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Stunned by what he’d just said, Gemma clung to the back of the chair. The true reason?
“On the strength of the years you and I spent together as children and teenagers who fell in love, isn’t learning the whole truth worth something to you?”
“I thought you said you left to make your own fortune and name.”
“That was a by-product of the real reason I left, but I didn’t tell you the truth in order to spare you more grief. I can see now that I’ve been wrong to do that.”
Along with everything he was saying, his confession that he’d been in love with her a long time ago was almost too much to bear. Gemma couldn’t talk, couldn’t think.
“I don’t ever remember you running out of words before, so I’m following you home.” He put some bills on the table. “We need privacy because we’re not finished talking, but we can’t do it here. People are watching.”
“You made a promise.”
“I would have kept it, but you’ve just told me another lie. If you don’t want to work at the castello then I’ll have to live with it, but I need the truth from you first. Let’s go.”
With her heart in her mouth, Gemma left the restaurant and walked to the end of the street to reach her car. She started the engine and pulled into traffic. Soon she was headed for Sopri.
Through the rearview mirror she could see the Maserati following closely behind. Adrenaline gushed through her veins. Finally she would know what had happened all those years ago. It didn’t take long to reach the pensione. Vincenzo pulled up behind her and parked his car.
Without looking at him, she went inside, leaving the door open. He followed, closing it behind him.
“Come in and sit down. Take your pick of one of the chairs or the love seat.”
* * *
Vincenzo did neither. First he looked around at the small, well-furnished flat. From the living room he could see part of the bedroom. Then he walked into the kitchen, where she was clinging to the counter.
This evening, the fear that he was losing his grip on Gemma had made him realize he had to tell her the painful truth about his disappearance if he ever hoped to have a chance of keeping her in his life. All the guilt and the shame would have to come out. He’d wanted to protect her, but it was too late for that now.
But first he needed to hear what had happened to her after he’d left. He sucked in his breath. “The truth, Gemma. All of it! How soon after I disappeared did you and your mother leave the castello?”
She was trembling. “The second your father learned you were missing, he came with the chief of police and guards to our rooms at six that morning, demanding to know where you were. I told him I knew nothing. They searched our rooms before the police chief said he believed me.
“Your father told my mother to get out and take her baggage with her—meaning me, of course. Your father’s outrage was frightening. The idea that his son, who would one day become the Duca di Lombardi, was enjoying life below the stairs with one of the cooks’ daughters put him into a frenzy.
“He vowed to make certain she never got a job anywhere else. He threw Bianca and her mother out that same morning before he left with the police to start searching the countryside for you. That’s why Mamma made me use the Bonucci name, so he couldn’t find us.”
Vincenzo’s pain bordered on fury. He fought to stay in control. “What he did was inhuman. You should never have been forced to live through such a nightmare, and all because of me. I can never hope to make this up to you.”
“It’s over, and he was a sick man.”
His jaw hardened. “More than sick. You don’t know what a frenzy is until you’ve seen him raging drunk. My uncle was the same. Dimi had to get away, too.”
She swallowed hard. “You said he lives in Milan with his mother.”
He nodded. “They left the same day as you and your mother did, while my father was out with the police hunting for me.”
“When I first met your aunt Consolata, she was in a wheelchair. I always worried about her.”
“I know you did. She always spoke of you with fondness, but she isn’t well and has lost her memory.”
“That’s so sad.”
This was the girl he’d remembered and dreamed about. She’d always had a sweetness and kindness that made her stand out from any woman he’d ever known.
“Did you ever hear how she ended up in her wheelchair?”
“Mamma told me she had a disease.”
“No, Gemma,” he ground out. “That was a story the family made up to cover the truth. My father and my uncle Alonzo were the ones with the disease.”
“What do you mean?”
“They are alcoholics. Alonzo drove Dimi’s mother home from a party when he was drunk out of his mind. She begged for someone else to drive her, but he became enraged and dragged her to the car. En route home, there was a terrible crash. The man in the other car was killed and Dimi’s mother was paralyzed from the waist down, unable to walk again. But as usual, my father had it hushed up to protect the family honor.”
Tears splashed down her cheeks.
“Just know that since my uncle has been imprisoned, Dimi and my aunt have been able to live in peace. But there’s a lot more you need to hear in order for you to understand my sudden disappearance.”
“A lot more?”
His fear for what his father might have done to her triggered other thoughts. “The night we almost made love, you thought I’d been recovering from a fall after I’d been out horseback riding.”
She nodded. “That’s what they had been gossiping about down in the kitchen. I snuck upstairs that night to see how bad your injuries were.”
“My bruises and welts weren’t because of an accident, Gemma.”
A cry escaped her lips. She looked ill. “Your father was responsible?”
“Si. He beat me almost to a pulp.” Gemma winced. “But he did worse to my mamma, and she died because of it.”
“Oh, Vincenzo—no—” Hot tears spurted from her eyes. “Why would he do that? She was a wonderful person.”
“My parents’ marriage was a political arrangement with a lot of money and land entailed. But my grandfather Count Nistri, the one who lived in Padua, didn’t trust his new son-in-law. Even back then my father had a reputation for drinking and gambling. But he came from a family of great wealth and was a business wizard.
“To make certain his daughter, Arianna, my mother, always had security, he’d put a fortune in a Swiss bank account for her alone.”
“He sounds like a loving man and father.”
“He was, but my father resented me having any association with him. Still, he couldn’t stop me from visiting him from time to time. My grandfather had the foresight and the means to help me get away when the time came.”
“How did he do it?”
“Through a secret source, he learned my father had been badgering my mother for her money. At that point he gave her the information to access it and passports for both of us so we could escape.”
Another gasp flew out of her.
“During the last year before she died, my father started hitting her when he couldn’t get at her money. She couldn’t withstand all those beatings.” His eyes stung with tears. “Do you have any idea what I went through, hearing her cries while I was held back by the guards so I couldn’t help her?”
Gemma covered her mouth in horror.
“I was helpless. He was the acting duca. He was the law. No one questioned him or his authority. If I’d sent for the police, they wouldn’t have stopped him. Mamma needed me, but I failed her as her son.”
“Of course you didn’t!” Gemma cried. “Don’t say that! Don’t even think it!”
“For a long time she’d begged me to take the money and escape because she feared for my life. That’s when I started to plan my disappearance, but I would never have left her behind. As far as escaping, I had to be an adult and couldn’t go anywhere until I was of age.
“My uncle had no reason to stop his brother, since he was in worse trouble financially and was fighting to stay out of prison. To escape my father, I had to get as far away from Italy as possible. The US suited my plan perfectly.”
She shook her head. “What plan?”
“The one Dimi and I devised a year before I left.”
“A whole year, and you never once told me?” Her voice shook with pain.
“I didn’t dare until I knew it was safe for you. But when that time came, you were nowhere to be found in Italy. Dimi hunted endlessly for you, too. When I escaped, our family had been unraveling at the speed of sound, Gemma, but until I turned eighteen and Mamma passed away, I couldn’t do anything about it. If my father had gotten wind of anything, that would have been the end of me.
“Worse, if he’d found out that you knew where I’d gone, there’s no telling what price you might have had to pay. As it was, your mother paid dearly for my disappearance. Thank heaven you got away without him beating you, too.”
“This is a horror story.”
“After Mamma’s funeral, my father followed me to my room. He’d been drinking heavily. This time he beat me with his horse whip after I’d gone to bed.”
At this point Gemma was quietly sobbing.
“He thought he could force the truth from me and get his hands on Mamma’s fortune. As you know, he was a tall, powerful man. He would have succeeded in killing me if he hadn’t been so drunk.
“Somehow I held him off. The next night was when you came up to my room looking for me. Your loving comfort and kisses held me together. But I was afraid my father would be back. That’s why I couldn’t let you stay the whole night with me. I was afraid if he found us, I wouldn’t have the strength to protect you.”
She’d buried her face in her hands. “I understand now.”
“I’ll always be in hell because I couldn’t protect my mother.”
She lifted her head. “Thank heaven you got out of there alive. I remember the menacing look in your father’s eyes. No wonder you were running for your life.”
“The night after we were together, I made my getaway with Dimi’s help. But leaving you without telling you anything was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do in my life. My cousin had to take the brunt of everything, and I asked him keep me informed about you. He was frantic because he didn’t know where to look for you.”
“I was so hurt and angry at you, I didn’t even try to say goodbye to him. I’m so sorry now. He didn’t have any way of knowing where we’d gone.”
Without conscious thought Vincenzo wrapped her in his arms, and they clung while she sobbed. He wept in silence with her. After her tears subsided, she said, “Tell me what happened the night you left. I want to hear everything from the moment you left your room that night.”
CHAPTER SIX (#uff2540e9-06fc-5938-821c-300bb99b0b22)
A MIRACLE HAD HAPPENED, because Gemma wanted to keep talking. Vincenzo kissed her hair and forehead.
“Let’s go in the other room, where we can be comfortable.” He walked her trembling body to the love seat, where she sat down, then he pulled the chair closer to be face-to-face with her.
“After I got up and dressed, I snuck to Dimi’s tower room at two in the morning. We hugged and then I stole down the back staircase and through the old passage no longer used to reach the outside.”
“I remember it.”
“Knowing the guard wouldn’t be able to see me yet, I raced through the gardens to reach the forest on the estate property without problem. The family cemetery plot was a good spot to rest. Then I ran past the lake and stables to the farthest edge of the property and hid up high in a tree until another guard had passed around the perimeter and disappeared.”
“The dog didn’t give you away?”
“It wasn’t with him. That was another miracle. I stayed free of detection for twenty more minutes before climbing the fence. You should have seen me. I ran like hell down the hillside.”
A little laugh escaped. “I can just see you!”
“My destination was a farm, where I waited behind a truck for the sun to come up.”
“That must have been so scary.”
“Not as scary as worrying that I’d be spotted before I jumped the perimeter fence. When I saw more activity on the road, I started walking to the village.”
“Did anyone recognize you?”
“I put on a baseball cap and sunglasses.”
She smiled. “I would have loved to see that.”
“It did the trick. A half hour’s walk and I reached the bus stop that took me into central Milan, where I got off near the main train station. After buying a one-way ticket to Geneva, I boarded a second-class car and found a group of German backpackers to sit by.”
“Naturally you struck up a conversation with them. I know your royal tutors taught you four different languages, including German.”
“My education came in handy during that four-hour train ride to Switzerland.”
“Weren’t you worried someone would recognize you?”
“I was lucky and made it to Geneva without problem.”
“Thank heaven.”
“Around three in the afternoon, the train arrived in Geneva. I said goodbye to the other backpackers and took a taxi to the Credit Suisse bank in the town center. I’d planned every step with Dimi and only withdrew enough cash to fly to the States and get settled.”
“I often wondered about those secret meetings you had when Bianca and I weren’t included.”
“Now you know why. After showing the banker my passport and the letter from my grandfather verifying the origin of the funds in my account, I took a taxi to the airport.”
Her eyes lit up. “You really were free at last.”
“Except that you weren’t with me.”
“Let’s not talk about that. Tell me what happened next.”
“I bought a one-way ticket to New York. As it took off, I saw the jet-d’eau at the end of Lake Geneva and the Alps in the distance. You know I’d traveled through Europe before and had been to Switzerland on several vacations. But this time everything was different.”
Shadows marred her classic features. “I can’t imagine it.”
