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Even as she took all this in, she felt her frantic city life drop away and the pampas claim her. She felt different. Even Dante looked different here, and the longing to ride free and wild with him was suddenly overwhelming.
‘I’m going to the kitchen to grab some food with these urchins,’ he said. ‘Join me when you’ve settled in, and then we’ll discuss my agenda.’
Dante had changed? Maybe not that much! She held back on a salute. ‘I trust you’ll be equally open to discussing my agenda?’
‘That all depends on what your agenda is...’
He held her stare a beat too long, his mouth slanted in a challenging smile and his eyes glowing with an emotion she couldn’t read. She still hadn’t figured out where the children fitted into his lifestyle, and was halfway up the stairs when a female voice called out, ‘Karina?’
Her stomach contracted as she turned around. The girl was very beautiful.
‘Honestly, they’re impossible,’ the mystery girl exclaimed, shaking a play fist at the children. ‘You’re very brave to come here.’
Karina got over her initial reaction fast. She liked the girl on sight. ‘It looks like fun to me.’ She smiled down.
‘I’m Nichola, but everyone calls me Nicky. Sorry! Can’t shake your hand. I’m covered in finger-paint.’ Nicky brandished both hands palms up as proof.
‘You’re in charge of the children?’
‘In charge?’ Nicky’s laughter pealed out as she thought about that. ‘That’s one way of putting it! I love them, but I’m always glad to hand them back to their parents. But what about you? Apparently, you’re amazing—according to Dante,’ she explained, when Karina looked surprised. ‘The children from the families of those who work on the ranch treat this as their second home,’ Nicky explained, ‘and Dante brings more in from the city to experience life on a ranch. He says he loves the place to be used, and I’m usually around, a bit like an adoptive auntie, I suppose, which in a way I am, being Dante’s sister...’
‘Sister?’ Karina queried, thinking back. She couldn’t remember Dante having a sister.
‘You were away, I expect, when I moved in, or you’d have heard all about me. I’m Dante’s father’s love child,’ Nicky explained, with the same openness that had drawn Karina to her. ‘Not that there was much love involved, from what I can understand.’
Were there any similarities between father and son? A knot snagged in Karina’s stomach.
‘Dante’s mother brought me here to live with them when my own mother died,’ Nicky explained. ‘Things weren’t easy for Dante’s mother, but I suppose you know that—it was common knowledge. That didn’t stop her taking me in. You probably remember, that was the sort of woman she was.’
‘A saint,’ Karina agreed, as pieces of the jigsaw that made up the life of Dante Baracca flew together at breakneck speed. ‘I’m only sorry I didn’t get the chance to know Dante’s mother better. I only met her a few times when I was a child, but my mother used to talk about how good she was.’
Nicky shared her grimace as they thought back. ‘Dante’s father liked to keep her out of the way—kitchen sink or his bed were her only permitted zones, from what I can understand.’
Karina guessed they both felt the same shiver run down their spines, but Nicky soon lightened the mood with her smile. ‘Sorry. I’m keeping you from settling in. Let Maria show you to your room—I have to pack anyway, as I’m leaving soon.’
‘You’re leaving?’ Karina was disappointed, having found someone she believed could be a friend.
‘Yes.’ Nicky heaved a mock sigh. ‘Dante will have to fend for himself, though my best guess is that his adoring staff will do the fending for him, leaving Dante free to bring in more waifs and strays.’
‘Waifs and strays?’ Karina was beginning to feel like a parrot, but this was so much information in the space of a couple of minutes she couldn’t get things straight in her head.
‘Dante has a plan for the future,’ Nicky revealed enigmatically.
There was only one certainty, Karina concluded when Nicky headed off across the hall. Every preconceived notion she’d had about Dante Baracca had been turned upside down.
‘I’d make the most of having the day to yourself today if I were you,’ Nicky shouted back to her. ‘Knowing Dante, he’ll be knocking on your door at cockcrow in the morning. Just remember the fun starts tomorrow, so make the most of the peace and quiet today.’
