“I can guarantee you’ll be married long before I ever consider it.”
* * *
By some miracle Donetta made it up the steps inside the jet without fainting. For the ninety-minute flight to Domodossola, she sat there trembling, not speaking to anyone. Thank heaven she wouldn’t be seeing Arnaud tonight. She needed time to process everything Enrico had just told her.
No sooner had Donetta entered the palace through her private entrance and gone to her bedroom on the second floor than Fausta knocked on the door.
“Donetta?”
She couldn’t wipe the tears from her face fast enough. “Come in.”
Her sister took one look at her and sat down on the bed beside her. “I knew something was wrong when you came flying past my room. I thought you were out with Arnaud.”
Donetta got up to get some tissues from the end table. “He’s taking me for dinner tomorrow evening.”
“Did you have an argument? Is that why you’re crying?”
“Oh, Fausta, I’m crying for so many reasons I don’t know where to begin.”
“I’ve never seen you this fragmented in my life. Something tells me this is about your visit to Vallefiore. You saw Enrico, of course.”
There was no hiding anything from her sister. “Yes.”
Fausta got up from the bed and walked over to her. “Do you wish you hadn’t gone?”
More tears trickled down Donetta’s hot cheeks. “No.”
“I see. Is he as gorgeous as I remember?”
She sucked in her breath. “He’s so much more that I don’t have words.”
“He would be,” Fausta theorized. “What is he now? Twenty-six? Seven?”
Donetta nodded.
“Did he take you riding?”
The question was a natural one considering their history. She sniffed. “Oddly enough, we didn’t have time to do that.”
“So what did you do?”
She stared at her sister. “After the competition, Enrico took me camping in the mountains. We cooked dinner over a fire and I made him fried bruschetta, which he devoured.”
“Ehi—”
“Last nig
ht we slept out under the stars in sleeping bags. Early this morning he wakened me so we could watch wild horses run across the plain. The ground thundered beneath us. It was the most magical sight I ever saw or experienced in my life.”
Fausta cocked her head. “Sister dear—if you could see your eyes—you are a woman in love. No wonder you’re having a meltdown. Are you going to tell Arnaud?”
Donetta wheeled around. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do, because there’s so much more you don’t know.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“To be honest, I’m in a complete daze.” She started pacing the parquet floor and then stopped. “I’m going to tell you something that can’t go beyond this room.”
“As if it would.”