surprise, the doctor did not follow. She had assumed his role had been to witness the collection of the DNA sample, but Cesario explained otherwise.
‘I’ve asked Dr Bartoli to examine you, in the hope that he can diagnose why you keep fainting,’ he told her.
‘You make it sound as though it’s a regular occurrence,’ she muttered in an angry whisper so that the doctor could not hear her. ‘I just feel a bit wobbly sometimes. There’s nothing wrong with me and I don’t need to see a doctor.’
‘Why don’t you let him be the judge of that?’ The determined gleam in Cesario’s eyes warned that she would be wasting her time to argue, and she glared at him helplessly as he took Sophie from her and strolled over to the window.
‘So, Signorina Granger, would you please tell me the symptoms you have been suffering from?’
Beth forced a smile for the elderly doctor. He spoke in such a kind tone that she shrugged and admitted, ‘I sometimes feel dizzy and short of breath. And I’m often tired. But Sophie still wakes for a feed during the night so I suppose it’s not surprising that I feel exhausted.’
‘Caring for an infant can be extremely draining, especially in the first few months,’ the doctor agreed. ‘It is important that you eat a good, balanced diet to give you energy.’
When Beth flushed, remembering the days she had survived on toast and coffee in England, he continued, ‘I understand you are the child’s guardian, and that her mother was your best friend who died shortly after Sophie’s birth?’ He gave her a gentle look. ‘Grief takes a physical as well as mental toll. Perhaps you have lost your appetite since the death of your friend? And perhaps,’ he added intuitively, ‘you have been so busy caring for the baby that you have not had time to grieve properly.’
‘No.’ Beth swallowed hard. She had a sudden stark memory of Mel’s funeral, the utter wrench she’d felt as she’d said that final goodbye. Tears filled her eyes and for a moment she felt like sobbing her heart out. But of course she couldn’t—not in front of a stranger. Anyway, she had learned after her mother had died that crying wasn’t really a relief. It just gave you a headache. And how could she wallow in self-pity when Sophie needed her to be strong?
‘The past few months have been difficult,’ she admitted huskily.
She was conscious that on the other side of the room Cesario was listening to her conversation. She felt his eyes on her, but she could not bring herself to meet his gaze when she felt so vulnerable.
‘I think from what you have told me, and also from your pallor, that you are probably suffering from an iron deficiency,’ Dr Bartoli told her. ‘I will take a blood sample to confirm it, but it will do no harm for you to start a course of iron tablets immediately.’
Five minutes later the doctor packed the small phial containing Beth’s blood sample in his medical bag and shook her hand. ‘Arrivederci, signorina. It is important you take care of yourself. I do not underestimate how hard life can be for a single mother.’
Cesario escorted Dr Bartoli out of the lounge. When he returned moments later he was accompanied by a woman who Beth assumed was a member of his staff at the apartment.
‘Beth, I’d like you to meet Luisa Moretti. Luisa is a nanny from a highly reputable agency in Rome,’ he shocked her by saying. ‘She is going to help you look after Sophie.’
‘I’m pleased to meet you, Miss Granger.’ The woman spoke perfect English and smiled as she extended her hand in formal greeting. Good manners dictated that Beth responded with a polite welcome, but while Luisa made a fuss of Sophie she glared at Cesario.
To her fury he returned her angry look with a bland smile before speaking to the nanny. ‘Beth and I have an appointment, and as Sophie is due a feed and a nap we’ll leave her with you for a couple of hours.’
‘Sophie won’t like being fed by a stranger,’ Beth said stiffly, but to no avail.
‘I’m sure she’ll be quite happy with me,’ Luisa assured her. ‘I’ve worked as a nanny for twenty years, and I have a lot of experience with small babies.’
With Cesario’s hand firmly gripping her shoulder, Beth found herself propelled out of the room. Before she could speak, he answered a call on his mobile phone, and she had no opportunity to vent her feelings until they had climbed into the limousine parked outside the apartment block.
‘Don’t think I don’t realise what you are doing.’ She rounded on him the second he’d depressed a button to activate the privacy glass so that the chauffeur could not hear them. ‘You believe Sophie is your daughter, and once the test proves it you’re planning to send me away from her. That’s why you’ve employed a nanny. But I won’t leave her,’ she told him fiercely. ‘Mel appointed me as Sophie’s guardian, and I’ll fight you in court if necessary for the right to be a mother to her.’
Her emotions were raw after her conversation with the doctor had triggered painful memories of Mel, and now the tears she had tried to supress filled her eyes.
The sight of Beth’s distress made Cesario’s stomach clench. ‘You’re wrong,’ he said tautly. ‘I’ve employed Luisa because you’ve admitted you are exhausted from lack of sleep and I can see that you need help. Dio, your devotion to her has made you ill. If Sophie is mine, I promise I will involve you in her upbringing.’
What did he mean by that? Beth wondered anxiously. Would Cesario allow her to live at the Castello del Falco? Or would her involvement in Sophie’s life be confined to occasional visits? Gnawing on her lower lip, she stared out of the car window at the traffic-congested streets and the unfamiliar Rome skyline. ‘Where are we going, anyway?’
‘Shopping—we need to find you a dress to wear tonight.’
She shook her head. ‘We do not. The clothes I’m wearing might not be haute couture, but they’re adequate. I can’t afford to buy a dress that I’ll probably never have the opportunity to wear again, and I’m certainly not going to allow you to buy me anything.’
‘Mio Dio! You would try the patience of a saint—and that is something I have never professed to be,’ Cesario growled.
Something in his tone made Beth’s heart thud. When she darted him a glance and saw the feral gleam in his eyes she should have guessed his intention. Certainly she should have fought him when his arm snaked around her waist and he hauled her up against him. But the memory of his kiss was branded on her soul, and when he claimed her mouth with savage possession she lost the battle before it had even begun. For a few seconds she fought him, determined to resist his mastery, but he took without mercy, parting her lips with determined intent to explore her inner sweetness with his tongue.
Driven by a need she did not fully understand, Beth responded to him with an urgency that made him groan. Sensing her surrender, Cesario gentled the kiss so that it became deeply sensual, with an inherent tenderness that caused her tears that had been hovering perilously close since they had climbed into the car to overspill.
‘Don’t,’ he bade her roughly, brushing the trails of moisture from her cheeks with his thumb pads. ‘I know how much you love Sophie, and whatever the outcome of the test I swear you will never be parted from her.’
‘If the test proves that you are her father you said you will want her to grow up in Sardinia with you. But my home is in England. How can we both be parents to her when we live in different countries?’
It would be so much easier if Sophie wasn’t Cesario’s child, Beth thought wearily. But she knew she was being selfish. Undoubtedly it would be better for Sophie if she were the daughter of a billionaire.
‘We’ll work something out,’ Cesario reassured her.
In truth he did not know what, but Beth’s fear that she might be separated from the child she patently adored tugged on his heart. Guilt surged through him as he remembered Raffaella’s desperation to win custody