‘Yes.’
If there had been one moment of relief in the disaster of these past months, it was that. His friendship with Alessio had been healed over a long night of dinner and of talking in a way they hadn’t for years. If it was possible, their friendship had deepened. He was even going to be godfather to the beautiful little princess born two days after he’d accepted the honour.
Once he would have thought his life was perfect, but now he knew it wasn’t. Not yet.
‘Has he given you your job back?’ she asked.
‘His Highness has a perfectly good private secretary. It’s not a role I want. Not any more.’
Right now, he couldn’t think of any future without Lucy in it. He’d told Alessio as much, and his friend had understood. Stefano couldn’t contemplate a life without her. They’d only been together for the briefest of times, and yet already it seemed that they were inevitable. His whole future lay in her brilliant hands.
He had done so much to hurt her, and if he could revisit those last days, he would change everything. He saw now that they’d both been afraid because they’d found something precious and yet both of them had held knowledge that could tear them apart. By taking the Stradivarius he’d thought he’d found the means to his salvation. Whereas if he’d really understood the truth he would have seen that salvation only came from within himself.
‘Whatdoyou want, Stefano?’
Her.
Always. Only. Ever.
‘His Highness asked me the same question...’ All he could offer Lucy was a polite smile. Telling the truth now might have her running away from him. ‘But I have an offer from him for you. Please wait here.’
He walked into his bedroom, grabbed the case that had been sitting carefully on his bed. Hoped that this would at least put the spark back in her eyes—the one he’d seen that first moment when he’d opened the door to his castle and found her on the doorstep. The bright gleam he’d witnessed when he’d moved inside her as they’d made love...when he’d shown her the stars.
On his return to the sitting room, Lucy stood looking out of the windows, staring over the city of love. The place where he hoped he could show her what she meant to him.
She turned, and her eyes widened when she saw what he held. Her fingers flexed.
‘I’ve been asked by His Royal Highness Prince Alessio of Lasserno to bring this to you. On permanent loan from our country.’
He placed the case on a coffee table, opened it with the reverence such a precious instrument deserved. The Stradivarius lay in all its burnished glory inside. In the end a committee of experts had examined it with excitement and confirmed what they had all known. They had assured everyone that it was still perfect, before returning it to its rightful owner.
Because he’d come to an understanding, after reading her grandfather’s diary entries and researching more of his family’s papers—out of love, not anger or desperation—that this violin was as much a part of a love story as an object of salvation from the war. A decent man would have let her keep it when she’d offered it to him, but somewhere in those bleak months he’d lost his humanity...lost himself.
It had taken Lucy to help him find himself again.
‘Is this...?’
Her voice was breathless, choked. Tears sparkled in her eyes. It took all his willpower not to go to her, but he’d made a promise and he wouldn’t break it. He’d broken too much already.
‘Your violin.’
‘It’s not mine.’
‘It is if you want it. My country will provide permanent security, so it never feels like a burden. It will always be safe and so will you.’
Her eyes were wide, staring at the open case. A tear dripped onto her cheek and she scrubbed it away. ‘Why?’
He stood firm in his place even as her tears continued to fall unchecked. Not until she asked would he approach her, and if she never did then here was where he’d stay till she walked out through the door.
‘You solved a mystery. You brought a part of my country’s history back to us—even if it wasn’t the coronation ring I’d been searching for. You brought a story of my family and yours. A story of love and wartime. The diary extracts you left for me tell part of the tale, but there’s more.’
He hoped it would give her an explanation, and put her grandfather’s memory to rest with some peace.
‘Your grandfather’s diary said,“The violin is Lasserno’s heart, not mine. Mine belongs to another.”I believe the precious object being taken to safety by your grandfather as the enemy marched towards the castle was not a ring. It was a person. My great-aunt.’
Lucy gripped the back of an elegant brocade armchair in one hand, wiping away tears with the other. The shock and the pain of seeing Stefano again and now this? She didn’t know what to do. She wanted to walk to her violin, take it and run. But she also wanted to run to Stefano and fling herself into his arms.
All those conflicting emotions had her frozen, hanging onto the chair, because she wasn’t sure that her legs would carry her if she tried to move.