AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER TEN
ANTONIETTAWASN’TLATE,EXACTLY.
The helicopter pilot made excellent time and they arrived just before the winter sun rose above the horizon—which gave Antonietta just enough time for a quick shower and to change, though she was cutting it fine.
There was no morning chat with Pino.
Antonietta had got away with it.
Rafe hadn’t.
Before he had even shrugged out of his coat his father was on the phone. The call was neither unexpected nor pleasant.
‘What the hell were you thinking, parading this woman in Capri?’ his father demanded.
‘Hardly “parading”,’ Rafe said. ‘It hasn’t even made the papers.’ He knew, because while Antonietta had been dozing beside him on the flight home he’d checked.
‘Only because your PR team have been working all night to silence it.’ The King was incensed. ‘You are supposed to be recovering—’
‘I am fully recovered,’ Rafe interrupted.
‘Then come home.’
‘I’m not due back until Christmas Eve.’
‘That wasn’t a suggestion, Rafe. You have been given an extremely generous length of rope, yet you choose to ignore all the conditions that come with it. Well, no more. You are to return home. And in the New Year there shall be an announcement as to your upcoming marriage. The party is over, Rafe.’
‘I am in no position to get engaged,’ Rafe answered curtly. ‘As you are clearly aware, I am currently seeing someone.’
It was more than he had wanted to reveal—more than he had even acknowledged to himself. But the fact was he was more involved with Antonietta than he had ever been or intended to be with anyone.
‘Thenunsee her,’ the King said.
Rafe walked out onto the balcony and there, crossing the grounds, was Antonietta. She was dressed in a white uniform and tying her hair back as she walked briskly to begin her shift.
‘It’s not that straightforward—’
‘Are you forgetting who you are conversing with?’ his father cut in.
For a moment Rafe had. But he was not under the thumb of his parents—it was the full weight of his title that came crashing down as the King spoke on.
‘Your accident caused great concern, Rafe. You have a responsibility to marry and to produce heirs.’
‘It is too soon,’ Rafe said.
He was not even thinking of himself—more of Antonietta finding out he was engaged a few days after they’d ended.
‘As I said, I am seeing someone, and she—’
‘Shehas no bearing on this discussion,’ the King said. ‘Sheis a lowly maid, who has been disowned by her own family because of a chequered past...’
‘Don’t evengothere!’ Rafe shouted.
‘I should say the same to you,’ his father shot back. ‘Rafe, if you are particularly enamoured of this woman, then after your marriage, after an appropriate length of time, you can discreetly—’
‘Don’t!’ Rafe interrupted, and his voice was low and threatening, even if his father was the King. ‘Don’t even try to give me relationship advice or instruct me on how to conduct my marriage.’
‘Again, I remind you of to whom you are speaking,’ the King said. ‘I shall grant you this day to conclude matters and then I expect your return to the palace this night.’
