And this afternoon Darcy also had an important appoint¬ment to keep with her bank manager. Hopefully a candid explanation of the terms of her godmother's will would persuade the older man that the Folly was a more secure investment than he had previously believed. With his agree¬ment she would be able to re-employ the most vital estate workers, and very soon things would get back to normal around her home, she thought cheerfully.
'Pretty Mummy,' Zia enthused, liquid dark eyes huge as she took an excited twirl in the pink summer dress and frilly ankle socks which she loved. 'Pretty Zia?' she added.
"Very pretty,' Darcy agreed with a grin.
Karen drove them to the church in her car. Darcy was shaken to see quite a crowd waiting in the churchyard to see her arrive. She recognised every face. Former estate staff and tenants, people she had known all her life.
An older woman who had retired as the Folly's last housekeeper moved forward to press a beautiful bouquet into Darcy's empty hands. 'Everybody's so happy for you, Miss Fielding,' she said with embarrassing fervour. 'We all hope you have a really wonderful day!'
As other voices surged to offer the same sincere good wishes for her future happiness, Darcy's eyes stung and flooded with rare tears. She blinked rapidly, touched to the heart but also wrenched by guilt that her coming marriage would only be an empty pretence.
As she entered the small church, Luca turned his impe¬rious head to stare down the aisle. His strong, dark face stilled in what might have been surprise at her appearance in the silk gown, dark golden eyes glittering. Darcy's tear-drenched gaze ran over him. Sheathed in an exquisitely tailored charcoal-grey suit, he exuded the most breathtaking aura of command and sophistication. He had such incred¬ible impact that she forgot how to breathe and her knees wobbled. There was just something about him, she thought with dizzy discomfiture.
Unexpectedly, another, younger man stood beside Luca. Slim and dark, he looked tense, his eyes slewing away from Darcy as she gave him a friendly nod of acknowledgement.
The ceremony began. Only at the point where Luca took her hand to put on the ring did Darcy register that she had totally overlooked the necessity of supplying one. Relief filled her when Luca produced a narrow gold band and slid it onto her wedding finger.
"Thanks...' she muttered, only half under her breath, reddening at the vicar's look of sur¬prise at that unusual bridal reaction.
When the brief marriage service was concluded, the reg¬ister was signed. Karen and the other man, whom Luca addressed as Benito, performed their function as witnesses. All formalities dealt with, Darcy rubbed her still damp and stinging eyes, and accidentally dislodged one of her contact lenses. With an exclamation of dismay, she dropped to her knees. 'Don't move, anyone...I've lost one of my lenses!'
Luca reached down and flicked up the tiny item from where it glimmered on the stone floor. He slipped it into his pocket, evidently aware that without the aid of cleansing solution she could not immediately replace the lens. 'Relax, I have it...'
Amazed by the speed of his reactions, Darcy skimmed a glance up at him. At the same time he bent down to help her upright again. As she focused myopically on him through one eye, she closed the other in an involuntary attempt to see better. In that split second his features blurred, throwing his strong facial bones into a different kind of prominence that lent them a stark, haunting famil¬iarity. Darcy froze in outright disbelief. Her Venetian lover!
In that instant of incredulous recognition shock seized her by the throat and almost strangled the life force from her. 'You...y-you?' she began, stammering wildly.
Darcy gaped at Luca in an uncomprehending stupor. Her head pounded sickly and he swam back out of focus again. As she blacked out, Luca caught her in his arms before she could fall.
CHAPTER FIVE
'TAKE a deep breath...' Luca's deep, dark drawl instructed with complete calm.
Whoosh. The air flooded back into Darcy's constricted lungs. Perspiration broke out on her clammy brow. Her eyes fluttered open again. She found herself seated on a hard wooden pew.
'See...' Karen was soothing Zia, several feet away. 'Mummy's all right.' And then, in a whispered aside to Luca, 'I bet Darcy fainted because she's exhausted—she works eighteen-hour days!'
As Darcy lifted her swimming head everything came hurtling back to her. She simply gawped at Luca, still doubting the stunning evidence provided by that one my¬opic glance. Shimmering dark eyes held her bemused gaze steadily, and all over again that frantically disorientating sense of frightening familiarity gripped her.
'You can't be...you can't be!' she gasped abruptly, im¬pervious to the presence of the others.
'Take it easy, Darcy,' Karen advised, evidently unaware that anything was seriously wrong. 'You passed out and you're confused, that's all. Look, I'll keep Zia with me until you're feeling better. You should lie down for a while. I'll call over later and see how you are.'