s worse than looking for a needle in a haystack and takes a lot of money to pay the investigators to do the research. That’s the reason I live here in a modest, low budget furnished apartment. I keep out enough money to pay for expenses and recompense Angelo. The rest is used to fund the inquiries that so far have turned up nothing, forcing me to go further afield.”

“Where have you looked?”

“One of the reasons I decided to be a doctor here was because I thought it was a good place to start my search.”

“You mean you might not have come to Domodossola if you hadn’t been searching for them?”

“No.”