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EPILOGUE
‘IHAVETOgo to my parents’ house later...’
They lay in bed as she stared at her ring, which sparkled in the fading candlelight.
‘I said I would go there for a drink.’
‘You are speaking to each other now?’ Rafe checked.
‘It would seem so.’
‘That is good,’ Rafe said. ‘Tell them that I have married you.’
‘Not yet!’ Antonietta laughed. ‘You must ask my father’s permission!’
‘Oh, no,’ Rafe said. ‘We will be married by then.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’
‘There will be a huge formal wedding in a few weeks,’ Rafe told her. ‘And there will be duty and cameras and parades...’ He looked over at his bride-to-be. ‘But I want you to know how committed I am before I take you home. Life is going to change for you, Antonietta...’
‘I know.’
‘But my love for you never will.’
‘I know that too,’ Antonietta said. ‘But, Rafe, I have nothing—and I meannothing—to wear.’
Enter Aurora. The best friend, the best seamstress and the best keeper and sharer of secrets that a girl could ever have.
Antonietta’s dress was a sheath of Italian white lace, so slender that for a second Antonietta was sure that Aurora had got her measurements wrong.
‘Hold still,’ Aurora warned. She wore gloves just to do the zipper up. ‘Oh, Antonietta, look!’
Aurora was crying—she actually was—as she admired not only her handiwork, and the pretty shoes she had selected, but her best friend’s happiness.
And then Francesca arrived and dotted her hair with flowers, handed her a little posy.
‘I am so happy for you,’ Francesca said. ‘And I take back every word I said about him.’
It was the most intimate and unofficial wedding in Tulano history. But what it lacked in paperwork, it made up for with love.
Rafe slid a heavy ring on her finger and said, ‘I loved you the morning I met you, though I told myself I had a head injury.’ Everyone smiled. ‘And I hope every day to see your eyes smiling.’
And Antonietta smiled up at her impossibly handsome groom and said, ‘I love you, and that is never going to change.’
‘I know,’ Rafe told her, and he kissed his shy bride who melted solely for him. loz.
He held her hand as Pino read her favourite verse from Corinthians and choked up a little, for it was the one that had been read at his and Rosa’s wedding. One that was still relevant now...
‘“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”’
And Nico did a speech, during which both Aurora and Antonietta sat, just a little tense, hoping he would not share too much of the groom’s chequered past.
He did not.
‘Aurora considers Antonietta family. So I guess,’ Nico said, looking over to Rafe, ‘that my old friend is now almost my brother-in-law. Welcome to our family.’
Christmas had delivered its magic.
With Rafe by her side she belonged in this world.
And with friends like these surrounding her as she danced with the love of her life, Antonietta had got her for ever family...
