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‘The Silverwoods seemed pleased with the way the event went,’ Silas commented.
‘Yes, thanks to you. I nearly died when the hotel chef threw that tantrum yesterday and threatened to walk out. That was really quick thinking on your part, to let him think that the chef from the Arcadia would be happy to take over.’
Silas laughed. ‘Quick thinking, maybe, but not entirely true. Still, it did the trick. Am I right in thinking that now we’ve got ten days before we need to be in Marbella for Dorland’s party?’
‘The party isn’t for another ten days,’ Julia agreed. ‘But we’ll have to be there well before that in order to make sure everything is properly organised.’
‘How well before?’ Silas asked. ‘Will three days be enough?’
‘At a pinch,’ Julia agreed. ‘Why?’
They had almost reached the hotel and Silas stopped walking, drawing her into the shadows with him as he leaned back against a convenient wall, his hands on her hips, guiding her between his parted legs.
Just the scent of him was enough to turn her on. Julia pressed closer to him and lifted her face for his kiss.
‘Let’s not wait to get married.’
His voice was thick and raw, sending a shudder of pleasure jolting through her whilst her heart thudded out a stunned tattoo.
‘What—what do you mean?’ she demanded uncertainly.
‘I mean, let’s not wait to get married. Let’s do it now. Here in Italy.’
His words fell honey-sweet against their ears; her heart lifted in excited pleasure. So far neither of them had spoken the ‘L’ word, but, knowing him as she did, that he should feel such an urgency to commit to her told her just how he felt about her. Even so…
‘Silas, we can’t,’ she protested.
‘Of course we can. I’ve already checked it out. We could be married within the week—less, if I put some more pressure on our Ambassador.’
‘Why the rush?’ she teased him. ‘Don’t you trust me?’
Silas laughed. ‘Yes, I trust you. But I’m not sure that I trust the condoms to withstand the rigours we’ve been subjecting them to.’
Julia giggled.
‘Silas, we couldn’t…could we?’ she breathed excitedly.
‘You want to?’
She closed her eyes and then opened them again.
‘Do I want to be your wife and have guaranteed wonderful sex for the rest of my life? Of course I do,’ she told him extravagantly. ‘But what about the family…what about Gramps?’
‘We could still have a religious blessing in Amberley Church, and even a reaffirmation of our vows and a formal post-wedding breakfast afterwards, if that is what you want.’
‘What I want? All I want is you,’ Julia told him simply, and she raised herself up on her toes to kiss him.
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘I STILL can’t believe we’re actually doing this,’ Julia whispered nervously to Silas as they stood side by side waiting for their papers to be checked. The American Embassy had recommended that they consult an Italian official well versed in the complexities of the correct procedure to enable other nationals to marry in Italy, and, with a speed that had impressed Julia, all the necessary paperwork had been assembled and submitted. And here they were, just an hour or so short of five days after Silas had suggested they do so, actually about to be married to one another.
‘It will be a civil ceremony,’ Silas had told her.
‘Oh, but that will make whatever we do at home all the more special,’ Julia had told him in delight. ‘It would be really cool if we could reaffirm our vows at Amberley, like you suggested, Silas. Almost like having a second wedding.’
Since the Monckford Diamond was still in New York, Julia had no engagement ring to wear with one of the matching plain gold bands she and Silas had chosen in a small jeweller’s, down a narrow side street in Rome.
Emotional tears filled Julia’s eyes as they stood together and made their vows. In some strange way being alone together actually made exchanging them all the more special.
As she slid Silas’s ring onto his finger she bent her head and brushed it with her lips, promising him silently, I shall love you for ever.
She had discovered that Silas was not a man who found talking about his emotions easy. But she was sure he loved her, even though he had not said so. He had married her, after all. A small naughty smile curved her mouth. Before they celebrated their first wedding anniversary she would have taught him to say that he loved her, and that was a promise to herself she was not going to break.
They had agreed that they wouldn’t wear their rings until they could go back to England and tell her grandfather what they had done.
‘I don’t want him to hear about it via Ma’s cleaning lady and Dorland’s wretched magazine,’ Julia had told Silas when they had been discussing the matter.
‘Fine—that’s okay by me,’ Silas had agreed.
Her husband. Julia looked up at Silas, her face glowing with happiness. They would have one night together here in Rome before they flew to Spain tomorrow, and Silas had booked them into the most wonderful hotel.
‘I thought we’d go straight back to the hotel,’ Silas told her now. ‘Unless you’d prefer to do something else?’
‘What? Rather than go to bed with you? No way,’ Julia told him, shaking her head.
It was so refreshing to be with Julia, Silas acknowledged. She never tried to play controlling mind games, and he loved the way she was so open with him about her sexual desire for him. Not that their mutual sexual desire for one another was the only thing they shared. She was passionately committed to seeing Amberley preserved for future generations—but not, as she had put it, ‘…like some kind of museum. Amberley—the real Amberley, as it is today—is what it is because of the way each generation had lived in it, because it has been a real home. Not because it has been kept exactly as it was when it was first built. I know Gramps opens it to the public for several months a year, and I know that the state rooms are too grand really to live in…’
‘So what would you do with them?’ Silas had asked.
‘Oh, all sorts of things. We could hold musical evenings in the green salon, so that young musicians could play Handel in the kind of setting for which he wrote his music. We could have literary readings in the library. We could do things with the house and for it that would benefit other people as well. Imagine what it would mean to children learning to play an instrument to be able to have some of their lessons in the green salon, for instance. And then there’s the home farm. It know it’s a bit run down now, but there’s more than enough land for us to have rare varieties of free range hens and ducks…’
‘My life is focused
on New York,’ he had reminded her. ‘I have a duty and a responsibility toward the Foundation.’
‘I know that. But we could travel between Amberley and New York, couldn’t we?’
‘Of course.’
She had wrinkled her nose at him in that delicious semi-teasing way she had, and then said hesitantly, ‘Silas, I’m afraid I don’t know very much about the workings of the Foundation. You’re going to have to explain to me exactly how it runs and what if anything I can do to help you.’
Yes, he had every right to congratulate himself on his perspicacity in deciding to marry Julia, Silas decided. She was, as he had told his mother on Julia’s eighteenth birthday, the perfect wife for him.
The hotel Silas had booked them into was old and elegant, hidden away down a maze of narrow streets which opened out into a quiet piazza, where an ornamental fountain splashed water down into an ornately carved marble basin and equally ornate marble statues stood on marble plinths. The austere grandeur of so much marble was broken up by huge classically shaped urns filled with a tumbling mass of flowers.
Their own suite had a balcony that overlooked the piazza, and Julia glanced up towards it now, a delicious thrill of excitement gilding her happiness as she anticipated what lay ahead.
Having sex with Silas was always wonderful, but this time would be extra special—because this time they would be doing it as husband and wife.
She looked down at her ring. She couldn’t wear it permanently yet, of course. If she did someone was bound to see it.
‘I thought we’d have dinner in the suite tonight,’ Silas told her as they walked into the hotel foyer. ‘But first there’s something I want to show you.’ He took hold of her arm, guiding her down a dark vaulted corridor, suddenly stopping to demand, ‘Where’s your hat?’
