Becoming the Prince's Wife (Princes of Europe) (14 page)

“Then talk to me. We’ve got the whole night. Ask me anything you want.”

“Val—it isn’t that simple.”

“Why not?”

“I—I don’t know if I want to be married.”

“Because there are no guarantees? We’ve already had this conversation.”

“But that was when we were talking hypothetically.”

“Whereas now this is for real?”

She lowered her head. “Yes. For one thing, I don’t think I’d make a good wife.”

“I’ve never been a husband. We’ll learn together.”

“Where would we live?”

“Shall we buy your family’s farm and live there?”

Carolena’s head flew back. “I would never expect you to move to a different country and do that—your work for the institute is far too important!”

Valentino was trying to read between the lines, but she made it difficult. “I can tell the thought of living at the palace holds little appeal. We’ll get our own place.”

Her body moved restlessly. “You’d hate it. After a while you’d want to move back.”

“There’s nothing I’d love more after a hard day’s work than to come home to my own house and my own bride. Would you like us to buy a farm here? Or would you prefer working for a law firm in Gemelli?”

She looked tortured. “I don’t know.” She got up from the chair again. “I can’t answer those questions. You haven’t even talked to your mother yet. It would be pointless to discuss all this when she doesn’t know anything that’s gone on with you.”

“When we get back to the palace day after tomorrow, we’ll go to her and tell her our plans.”

“But we don’t have any plans!”

He got to his feet. “We love each other and don’t want to be separated. That forms the foundation of our plans. Come to bed with me and we’ll work out the logistics of when and where we want to be married, how many children we want to have. Do we want a dog?”

“I’m not going to sleep with you.”

“Yes, you are. There’s only one bed on the cruiser, but if you ask me not to make love to you, I won’t.”

After a minute, she said, “You go on ahead. I’ll be there once I’ve cleaned up the kitchen.”

“I’ll help. This will get me into practice for when we’re married.”

They made short work of it.

“I’ll just get ready for bed,” Carolena said.

“You do that while I turn out the lights.”

She hurried out of the galley. He could tell she was frightened. Valentino was, too, but his fears were different. If he couldn’t get her to marry him, then his life really wouldn’t have any meaning.

Once he’d locked the door at the bottom of the stairs, he made a trip to the bathroom to brush his teeth. The cabin was cloaked in darkness when he joined her in bed still wearing his robe. She’d turned on her side away from his part of the bed. He got in and stretched out on his back.

“Val?”

“Yes?”

“Berto and I never spent a night together alone.”

His thoughts reeled. “Not even after you were engaged?”

“No. Our families were old-fashioned.”

He sat up in bed. “Are you telling me you two never made love?”

“It was because we didn’t want to lie to the priest who’d asked us to wait.”

“So you’ve never been intimate with a man.”

“No. After he was killed, I kept asking myself what we’d been waiting for. I know now that a lot of my grief had to do with my sense of feeling cheated. I was so sure another man would never come along and I’d never know fulfillment. It made me angry. I was angry for a long time.”

He squeezed her shoulder. “Carolena...”

“Once I started dating, I went through guy after guy the way the tabloids say you’ve gone through women. But after knowing you for the last week, it all had to have been made up because you don’t have that kind of time.”

A smile broke the corners of his mouth.

“The fact is, I don’t have your experience, but that part doesn’t bother me. I just wanted you to know the truth about me. I have no idea if I’d be a satisfying lover or not.”

She was so sweet, it touched his heart. “That could work both ways.”

“No, it couldn’t. When you were kissing me out in the lagoon, I thought I might die on the spot from too much ecstasy.” That made two of them. “I’m frightened by your power over me.”

His brows knit together. “Why frightened?”

“Because I’m afraid it’s all going to be taken away from me.”

She’d had too many losses.

“Don’t you know I have the same fear? I lost hope of ever finding a woman I could love body and soul. Yet the moment I was resigned to my fate, I discovered this exquisite creature standing on the diving board of my swimming pool. You’ve changed my life, Carolena Baretti.”

He rolled her into his arms and held her against his body. “I want to be your husband.”

She sobbed quietly against his shoulder. “I need more time before I can tell you yes or no. I have too many issues welling up inside of me.

“When I get back to Arancia, I’m going to make an appointment with a professional. I hope someone can help me sort all this out. I should have gone to counseling after Berto died, but I was too wild with pain to even think about it. Instead, I started law school and poured all my energy into my studies.”

“How did you end up becoming an attorney?”

“My grandmother insisted I go to college. She said I needed to do something else besides farming in case I had to take care of myself one day. For an old-fashioned woman, she was actually very forward thinking.

“While I was at school studying business, we met with some professors for career day. One of them encouraged me to try for the law entrance exam. I thought why not. When I succeeded in making a high score, the rest was history. Eventually I met Abby and for some reason we just clicked. The poor thing had to listen while I poured out my heart about Berto, but school did help me.”

He had to clear the lump in his throat. “Work’s a great panacea.”

“Yes, but in my case it made me put off dealing with the things that were really wrong with me. Meeting you has brought it all to the surface. I don’t want to burden you with my problems, Val. I can’t be with you right now. You have to understand that if I can’t come to you having worked things out, then it’s no good talking about marriage. Please tell me you understand that.”

She was breaking his heart. Abby had told him she’d been in a depression for a long time. Carolena reminded him of Matteo, who had certain issues that wouldn’t allow him to marry yet.

He clutched her tighter, terrified he was going to lose her. “I do,” he whispered into her hair.
I do.
“Go to sleep now and don’t worry about anything.”

“Please don’t say anything to your mother about me. Please,” she begged.

“I promise I won’t.”

“You always keep your promises. I love you, Val. You have no idea how much. But I can’t promise you how long it’s going to take me before I can give you an answer.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

F
OUR
DAYS
LATER
the receptionist at the hospital showed Carolena into the doctor’s office in Arancia for her appointment.

“
Buongiorno,
Signorina Baretti.”
The silver-haired psychologist got to his feet and shook her hand before asking her to sit down.

“Thank you for letting me in to see you on such short notice, Dr. Greco. Abby has spoken so highly of you, I was hoping you could fit me in.”

“I’m happy to do it. Why don’t you tell me what’s on your mind.”

“I should have come to someone like you years ago.”

“Let’s not worry about that. You’re here now. Give me a little background.”

He made a few notes as she started to speak. Pretty soon it all came gushing out and tears rolled down her cheeks. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right. Take your time.”

He handed her some tissues, which she used. Finally she got hold of herself. “I don’t know what more to tell you.”

“I don’t need to hear any more. What I’ve gleaned from everything you’ve told me is that you have two problems. The biggest one is an overriding expectation of the prince. Because he isn’t meeting that expectation, it’s preventing you from taking the next step in your life with him.”

“Expectation?” That surprised her. She thought she was going to hear that she was losing her mind.

“I find you’ve dealt amazingly well with everything that’s gone on in your past life. But you’ve got a big problem to overcome, and unless you face it head-on, you’ll remain conflicted and depressed.”

It was hard to swallow. “What is it?”

“You’ve just found out the prince wants to marry you. But it means that for your sake he plans to give up his right to sit on the throne one day as king and you don’t like that because you’ve never imagined he could do such a thing. It hasn’t been your perception. To some degree it has shocked and maybe even disappointed you, like glitter that comes off a shiny pair of shoes.”

Whoa.

“When you were telling me about all the farmers you met who held him in such high esteem, your eyes shone with a bright light. I watched your eyes light up again when you told me how he’s preparing the country in case of an eruption on Mount Etna. Your admiration for him has taken a hit to learn he’s willing to be an ordinary man in order to be your husband.”

“But his whole life has been a preparation for being king.”

“Let me put this another way. Think of a knight going into battle. In his armor astride his horse, he looks splendid and triumphant. But when he takes it off, you see a mere man.

‟Your prince is a man first. What you need to do is focus on that.”

She kneaded her hands. “Valentino’s always telling me to forget he’s a prince.”

“That’s right. The man has to be true to himself. If he had nothing to bring you but himself, would you take him?”

“Yes—” she cried. “He’s so wonderful you can’t imagine. But what if he marries me and then wishes he hadn’t and wants to be king?”

“How old did you say he was?”

“Thirty-two.”

“And he called off his wedding to a princess he doesn’t love?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’d say the man is more than old enough to know his own mind.”

“It’s just that he already makes a marvelous ruler.”

“I thought you said his mother is the ruler.”

“Well, she is.”

“And he’s not the king, so what you’re telling me is that he’s still marvelous just being a man, right?”

His logic was beginning to make all kinds of sense. “Yes.”

“Your other problem is guilt that could be solved by a simple conversation with the queen.”

Carolena gulped. “I don’t think I could.”

“You’re going to have to because you’re afraid she’ll never forgive you if you marry her son, thus depriving him of his birthright.”

Dr. Greco figured all that out in one session? “What if she won’t?”

“She might not, but you’re not marrying her, and the prince isn’t letting her feelings stand in the way of what he wants. It would be nice to have her approval, of course, but not necessary. There’s no harm in approaching her and baring your soul to her. She’ll either say yes or no, but by confronting her, you’ll get rid of that guilt weighing you down.”

Valentino had promised he wouldn’t talk to his mother about her yet...

“My advice to you is to go home and let this percolate. When you’ve worked it all out, let me know.”

It was scary how fast he’d untangled her fears so she could understand herself. The doctor was brilliant. She jumped to her feet, knowing what she had to do. “I will, Doctor. Thank you. Thank you so very much.”

* * *

Valentino hunkered down next to Razzi. Both wore gas masks. “Those strombolian explosions are building in intensity.”

“You’re not kidding. Something big is going on.”

He and Razzi had been camped up there for three days taking readings, getting any activity on film. His work kept him from losing his mind. He had no idea how long it would be before he heard from Carolena.

Valentino wasn’t surprised to see that a new lava flow had started from the saddle area between the two Southeast Crater cones.

“Look, Razzi. More vents have opened up on the northeast side of the cone.”

“There’s the lava fountain. It’s getting ready to blow.”

He gazed in wonder as a tall ash plume shot skyward. Though it was morning, it felt like midnight. Suddenly there were powerful, continuous explosions. The loud detonations that had continued throughout the night and morning sent tremors through the earth.

“We’re too close!” The ground was getting too unstable to stand up. “More lava fountains have started. This is it. Come on, Razzi. We need to move back to the other camp farther down.”

They recognized the danger and worked as a team as they gathered their equipment and started their retreat. He’d witnessed nature at work many times, but never from this close a vantage point.

The continual shaking made it more difficult to move as fast as they needed to. Halfway to the other camp a deafening explosion reached his ears before he was thrust against the ground so hard the impact knocked off his gas mask.

Everything had gone dark. He struggled to find it and put it back on. In frustration he cried to Razzi, but the poisonous fumes filled his lungs. For the first time since coming up on Etna, Valentino had the presentiment that he might not make it off the volcano alive.

His last thought was for Carolena, whose fear of another loss might have come to pass.

* * *

Once Carolena had taken a taxi back to her condo, she made a reservation to fly to Gemelli later in the day. This was one time she didn’t want to burden Abby with her problems.

Officially, Carolena was still out of the office for another week, so she didn’t need to make a stop there to talk to Signor Faustino. All she needed to do was pack another bag and take care of some bills before she called for a taxi to drive her to the airport.

The necessity of making all her own arrangements caused her to see how spoiled she’d become after having the royal jets at her disposal. It seemed strange to be taking a commercial jet and traveling in a taxi rather than a limo. Everything took longer. She was tired when she arrived in Gemelli at five-thirty that evening and checked herself into a hotel.

Because she hadn’t seen or heard from Valentino for the past four days, she was practically jumping out of her skin with excitement at the thought of being with him again. Her first order of business was to phone the palace. She wanted to surprise him.

After introducing herself to the operator, she asked to speak to Valentino, but was told he was unavailable. The news crushed her. Attempting to recover, she asked if she could speak to Vito Cavelli. Through his brother she could learn Valentino’s whereabouts, and possibly he would help her to meet with the queen.

Before long she heard a male voice come on the line. “Signorina Baretti? It’s really you?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Please call me Vito. You’re the famous video star.”

“I don’t know about famous.”

“You are to me. Mother and I have seen the video. It’s superb.”

“Thank you. I was just going to say that if anyone is renowned, it’s you for drawing all those interesting mustaches on the putti around the outside of the palace.”

He broke into rich laughter that reminded her so much of Val, she joined in. “Are you calling from Arancia?”

She gripped her phone tighter. “No. I just flew in to Gemelli and am staying at the Regency Hotel.”

“
Grazie a Dio
you’re here,” he said under his breath. His sudden change of mood alarmed her.

“What’s wrong?”

“I was hoping you could tell me. Four days ago Valentino left for Catania, but I haven’t talked to him since. I’ve left message after message.”

That meant he was working on Etna.

“
Signorina?
Does my brother know you’re here?”

“Not yet. I wanted to come to the palace and surprise him.”

“Do you have his private cell phone number?”

“Yes. As soon as we hang up, I’ll call him.”

“Once you’ve reached him, will you ask him to return my call? I have something important to tell him.”

Her brows furrowed. It wasn’t like Valentino to remain out of reach. He was too responsible a person to do that. “Vito?”

“Sì?”

“There’s a favor I’d like to ask of you.”

“Name it.”

“Would it be possible for me to talk to your mother either tonight or in the morning? It’s of extreme importance to me.”

“I’m afraid she’s not in the country, but she should be back tomorrow afternoon and then we’ll arrange for you to meet with her.”

More disappointment. “Thank you. Is she by any chance in Arancia?” Maybe she was visiting Vincenzo and Abby. Carolena should have called her friend, after all.

“No. She flew to Cyprus and left me in charge. I guess Valentino told you about me and Alexandra. The families are together now, discussing our plans to marry. We’re thinking in four weeks.”

It really was going to happen. “I’m very happy for you, Vito. I mean that sincerely.”

“Thank you. I wish I could say the same for my brother.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s my impression you’re the only person who knows what’s going on with him. He’s not answering anyone’s calls. This is a first for him. Our mother is worried sick about him.”

Her eyes closed tightly. Carolena was the one responsible for him shutting down. She took a fortifying breath. “Now that I’m back, I’ll try to reach him. Once I’ve contacted him, I’ll tell him to get in touch with you immediately.”

“I’d appreciate that. Good luck.”

Fear clutched at her heart. Vito knew his brother better than anyone. To wish her luck meant she was going to need it. What if Valentino couldn’t call anyone? What if he was in trouble? Her body broke out in a cold sweat.

“Good night, Vito.”

“Buona notte, signorina.”

As soon as she hung up, she phoned Valentino’s number. Forget surprising him, all she got was to leave a message. In a shaky voice she told him she was back in Gemelli, that she loved him and that she was dying to see him. Please call her back.

Crushed because she couldn’t talk to him, she got information for Tancredi’s Restaurant so she could talk to Matteo. Maybe he’d spoken with Valentino. To her chagrin she learned it was his night off. If she’d like to leave a message... Carolena said no and hung up. The only thing to do was go looking for Valentino.

Again she rang for information and called the airport to schedule a commuter flight for seven in the morning to Catania airport. From there she’d take a taxi to the center where she’d been before. Someone would know how to reach Valentino if he still hadn’t returned her call.

She went to bed and set her alarm, but she slept poorly. Valentino still hadn’t called her back. At five in the morning she awakened and dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. After putting on her boots, she fastened her hair back in a chignon and left to get some food in the restaurant. Before taking a taxi to the airport, she knew she’d better eat first.

Everywhere she went was crowded with tourists. The commuter flight was packed and she had a long wait at the Catania airport before she could get a taxi to drive her to the institute.

Once she arrived, she hurried inside and approached the mid-twenties-looking man at the reception desk.

He eyed her with male appreciation. “May I help you,
signorina?
”

“I need to get in touch with Valentino Cellini.”

The man smiled. “And you are...?”

“Carolena Baretti. I’m an attorney from Arancia who’s been working with His Highness on a special project. I have to see him right away.”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible.”

She refused to be put off. “Why not?”

“He’s out in the field.”

“Then can you get a message to him?”

“You can leave one here. When it’s possible for him, he’ll retrieve it.”

This was getting her nowhere. “Would it be possible to speak to one of the pilots for the center? His name is Dante Serrano. He was the one who recently flew me up on Etna with the prince.”

The fact she knew that much seemed to capture his attention. “I’ll see if I can locate him.” He made a call. After a minute he hung up. “Signor Serrano will be coming on duty within a few minutes.”

“In that case, I’ll wait for him in the lounge. Will you page me when he gets here?”

“Of course.”

“Thank you.”

Carolena hadn’t been seated long when the attractive pilot walked over to her. She jumped up to greet him, but his expression was so solemn she knew something was wrong.

“Good morning, Dante. I was hoping to talk to you. I haven’t been able to reach Valentino.”

“No one’s been able to reach him or his partner, Razzi. They were camped near a new eruption. The base camp received word that they were on their way back to it, but they lost contact.”

“You mean th—”

“I mean, no one has been able to reach them yet.”