Harlequin Special Edition November 2016, Box Set 2 of 2 by Karen Rose Smith

Author:Karen Rose Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781488027307
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

Callie got up early enough the next morning to make a quick cup of coffee. Just one, though. What she really wanted was one of those sinfully rich white-chocolate espressos at the little café she’d discovered yesterday.

The air was still crisp and cold. Bundled against the chill, she wove through the backpacking school kids and early shoppers. The scent of hot, strong coffee and fresh-baked pastries welcomed her when she ducked inside the café. While she waited for her croissant and espresso in its elegant, silver-handled glass, her gaze roamed the framed black-and-white photos. There was Sophia Loren again, and Jack Kennedy. And a helmeted general in jodhpurs and a low-slung holster.

Patton? Could that really be Patton?

Her glass in one hand and the croissant in the other, she tried to edge past the stand-up counter crowd for a closer look. She was almost there when one of the patrons closed the lid of his computer and turned to leave. She jumped back to avoid a collision but sloshed some foamy white chocolate on his sleeve.

“Oh! Scusi!”

The man muttered something that didn’t sound too complimentary under his breath and grabbed a napkin to dab at his jacket sleeve.

“I’m sorry,” Callie said in English. “I hope it didn’t get in your laptop.”

He jerked his head up and stared at her with unfriendly eyes. Then he turned on one heel and shouldered his way unceremoniously through the crowd.

“Ohhh…kay,” she said to his back, “And no, I didn’t splash hot coffee on my hand and burn myself, but thanks for asking.”

Shrugging off the incident, she enjoyed the croissant and what was left of her espresso, then headed for the center.

* * *

Her second day on the job turned out to be even busier than the first. She sat in on another group therapy session at nine and attended an occupational assessment workshop at eleven. With the aid of a translator, a job placement specialist gently probed a sad-eyed, stoop-shouldered young widow for possible employment choices.

Callie joined a table of three women at lunch. Although English wasn’t their native language, all three spoke it with varying degrees of proficiency. One, the victim of a vicious disfigurement by a jealous husband, hid the gaping hole where the tip of her nose had been cut off behind a veil. A native of Bangladesh, Leela had contacted an IADW outreach worker after that same loving husband had driven her out of their home with a whip.

“Simona says the doctors can fix my face,” she murmured in soft, very British English. “She says she will tell Prince di Lorenzo to arrange it.”

“Which he will do,” one of the other women said with a smile. “He lives in fear of Simona, although he is twice her weight and so much older.”

Weight, Callie agreed with. But older? Although she didn’t know his for sure, she would guess the prince was somewhere in his mid-to-late thirties.

Her glance shot to the center’s director seated at a table across the room. With her snowy hair and lined face, Simona certainly looked to have some years on him.

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