It had more of an effect than he had anticipated. Lady Geraldine sniffed delicately and picked up her linen serviette to dab at the corner of her eye.
‘Bella,’ she said, her Italian accent flawless. ‘Carlotta è una ragazza fortunate.’
Beneath his fingers, Charlotte’s hand stiffened with tension. ‘What?’
‘She said you are a lucky girl,’ Nico murmured. ‘That the story of how we met is beautiful.’
‘At last…’ Lady Geraldine smiled mistily at her granddaughter. ‘Oh, darling. I can’t begin to tell you how happy this makes me. This…this is the best night of my life.’
Charlotte’s lips trembled but she managed to smile. In the instant before she turned to look at her grandmother Nico caught the flash of emotion in her eyes that told him how huge this gift of happiness was.
And she couldn’t have given her grandmother this if it hadn’t been for him. It made him proud.
It made him want to give more.
The interruption of the first course of their dinner arriving was a welcome distraction that gave Charlotte time to try and collect herself. Not that she had the slightest appetite and she couldn’t help her gaze straying sideways to look at Nico at noticeably frequent intervals as she wondered how he could be so incredibly good at this pretence, but that was just the sort of behaviour a woman who’d just fallen head over heels in love would display, wasn’t it?
No wonder Gran believed it all. Charlotte had been sucked in herself. She’d totally forgotten the fear of the conversation touching on that no-go period in her life. And the way she’d felt when he’d picked up her hand and kissed it…No. What had been utterly shocking had been the way she’d felt when he’d leaned closer and looked as though he was about to kiss her on the lips.
The hum of conversation around them and the elegant strains of the Christmas carols being played by a quartet in the restaurant foyer had faded into nothing more than background static. The flickering light of the candles seemed to mirror the tiny flames licking her skin. Heating her blood and pooling somewhere deep in her belly.
A moment’s madness, fuelled by what she could swear was an equal level of attraction in Nico’s eyes. But they were dark eyes and the light was low. She couldn’t possibly have seen his pupils expand and she must have imagined the electric charge that came through her fingers where his skin was still in contact.
The shock of hearing her grandmother respond to Nico in Italian had been enough to break the extraordinary spell being cast, which was just as well. Nico was enjoying himself quite enough. How appalling would it be if he knew he was having a genuine effect on her?
Lady Geraldine wasn’t eating much either, and that was enough to send Charlotte’s thoughts in a darker direction. Her grandmother might be in her eighties but she had always been a woman of amazing energy who lived life to the full. Nobody would deny her the maximum extent of whatever modern medicine could do to prolong that colourful life, but you had to balance additional time earned by what the quality of that life would be. Major surgery and chemotherapy would be a miserable time and it was possible that the end would not justify the means.
Something like despair gathered in a cloud over Charlotte as she toyed with her entrée. Thank goodness Nico and her grandmother were so engaged in conversation. Nobody would thank her for destroying the joyous atmosphere that had been created at this particular table.
‘So your mother is still living in Ireland?’
‘Yes. With husband number four.’
‘Good gracious! What was wrong with the first three?’
‘My mother has trouble resisting offers that seem to give her a better opportunity to experience the best that life can give. She is a free spirit, Lady Geraldine, who is not bothered by what others think. A bit like yourself, I’m guessing?’
Gran actually laughed with delight. If she’d had a fan in her hand, Charlotte thought, she might have smacked Nico’s hand with it. Instead, the old lady gave him an almost shy smile.
‘You can call me Jendi, dear,’ she told him. ‘As my friends do.’
‘I’m honoured…Jendi.’
‘And your father? Is he still living, too?’
‘No.’ Charlotte saw the way Nico laid down his fork as though he had caught the lack of appetite around him. ‘He died some years ago now.’
‘Oh…’ The sound was one of sympathy. ‘Too young. Was it an accident?’
‘A broken heart.’ Nico’s voice was expressionless. He was stating a fact.
Charlotte couldn’t help her eyebrows rising at such a non-medical notion from a man with his training. She didn’t say anything but maybe her breath had escaped with a disparaging sound because Nico flicked a glance in her direction. His words, however, were directed at Lady Geraldine. His new friend.
‘They called it a heart attack, of course,’ he said. ‘But his heart broke when my mother left him and on every visit I made back here, I could see his slow decline.’
‘That’s terrible,’ Lady Geraldine declared. She was frowning now. ‘But at least it hasn’t put you off marriage, Nico.’
‘M-marriage?’
The word was so shocked that Charlotte knew the game might be up. Had it not occurred to him that it was a natural direction for someone’s thoughts to go in when faced by two people who were ‘meant to be together’ and had made the connection at last?
‘Early days, Gran,’ she said in a stage whisper across the table. ‘Don’t frighten the poor man.’
‘Frightened? Me?’ To give him credit, Nico recovered fast. He actually winked at Lady Geraldine. ‘We men like to pick our own time, that’s all. The element of surprise, you understand?’
‘Oh, of course.’ Lady Geraldine beamed at him. ‘I promise I’ll be surprised.’
She wouldn’t be the only one. Nico was only supposed to be posing as her new boyfriend, that’s all. Something that would make Gran happy because it offered hope for her not having a lonely future. This was getting out of hand. He was sharing family secrets as though he was already a prospective grandson-in-law.
How on earth was she going to explain what had happened here tonight if, by some miracle, her grandmother’s treatment was effective and she lived for years after this?
The interruption of formal speeches in praise of the symposium and its organisers filled in the time between courses and prevented any further bonding between her gran and Nico, but it didn’t lessen the increasing tension Charlotte was experiencing. It only got worse as people began to mingle between the tables and Richard Campbell came to say hello.
‘Did you enjoy listening to Charlotte this morning, Lady Geraldine?’
‘Oh, I did. So much. Thank you for arranging things, Dr Campbell. I am the happiest woman in the world tonight.’
‘So I see.’ It was impossible not to respond to the glow her grandmother was exuding. No one would believe that she could be facing confirmation of a terminal disease within days. And the misty look she was giving the young couple at her table was just as easy to read. Richard’s jaw sagged visibly as he followed her gaze.
‘Charlotte? You and…?’
‘Nico Moretti,’ Nico said, extending his hand.
A new challenge, then. Could he pull off this pretence with the people who worked with Charlotte?
‘Delighted to meet you, Richard. Although I think we met some years