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Her comment tickled him. “You like pigs?”
She smiled. “Yes! Sometimes my sisters and I would visit a pig farm on the palatial estate and I always wanted to take one home and turn it into a pet like my rabbit. My parents forbade it, but—Oh, they’re so adorable!”
So was she. Already Nico realized he was falling hard for her. “For the most part they’re well behaved as long as you don’t separate them from the sow. There were times when I had to help a runt so it would thrive, and the vet would come. They have to be given antibiotics to prevent infection, and you have to put iodine on their navels. But sometimes the runts died. That was the hard part.”
“How sad that must have been for you. When the wild rabbit I found and nursed back to health eventually died, it took me a long time to get over it. I’m surprised you didn’t become a vet.”
Nico finished his wine. “There was another experience earlier in my life that influenced me to go into a different kind of medicine, but I’ll never regret my time on that farm.”
“I think you were lucky.”
“For many reasons I agree.” Right now I’m the luckiest man on the planet. “The family I lived with were good to me and cooked roast pig at least twice a week. We ate well, which was a blessing because I was always hungry. Whenever I get homesick for those days, I come here to eat.”
“I can see why. Do you ever go back to Biella?”
He was flattered and humbled by her interest in his life, as if she really wanted to know. “About every two months since I moved here. I enjoy the trip and visit friends, some of whom need medical help.”
“How fortunate for them to have you looking after them.” After she’d finished her meal, she swallowed the rest of her wine. “Where is your family?”
The inevitable question, reminding him of the separation between them. For a little while he’d forgotten. After sitting back, he studied her through narrowed lids. “I’ve been wanting to know the answer to that question since my first remembrance of life.”
She studied him. “I don’t understand.”
“Someone like you whose royal pedigree goes back thousands of years would have a hard time relating.”
“Please can’t you forget my background and just talk to me like I’m a normal woman?” she persisted. Her endearing sincerity got to him.
Nico slowly drank his hot coffee. “I’m here on a temporary visa that has to be renewed on a regular basis. I have no idea of my true nationality, which is why I couldn’t answer your question about citizenship.”
A slight frown marred her brow. “But your parents—”
He lowered his cup. “I think around five years of age I must have asked someone where my mamma was because there was a painting of the bambino Gesu with his mamma in the big room.
“Apparently I understood some Italian and remember a lady in black patting my head. ‘Only God knows, figlio mio. While you are here, we shall call you Nico.’ Later I learned I’d been placed there with the nuns at the age of two, but I have no memory of it. The orphanage is in a village near Biella.”
A look of compassion and other emotions less definable pooled in the celestial blue eyes of the princess.
“Now I’ve
told you more than I’ve told anyone else in years. You have that rare quality of being a good listener. I’m not surprised you were hired as a volunteer. The sick children won’t mind being in the hospital with you there for comfort. Would you like dessert before we leave?”
“No, thank you,” she whispered, clearly moved by what he’d told her.
Already he’d learned she had a sensitive nature that made her even more desirable to him. It set off warnings that he’d be a fool to get any more involved, even if she were amenable, but it was too late. She’d already walked right into his heart. But even if he dared to imagine a future with her, how could there be one? She was the daughter of a king and queen. No matter what she’d claimed, he was convinced her future would be settled by them when the time was right.
“Then I’ll drive you back to the palace so your bodyguard seated near the entrance to the restaurant can go off duty and stop worrying that I’m going to whisk you away.”
* * *
An orphan.
To think she’d been complaining about waiting for her father’s attention growing up when Nico had been raised in an orphanage!
Already crazy about him, her heart went out to him. She wished the handsome, hard-muscled man who was so much more than a doctor would drive her to a place where they could be completely alone to talk some more.
Nico had stunned her by what he’d revealed of his life so far, but she’d only scratched the surface. After he’d taken her into his confidence, there were endless questions she wanted to ask.
Instead he’d reverted to treating her like a princess, which put distance between them when it was the last thing she wanted. Tonight had been magical. Having to go home was the part she hated.
