Page 6 of His Royal Bride Replacement

When Rosy got back to the hotel she had to seek out Vittoria and she found her sister in their spacious rear apartment off the courtyard, sitting at the kitchen table with tears streaming down her quivering face.

‘What on earth?’ She gasped, for her sister had never been a crier.

Vittoria nudged a creased letter across the table to her sister. ‘The roofer, Mr Calabrese, who sorted us out after that flood in the winter. He said he was willing to wait for payment but he can’t wait any more…and whyshouldhe?’ she cried, stricken. ‘But now he’s taking legal action to get what he’s owed!’

‘Oh, my goodness,’ Rosy framed in dismay as she studied the letter. ‘You didn’t tell me about this bill. It’s not on the books.’

‘No. I didn’t want to worry you and it was an emergency…you know it was.’

‘Yes, but Mr Calabrese needed it paid and there are other things that could have taken a back seat while we worked to meet his bill,’ Rosy reasoned unhappily, thinking of things like the purchase of truffles and the very best linen available.

‘He did a great job. He deserves his money,’ Vittoria agreed. ‘But this is the worst possible time for this to happen with the wedding coming up…and me.’ Her sister grimaced and looked guilty. ‘I’m pregnant again.’

‘I beg your pardon…’ Rosy was shattered by that announcement when the last she had heard, after Vittoria had spent years trying without success to have a third child, was that her sibling was going through an early menopause.

‘Even the doctor thought it was the menopause.’ Vittoria sighed. ‘But he did a test and then an ultrasound. I’m three months along already…and could you think of a worse time for such a development?’

‘It’s wonderful news, news you and Patrick have wanted for a long time,’ Rosy responded tautly. ‘OK, so the timing is not what you would have chosen but you’re better concentrating on the positive right now.’

‘This giant bill we can’t pay,’ Vittoria exclaimed tearfully. ‘And the twins are going to be so embarrassed that I’m pregnant!’

It took time for Rosy to bolster up her sibling’s flagging spirits, sticking to the few positives she could grasp after that conversation. There was no way on earth that they could cover that bill and it looked as if bankruptcy was on the horizon because, without the wedding, there was no promise of future prosperity to take to the bank and persuade them to extend the bank loan.

Her tummy churned sickly at what now lay ahead of her family. They would lose the hotel and she would have to give up her job as presumably they would have to return to the UK. Or would they? That would be such a shame when her nephews had already settled so well into their schools and made friends. Patrick could get work as a chef somewhere else. That would be two wages coming in, hers and Patrick’s, she reasoned in desperation, knowing she was being foolish in trying to second-guess an unknown future. Would the bank repossess and sell the hotel immediately, throwing them out on the street? How long would that procedure take? Months?Weeks?

It was hardly surprising that Rosy got very little sleep that night. The prospect of losing everything, even the roof over their heads, was terrifying, particularly with Vittoria going through what might yet prove to be a difficult pregnancy. Certainly, her sister looked pretty sickly right now. The situation was horrific and she felt guilty that she hadn’t broken that non-disclosure agreement and warned her sister that the royal wedding had fallen through. In reality, she decided, she hadn’t been able tofacetelling Vittoria what she had accidentally discovered. Presumably, however, that news would soon be on TV and in every newspaper because the Prince could hardly keep that announcement to himself.

* * *

Alessio didn’t sleep that night either. He tossed and turned. He hated disappointing people and that, first and foremost, all practicalities aside, was what he was about to do when he announced that the big wedding was off. He hated failure and Graziana was a failure of elephantine proportions. Whose fault was that buthis? He should’ve questioned her more about her values and then possibly he might have suspected that she was utterly ruthless, if not cruel, when it came to putting her wishes above everyone else’s. Her country, her father, her own people, not to mention Sedovia and its unlucky prince.

Now if there were a practical solution to his lack of a bride, he could have handled it. It crossed his mind that he handled most problems with the liberal application of business opportunities or cash. And if he took that road with this crisis? Would he choose one of the calculating socialites he had met over the years who would do virtually anything for money or enhanced status? Or a young Sedovian woman who worked for a living and who might just want to save her flesh and blood from the consequences of their financial mistakes? A beauty with sterling qualities he had already noticed. There was nothing spoilt, selfish or snobbish about Rosy and she was a beauty. Not a classic tall, blonde beauty like Graziana. No, much more of a slender, delicately curved and exquisite package of the more unusual and colourful variety. She attracted him.

Madonna mia, he hadn’t thought of hugging a woman since his mother’s rejection!

* * *

‘I thought I was to help you with the rehanging of the portrait this morning,’ Rosy murmured in surprise when Lucy Ragusa showed her into one of the attic workrooms and indicated a small broken ornament that required fixing.

‘The workmen will do the hanging with my supervision,’ her boss announced. ‘I mustn’t get into the habit of expecting you to always work by my side.’

But that was what I was hired to do!Rosy almost countered because the older woman was looking her over in the strangest way, as if she had never quite seen her before, and then nodding thoughtfully as she departed again. With a suppressed sigh of confusion, Rosy gathered the tools to make the repair, deciding that she didn’t have to don her overalls for such a task. It would be painstaking, fiddly work, rather than messy, although she might well have to touch up the paint after she had it put back together. Carefully gathering the pieces, she studied them one by one below a magnifying device.

A knock sounded on the door and she flinched in surprise just as it opened and the very last person she had expected to see appeared in the doorway for a split second and then strode in, carefully shutting the door behind him.

Rosy stepped back from her worktable, her cheeks warming. ‘Your Highness,’ she said in a slightly strangled undertone, wondering what on earth could bring him to a workroom.

‘I’m sorry to disturb you while you’re working but I needed a discreet place in which to meet with you, and Lucy was kind enough to help me,’ he proffered, bewildering her even more with that mystifying speech.

Frozen to the spot, Rosy simply stared back at him, one hand braced against the table as though to keep her upright. Holy moly, he was so hot he sizzled in her mind’s eye, effortlessly elegant and gorgeous in a designer navy pinstripe suit. He was so tall, so sophisticated, so everything, from his thick blue-black hair that she wanted to plunge her hands into to his probably handmade shoes and everything that lay in between. Brilliant green eyes held hers and she paled as though she had been cornered by a lion and was too afraid to make a run for it.

‘You needed a discreet place in which to meetme?’ she queried unevenly, gazing back at those extraordinarily intense green eyes of his with difficulty.Sointense, so powerful; she felt frozen to the spot.

Prince Alessio swung out a chair by one of the tables and set it beside her. ‘Please sit down and pleasetryto relax because I have an offer…a proposal to make and you must feel able to speak freely to me without fear of causing offence.’

Rosy blinked rapidly, her agile brain skipping over that phrase as she tried to imagine in what possible reality he might have an offer of any kind to make to her. She snatched in a jerky breath to keep her lungs working and dropped down into the chair.Notsurely an indecent proposition of any kind? He emanated no sleazy vibes and yet why would he wish to see her alone where they would remain unseen?

‘I have to announce Graziana’s marriage to another man today. I cannot keep such news from all those who need to know, but I have an idea and I urge you not to become angry with me until you have heard me out. I have no wish to insult or offend you.’

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