“Only shutting Nicoletta out meant she would be forever estranged from her children. That seems … cold and harsh.”
Olivia, Ava and Sophie looked from one to the other, their expressions identical. “Yes,” Ava nodded. “Having a mystery surrounding your birth is a very difficult reality to grapple with. We have felt this for a long time.”
“She never told you who your father is?”
“Do you mean our mother?”
Elizabeth winced. “I’m sorry. Yes. Your mother never told you about your parentage?”
“No,” Sophie said. And she looked at her sisters for approval before speaking. “We understood that there was a financial settlement that prohibited her from disclosing the details.”
“But even to you?”
“She didn’t want us to know,” Olivia interrupted. “She told us that our father wasn’t relevant to us. He was not someone she wanted us to know; she told me once that he was not a good person. That we were much better off not having him in our lives.”
“Did she really?” Ava prompted, scanning Olivia’s face.
“Yes. I never really thought about it again, only now …” She petered off and shrugged her slender shoulders.
Elizabeth nodded with compassion. “In any event, the only way to find out the truth seemed to be obvious. I had to speak to Nicoletta. My sisters-in-law – you’ll meet them too – agreed with me that it was time to get to the bottom of the mystery and see if Nicoletta was truly as flawed as our husbands believed. After all, she’d been a doting mother at one time.”
“And? What did she say?” The mystery was killing Sophie.
“I’m getting there,” Elizabeth promised apologetically. Her baby began to grizzle and she settled her into a different position, careful not to spill her tea. “Nicoletta is not a woman I will ever understand. Nor a woman I shall ever feel close to. But she is a poor woman, and I pity her greatly. You see, she fell in love with a man who didn’t love her back. She devoted her life to him, and he was faithless and cruel. When she could stand it no longer, she began to cheat on him. I don’t know if she hoped that it would make him jealous; or if perhaps she truly believed she could fill a void by having these trashy romances on the side. If she acted to inspire revenge; her plan failed. Her husband didn’t care. He truly didn’t love Nicoletta. At first I found it hard to believe her account; you understand that my husband and his brothers have always idolised Umberto. But Nicoletta was in possession of enough proof to convince me; he treated her very badly and grief and pain turned her into a bitter, shallow, hateful woman.”
“That’s awful,” Sophie said softly, her heart so easily touched by empathy.
Olivia was a little more confused. “I’m sorry, Miss Sanderson –,”
“Lady Sanderson,” Ava interjected, though she threw Olivia a slanted smile. “I guess you can technically call anyone anything, can’t you, Your Highness.”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “Are you ever going to let me live it down?”
“Nope,” Ava promised, then focussed her attention back on Elizabeth.
But Elizabeth was clearly lost by the interaction and so Sophie explained gently, “Ava recently married His Royal Highness Sheikh Zamir Fayez of Dashan. We’re all adjusting to the fact that our sister is a bonafide princess.”
“Did you say Dashan?” She murmured, shaking her head and rubbing her temples in disbelief.
“
Yes, why?” Olivia pushed.
“Oh, it’s just … it neighbours Ashan, doesn’t it?”
“Yes,” Olivia nodded. “I laughed to see the two countries with their almost identical names. How unoriginal those Bedouin were.”
Elizabeth’s smile was half-hearted. “You might know, then, Sheikh Malik Desara?”
Olivia frowned. “I’ve heard my husband speak of him. Speak highly of him,” she added, uncertain of the diplomatic faux pas she might be committing by admitting as much to this woman.
“My God, is the world a thimble?” Elizabeth marvelled.
“Why is this surprising to you? You are starting to annoy me a little bit, Elizabeth.”
“Olivia!” Ava chastised, her face pale.
But Elizabeth broke into pretty laughter. “It’s fine. I’m annoying myself. It’s so tricky. I don’t even know if I should be here, only something told me … last time I was here, I only suspected. But now I know. And I thought you deserve to know too.”