Stolen Bride

‘Are you French?’ she asked after a short pause, thinking for the first time of that strange lilt to his otherwise perfect English. ‘Because you are certainly mad.’

‘Irish American, actually,’ he said mildly.

‘Even worse,’ she replied glumly, shrugging irritably as he glanced sidewise at her.

‘Have you any better ideas?’ he inquired.

She shook her head.

‘Well, then,’ he said. ‘At least this one has the advantage of surprise. No one will be expecting us to use this route, and when we get on the autostrada we just keep on it till we hit the French border.’

‘Uncle Pancrazio is a very powerful man,’ she told him. ‘And so is Luca. They have contacts everywhere, and they’re not going to stop until they find us.’

‘You think we should give up?’ Finn asked softly.

Cara clasped her hands together tightly. ‘I don’t know why you stepped in like that this afternoon,’ she began. ‘I don’t believe it was anything to do with your stupid book. But maybe you should just drop me off here and get away on your own. The risk is too great for you. I...I’ll go back to my family and apologise.’

‘And marry Luca,’ Finn added softly.

‘He probably won’t want me now,’ she said shakily. ‘Anyway, I can stand up for myself. Don’t bother about me.’

Finn screeched to a stop among the piled-up building materials on the road site. Cara put her hands out to stop herself from hitting the windscreen, then looked at him. ‘What did you do that for?’ she demanded.

Finn was glaring at her, and she sat up straight. ‘Well?’ she asked, trying hard and failing to stare him down.

‘If you think I went through all that this afternoon just so you could turn yourself into some sort of sacrificial virgin on my behalf,’ he snarled, ‘you better think again.’

‘It’s the only reasonable way out,’ she said furiously.

‘All this talk of escape to England is just so much hot air. There’s no way they’re not going to catch us.’

He stared hard at her. ‘Just tell me, once and for all,’ he said grimly. ‘Do you or do you not want to marry Luca?’

Cara moved her hands impatiently, pleadingly. ‘Of course I don’t want to marry him. I told you the truth. I just got led along by degrees until I found myself right on the edge of the chasm. But the price you’ll pay for pulling me back is too great.’

‘What do you think your family will do if they catch us?’ His voice was soft, almost conversational, as if he was discussing the outcome of a local election.

She looked at her lap. ‘I don’t know,’ she said dully.

He reached over and tipped her chin. ‘Cara, that’s the first time you’ve tried to lie to me, and you’re not very good at it. We both know that we’ve gone too far to back down. If you went back now, your life wouldn’t be worth living.’

‘At least I would be alive,’ she replied bitterly. ‘You have to get away. You’ve risked enough.’

A slow smile spread over his face as he looked at her.

‘What?’ she demanded. ‘What are you smiling at?’

‘You,’ he replied, putting the car into gear and beginning towards the distant ribbon of lights that marked the autostrada. ‘You’re a very brave woman, Cara, but I think I’ll take a rain check on your offer.’

‘It’s no use arguing with you, is it?’ she asked softly.

‘No,’ he replied. ‘Not this time. And do me a favour, will you?’

‘What?’ she asked.

He flicked her a glance. ‘Do up your damn seat belt before I have a nervous breakdown.’

It was almost fully dark, and there was no moon. Cara pulled off her tights and pulled on Finn’s shorts. They were impossibly big on her, but with luck the shirt would hide the bagginess. She glanced at Finn, tensing as he slowed down.

‘What’s the matter?’ she asked.

‘There are cars guarding the slip road,’ he said. ‘Your family is more thorough than I gave them credit for.’ He glanced at her and squeezed her hand. ‘But maybe we can still get through. Get in the back, on the floor.’

Without a word, she did as he said. Finn drove steadily towards Luca’s men. He wound down the window, and she held her breath. There were shouts and then Finn answered. ‘Would you believe it,’ he yelled in perfect Italian. ‘Three pairs of lovers on this stretch of Godforsaken road, and none of them were our birds. I’m going to take a turn on the autostrada, see if they’ve managed to escape the net.’

Cara lay on the floor behind his seat, her fists clenched, waiting for the angry shouts to come, the gunshots, willing Finn to accelerate, get the hell out of this crazy place. But he just kept going smoothly on.

‘It’s all right,’ he said at last, slipping into English as if it were the most natural way in the world to speak to her. ‘You can come out now.’

Warily she risked a quick look out the window. She could see nothing except the swift passing lights of cars. They were on the autostrada. Stiffly she got up and climbed into the front seat. ‘You have the luck of...’ She shrugged helplessly.

‘The Irish?’ he supplied, smiling into the darkness.

‘Of the devil!’ she retorted.

‘Why are you so cross?’ he asked mildly.

‘I am not cross!’ she snapped.

‘Of course not.’

There was silence, and she looked at the cars going by. For the moment, at least, she was free.

‘You could have got yourself killed back there,’ she said at last.

He shrugged. ‘Perhaps. But there are worse fates.’

She stared at him wonderingly. ‘Such as?’

He cocked a glance at her, then stared at the road. ‘Such as marrying Luca Finzi,’ he said quietly.

It had been dark for hours, but it was still hot and it had not taken Cara long to discover that Finn’s hire car had no air-conditioning.

The stale, warm fumes blowing in through her window from the traffic were giving her a headache. She had a cramp in her right foot, which no amount of rubbing would get rid of. And every few moments she had to look over her shoulder, as if somehow she could pick out Luca’s car from all the others.

‘Relax,’ soothed Finn. ‘It’s highly unlikely they know what kind of car we have, or the registration. They don’t even know for certain that we’re on the autostrada or what direction we’re going in.’

Cara bit her lip. ‘I may be naive, Finn, but I’m not stupid. They’re bound to have figured out by now that it was you on the slip road. And you know as well as I that they. can’t be far behind.’