‘What is it, sweetheart?’
‘Are you married? ‘
Resisting the urge to laugh out loud at the uncanny aptness of the question, he endeavoured to keep his face expressionless so that Tia wouldn’t think he wasn’t giving her question the proper consideration.
‘No, my sweet little girl…I’m not married.’
‘My mummy’s not married either. I wish she was. I wish she was so that I could have a daddy, like my friend Madison at school. Not all the children in my class have daddies, but she does, and I think she’s very lucky—don’t you? ‘
Powerful emotion struck Dante silent. As if in slow motion—as if time had ground to a dreamlike halt—he saw Anna’s pale slim hand reach out to pull Tia’s hand away from her chin and tenderly hold it.
‘Darling, I want you to listen very carefully to what I need to tell you. Will you do that? ‘
Her blue-grey eyes widening like twin compact disks, Tia nodded gravely.
‘Dante and I knew each other a long time ago—remember I told you that? Anyway, we liked each other very much. But unfortunately…because something very sad happened in Italy, where he came from…he had to go away.’ Sighing softly, Anna gave him a brief heartfelt glance. ‘When he left. When he left, I found out that I was expecting a baby.’
‘A baby? That must have been me! ‘ ‘Yes, darling…it was you.’
Her innocent brow puckering, Tia swung her gaze round to alight firmly on Dante.
‘Does that mean that you’re my daddy, then?’
‘Yes, my angel.’ His throat feeling as if it had been branded with an iron, Dante attempted a smile. ‘It does.’
‘You mean my real daddy? Real like Madison’s daddy is her real daddy? ‘
‘Yes.’
‘Then we must be a real family.’
Never had anyone looked clear down to his soul as his daughter did at that breathtaking moment, and he knew…knew beyond any shadow of doubt…that she saw him for who he really was. It was the most unsettling yet exhilarating feeling Dante had ever experienced.
‘And if we’re a real family then you have to come and live with us—because that’s what real families do, you know. Mummy, can I have a chocolate éclair now?’ Tia turned pleadingly towards her mother. ‘If you don’t want me to eat a whole one, in case I’m sick, can I share it with you and have just half?’
‘Okay, but I think after that you should call it a day on the cake front, don’t you? ‘
As Anna glanced at Dante with a tremulous smile, he silently formed the words thank you. Then, reaching towards the multi-tiered cake stand, he plucked a chocolate éclair from it and with the small silver knife by his plate proceeded to cut it in half.
It had been a day of truth-telling. Along with the relief that had followed it, an incredible fatigue rolled over Anna, dragging at her limbs and making her eyelids so heavy that she could hardly stay awake.
Having left Dante in the bedroom, watching Tia as she drifted off to sleep after the story he’d read her, she kicked off her shoes and stretched out on the couch.
She’d told him that children quickly adapted to new situations and she’d been right. Already Tia was calling him Daddy—as if by voicing her acknowledgement of who he was gave her even more right to claim him as her own. It touched Anna almost unbearably to see father and child together, bonding as naturally as if there had never at any time been a separation. It was wonderful…a dream come true. But where did that leave her?
She’d been a single parent for so long. It wouldn’t be easy to let go of that role, even when she knew it was probably best for Tia that her father was in her life at last. Was it wrong of her to feel so afraid? To live in fear that her autonomy over their lives would be taken away? And would it be wise to contemplate letting her loneliness be soothed by this rugged and virile urbane man to whom she’d relinquished her innocence one night five years ago, knowing that because of the wall she’d glimpsed behind his eyes more than once he’d probably never be able to love her the wholehearted way that he loved his daughter?
‘How are you doing? ‘
Anna’s eyes had been drifting closed, and suddenly Dante was there in front of her, staring down at her with his soulful light eyes in a way that would have made her knees knock together if she’d been standing.
‘I’m fine, thanks. Just a bit tired, to tell you the truth.’ She started to sit up, but he gestured that she stay just as she was and then dropped down to sit on the edge of the couch beside her.
The strong, long-fingered hands that she’d noticed when they first met and had privately thought poetic and artistic were linked loosely in front of him, and a lock of dark blond hair flopped sexily down in front of his forehead. His sculpted lean profile and long luxuriant lashes made him look like a movie star, and for a distressing moment Anna wondered what an outstanding male specimen like him could possibly see in someone as ordinary as her.
‘It’s been quite an incredible day, huh?
‘And as Dante smiled at her with surprising warmth her suddenly wobbly self-esteem was completely banished beneath the breathtaking gaze that was directed straight at her.
‘TIA loved the Ritz. She’ll probably look round the Mirabelle now and think it quite shabby after being there.’
‘That will be the last thing this hotel will be when we get through with all the improvements I have in mind. Did I tell you I’ve hired a team of designers from Milan to oversee the refurbishment?’
‘Milan? Gosh.’
‘This place is already in a league of its own as a Georgian building with a fascinating history. With modernisation and refurbishment it’s going to be one of the most stylish and sophisticated establishments in London.’
‘Anita and Grant deserve it to be. They’ve unstintingly lavished their love on it ever since Grant inherited it from his parents. Can I ask you something?’
He nodded.
‘Talking about Milan…I was wondering…’
‘Yes?’
‘Does that mean you’ve made your peace with Italy? It’s just that you seemed reluctant to discuss it. You told me you left a long time ago, and I sensed that you had deliberately distanced yourself from it.’
‘I had. But when I went back for my mother’s funeral I remembered things about the place that I loved and missed. Gradually over the years I’ve grown to love it again. That’s why I bought a house there…the house we will stay in when you and Tia return with me. Does that reply satisfy your question?’
Touching the tips of his fingers to her cheek, Dante studied her intently. Anna fell silent, hardly knowing what to say. He’d admitted that he’d distanced himself from his homeland but he hadn’t said why. Would he ever trust her enough to disclose some of the secrets from his past? she wondered. But Lake Como was the other subject she needed to address.
‘It’s a big step for me to go with you to Italy. To tell you the truth, I feel a little vulnerable going there with you, Dante. I don’t know the language, and I know you won’t like this but I’m also wary of being pushed into something I’m not really ready for. Do you understand that?’
‘It is not my intention to push you into anything or to make you feel vulnerable,’ he replied thoughtfully. ‘I simply want us to have a holiday together,