The Secret That Changed Everything by Lucy Gordon

Author:Lucy Gordon
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-02-29T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

THEY nearly didn’t make the trip to Venice. With only two days to the festival every hotel for miles was booked. But a sudden cancellation came just in time.

‘We’re going to stay in the Tirani Hotel,’ Lucio told her.

Charlotte’s eyes widened. ‘Wow!’

The Tirani was one of the most luxurious hotels in Venice. On her last visit she had stayed in a far more modest establishment, occasionally walking past the Tirani, just close enough to see that it was way out of her price range.

‘I hope it lives up to your expectations,’ Lucio said, grinning and correctly interpreting her amazement.

They travelled by train, boarding at Florence Station for the two-hour journey.

‘I loved Venice when I was there before,’ she said as they neared the magical city. ‘But it was winter and everywhere was under snow, even the gondolas. I’ve always wanted to go back and see it in the sun.’

‘And you managed it, by manipulating me like a puppet. Well done.’

‘Oh, that’s how you feel. Well, if the vineyards in the Veneto aren’t worth fighting for, why don’t we just go back?’

He eyed her with grimly humorous appreciation.

‘If you think I’ll fall for that, forget it. I know you well enough by now to reckon that you’ll have researched the subject and know exactly how good they are.’

‘Right! I did just that, and I know that the Bantori vineyards are well known for their white grapes, which are used to make the very best prosecco wine. In Tuscany you grow Sangiovese grapes to make red wine, so you’d probably enjoy branching out into a different area.’

‘You really have been doing research,’ he observed.

He wished he could have kept the touch of admiration out of his voice. It galled him to discover that he respected her brains, but he couldn’t help it.

He’d never sought the company of intellectual women. Nor was that how she’d appeared on the first evening. True, she’d argued like someone whose brain was up to every trick, but soon other aspects of her had risen to distract him. Now he was discovering that to keep one step ahead of her he would need all his wits.

As she gazed out of the window he took the chance to study her, knowing that her combination of beauty and brains was likely to cause him even more trouble in the future than it had already. Pregnancy suited her, causing a glorious flowering. Yet the alertness was always there in her eyes, warning him to take nothing for granted.

He marvelled at the situation in which he found himself. He, not she, was Italian, yet in thirty-two years he had never visited Venice. But she knew the city well and was revealing it to him. Something in the irony of that appealed to his sense of humour.

Not that there had been much humour in his life. Once, briefly, he’d enjoyed a time of vibrant emotion, but when it was snatched from him he’d determined to banish feelings, clinging only to things that could be relied on.

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