Did she want to live life that way? Hell, no.
Rafe’s car was still in the driveway when they pulled up, but something else captured her attention. The JetRanger sitting pretty in the centre of the helipad below, the familiar navy-and-white colours of her former employer proudly displayed. Just the sight of it was enough to rip open the scar of losing her recent life.
Sebastiano opened the door for her, caught the direction of her lingering gaze, and sought to explain. ‘Princess Marietta arrived in it two hours ago. I believe the pilot is waiting to collect a delivery before taking off.’
She turned to him. ‘Who’s the pilot? Do you know?’ She hadn’t been with the company that long, but just the thought of connecting with someone from her former life—anyone—lifted her spirits immeasurably.
Sebastiano gave a nod. ‘I will find out for you. But if you would like to step inside, I dare say Princess Marietta would like to meet you.’
Sienna hesitated a fraction longer, her gaze on the chopper, her fingers itching to hold a joystick again. She’d missed flying, missed being part of the endless sky. A gust of wind came from nowhere, and her eyes scanned further afield, to where the sky was deepening and even the water below was chopping up, looking more threatening. Maybe they were right. A summer storm. That would be something to see.
Then, with one last look at the helicopter, Sienna followed Sebastiano inside.
She heard voices coming from the library, Rafe’s rumbling deep tones and a woman’s voice, her laughter light and infectious, and, without having even met the woman, Sienna liked her already. It would be nice to have another woman around, nice to have someone to talk to, and she was about to enter the room when she heard it.
‘But you love her, right?’
Sienna stopped short of the doorway, holding her breath, her senses on red alert. There was only one person they could be talking about.
The silence stretched on for ever as Sienna waited, her ears straining to hear his response over the pounding of her heart.
‘Did you know she was pregnant?’
She looked to the ceiling, her fingers clenching and unclenching as Rafe deftly sidestepped the issue. From inside the room, she heard the sounds of Marietta’s delight, her squeal when she heard the news about the twins, while outside the room Sienna closed her eyes and breathed deep. She knew she couldn’t keep standing here eavesdropping forever. She would have to enter the room, meet Rafe’s sister, and pretend everything was all right. When nothing was right and everything was all wrong.
Desperately wrong, when a perfect day could turn upside down. Where a fragile peace was going to be the best they could ever hope for.
She couldn’t meet Marietta now, couldn’t pretend that everything was all right and that she was the blushing bride. Brides were supposed to look radiant, and right now she didn’t have a sailor’s chance against Iseo’s Pyramid of pulling that off. As quietly as she had come, she turned and headed for the stairs.
‘So, big brother,’ his sister said, ‘anyone would think you were avoiding the question. You do love her, then?’
His sister hadn’t changed a bit. He’d thought he’d thrown her off topic with the news of the twins, but she could always be like a dog with a bone when it suited her. He got up and walked to the windows, noticed the darkening sky and the brooding light, but it was on noticing the car parked next to his that he frowned. Where was she? He turned back to his sister. ‘You always were a hopeless romantic, Marietta.’
‘And you were always a hard-nosed cynic.’
‘With good reason!’
She got up and joined him at the window, her hand on his arm. ‘Raphael, what happened to Mama, it doesn’t have to be like that.’
‘It won’t be. I’ve made sure of it. Sienna will make the perfect wife.’ Once she could get her hormones under control.
‘Without love?’
‘We get on fine.’ Although, given today’s events, it could be better.
‘So,’ she continued, and he sighed, knowing the interrogation was far from over, wishing Sienna would arrive so that he might be spared, and his sister would turn her powers of inquisition in her direction. ‘You’re marrying this woman, who’s carrying your twin babies and who is expected to become part of some royal fishbowl, but you don’t love her?’
‘It’s easier that way,’ he said, turning his attention once more out the window, Iseo’s Pyramid growing more evil-looking in the darkening sky, the usual cloud of seabirds absent, as if they’d all already hunkered down for the storm.
‘So what’s in it for her?’