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CHAPTER FOURTEEN
‘BUONNATALE!’PINOsaid as she came to the door.
‘Buon Natale!’Antonietta smiled.
And then she laughed as she stepped into the foyer. Nico had let them pull out all the stops, and there was now a small nativity scene on the reception desk.
‘We have bon-bons.’ Francesca beamed as she came over. ‘And Signor Caruso is throwing in champagne. Aurora must have been working overtime on him.’
And, despite her blue heart, Antonietta laughed. ‘Buon Natale, Francesca.’
She was so grateful for her wonderful friends and colleagues who had supported her. And she was grateful too for Francesca. Yes, her words had hurt at the time, but Antonietta knew she had got off very lightly.
Well, not that lightly, because she still had to work with Chi-Chi, and they had been given a full list of suites to service in an impossibly short amount of time while the guests were at breakfast or the Oratory or church.
‘My back is killing me,’ Chi-Chi grumbled.
‘One more suite,’ Antonietta said, and knocked on the door.
‘Good,’ Chi-Chi said. ‘They’re out.’
The suite looked like a tornado had hit it. There were champagne bottles and glasses in the lounge, half-drunk mimosas on the bedside tables, and wrapping paper all over the bed.
‘Don’t just throw it away,’ Antonietta barked, as Chi-Chi scooped up the paper. ‘There might still be gifts in there...’
Foolish words.
‘My back is killing me,’ Chi-Chi grumbled. She sat on the sofa and commenced herslowly-slowly, folding the wrapping paper piece by piece as Antonietta made the bed. ‘I just need five minutes.’
Antonietta rolled her eyes as Chi-Chi turned the television on. Really! She wanted a few moments alone and so, having made the bed, she went and serviced the bathroom. For a tiny second she allowed herself the dream of her and Rafe sitting in bed on Christmas morning, sipping mimosas as they unwrapped their presents.
Did she regret her time with Rafe?
No, not for a single second.
Oh, she regretted that they had been doomed from the start...and perhaps she regretted how hard she had tumbled into loving him.
But no, she refuted, she did not regret that.
As she came out of the bathroom she glanced at the television and saw the Vatican, and the Pope giving his Christmas address.
Antonietta stood watching for a moment, and saw an image of the Christmas celebrations in France, and then Germany, and then the British royal family heading to church...
And then her difficult Christmas became an impossible one—for there were the King and Queen of Tulano on the palace balcony, and beside them stood Crown Prince Rafael.
It was a mere glimpse, but it burned in her brain: the sight of Rafe in all his military splendour, looking so impossibly handsome and so utterly beyond her, and worst of all so happy, for he had been smiling. Smiling a natural, relaxed smile that told Antonietta he was truly happy.
Of course she wanted him to be happy—but not quite yet. Not when her own heart was so raw and bleeding.
But even as Antonietta cried out in recognition the footage moved on to Austria, and how Christmas was being celebrated there.
‘He’s mean,’ Chi-Chi huffed. ‘Do you know, he left letters for all the staff who had dealings with him, and a tip, yet he left nothing for me?’
‘Nor me,’ Antonietta said.
Well, he had tried to give her a necklace. But that was one thing that didn’t make sense.
It could not be a coincidence that the sapphire he’d tried to give her had been the exact shade of the water in the Blue Grotto. Surely?
