Will You Marry Me?: A Marriage Made in Italy / The Courage To Say Yes / The Matchmaker's Happy Ending. Rebecca Winters

      “Why do you feel so strongly about it? I’m curious.”

      “My parents were officially betrothed before they ever met each other. They made their arranged marriage work. From what I saw, they were kind and decent to each other, sometimes showing each other affection. But until Mother was dying, I didn’t know she’d loved another man and had to give him up.”

      His mother had told him something else, too.

      “I can’t begin to imagine it,” Belle was saying.

      “After realizing the sacrifice she’d made to marry for duty, I made up my mind that her situation wasn’t going to happen to me. When the time came, I proposed to Benedetta without hesitation.”

      Belle shifted restlessly in her seat. “I guess that meant your father had to sacrifice, too.”

      Leon nodded. “You know what’s interesting? The other night Father told me that when he asked Luciana to marry him, he said, ‘Naturally, it wasn’t like the feelings I had for your mother, but then you can’t expect that.’”

      “So what do you think he was really saying?”

      “That he was still trying to protect me by pretending he’d loved our mother, but I knew it wasn’t true. They were never in love with each other. Do you want to know something else?”