It turned out she was wrong.
It seemed that although he frequently entertained at the castle—the staff was proud of the lavish occasions they catered and the important guests from film stars to diplomats they looked after—Cesare never brought his lover of the moment to Killaran.
‘So it stands to reason this one must be special.’
The only questions as far as anyone was concerned appeared to be when the wedding would be, would there be any changes and did she deserve him?
‘What do you think, Anna?’
‘I think she deserves our pity!’ Her heartfelt outburst earned her a few startled and openly speculative looks, because weirdly the staff here were rather protective of their boss.
Anna lifted her shoulders in a shrug. ‘What? Do you really believe a sexual predator undergoes a personality change just because he gets married?’
Before any of the staff had a chance to respond to her comment a small voice interrupted.
‘What’s a sex...usual predate?’
A guilty flush rose to Anna’s cheeks as she turned and saw the little girl holding a cupcake in one hand.
‘Were you talking about Uncle Cesare?’ Her green eyes lit up. ‘Is he back home?’
Home was traditionally where the heart was. Had Cesare brought his heart with him in the shape of a beautiful blonde? ‘I think he just arrived, sweetheart.’
With an excited whoop his niece was out of the room before Anna could stop her impetuous dash. In her haste to follow, Anna knocked over a mug of coffee on the table. The delay meant the little girl had reached the library door before Anna caught up with her.
‘No, Jas, your uncle might be too busy.’ He might be too occupied, she thought, and felt queasy as an image of Cesare with the tall, beautiful, blonde possible future bride in his arms flashed into her head.
‘He won’t be too busy for me,’ the little girl declared confidently before she pushed open the door.
* * *
Even before they had stepped out of the helicopter Cesare was regretting his spur-of-the-moment decision to extend the invitation to Louise. Not that he had a problem with Louise herself, he just preferred to keep the compartments of his life separate and, though his sister had never commented, he knew she appreciated that he did not parade his lovers in front of her impressionable daughter.
They both had personal experience of what it was like to grow fond of someone who simply vanished one day—though sometimes he and Angel had been only too glad to see them disappear.
‘Uncles’ grew less of a problem for Cesare after his growth spurt when he was sixteen. Almost overnight he turned from a gangly teen into a muscular six feet plus. For Angel the problems got worse when she grew and Cesare, away at university, had not been around to protect her. His expression grew sombre as he recalled the scene he had walked in on, his fourteen-year-old sister fighting off a slobbering ‘uncle’, who had waved a branch of mistletoe when he saw Cesare.
The ‘uncle’ had spent that Christmas nursing a broken jaw in hospital, and he and Angel had spent it in a hotel. After that Angel had spent weekends with him and mid-week boarding.
He pushed away the memories—Cesare preferred to live in the present—along with his misgivings. It was only a weekend, he was hardly inviting Louise to take up residence. He seriously doubted that the successful litigator with whom he had enjoyed a short and pleasant association the year before would feel inclined to get her clothes grubby playing with a child.
When Louise had wafted fragrantly into a meeting as the legal representative of a rival company Cesare had found himself sitting opposite the perfect solution to the classic signs of sexual frustration he had been exhibiting.
After the meeting it had been Louise who had approached him. Was he involved? she had asked, making it clear once he had said he wasn’t that she would not be averse to rekindling the affair.
The only setback had been the business dinner she needed to attend in Paris that evening, but she would, she had assured him, be available the next day. She was flying back to London bright and early and had the whole weekend free.
‘I have to be in Scotland this weekend.’ Normally he would have been able to shrug off this case of bad timing but instead he heard himself saying, ‘Why don’t you join me?’
Once the offer was made and accepted he could not withdraw it and why would he want to? A weekend with the lovely Louise in his bed would be a perfect cure for the redhead who was in danger of becoming an obsession with him. There had been no sign of her when he landed, not that he had been looking for her specifically but Jas usually ran to greet him and claim the token present he always brought her when he returned.