When the door opened, the exquisite sight of Donetta dressed in casual pants and a silky plum-colored blouse robbed Enrico of coherent thought. Disbelieving, he leaned against the doorjamb for support. All he wanted to do was crush her in his arms, but he didn’t dare do that.
“Donetta, I don’t understand. Why did you come back?”
Her eyes blazed a seafoam green. “Did I wait too long to tell you I’ll marry you?”
How he loved this woman! “You’ve just made me the happiest man on the planet.” He struggled to catch his breath.
“I phoned Arnaud last night and told him I couldn’t be his wife.”
Grazie a Dio. His dream was coming true.
Enrico closed the door behind him and walked into the sitting room. “When you climbed those steps yesterday, I thought I’d seen the last of you. I never want to live through agony like that again. Do your parents know where you are?”
“My sister drove me to the airport early this morning. By now they’re probably aware I’ve flown here. I’ve burned my bridges and am on my own.”
What more could he have asked for? She’d wanted to rule with him more than marry Arnaud. Giovanni’s informant had gotten that part of the gossip right.
“Your mother has no idea you’ve asked me to marry you, does she, Enrico?”
“No, but her spies keep her informed and by now she has no doubt heard you’ve come back to Vallefiore.”
“I’m sure of it,” Donetta murmured.
“Which means we need to get married ASAP. To hell with the feud between our two countries. I plan to bring it to an end once I’m king. We have to make arrangements fast so it’ll be a fait accompli before anyone tries to stop us. The palace priest is a close friend of mine and will perform the ceremony in the palace chapel tomorrow. He’ll provide the two needed witnesses.”
“I hope you’re sure about this, Enrico, because there’s no going back.”
“Why do you think I invited you to the concorso in the first place? My plan has been to marry you for a long time. I’ll admit it threw me when you said you were planning to marry Arnaud, but it didn’t change my hope to make you my queen. I couldn’t let you fly back to Domodossola until you knew I wanted you to share the throne with me.”
She rubbed her hands absently against her womanly hips. “When I was younger, I wanted to change the rules of succession in Domodossola and become queen. That dream could never have happened. But after you asked me to rule equally with you, I thought about it all the way home and decided I wanted to say yes to you.”
“Suddenly my life is worth living again.” Enrico was overjoyed his plan had worked. There were so many things he wanted to tell her, but he needed to make immediate plans for their marriage first.
“Though we can’t rewrite the past, there’s nothing to prevent us from building an exciting future. Before it gets any later, and the shops close, I’m going to phone my sister Lia and ask her to buy you a wedding dress. No one will question what she’s doing and she’ll bring it here.”
“She won’t mind? Does she know anything about me?”
“Only that she saw you at the concorso and was introduced to you. But she’s going to find out now, and she can be trusted. While I do that, why don’t you order some dinner for us from the restaurant. Anything you think we’ll want.”
“All right.”
While she reached for the room phone, he pulled out his cell to make the call. “Lia?”
“Ehi! Are you still worried about Papà?”
“No, I’m calling for an entirely different reason and you can’t breathe a word to a soul except Marcello.”
“This sounds serious.”
“It is. The woman I’m going to marry has come back to Vallefiore.”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“It’s Princess Donetta, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”