The Secret That Changed Everything

The Secret That Changed Everything
Lucy Gordon

Charlotte Patterson’s Roman holiday is her escape!She hopes to throw herself into everything Italy has to offer, but her world is about to change drastically. Enter wildly attractive Lucio Constello! He’s irresistible, but their one night of shared passion will affect them more than they could possibly imagine…

THE LARKVILLE LEGACY

A secret letter… two families changed for ever

Welcome to the small town of Larkville, Texas, where the Calhoun family has been ranching for generations.

Meanwhile, in New York, the Patterson family rules America’s highest echelons of society.

Both families are totally unprepared for the news that they are linked by a shocking secret.

For hidden on the Calhoun ranch is a letter that’s been lying unopened and unread—until now!

Meet the two families in all eight books of this brand-new series:

THE COWBOY COMES HOME

by Patricia Thayer

SLOW DANCE WITH THE SHERIFF

by Nikki Logan

TAMING THE BROODING CATTLEMAN

by Marion Lennox

THE RANCHER’S UNEXPECTED FAMILY

by Myrna Mackenzie

HIS LARKVILLE CINDERELLA

by Melissa McClone

THE SECRET THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

by Lucy Gordon

THE SOLDIER’S SWEETHEART

by Soraya Lane

THE BILLIONAIRE’S BABY SOS

by Susan Meier

Dear Reader,

Writing a book as part of a series about a whole family is particularly fascinating because we come to know so much of the heroine’s background.

As we grow up the influences that shape us are so many and so varied that it’s hard to see the real person without knowing about them. Much of Charlotte’s life has been one thing while seeming to be another. She comes from a happy, loving family with two parents, two sisters and a brother. What could be better?

But she’s tormented by the feeling of being the odd one out, less attractive and talented than the others, and her adventurous spirit has sometimes led her to act rebelliously. Seeking escape, she takes off for a year in Italy. But in Rome she learns of a shattering family secret, and finds that she’s the last to know.

Devastated, she falls into the arms of Lucio, a fiercely attractive Italian. But their night together results in a baby. Lucio is glad—but is it her that he wants or only the child? And how much is he driven by a past even more troubled than her own? Surely loving him is too great a risk? Won’t she, once again, be the odd one out?

Perhaps she will never know his true feelings for her. Or perhaps a family reunion will unexpectedly give her the answer she can only dream of.

With best wishes,

Lucy Gordon

About the Author

LUCY GORDON cut her writing teeth on magazine journalism, interviewing many of the world’s most interesting men, including Warren Beatty, Charlton Heston and Sir Roger Moore. She also camped out with lions in Africa, and had many other unusual experiences, which have often provided the background for her books. Several years ago, while staying in Venice, she met a Venetian who proposed to her after two days. They have been married ever since. Naturally this has affected her writing, where romantic Italian men tend to feature strongly.

Two of her books have won a Romance Writers of America RITA

Award.

You can visit her website, www.lucy-gordon.com.

The Secret

That Changed

Everything

Lucy Gordon

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

PROLOGUE

HE WAS there!

After such an anxious search it was hard to be sure at first; aged about thirty, tall, lean, fit, with black hair. Was it really him? But then he made a quick movement and Charlotte knew.

This was the man she’d come to find.

He’d looked different last time, elegantly dressed, smooth, sophisticated, perfectly at home in one of the most fashionable bars in Rome. Now, in the Tuscan countryside, he was equally at home in jeans and casual shirt, absorbed in the vines that streamed in long lines under the setting sun. So absorbed that he didn’t look up to see her watching him from a distance.

Lucio Constello.

Quickly she pulled out a scrap of paper and checked his name. At the back of her mind a wry voice murmured that if you’d sought out a man to tell him devastating news it was useful to get his name right. On the other hand, if you’d only exchanged first names, and he’d left while you were still asleep, who could he blame but himself?