Rinaldo's Inherited Bride by Lucy Gordon

Author:Lucy Gordon [Gordon, Lucy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Romance, General, Contemporary, Fiction
ISBN: 9780373037995
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2005-03-11T00:00:00+00:00

98

RINALDO’S INHERITED BRIDE

‘You make it sound so convincing,’ he said in a low voice. ‘If only I could remember—’

‘Remember what?’

‘Something—anything—just a moment that would tell me what was in his mind. I keep having this feeling that it’s there, just on the edge. Like when you see something out of the corner of your eye, but when you turn it vanishes. I dream about it, but it isn’t there when I awaken.

Maybe it doesn’t really exist at all.’

‘If it does, it will come back to you,’ she said. ‘Not now, because your head’s all scrambled, but when you feel easier inside.’

His mouth quirked wryly.

‘I think I’ve forgotten what it’s like to feel easy inside.’

She looked at his hands, lying loosely clasped. He was a big man and his hands were large in proportion. She could still feel their power where he’d gripped her. Yet now they looked helpless.

‘You carry all the burdens for everyone, don’t you?’

she said.

He didn’t answer, and she wondered if she’d taken a risk too far. But his eyes held only a searching look, as though he were trying to fathom her.

From outside came Gino’s voice.

‘Hey! Anybody there?’

He was coming toward the barn. Rinaldo put his finger to his lips, shaking his head slightly, and hurried out before Gino could enter.

She heard his voice carrying back.

‘I was just coming. We have a lot to do today.’

Their voices faded. After a while she slipped out of the barn to find everywhere quiet.

She went indoors and put through a call to David, but there was only his answerphone. They had spoken several LUCY GORDON

99

times since she came to Belluna. She had apologised for being so long, and he’d encouraged her to stay as long as necessary.

She always finished these calls feeling a little guilty that he was being so nice and understanding. She felt she was taking advantage of his patience to indulge herself.

One thing she was sure of. There was no way she was leaving before the Feast of St Romauld, which took place on June 19th.

‘There’s a parade of floats through the streets,’ Gino told her, ‘and we all wander around eating and drinking, and then we dance. I shall dance only with you, amor mio. And you must dance only with me.’

‘She can’t do that,’ Rinaldo said at once. ‘Montelli and the others will want some of her attention, and you must do what’s necessary to keep them dangling, eh, Alex?’

He spoke pleasantly, as though this were an accepted joke between them.

‘Of course,’ she said, playing up to him.

Gino assumed an air of theatrical comedy.

‘But why should you need the others when you have us?’ he demanded, clasping her waist and leaning over her dramatically.

‘Let’s say I like some variety,’ she chuckled, clinging to him to avoid falling. ‘Now, get off me, you great clown.’

When the day arrived, every worker on the farm went to the festival. Families piled into cars, converging on the road to the city so that they ended up in what Gino told her was the Belluna procession.

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