‘I hope everything was to your satisfaction?’
‘Yes, our room is lovely.’ She ground out the words, flashing Vieri a pointed stare.
‘Bene, bene. I thought you would like it. That bed is very special, you know. It’s known as a marriage bed, hundreds of years old, I believe. Superstition has it that the couple that lie in that bed will soon be granted the blessing of a child.’ His dark eyes twinkled. ‘Although I suspect they may need to do more than just lie in it.’
‘Alfonso!’ Vieri rested his hand on his godfather’s shoulder.
‘Forgive me. But in my situation you can’t blame me for trying to speed things up a bit. I’m not old-fashioned enough to think you have to wait to be married these days to share a bed.’
Harper sat down on the sofa, tightly crossing her legs. How awkward was this?
‘Speaking of which, have you set a date yet?’
‘A date?’ She frowned at Alfonso, her mind still whirring with the sleeping arrangements.
‘Yes.’ Alfonso sat forward in his chair. ‘I asked Vieri if you would be so kind as to make the wedding soon. So that I might be able to attend.’
‘The w-wedding?’ She shot a horrified glance at Vieri, who steadfastly refused to meet her eyes. Instead he addressed his godfather.
‘We haven’t had the chance to discuss it yet, padrino.’
‘No? Well, there’s no time like the present.’ Clearly Alfonso wasn’t going to be deterred. ‘Why don’t we sort it out now? Harper, pass me my diary, will you? It’s in the top drawer of my desk.’
As if in a trance, Harper did as she was told, crossing the room to retrieve Alfonso’s diary and placing it in his outstretched hand.
‘Grazie, thank you, my dear. Now let me see.’ His shaky hands started to turn over the pages. ‘Ah, now how about this week?’ He turned the diary around, holding open the pages. Vieri and Harper peered at it. Harper’s heart stopped. It was a mere two weeks away. ‘Shall we say the twenty-third?’
‘The twenty-third?’ To Harper’s horror, Vieri appeared to be considering it, worse, drawing her in. ‘I think that might be possible. What do you say, Harper?’
There was a lot she wanted to say. An awful lot. But trapped between Alfonso’s hopeful gaze and Vieri’s shuttered calm she didn’t know where to begin.
‘I think that may be a little soon.’ Her voice was tight with suppressed tension. ‘Weddings take some time to organise, I believe.’
‘Sadly time is not something I have a lot of.’ Alfonso smiled weakly at her. ‘As you know.’
Harper bit down hard on her lip. How was she supposed to counter that?
‘What sort of wedding do you have in mind?’ Alfonso continued unabashed. ‘Do you envisage a lavish affair?’
‘No!’ Harper swallowed. Five minutes ago she hadn’t had any sort of wedding in mind. ‘Not at all.’
‘Well, I don’t think a small, intimate gathering will be difficult to organise. And finding a venue certainly won’t be a problem. Vieri owns several luxury hotels in Sicily alone. In fact, I have a better idea.’ He pushed himself upright. ‘Why don’t you get married here? In the castello chapel. You would be doing me the greatest honour.’
‘That is very kind of you, Alfonso. But all the arrangements, the disruption, will it not be too much for you?’ Harper fired a surreptitious glare at Vieri. Why was he not putting a stop to this nonsense right now?
‘Not at all. It will give me something to look forward to. So, is that settled, then? Saturday the twenty-third.’
Harper found herself nodding weakly.
‘Eccellente.’ Alfonso gave them both a beaming smile. ‘Now, if you will call that new nurse of mine, I think it’s time I took a nap.’
* * *
‘And just when, exactly, were you going to tell me about this wedding?’
Shaking with outrage, Harper turned on Vieri as they stepped outside into the cool air.
‘Keep your voice down.’ Linking his arm through hers, Vieri moved them away from the castello. ‘Getting hysterical is not going to help anyone.’
‘I think I have every right to be hysterical!’ Balling her hands into fists, Harper dug them further into her coat pockets. The shock of what she had just agreed to was still ringing in her ears, and having Vieri locked beside her, his towering, powerful body controlling her steps as they moved through the gardens, was doing nothing to calm her down. ‘How could you have told Alfonso we would be getting married without even asking me first?’
‘I intended to explain the situation.’ Vieri stared straight ahead, his proud profile showing nothing in the way of remorse as he moved them along the gravel pathway in the direction of the formal gardens. ‘But Alfonso got in there first.’
Explain the situation! Was that all he thought he had to do? Harper could hardly believe the man’s arrogance. She wanted to scream and shout, to beat her fists against his conceited, iron-hard chest, but she knew she had to concentrate on the practicalities. She fought to hold her voice steady. ‘This is not what I signed up for, Vieri. This is not part of the deal!’
‘I appreciate that.’ He walked them under the archway of the brick wall and into the formal gardens. ‘I realise that the terms of our agreement will need to be renegotiated.’
‘Renegotiated?’ Harper brought them to a sudden stop. ‘Do you really think that’s all there is to it?’ Her eyes flashed with fire. ‘Do you really think I will agree to marry you, just like that, without you even having the courtesy to ask me?’
‘Unless I am mistaken, it would seem you have already agreed.’ Vieri met her blazing temper with cold, calculating eyes.
With the blood boiling in her veins, Harper didn’t trust herself to speak. Because he was right, of course. She had already consented to this wedding. Acknowledging her silence with a single quirk of his dark brow, Vieri pulled her closer to him, tucking her arm against the warmth of his body as he moved them on again, between the towering box topiary. Reaching a stone bench, he released her and waited for her to sit down before seating himself beside her.
‘Look, Harper, this wedding was not my idea but we can make it work.’ His voice was low, confident. ‘I know how fond you are of Alfonso. I know you would do anything to make his final weeks happy.’ She could feel him scanning her grim profile, sense how sure he was of himself. Of her. Because, of course, she would do anything for Alfonso. Including marrying this darkly dangerous man.
‘Financially I will make it worth your while,’ he continued smoothly. ‘You will be fully recompensed for your inconvenience.’
‘I don’t want your money!’ Leaping to her feet, Harper rounded on him. ‘And having to marry you is not an inconvenience. It’s a total nightmare!’
She turned away, biting down on her lip to try and stop it from trembling. That had come out all wrong, had revealed far too much. Somehow her thin veil of protection had slipped, revealing her dangerously turbulent feelings beneath.
‘Not necessarily.’ Behind her she heard Vieri get to his feet, his voice infuriatingly calm.
‘No?’ She spun around. ‘How can you say that? This whole thing has got completely out of hand. Quite apart from the marriage, you do realise that Alfonso expects us to share a bedroom while we are staying at the castello?’
‘I gathered as much.’ Vieri’s intense stare found hers, the memory of last night after the ball, of what had so nearly happened between them, shining in their deep blue depths.
‘So what exactly do you intend to do about that?’ Harper hurriedly