Chapter Thirty
A damp, pale sun was rising over Rome and William ambled past purple and black facades still thick with sleep. There was a transcendental silence. Perhaps he was the last man on earth—or the very first, for Rome at dawn was deserted and damp like a sunken Atlantis resurfacing from the deep. The fresh air reverberated with promise. It was his future, their future beckoning him.
The first beams of sunlight greeted him to Piazza di Spagna, and the spouts of the Barcaccia fountain turned into liquid gold. There was still no movement in the piazza . He had arrived too early and stood by the Spanish Steps to wait. A figure emerged out of the torpid shadows, wispy and tremulous like a remnant of the night.
‘Claudia,’ he called, but cautiously, because only ghosts and visions were around at that dangerous time between night and dawn.
She walked to him, and with each of her steps his heart soared, and soared, and soared, as though his very own destiny was walking to meet him. She stood before him for a moment, her face concealed by a veil. She looked like an ancient divinity about to seal the fate of a mortal man. Then she held her hand out to him and they were in each other’s arms, her veil grazing against his cheek, her fine silks gliding under his gloves.
‘I missed you,’ he whispered. ‘So much.’
‘It was just one night.’
‘One night too much.’
They sat next to each other on the Spanish Steps, and neither spoke. Maybe she too was thinking of how they were standing on the verge of a wholly new existence, a land uncharted and undiscovered.
He felt her gaze on him. When he turned to face her, she had pulled her veil back and her eyes were exploring his face as if they wanted to imprint the least details in her memory. And she liked what she saw because her fine jaw relaxed, and her eyes became a little hazy.
Her beauty almost brought tears to his eyes. She would take him with her to England. They would live together. One day she would become his wife, he was quite sure of it. It was too much happiness for just one man. Maybe he would not live to see it.
He tried to chase the dark thought away by removing his glove and placing his hand on her cheek, just to make sure that she was real. Her skin was silky and a little cool.
‘You look divine, Claudia.’
‘Why, thank you,’ she was a little breathless, which made her voice even huskier. He had meant to ask why she had wanted to meet here at the crack of dawn, but he did not care anymore. They watched in silence as the sunlight clawed back chunks of facades and cobblestones from the shades.
‘Will?’ She said quietly, seemingly reluctant to break the silence.
‘Mmm?’
She tucked his messy hair behind his ear.
‘It’s time to go, now.’ She looked furtively around, then she put her gloved hand in his. ‘The carriage is just behind the corner.’
***
They walked fast in the deserted street, hand in hand, her veil pulled over her face, his fingers warm through their gloves. Someday soon she would walk at his side, proud to be his, her face uncovered. But it was not that time yet. Still, as he turned round to look at her, his eyes brimming with affection and hope, it was harder and harder to think that that day would not come. He loved her, what other proof did she need? Even if her family disowned her and she didn’t have a penny to her name anymore, he would love her still.
But she did not want him to pay the price for her actions. She loathed to think that someday he would realise that he had held the chance to be wealthy in his hands, and he had thrown it to the wind. So she had prepared a gift for him. One last matter to settle before leaving Rome.
They climbed into her carriage hurriedly. He looked a little confused, his eyes were still swollen with sleep.
‘Couldn’t you have chosen a more humane time to abduct me, my love?’
My love.
He had started calling her that, and every time it produced a tingling sensation behind her ears. They were alone in the carriage now, like the first time they had kissed. His deep blue eyes had been full of mischief and surprise back then. Now there was a vaguely wild glint to them too, as if he had stopped trying to keep his feelings in check.
‘May I know where you are bringing me at five o’clock on a Wednesday morning?’
‘We are just paying a quick visit to someone who is otherwise very, very busy. He can only see us now.’
‘Fine.’ He grumbled. He fluttered a kiss against her cheekbone, then he curled up on the soft bench, resting his head on her thigh. He closed his eyes blissfully, trustingly, as though it didn’t matter one bit where they were going, as long as he was with her. He looked a bit like a lazy greyhound.
‘Tell me we can travel like this when we go back to England.’ His soft, crisp voice always had a way of stirring her desires. ‘I want to fall asleep on your thigh.’
She ran her fingers through his hair. The comfort between them, that instinctive intimacy felt so entirely natural, like something that had been there since forever.
‘We won’t be able to travel together, you know that. But we will meet there. And then—’
And then it will be forever if you’ll have me.
She did not dare utter it. The future was a strange and dangerous land. Maybe he would tire of the life they would lead there. A man like him could climb high society, marry an heiress, charm the hell out of the ton and have it bow at his feet.
And yet she knew, in every moment she spent with him, that they were each other’s destiny. That the two of them were the beginning of… something . Something bright and glorious, even though she could not quite put her finger on what exactly that was. They radiated light when they were together. Maybe people would have to shield their eyes when they walked by in Oxford.
‘Claudia.’ He sat back up next to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. ‘I can tell that something is troubling you. Talk to me.’
‘It is fine. I just worry. I struggle to believe that good things can happen. But I think I have just reassured myself. I trust you, Will.’
‘And I trust you. Fully. And if you are still a bit worried about that getting bored of you nonsense…please know that if it was for me, I would have proposed already. I just don’t want to push you. But this is already forever for me.’
He was dead serious. Then his gaze softened, and he leaned in to kiss her neck. His tousled hair tickled her chin.
‘I adore you.’ He whispered on her neck. ‘Did you miss me tonight?’
‘A bit.’
‘Just a bit?’ His eyes were searching. ‘Look at you. Hiding your face not to be seen with me. It hurts. It really does hurt.’ He took the corners of her veil in his fingers, but he did not lift it, looking at her with a gaze that was half-pained and half-admiring.
‘On the day of our wedding, when I can call you mine before the world, I will kiss you like this.’
He cupped her face and pressed his lips to hers through the veil. His mouth was soft and searching. He gently coaxed her lips open. A hint of his tongue through the thin fabric was enough to make her lower belly glow with a sweet agony.
‘Then I’ll take your veil off, to see the woman I adore.’
He carefully unpinned her veil and uncovered her face. She made to remove her gloves too, but he stopped her.
‘Allow me,’ he said. ‘Please . ’
His fingers pinched the tip of hers, tinges of warmth through the silky fabric. He cautiously pulled a little. His feather-light hand gave the slightest twitch, as though pervaded with a current.
‘I’ve seen you undressed. Yet even the tips of your fingers make me nervous.’ The fabric slipped away from her hand and the cool hair pooled on her wrist. He pressed a burning kiss on her wrist. ‘Now take off the other glove yourself. Do it slowly . Just for me.’
As she removed the glove, his breath became laboured, making her lower belly contract in a little spasm.
‘Darling,’ he hissed, ‘if you knew what it does to me, merely the sight of you uncovering these wicked hands of yours.’ He pressed a kiss to her other wrist, whispering against her skin. ‘I am jealous of the things that touch you. How dare they, Claudia?’
He kissed her just below her chin. Then his mouth moved on the fine lace lining her décolletage. It produced a long, slow shiver.
‘My love.’ His voice was hoarse with need. ‘How far are we going? How much time do we have alone in this carriage?’
***
How come every time he thought he was in charge he ended up being so thoroughly ravished? As Claudia wiped her mouth with his embroidered handkerchief, her silver eyes glinting murkily, there was not a single portion of his body that was not panting and tender.
He was still gasping for air when the carriage halted. He was so dizzy that it took him a long minute to understand where they were. But the sight of the palazzo outside doused him like a bucket of freezing water.
‘Ah, no. No, no, no, Claudia! This—just no. ’
‘Oh yes. Yes, yes, yes.’ She smiled mischievously, looking so perfectly composed that he wanted to start all over again. ‘We are walking right into the lion’s den.’
‘You want me dead.’ He jumped off. ‘The man literally wants to slit my throat.’
‘Oh, he does. But he won’t, because your intended is so very scary when she gets angry.’
She coquettishly tidied a stray lock behind her ear, looking so impossibly beautiful, even now that she was leading him to certain death.
The carriage driver handed her a heavy box. His heart sank when he recognised the crate of the artefacts he had returned to her.
‘Claudia…what exactly are you going to do with those?’
‘Haven’t you understood it yet? Come on, help me out.’
They each took a handle of the crate, and he reluctantly walked with her into Viscount Caiani’s palazzo .
‘God, it’s heavy.’ She laughed. ‘Did you have to steal this much?’
‘If you had paid a little more attention, I would have been able to take much less.’
‘You were just too pretty, William Campbell.’
‘Still, I am quite sure I didn’t steal this much.’
‘I may have put in there the odd addition.’
‘You—’ his jaw dropped. He went weak at the knees. ‘You stole ? For me ?’
‘Steal…’ She winked at him. ‘It’s hardly stealing if it was mine anyway. Come on now, we don’t want to be late.’
They climbed up an enormous staircase, and they halted outside Viscount Caiani’s study.
‘Put it down here for a moment, Will. Like this. Now listen on.’ She opened the crate, and the golden light shone on her face. ‘All of this, my love, is yours .’
‘Claudia, no, not at all!’ His heart started beating wildly. ‘I don’t need any of this, I swear. Gift it all to Caiani, if you want, but I don’t need more than what I have. Not if you are with me.’
‘No, Will, you don’t understand.’ She squeezed his hand tenderly. ‘These things, my love, mean nothing to me. But I know that they can open the way to the life you have always wanted. The life you deserve, if you wish for it. So accept this as a gift, Will. It is your chance. Dispose of it as you want. I just don’t want to take that choice from you.’
For a moment he was so astonished that he could not move a muscle.
‘Will—please. Just accept it. Go in, and I’ll wait for you downstairs. Good luck, my love.’
She kissed his cheek and made to leave.
‘No!’ He seized her hand. ‘You are going absolutely nowhere. I will accept it, but on one condition. That this is not mine, but ours . For our future.’
A grin slowly spread to her lips. She embraced him a little too enthusiastically, making him gasp and laugh.
‘Should I take that as a yes, Claudia? What do you say?’
‘I say we go in together. And we give Viscount Caiani a very rough time…’