Epilogue
On their wedding anniversary, Zia glanced at the official portrait on the wall of her in the wedding gown she had worn almost four years ago.
Orazio had insisted that that image remain on display in the drawing room…
as if she would ever forget that day, a public holiday for Mandovia.
No, she would never forget that special day or her wonderful embroidered handmade lace dress, emblazoned with all the symbols cherished by their people from the wild flowers to their most treasured birds.
She still adored the dainty pearl-studded satin shoes she had worn that were as comfortable as slippers.
They had spent the weeks of their honeymoon on the yacht cruising the Mediterranean.
Changes had come thick and fast after their wedding, for the reunification had taken place within months and elections in both countries had taken place immediately to allow for the choice of a more representative integrated government.
Upper Mandovia was so unspoilt that it was doing very well in the tourist trade with walkers and nature lovers.
Hotels and hostels were slowly being built, along with more modern schools and medical facilities.
The boom in construction had ensured that unemployment figures were falling fast.
Zia had conceived their first child soon after the wedding and, after a fairly trouble-free pregnancy, Luca had been born with a shock of her black hair and his father’s green eyes.
Now a toddler, Luca was lively, inquisitive and loving.
His little sister had arrived the previous year.
Bianca Alina was as blonde as Orazio had been as a child with her mother’s dark blue eyes.
She was a pretty, quite demanding baby, who screamed at anything she didn’t like, whether it be a bath or a sudden noise that disturbed her peace.
Her father swore that she had her mother’s stubborn, suspicious nature but Zia was convinced that Bianca was getting a little spoiled by the amount of attention she received from her parents, the castle staff and the nannies in the royal nursery.
She frowned as Luca darted in to scoop up one of Bianca’s toys and his sister loosed a warning shout of temper.
As she retrieved it from her laughing son, who simply loved to tease his baby sibling, she scolded him.
Her retreated with a wicked grin that was the very image of his father’s while two small dogs capered around their feet, hoping for some further excitement.
Sausage had acquired a sidekick when Zia had stumbled on a female mini dachshund in a shelter and in need of a home.
She had called her Egg because she had a little domed head that suggested her family tree might be rather more mixed than Sausage’s pedigreed heritage.
The two were now so close that they shared a basket, although Egg was definitely the boss and neither of them were as well trained as Raz’s mastiffs in spite of his efforts in that direction.
Two years earlier, Sandrine had received a prison sentence for forging Zia’s signature and defrauding her charge of her inheritance.
Of course, the cash she had frittered away would never be recovered but Zia was satisfied that her former guardian had been punished and the house in London, which she had no happy memories of living in, had been sold soon afterwards.
She tried not to look back too often to the darker parts of her past, preferring to look forward to her much more promising future.
Alina, in the meantime, had settled happily into her sister’s home in the village where both elderly ladies had grown up and Zia visited them when she was in the area, particularly when she had the children with her.
Raz and she still spent occasional weekends at the country house, which they had renovated from roof to basement.
It was quiet and peaceful there and sometimes exactly what they needed after a particularly busy week.
Now, as she heard her son whoop and race across the room, she stood up, smoothing down her elegant short silvery blue dress, a warm smile tilting her lips.
Luca raced into Orazio’s arms to be swept up into a hug.
Bianca noticed her father and began to crawl laboriously towards him while letting out a little squeak of complaint at being expected to make that much effort.
Raz set down Luca and scooped up a beaming Bianca as their nannies arrived to take over for the evening.
It was their wedding anniversary, after all, and instead of settling for a fancy meal at the castle they were heading to Paris for the night.
‘You look fantastic, piccola mia. I want to eat you alive,’ he whispered thickly as he bent down by her ear.
‘But you have to wait until we’re airborne,’ she reminded him, knowing that if she accompanied him to their bedroom for him to change, he would drag her into bed and make them late for their flight.
They didn’t have his and her bedrooms any longer. They had knocked rooms together to make one large room they could share and which could accommodate separate dressing rooms. It meant that the children were closer to them at night as well.
‘Can’t wait that long,’ Orazio told her with deadly seriousness. ‘I’ll shower on the plane. Let’s leave now.’
‘So, tell me about your very long day with the politicians,’ she suggested once they were in the limousine on the way to the airport.
‘They’re thinking of inviting Massimo Caccia back before the elections. Apparently he’s done a fabulous job in Japan and at record speed. They value his cunning. He gets the job done.’
‘Yes, he does,’ she agreed, running a small hand down over one powerful thigh. ‘Would you mind? I know you don’t like him.’
‘There are two sides to every coin, piccola mia. He freed you from that ghastly Beccari woman and gave me a chance with you,’ he murmured, his breathing fracturing beneath her caressing touch. ‘In all honesty, I couldn’t dislike anyone who can work a miracle of that nature.’
Glittering green eyes encountered hers and he stretched over and kissed her breathless. ‘Did I ever tell you what a little witch you can be?’
‘You might have mentioned it once or twice,’ she gasped, wanting more, wanting him with the sudden seething hunger that just engulfed her sometimes, but knowing that they had to wait until they were on the plane and finally alone.
On their private jet, she reclined back on the bed in their cabin like a temptress, wearing the superb diamond necklace he had given her for their anniversary.
Teamed with the magnificent diamonds she already owned, she glittered like a window display and he couldn’t take his eyes off her as he stood by the side of the bed, dropped his towel and came over her, all male, very aroused.
‘I love you more today than I loved you on the day I married you,’ he intoned in a roughened voice. ‘And that’s really saying something. The longer I’m with you, the more I need you…’
‘I love you too,’ she whispered happily as the passion flamed into a smouldering fever that worked up quite an appetite for their fancy meal in Paris.