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‘Oh, look at you!’ Antonietta beamed and clapped her hands. ‘He’s adorable.’
‘He is,’ Aurora agreed. ‘And he knows it. Though he’s in for a big shock when his little sister comes along...’
It took a second for the news to sink in. ‘You’re expecting?’
‘Yes! Although only you are allowed to know for now! We’re thrilled,’ she added. ‘I know it means we’ll have two under two, but we want them to be close...’
It was wonderful news. This time last year Aurora had been pregnant and practically homeless. Now she was deliriously happy and withanothernew baby on the way!
‘I feel sick this time, though,’ Aurora admitted.
‘Then what are you doing in a helicopter?’
‘Flying is fine—it is food that upsets me. That is why I decided not to join Nico for lunch. I don’t think me vomiting in front of the Crown Prince of Tulano would go down too well.’
It was the second big piece of news in as many minutes—not that Aurora could know the effect her throwaway comment had had.
‘Crown Prince...?’
The smile Antonietta had been wearing slipped from her face, and as her legs turned to water she reached for the couch and sat down. On some level she had always known, but on hearing Aurora confirm it Antonietta crumpled and buried her face in her hands.
‘Whatever’s wrong?’ Aurora said. ‘Antonietta, what did I say...?’ She came and put her arm around her friend’s shoulder. ‘Tell me.’
‘I can’t.’
‘Is it Rafe?’ Aurora asked—because she had seen her friend pale when she had mentioned his title. When Antonietta neither confirmed nor denied it, Aurora pushed for more. ‘Has he been causing problems for you?’
‘Problems?’ Antonietta frowned. ‘No...no.’
‘You don’t have to put up with it just because you are staff...’
‘No, Aurora.’ Her friend was on the wrong track. ‘The only problem is how much I like him.’
She felt the hand on her shoulder tense and wondered if she had been wise to say anything. But apart from being the boss’s wife Aurora was also her best friend, and in truth she desperately needed her trusted advice.
‘Ireallylike him,’ Antonietta admitted.
‘You’ve never said that about anyone before.’
‘I’ve never felt like this before. Rafe took me out for dinner last night and it was absolute bliss. I wore the red silk dress that you made for me and I knewhappiness, Aurora. He was wonderful to me.’
She saw the doubt in her friend’s eyes. The same doubt Antonietta had seen there when she’d insisted her family would forgive her.
‘He really was...’ she said.
‘You’re in over your head, Antonietta.’
‘I know that,’ Antonietta said. ‘I already knew that even before I found out he was royal.’
‘He has the most terrible reputation with women.’ Aurora was both abrupt and upfront. ‘Rafe makes Nico look tame, and I don’t even know half of what Nico got up to before we were married.’ She was genuinely concerned. ‘Antonietta, don’t let him use you.’
‘Usedwas how I felt with Sylvester,’ Antonietta admitted. ‘I’ve never felt that way for a moment with Rafe.’
‘Listen to me,’ Aurora urged. ‘Crown Prince Rafael is his father’s son—everybody says so. You must have heard all the scandals attached to the King of Tulano?’
Antonietta had. Oh, they weren’t sitting there at the forefront of her mind, but there were little memories of her mother tutting over a magazine. And there had been some scandalous articles she’d read laboriously when she’d been trying to improve her vocabulary in France.
‘Rafe is exactly the same.’
