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‘I can hold my own,’ she assured him. ‘You gave me a good horse to ride. All I had to do was give him his head and stay on. He did the rest.’
‘I’m glad you approve.’
‘Oh, I do,’ she said. ‘Picnic?’ she reminded him as she unfastened the straps on the pannier holding the feast the elderly ladies had prepared for them. ‘You must be hungry—I know I am.’
‘Starving,’ he confirmed. ‘Towels,’ he added, tossing a big blue one to Sadie as he produced a couple from his saddlebags. ‘I used to swim here as a boy.’
‘We’re going to swim?’ she asked, staring at the fast-moving water in alarm. ‘Isn’t that glacier melt?’
‘Are you chicken?’
‘Are you?’
‘Let’s cool down, then,’ he proposed.
‘Soon. Let’s eat first.’ Removing her horse’s saddle, she gave him a look. ‘Your childhood must have been idyllic,’ she said as he helped her to set out the picnic.
‘I was certainly a challenge for my parents,’ he admitted.
‘I can imagine,’ she said.
‘Stick the wine between those rocks to chill it,’ he told her, handing the bottle over.
‘You think of everything,’ she commented with a grin.
Believe it, he thought.
They ate sparingly, and, with a swim ahead of them, barely touched the wine, and then it was a case of waiting for a while after eating, to make sure neither of them got a cramp in the icy water. Sadie hunkered down on the grass, while he lay back alongside her, resting on his elbows. She seemed reluctant to talk, so he started the conversation. ‘My parents were madly in love...’
‘And what a setting for it,’ she commented as she looked around.
‘I was lucky. They gave me the best of examples for what constitutes a happy family life.’
‘So, why have you never married?’
He stared at her with amusement. ‘Why are you interested?’
‘I’m not,’ she assured him just a little too hotly.
‘It must have been a hideous loss when they were killed,’ she said, changing the subject fast.
He didn’t want to talk about it, but this was typical of Sadie. Where angels feared to tread she walked straight in. And only out of kindness, he reminded himself as he relaxed. It was a long time, if ever, that anyone had dared to mention the loss of his parents to him, or to Annalisa. After all these years, the wound was still red raw. Perhaps it always would be. It had certainly affected his approach to life, and especially to any potential relationship. He was wary of commitment, wary of love, because it was too much to lose. Adoring his parents as he had had made the pain of their loss almost unmanageable. Only caring for Annalisa, and building the business so many depended on, had helped him to carry on.
‘You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone,’ he murmured pensively.
It was a relief to discover that Sadie knew when to let the silence hang.
* * *
Sadie hadn’t expected Alejandro to open up as he had, and this softer side of him touched her deeply. It was the first time he’d mentioned feelings, let alone allowed his mask to slip. Pain was etched on a face that usually held nothing but confidence and command. He must have bottled up everything for years, she realised, as she had.
‘Annalisa’s lucky to have such a wonderful brother,’ she said gently.
Lifting his head, Alejandro stared her steadily in the eyes. ‘I love my sister, and I’ll always try to help her out, though my help isn’t always wanted,’ he admitted with an amused smile. ‘I just hope she finds someone to care for her as I do, one day.’
‘What about the Prince?’
‘That milksop?’ Alejandro’s expression hardened. ‘I’ll be interested to see how long he lasts. I just hope he doesn’t hurt her in the process. If he breaks her heart, he’ll have me to answer to.’
‘I’m sure you’ll always be around to pick up the pieces.’
‘Ha!’ Alejandro exclaimed. ‘If Annalisa will allow me to. My sister’s very like you, in that—’
‘She’s sensible, considerate and as calm as the day is long,’ Sadie suggested, tongue-in-cheek.
Alejandro laughed. ‘That’s not quite how I’d put it,’ he said.
‘How about you? Tell me something about your family, Sadie.’
Turning his face to the sun, he closed his eyes, as if he sensed how difficult it was for her to relive the past and was giving her space to express her feelings. It did hurt remembering, but he’d opened up, and so should she.
‘The day I graduated from catering college, Chef Sorollo and his entire family were sitting in the front row. He’s been amazing. I can’t tell you how good he’s been to me.’
‘I know the man, so I know how big his heart is,’ Alejandro commented. ‘So, now you’ve started, can you tell me something more?’ he prompted when she fell silent.
Sadie drew in a deep, steadying breath. ‘I had sent my mother a note, saying how much it would mean to me if she could be at my graduation too...’
‘She stayed home,’ Alejandro guessed.
Sadie shrugged. ‘At least I invited her, but she couldn’t make it.’
‘Did she write to tell you that?’
‘No. She didn’t reply.’ After all these years that silence still hurt, even though Sadie had always known she was wasting her time trying to enlist her mother’s interest. It was just that, somehow, she could never stop hoping.
‘That’s a deep frown,’ Alejandro commented when she had been silent for a while.
‘I didn’t think you were looking,’ she accused lightly.
‘Well, I am now.’ Squinting against the sun, he shaded his eyes. ‘And I’m waiting to hear more. Come on, Sadie,’ he coaxed. ‘What harm can it do? There’s no one here to hear you but me.’
‘Then, I’ll have to swear you to secrecy.’
‘We’ll keep it between the two of us,’ he promised. ‘I won’t even make a comment unless you ask me to. How’s that?’
She shrugged, but he was right. What did she have to lose? ‘I was an accident, apparently.’
‘An accident?’ Alejandro queried. ‘Who told you that?’
She smiled a small comic smile. ‘My mother.’
‘Dios!’
‘No, really, it’s all right,’ Sadie insisted with wry good humour, knowing her mother’s rejection had to be so distant from Alejandro’s childhood experiences that he was having trouble computing it at all. ‘She blamed me for losing her figure—she was a socialite, the type who could never be too thin, or too rich. And that was the cause of the trouble, because they had this great big house and a very glamorous lifestyle, but hardly any money to back it up. And then I came along.’
‘A cause for joy, surely?’
‘A cause for wailing and gnashing of teeth,’ Sadie argued. ‘I was just one more problem that was going to cost them money.’ She gave a thoughtful sigh. ‘It couldn’t have been easy for my mother. She never liked me, because I was a drain on the household budget, and when she began to lose her looks, my father started drinking heavily. He used to beat her up when he was intoxicated. She blamed me for that too. We were never close, and I doubt we ever will be. Hey-ho,’ she said, forcing a bright note into her voice. ‘There are people far worse off than me. Are you still hungry?’ she asked as he reached for a hunk of cheese.
‘I’m always hungry. Neat change of subject, by the way.’
‘I’m learning from a master,’ she said.
The expression on Alejandro’s face nearly broke her. It was dangerous playing true confessions. They left her vulnerable. Left him vulnerable, Sadie conceded, seeing the shadows behind the compassion in Alejandro’s eyes. Maybe they both needed this opportunity to open up a little and let their guards down. If only life could always be so
simple, that you could just sit on a riverbank and tell all without fear of being mocked.
‘No garlic,’ Alejandro said with a lift of his hand, when she offered him some of the pungent bread to go with his cheese.
‘I’ll eat some too,’ she offered.
‘Does that mean you’re going to kiss me?’ he asked with a lift of his brow.
‘You wish,’ she countered, wishing her cheeks wouldn’t always flame red right on cue.
Alejandro angled his stubble-shaded chin. ‘Is that you telling me that you have no intention of kissing me today?’
‘I’ve no intention of kissing you any day.’
