Rush to the Altar

“I didn’t want to give your father any more reasons to make your life miserable.”

Mitra had understood everything.

“When he didn’t drink, he was all right.”

“You deserved better,” she muttered.

Riley took a deep breath before reaching in his pocket for an envelope. Enclosed was Italian lire amounting to five thousand dollars. Anything more and he knew she wouldn’t accept it. He put it on the table next to the picture.

“What is that?”

He stared into her eyes. “I know what you did. No amount of money in the world could compensate for the mother’s love you gave to me. This represents a small token of my affection for you.”

Like Sister Francesca, she turned her head to hide her emotions. Whether disciplined saint or stoic Gypsy, both were women with hearts bigger than their bodies. Riley had been the lucky recipient.

“You once told me that if you could have your wish, you would buy fresh lavender flowers for your tsara every day. This apartment isn’t the exciting Gypsy wagon I used to play in. It needs flowers. Now you can buy all you want.”

After an extended silence she fastened haunted eyes on him. “You are in a great hurry, rushing down a path even more dangerous than the one before.”

He smiled and shook his head. “Did you read death in the tea leaves for me, too?”

Her expression grew fierce. She made a fist and pounded her breast. “Without a woman in your life, you’re already dead here.”

“There’ve been plenty of women.”

A guttural sound came from her throat. “You think I don’t know that? But they’re always the wrong kind for my Gadja!”

“There was one exception,” he drawled. “But it turns out she didn’t want me.”

“You mean she had too much respect for herself to fight a duel over you like those two she-cats? Good for her!”

“You have to admit that duel was really something.” He grinned.

“Go ahead and laugh, but remember it was I who had to get you out of that filthy prison after the police carted the three of you off.”

“I could always depend on you, Mitra. You know what the problem was? You were too old for me to marry,” he teased her the way he’d done Sister Francesca.

She pushed her hand away as if to say, enough! “I have lived too long to find out you are still tormented. Go—”

Mitra always meant what she said. Nothing about her had changed except that she was twelve years older than the last time he’d seen her. He rose to his feet. “I’m leaving now, but I’ll be back.”

“Do not come again unless you bring me news I want to hear.”

His expression sobered. “Unfortunately that’s the one wish I can’t promise to grant you.”

CHAPTER TWO

SINCE Ann’s last visit to Turin, a new sign in Italian spanned the two posts of the gate leading into the wooded property where Callie lived with her husband and worked.

Valentino Animal And Bird Preserve.

Lower down on one of the posts was another sign printed in Italian, English, French, German and Spanish.

This preserve is open and free to the public 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Stay on the indicated paths. Do not touch or feed the wildlife.

Please bring any homeless animals or birds who are sick or injured to the hospital by following the arrows. The hospital is open twenty-four hours.

After Ann had flown in from Los Angeles last evening, she’d gone straight to bed with a migraine. She always got one on a long plane ride. But this afternoon she was feeling much better and decided to take two-and-half-month-old Anna for a walk in her stroller before she got hungry for her next bottle.

To Ann’s amusement, Chloe, her sister’s pug, and Valentino, Nicco’s boxer, decided to join her.

The four of them had started out along a private footpath at the rear of the small Baroque palace which eventually led through a security gate to the street. From there they circled partway round the property until she came to the public entrance to the preserve.

Following the arrows she headed for the eighteenth century hunting lodge located on the former royal estate. It had been converted to a hospital and stables. Callie did the main of her veterinarian work there.

When any animals or birds were dropped off with special nursing needs, she took them to the west wing of the palace. Nicco had remodeled several of the rooms into a kennel to board the sick or injured wildlife during their convalescence.

If the animal or bird could be saved, Callie brought them back to health. Then they were freed to live in the huge preserve with its giant trees, greenery and small fresh water lakes donated to the public by Nicco’s younger brother Enzo, the ruling prince of the House of Tescotti.

Though Ann’s agent had given her a hard time about her former willingness to do anything to get noticed by a talent scout, she wasn’t sorry she’d entered for the Who Wants to Marry a Prince? benefit.

In begging Callie to take Ann’s place at the last second because of an emergency, her sister had ended up married to the elder Tescotti prince who’d renounced his title so he could lead a normal life. Callie and Nicco were now a divinely happy working couple with a precious daughter and two pets they doted on.

Ann wanted that same kind of happiness. After being around them again last night, she realized she needed to end it with Colin. He had many wonderful qualities, but the fire simply wasn’t there. To go on seeing him would be cruel. For both their sakes it was time to end it.

Only one man had ever made her feel she was about to go up in flames, and he’d been able to accomplish that by simply looking at her with those silvery eyes. But he was the kind of man who set every woman’s heart on fire. A rogue she’d instinctively known was not husband material.

She may have made a lot of mistakes in her life, but getting involved with Don Juan incarnate wasn’t one of them, thank heaven!

While she stood there on the path wondering how to tell Colin the truth so it would hurt him the least, Valentino forged ahead. He knew exactly where to find his mistress. Chloe followed wherever Valentino went, prancing like a deer.

“Come on, Anna. We’re going to have to hurry to catch up with them.”

Halfway to the lodge she saw a dark head peer around the trunk of a massive chestnut tree. It was a boy of olive complexion and curly black hair who couldn’t have been more than eleven or twelve. He was too thin for the worn-out white T-shirt and baggy pants he was wearing. His solemn black eyes swallowed up his piquant face.

Intrigued, she called out “Buon Giorno!” in her best Italian. Ever since her sister’s marriage, she’d been studying the beautiful language on the side. If Callie was already speaking it fluently, so could she in time.

Her greeting must have frightened him because he disappeared behind the tree without saying anything. He was supposed to stay on the path. No doubt he’d come to the preserve without supervision. Taking it upon herself to investigate, she let go of the stroller.

Before she could reach him, he darted off in another direction, making it impossible for her to catch up to him. As she turned on her heel to get back to Anna, she saw a small black basket with a lid at the base of the tree. It wasn’t like any workmanship she’d ever seen.

Curious, she picked it up and lifted the lid to see inside. As far as she could tell it was a baby squirrel, but it lay so still she had no idea if it was alive or not.

Had the boy come on his own to the preserve hoping for someone to help save it?

She looked all around for any sign of him. Except for the sound of birdsong and insects whirring about, nothing moved.

Tucking the basket under her arm, she walked over to the stroller and continued pushing it to the hospital.