Public Wife, Private Mistress by Sarah Morgan

Author:Sarah Morgan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2005-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

CHIARA was allowed home a few days later on the understanding that she rested and was supervised.

Stasia knew that she should feel pleased that the teenager had recovered sufficiently to be discharged from the hospital, but instead her anxiety levels grew.

She and Chiara had spent a fair degree of time together when she had lived in Rome as Rico’s wife and it had been a thoroughly stressful experience. She knew that Chiara hated Rico’s villa in Sicily, finding it isolated and boring in the extreme. How would they get on, forced to endure what might be weeks in each other’s company?

But Chiara, it seemed, was a changed person.

From the moment she arrived at the villa she was pathetically eager to please, determined not to be a nuisance and outwardly charmed by the view from the terrace.

‘Do you think I might be able to swim in the sea,’ she asked, staring longingly across the private beach to where the ocean sparkled in the summer sunshine.

‘Try the pool first,’ Rico advised, handing her a hat and gesturing to a sun lounger. ‘Sit down and Maria will bring you a drink. And you should probably try and sleep. I need to make a few calls. If you need anything, ask Stasia. I’ll see you at dinner.’ He brushed his sister’s head in an affectionate gesture and then strode off, leaving her staring after him.

‘He’s always been more of a father to me than a brother,’ she murmured and Stasia looked at her warily, unsure how to respond. She knew that, in the past at least, Chiara had hated that fact. Had hated the fact that Rico was so strict with her.

Stasia kept her response neutral. ‘He loves you very much.’

Fortunately Chiara fell asleep and the afternoon passed quickly. Stasia went for a wander through the fruit orchards that surrounded the villa, struggling with memories of the first time Rico had brought her here. She’d fallen in love with the island, with the blend of history and culture and the sheer beauty of the scenery. As excited as any tourist, she’d made Rico take her to all the most famous sights and together they’d visited magnificent Greek temples, Norman cathedrals and Baroque palaces until the heat and the sheer volume of people had driven them back to the cool privacy of his villa and more intimate pleasures. But those heady, happy days had given her some insight into what it meant to be Sicilian. And she knew that for Rico it was everything.

Deep in thought, Stasia walked under the trees, picked herself an orange and then returned to the cool, vine-covered terrace. Chiara still slept and Stasia curled up on a sun lounger and lost herself in her sketchbook, enjoying the faint breeze from the sea.

By the time Chiara woke it was time to dress for dinner.

Retiring to the sanctuary of the bedroom she’d been using while Chiara had been in the hospital, Stasia found it stripped bare of her belongings.

Immediately she went and found Rico’s housekeeper.

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