‘It’s in a great location,’ she murmured, moving up the stairs beside him. The hotel was just past The Vatican, overlooking the river Tiber.
‘Yes.’ Pride coloured the word. ‘Once upon a time, this was the premier hotel in Rome. Royalty stayed here. Celebrities. Film stars. Musicians. Even a magician, for a time, who took to making red roses appear throughout the restaurant.’ He was back in time, Skye could tell. The look on his face was one of nostalgia and grief. ‘But it was more than that. The same families would come and stay at the same times each year. Groups would visit for Christmas, and again in the spring. It was a community. The breakfast room was alive each morning, and we always had the most incredible chefs. The food was truly Romano. Seasonal, fresh, exquisite.’
He expelled an angry breath, at odds with the wonderment his words were painting around them.
‘Did you spend much time here?’
‘As a child, si. My parents would bring us here every Christmas. We would sing carols in the foyer, and my nonno arranged a gift for every child in the hotel. I got to dress up as an elf and hand them out when I was very young.’
‘You? An elf?’ She looked at him quizzically, trying to imagine this specimen of pure masculinity as something so cute and harmless.
‘Yes. What’s wrong with that?’
‘I’m just finding it hard to picture,’ she said with a teasing smile. ‘And after your parents died?’ she pushed, wanting to know more, suddenly needing to understand her husband. So much of him was a mystery to her, and she didn’t want that.
‘Yes. For the few years my grandfather continued to hold the hotel. It was one of his last assets to go. Its loss destroyed him.’
She shook her head from side to side. ‘And you were so young.’
‘I swore that day that I would get the hotel back.’ He stared around the foyer. ‘I know it is just a building to you, but to our family, to me, this hotel is redemption.’
She nodded slowly, tears close to the surface.
‘Let me show you the terrace.’
Skye went with him even though a part of her was dreading what was to follow.
The hotel was beautiful.
She got it.
Her family had taken it from his, and he had been angry about it. So angry that he’d married her to get it back.
The truth of that was appalling and yet, walking beside him through the hotel that her father had vandalised with his neglect, a hotel that her father had let fall into a state of complete abandon and disgrace, churned her up with anger.
She could imagine her husband’s emotions. The strength of despair that must have filled him.
‘He should have sold it back to you.’
‘Si, certamente,’ Matteo agreed. ‘But he felt my father had taken everything from him. This was the perfect recompense for that.’
‘People aren’t objects,’ Skye said with a shake of her head. ‘Your mother chose to be with your father. If she’d loved my dad then she would have married him.’ She paused, lifting a hand to her temple as a sharp pain burst through her.
Matteo noticed instantly. ‘You are okay?’
‘Yes, I’m fine.’ She nodded. The pain passed and she continued upwards. ‘These are bedrooms?’
‘Now they are simply empty rooms.’ The joke fell flat as remorse overrode humour. His eyes met hers for a moment before continuing an inspection of the run-down visage. ‘The furniture was sold by the bank at auction to cover my grandfather’s business debts.’
Skye nodded, pausing near one of the doorways. She lifted a hand to it, surprised when it pushed inwards. The room was large and spacious, open-plan, so that she could see the view of Rome from the grimy windows, and a bathroom that, at one time, would have been palatial.
A movement in the corner startled her and she squealed, but Matteo was right there, a strong arm around her waist. His smile was teasing. ‘It is just a bat.’
‘How do you know?’
His eyes scanned the room. ‘They are everywhere in here. The security team I employ keeps drifters and vandals from setting up in the hotel, but bats we are powerless to prevent.’
Skye’s heart turned over. ‘You have security looking after the place? Even when it’s no longer yours?’