Shayna turned to him. The soft, mid-morning sun cast a corona over her face, and robbed him of his thoughts. He had intended to say something witty to Dimitri but lost his hold on it as he took in the sight before him. In the sunlight, standing so near, she was an enchantress. With effort, he clamped his jaws closed again.
She opened her mouth to speak, closed it, opened it again, and finally asked, “Do I know you, sir? You are familiar to me.” Her lids lowered as she squinted at him.
Dimitri dismounted and was at her side in a flash. “You two know each other, Miss?” His expression was dark with suspicion.
“Exactly what I asked the man, Dimitri. I’m not sure.” Shayna studied Luca’s face.
Sweat broke out on his forehead, and the air was too thick to breathe. Was it possible she recognized him from the party? Impossible. He had kept his face hidden in the shadows and retreated into the little black alcove when she approached. With the torches casting light into her eyes, he was sure she hadn’t seen his face. Completely certain. Almost.
With great difficulty, Luca swallowed and shifted his expression into a halting small smile. “I believe we knew each other as children, Miss. My father is Giuseppe Bianchi. He had a business arrangement with your father when I was twelve and I played games of adventure with a girl who lived there. Would you be the little girl, Miss?” His voice cracked and his tongue fumbled to form the sentences.
“I did play hide-and-seek with a boy named Luca Bianchi. Is it you? All grown up?” Her face erupted into genuine delight.
His heart skipped, tripped, and fell back into a semi-normal rhythm in his chest. The knot in his gut remained, though. Shayna Ricci remembered him from all those years ago. Now she stood before him, smiling at the memory, and at him. The most perfect visage of beauty in the world. How he longed to take her in his arms and kiss her.
Nodding until he could find words, Luca was sure he looked much like an idiot, a court jester, but could do no more until his mind and body agreed on a course of action.
Dimitri stood by Shayna’s side looking from one youngster to the other and back again, his eyebrows knitting together. “Wait. Stop with all this familiarity. You two are no longer children, Miss. And you,” he turned to glower at Luca. “You shall keep a polite distance from her or I’ll—“
Finding words again, Luca interrupted Dimitri. “You have my word of honor, sir. She has my utmost respect, I assure you.”
Dimitri reddened at the interruption. The love-struck expression on Luca’s face probably didn’t help matters, so he tried to suppress it as he looked to the angry guard again.
Shayna spoke again. “It is you, Luca. I thought to never see you again. I never thought to ask my father what the business matter was about, or why you hadn’t visited in such a long time. I was young and easily distracted, I’m afraid, as are all children.” Her laugh was breathy, as if she’d been running.
“Yes. It was much the same with me. It is fine to meet you as an adult and have so many fun memories from childhood, I think.” Luca clasped one hand on the side of his wagon and the other to his hip to refrain from moving closer to her and inspiring outrage from her chaperone.
“Oh, my goodness. Do you remember the day we found the secret room?” Her laugh was the beautiful tinkling of distant bells to his ears.
“I do. And the crumbling tunnel we feared would collapse around us before we could get out.” Luca’s chest tightened as he watched every expression pass over her exquisite features.
As she spoke of their childhood escapades, Luca focused on her. The way the sunlight shone through her dark, curly locks and the way those few loose curls bounced and bobbed an inch above her waist. The deep red glow hidden in her almost-black hair reminded him of the meadows of grapes when they were ripe and the evening sun cast its slanted rays on them.
Had he ever seen hands and arms so graceful? He thought not. Though not pale, Shayna’s skin was lighter than his own, which was bronzed from hours of working in the fields every day, marking him as a laborer.
Shayna didn’t take any special note of his status as she related memories of their childhood to Dimitri and anyone passing close enough to overhear their talk.
She hardly acts as if she were an aristocrat at all, he thought, pleased, as she turned her bright-eyed smiling face back to him.
Shayna stared at him expectantly. He looked to Dimitri. The man’s face changed from slightly amused to stormy once again. Confused, Luca, grinned and chuckled as he looked back to Shayna. Her expression was more expectant. She had obviously asked him a direct question and awaited an answer. He had heard nothing but the droning hum in his head as he took in her beauty under the morning sunlight.
There was no getting out of it unscathed now. Luca shifted uncomfortably and said, “I’m so sorry, Miss. I’m afraid my mind wandered for a moment and I didn’t hear your question.” The heat rushed to his face and ears. At that instant, he was grateful for his dark tan, it would hide most of the crimson in his cheeks.
Dimitri spoke first. “If you were in a rush to be somewhere else, you should have said so instead of being rude, young man.”
To stop him, Shayna held her hand up. “It’s all right.” She pivoted toward Luca, her expression cooled to a neutral, no longer ecstatic look in her eyes and a tiny, only being polite smile. “It has been a pleasure to see you again after all these years. I shall bid you a good day, so you can be on with your business and I on with mine.” She was turning away from him.
“Miss, please. I swear I didn’t mean to offend. I was just,” It was difficult to be truthful with Dimitri glowering down at him as if he wanted to relieve Luca’s body of his head.
She turned slightly toward him. “You were just what? It’s truly all right. You probably have a wife and family you’re eager to get back to, and I truly respect that.”
“I’m not married,” He stated, confused by the new direction of the conversation.
Shayna brightened. “You aren’t?” Then she pulled her shoulders back and erased the twinkle of curiosity from her countenance.
“No. Why would you think I am?” He chortled, wondering why the chat changed course so drastically.
“Because by the time people reach your age, they are usually wed and working on filling a house with children.” She regarded him with indifference.
Luca witnessed Dimitri rolling his eyes and shaking his head before he turned his back on them, groaning.
Was she prying? She had been fishing for information and Luca had fallen for it. Now he grinned. She returned it in like and giggled.
“At the moment, I’m working on amassing my fortune, not children.” Luca breathed easier. She was interested in him, or she would have been on her way. He was certain of it.
“And no doubt, you’re searching for the perfect woman to share it with.” Shayna turned to the baskets of grapes, stepping forward and running her fingertips over the fruit.
“No. I’ve already found her.” He wanted to reveal his feelings; needed to lay them bare before her, but dared not. Wrong place, wrong time.
“Oh. She’s a very lucky woman.” Her voice had gone dull.
Luca stepped closer to her and said, “She doesn’t know how I feel. Yet.”
Still turned from him, she asked, “Shouldn’t you tell her? It’s difficult to have a family with a woman who doesn’t know you’re interested in her.”
“When I’ve acquired enough business and wealth, maybe her peers will be my peers and I will ask for her hand.” A lump formed in his throat. The gentle curve of her neck begged for his caress, just the soft brush of his fingers.
“Why wait until you’ve more money, Luca?” She picked up a single grape and inspected it in the sunlight.
“So she won’t be embarrassed by me. So her family will be agreeable to our union.” Her scent filled the air with honeysuckle and roses. He breathed it in.
Shayna hefted a basket of grapes, paid the woman for them, and stepped away fro
m the stall. “Do you see boundaries as personal challenges?”
Unsure how to answer, he didn’t say anything. She didn’t wait for a reply, either.
Shayna motioned to Dimitri and he helped her mount up. “That’s how I see boundaries.” She smiled warmly. “I hope to see you again, soon. Good day.” She raised a hand in parting and nudged her mare into motion.
Luca returned the short wave and then stood watching her leave the market, his head buzzing with all the possible things she might have meant. Had she been giving him guidance on how to proceed? Maybe. Was she interested in him, or was it how his lovesick heart and brain interpreted her body language and her words? Luca had no idea.
He finished his work with Antonio in silent reckoning. The remainder of his day consisted of poring over Shayna’s every move, gesture, and word.
Luca found an invitation waiting for him when he returned home late in the afternoon. Someone had stuck it partially under the front door. Bewildered, he bent and picked up the folded paper.
His heart leaped into his throat with excitement. There would be a party at Shayna’s again that night. Gianni had written a personal letter in her own hand, inviting him to a dinner party. He sat at the table reading it repeatedly. Gianni was the last person he had expected to send him an invitation to any event. Had Shayna talked to her about him and convinced her to invite him? That was unlikely because Luca had no way of knowing when it was written or delivered. It could’ve been placed at his door while Shayna was at the market speaking with him.
Something was not right about the invitation. It smacked of a trap. But what kind of trap? Perhaps one to humiliate him if she had discovered her daughter’s carousing with him earlier. Or, if she knew he had sneaked into the last event uninvited. Luca tossed it to the table and started making his dinner. He would not go to the party.
Chapter 8
Shayna followed Dimitri back home quietly, lost in her own thoughts. Had Luca been speaking of his feelings for her? Had she interpreted his words the way she wanted to interpret them? She had studied him and was almost sure his hand was the same one she saw emerge from the shadows to grasp a flute of wine at the party. The voice was all wrong, but the tone of his voice and his choice of wording were quite similar to the mystery man.
When she and Dimitri arrived at the turn to the castle, Dimitri stopped and asked, “Shall we continue on to the market, as you intended earlier?” He nodded toward the wide path which led to the big plaza and past the road to her home.
Shayna answered, “I think I would rather take my purchase of grapes home now, Dimitri.” They were the most succulent bunches she had ever seen or tasted.
Luca is perfect. He’s more beautiful than anything I’ve ever seen, she’d thought. Shaking her head slightly to clear away the images of Luca, she urged her horse toward home.
“These thoughts of Luca are not good, Miss. It can only bring heartache.” Dimitri allowed Shayna to pull ahead by a few feet.
Without turning, she asked, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Dimitri. It was nice to see someone from my childhood. There are so few people from those years still here. I’ve only been thinking on all the fun he and I had during those visits.” She scoffed and tried to urge her horse farther ahead, but Dimitri wouldn’t allow it.
“You must ride closer in case of danger, Miss. I should be in front, not you.” Dimitri didn’t spare her a glance as he rode by her.
“Oh, Dimitri, don’t be sour. We came this way not an hour ago. There are no villains hiding in the scrub.”
Dimitri shot her a look over his left arm.
Farther up the road, Shayna risked a question. “Why would it only lead to heartache?”
“Because his father already tried to buy his way into your circle, Miss. The peerage wouldn’t allow him and his family to be settled in their presence, though. They don’t like outsiders, and Giuseppe Bianchi and his relatives will forever be just that, mere laborers, no matter how much money they have.”
Shayna’s heart sank a little. She had to trust love could still rule the day. If there was no wealth, two people could still be happy together. She had to believe it.
She imagined Luca was her mystery man, and when he said he had found the woman he wanted to marry, he really meant her.
Luca was tall, the concealed man had been as well. He lacked the cat-like gracefulness of the cloaked visitor, though, as shown by his dropping the basket and stumbling over nothing but air, which he thought she had not seen. Shayna averted her eyes to keep from embarrassing the man.
Riding through the gate and toward the stables, Shayna couldn’t stop smiling. The world was more at ease, more serene than it had been when she had left out this morning. She felt lighter as she jumped down from her horse. Laughing, she grabbed the basket of grapes and skipped out of the stable, so happy she was sure she must be dreaming.
She hadn’t been this delighted since Leonardo passed away. Honestly, she thought to never be so content again after her father died. She was sure his death had damaged a fundamental part of her which would never heal enough to ever feel joy again.
Excited by all that had happened, she searched out Maria to show off the most perfect grapes she’d ever seen. The maid was in Shayna’s room, airing it and turning the mattress.
“Come have some grapes with me. I must tell you about Luca Bianchi.” She set the basket on the little table where she had taken her dinner.
She expertly flipped the cover over the newly turned bedding and said, “Oh, yes, he’s the boy who used to visit with his father years ago. Wherever did you see him?”
Crestfallen, Shayna asked, “You remember Luca?” She had hoped to be able to tell Maria all about him and it be a fresh story for her.
“Yes. Did you forget him?” She walked to the table and took a grape.
“No, he hadn’t completely slipped my memories; I thought of him over the years, but only infrequently. Usually when I passed a hidden tunnel entrance, or the like.” Shayna grinned and tucked her chin toward her shoulder, averting her eyes.
Laughing, Maria said, “Yes. I remember you two were forever exploring where you shouldn’t have been.”
“Luca has turned into a fine, strong young man. Pleasant to speak with, and easy company for most people.” Shayna wandered to the windows, rolling a large dark grape between her finger and thumb.
“Really? Where did you see him today?”
“At market. I bought these grapes from his father’s stall. I thought they were his, but Dimitri told me Luca was stocking the tables with Giuseppe’s goods. Other stalls belonged to Luca, but I didn’t visit them, as I had already purchased these.” Shayna held the grape up in the light.
“Ah. I see.”
Shayna turned. Maria’s voice had changed. Her expression had transformed, as well. “What do you mean?”
“Only that I see you are quite taken by your childhood friend.” Maria turned back to her work.
“So what if I am? Would it be so terrible a thing?” Shayna hadn’t meant to sound defensive and was ashamed for the snappy retort.
“No. I suppose it’s not a bad thing, but it can only cause grief to such young, inexperienced hearts as yours and Luca’s.”
Grunting in frustration, Shayna asked, “Why is everyone so quick to tell me how miserable Luca and I would be if we were together? Has everyone’s belief in love evaporated?”
Maria, shocked, said, “Who else told you that, Miss? Are you in love with Luca?”
“No, I’m not. I’ve only just met him as an adult. And, Dimitri told me practically the same thing, it can only lead to heartache.”
“I hate to say it, but he’s right, Miss. He is not a member of your peers, but you know this, already.”
“Yes. I also know I refuse to believe two people cannot be happy without being from the same circle of wealthy snobs. If two people are in love, what does it matter where they are from, or if one has money or not? I will not be told who to lov
e, Maria. Not by aristocratic snobbery, not by my mother, not by anyone.” Smiling defiantly, she put her hand on her chest and added, “My heart is free to care for whom it wishes, without rules, without boundaries, and most assuredly without the supervision of the aristocracy.” She stood, waiting for Maria’s counter argument. But Maria continued to work and when she did speak, it wasn’t what Shayna expected.
“Speaking of such, the dreadful Guillermo Rossi is coming to call on Alexandria this evening. He’s bringing Carlos with him. Did your mother relay that you are to see him at dinner?”
“No. I’m sure she would have gotten around to it eventually; ten minutes before the meal is served, would be my guess. I don’t want him as a suitor, Maria. He’s juvenile, spoiled, and is only looking for a wife to bear sons so his father will increase his inheritance.”
Maria’s outburst of laughter rang through the room. “You speak as if you know this for a fact.”
“I do know. He told me at the party. I’m privy to so much more information he spewed, as well. He’s intolerable. Why can’t mother see that?” The day had started out so promising, and she’d been so happy.
“She is only thinking of your future, Miss. I’m sure of it. Gianni is distant, granted; she acts cold sometimes, yes. Your mother hasn’t had an easy life, though. Maybe you should give her a chance. Since you’re an adult, too, maybe you can understand some of what she has gone through.”
“Would it make it any easier for us to get along with one another? A rabid dog’s bite is still painful, you know.”
“I know I am the one who taught you that saying. It might make things a little less tense between all of you, if you tried to understand Gianni. She does love you. I don’t agree with her and her ways all the time, but in her heart, your mother is a good person.”
“I wish I knew how to mend things between us. Mother has always favored Alexandria over me, and nothing I do is ever enough to bring a smile to her face. I don’t know how to talk to her anymore.”
Gentleman in the Shadows Page 6
