Rose sat down suddenly. ‘What do you have in mind?’ If he had some idea about taking Bea away from her to stay in Italy for weeks at a time he could think again.
Dante joined her on the old velvet settee, careful, she noted, to leave a space between them. ‘Ascolta—listen to me, Rose. I feel much guilt that in the heat of passion after the Vilari wedding I took from you something impossible to replace.’
She raised an eyebrow. ‘I wasn’t a virgin, Dante! I’d had a steady boyfriend in college.’
Dante’s lips tightened. ‘I meant that by leaving you with child I robbed you of your youthful freedom.’
Rose nodded as she thought it over. ‘I suppose you could say that. I certainly had to grow up in a hurry. But, to be fair, I was an equal partner in what happened between us.’
‘But if you had known about Elsa you would not have been, no?’
‘Absolutely not! I wanted to beat you up when I found out about her.’ She ran the tip of her tongue over suddenly dry lips. ‘But the possibility of consequences never occurred to me because you used protection, and even though I later realised there had been a problem with the condom I really thought the chances of anything happening were a million to one. It was a huge shock to find out I was pregnant. There was an equally huge fuss when I refused to name the father.’
Dante took her hand. ‘Why did you refuse?’
‘You were married by then, so what was the point? You’re a close friend of Fabio Vilari, so no way was I going to upset Charlotte’s newly wedded bliss by bringing your name into it. Anyway,’ she added militantly, ‘I was determined to take care of Bea myself.’
He nodded. ‘And you have done so admirably. But now I shall help you care for her.’
She eyed him warily. ‘How, exactly?’
Dante’s grasp tightened. ‘The best way is to marry and give our child the love and security of a normal family.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘But you do not want this. You value your independence too much.’
‘Yes,’ she admitted unwillingly.
‘Even so, you must listen to my plan.’
‘I’m listening.’
Dante smiled in approval. ‘Va bene. The plan is simple. Arrange your work to take time off, and then bring Bea to the Villa Castiglione for a little holiday. We can visit Charlotte and Fabio, also my family, naturalmente.’ He paused. ‘My mother is longing to meet her granddaughter, Rose.’
She bit her lip. ‘I can’t believe she’s longing to meet me, Dante.’
‘You are wrong. I have told her everything, and she has much sympathy for you, also admiration for the way you work so hard to support our daughter.’
My daughter, thought Rose fiercely.
‘My house has several bedrooms. You are not required to share mine,’ he assured her suavely. ‘A week is all I ask, to see how Bea likes life Italian style.’
‘Are you saying that if she does like it you’ll expect me to let her stay with you there from time to time?’
‘She is too young to do that without her mother.’ Dante put a finger under Rose’s chin and turned her face up to his. ‘You would come with her.’