“Oh, I quite enjoy it. I find it very liberating to lower people’s expectations.”
“You do not,” she said, “nobody does. Everybody cares about pleasing their parents.” She frowned. “Or, if not their parents, at least somebody.”
“You said yourself, you left your parents. And that they weren’t happy with you. Obviously, you don’t worry overly much about pleasing your parents.”
“But I did. For a long time. And the only reason I don’t now is out of necessity. I mean, I would’ve never had any freedom if I hadn’t let go of it.”
There was a strange feeling in his chest, her words catching hold of something that seemed to tug on him, down deep.
About freedom. About letting go.
“Well, on that same subject, there is some work to be done if we are going to present you at dinner tonight.”
“What sort of work?” She looked genuinely mystified at that statement, as though she had no idea what he might be referring to.
As he stood before her in his perfectly pressed custom suit, and she sat cross-legged on the floor looking like she would be more at home at a Renaissance fair than in his home, it occurred to him that she really was a strange creature. The differences between the two of them should be obvious, and yet, she did not seem to pick up on them on her own. Or rather, she didn’t seem to care.
“You, Esther.”
“What’s wrong with me?”
“What did you plan on wearing to dinner tonight?”
She looked down. “This, I suppose.”
“You do not see perhaps a small difference in the way that you are dressed, compared with the way that I am dressed?”
“Did you want me to wear a tux?”
“This is not a tux. It’s a suit. There is a difference.”
“Interesting. And good to know.”
He had a feeling she did not find it interesting at all. “I have taken the liberty of having some clothing ordered for you.” He lifted his hand and looked at his watch. “It should be here any moment.”
Just then, his housekeeper came walking into the room, a concerned expression on her face. “Mr. Valenti, Tierra is here.”
His stylist went by only one name. “Excellent.”
“Should I have her meet you upstairs with all of her items?”
“Yes. But in Esther’s room, if you don’t mind.”
Esther’s eyes widened. “What exactly are you providing me with?”
“Something that doesn’t look like it came out of the bottom of a bargain bin at some sort of rummage sale for mismatched fabrics.”
She frowned. “Is that your way of saying there’s something wrong with what I’m wearing?”
“No. My way of saying that is to say what you’re wearing isn’t suitable. Actually, it’s perfectly suitable if you intend to continue to wait tables at a dusty bar crawling with tourists. However, it is not acceptable if you wish to be presented to the world as my fiancée, and neither is it acceptable for you to wear on the night you are to meet my parents.”
At that, his housekeeper’s face contorted. She began to speak at him in angry, rapid Italian that he was only grateful Esther likely wouldn’t be able to decode. “She is pregnant with my child,” he said. “There is nothing else to be done.”
She shook her head. “You have become a bad man,” she huffed, walking out of the room. That last part she had said in English.
“Why is she mad at you?”
“Well, likely because she thinks I impregnated some poor American tourist while I was still married. You can see how she would find that upsetting.”
“I suppose.” She blinked. “But doesn’t she work for you?”
“Luciana practically came with the house, which I purchased more than a decade ago. It’s difficult to say sometimes who exactly works for whom.”
She frowned. “And now what? You’re going to...buy me new clothes?”
“Exactly. And take your old clothes and burn them.”
“That isn’t very nice.”
He raised his brows, affecting his expression into one of mock surprise. “Is it not? That is regrettable. I do so strive to be nice.”
“I doubt it.”
“Don’t snarl at me,” he said. “And, remember, you have to pretend to be my fiancée. In front of Luciana, and in front of Tierra.”
She scowled, but allowed him to direct her up the stairs, depositing her cereal bowl on the dining room table as she went. He watched the gentle sway of her hips as she began to ascend the staircase. When she was in motion, her clothing seemed less ridiculous. In fact, the effect was rather graceful.
There was an otherworldly quality to her that he couldn’t quite pin down. Something that he had difficulty describing, even to himself. She was very young, and simultaneously sometimes seemed quite old. Like a being who had been dropped down to earth, knowing very little about the customs of those around her, and yet, somehow knowing more than any human could in a lifetime.
And that was fanciful thinking that he never normally allowed himself.
So instead of that, he focused on the rounded curve of her rear. Because that, at least, he understood.
When they reached the bedroom, the stylist had already unveiled a rack of clothing. She was fussing around with the hanging garments, smoothing pleats and adjusting the long, complicated skirts on the various gowns.
“Oh, my,” she said, turning and getting her first look at Esther. “We do have our work cut out for us.”
FOR THE NEXT two hours, Esther was pulled, prodded, poked with pins and clucked at. Well and truly clucked at. As though this woman, Renzo’s stylist, was a chicken. And as though Esther was a naughty chick rather than a woman.
Renzo had left them to it, and she was thankful. Since the moment he had walked out, the other woman had begun stripping Esther’s clothes off her body and forcing new undergarments, new dresses and new shoes onto her.
Esther had never felt fabrics like this. She had never seen styles like this on her spare curves. She had been all about experiencing new things since she had left her home, but she hadn’t gotten around to the clothing and makeup. Or hair. That all required a disposable income that she simply didn’t possess. She was more concerned with keeping food in her belly. And clothing herself in the basics, rather than exploring the world of fashion.
But now she felt as though she had been well and truly educated in which colors looked best on her, which shapes best suited her figure. Of course, most of it had happened in abrupt Italian that Esther could understand only parts of, but still. She could see herself.
In fact, right at the moment, she couldn’t take her eyes off herself. She was wearing a dark green gown that had little cap sleeves and a plunging V neckline that showed off acres of skin around her neck and down farther. The kind of daring look that would never have been allowed in her family home.
The skirt was long, falling all the way down to the tops of the most beautiful pair of shoes Esther had ever seen. Of course, they were also the tallest pair of shoes she had ever worn, and she had serious doubts about her ability to walk in them.
Somewhere in the middle of the clothing frenzy, two men had arrived