There was no escape. The room had no other doors. Being away from an outer wall, there wasn’t even a window to use as a possible escape. Shayna blocked the only exit.
She moved a small step closer. “Are you ill?” Another small step. “Shall I call for help for you, sir?”
Keeping his voice low, Luca answered. “No. Please, Miss. I’m fine; or I will be in a bit. Thank you.” Nausea swept through him. His ruse was over. She would find him out and hate him forever. Or, she would never forgive him. She took another step and Luca turned his head from her.
“Shayna. Shayna. Where have you gone? Carlos is waiting for you.” Gianni’s voice was unmistakable. From two rooms away, Luca recognized it.
Luca turned to Shayna and held out his hand in a stop gesture. “Please, Miss.” He couldn’t be discovered here by Gianni of all people.
Shayna apparently detected the plea in his tone. “Shh. All right.” She motioned for him to follow her.
What other choice did he have? It was either follow her or risk being found by Gianni. Luca stood and, pulling his cloak around, draped it in folds in his hand. Shayna reached for him, found his hand, and pulled him to the doorway.
From the empty room now, Gianni yelled again. “Shayna.” Her shoes clacked loud as hoofbeats on cobblestone. She said, “Heedless child.” She retreated down the corridor on the opposite side of the empty room.
Shayna glanced around the doorway and pulled Luca along behind her into the empty room and toward the occupied room. What was she doing? They couldn’t go in there. Luca slowed and Shayna pulled harder.
Without turning to him, she said, “We must hurry, or they will see us.”
Luca relaxed and moved freely with her. She didn’t want to join them either. They stepped into a lighted part of a long skinny room. Shayna’s dress was an explosion of ugly and it shocked him that she would wear such a dress. He’d never seen her in anything so oddly colored and badly fitted. However, it was her business.
Turning right in the skinny room, he gazed back and saw servers at the other end. Three of them were looking directly at him. Shayna kept moving. The servers didn’t raise the alarm. She took him through another doorway and into a tiny room. There were doors in front and behind them. It was pitch dark in the small space with both doors closed.
Chapter 12
Shayna’s heart pounded and her breathing was slightly controlled as she led the stranger into the room connecting the part where her suite was situated and the part she had just exited. Who was he? Why did he not want to join the party? Upon entering the old playroom, she had been certain he was her mysterious man from the previous party. At least until he spoke. He had no accent at all. This man was Italian and native to her region.
Standing in the claustrophobic little room with no light, she wondered at her sanity. Why had she helped a stranger? Why had she shown him the passages to the rest of her home? For a few moments, she had reverted to the ten-year-old version of Shayna who was playing Explorer with Luca as they dodged her mother and the guests to hide in the dark.
Whoever he was, the man hadn’t spoken or tried to touch her since they entered the connecting room. Unsure if she should take him out toward her rooms, or whether to take him out the way he had come, Shayna chewed at her bottom lip, staring into the darkness and waiting for him to speak.
“Sir, who are you that you feel the need to hide from Mother? Are you a thief? Have I just helped to hide a thief in my own home?” His silence frightened her.
“I’m nobody. I’m no thief either. On my honor.” His voice was just more than a whisper.
“Am I going to regret helping you hide?”
“Shayna, I’m not going to hurt you, your family, or anything here. I wish to leave unseen now.”
“How did you know my name?” Shayna reached for the handle of the door which would lead her in the direction of people. A large hand clamped over hers on the handle.
“Please. Show me a way out and I’ll leave.”
Every muscle in her being thrummed at the sudden detaining hand. “Unhand me or I’ll scream. I swear it.”
She drew in a deep breath and the other hand fumbled at her face. She screamed but the hand closed over her mouth, muffling the sound before anyone might hear it. The man pressed her back against the wall. Panic engulfed her, and she tried to scream again and again. The man was tall and towered over her, immobilizing her with his strength.
“Shayna. I’ll not harm you; I swear on my life. You’re the reason I’m here. Please stop.” His face was close to her ear.
Her screams and thrashing stopped at once. The hand fell away from her mouth slowly, as if the owner was keeping it at the ready in case she screamed again. The voice. She recognized it, as well she should. She had held a conversation with its owner earlier that same day.
The man in the darkness with her was Luca Bianchi.
“Luca?” She asked in astonishment. It never occurred to her she might still need to be afraid of him. Or wary of him, anyway. In the dark, cramped quarters, he had pinned her with hardly any effort and silenced her screams with less.
He didn’t answer, but his sharp intake of air was the only answer she needed.
“Luca, what are you doing in my home, skulking around like a thief or a murderer in the night?”
“You wouldn’t understand, Shayna.” He sounded wounded, defeated.
“I’m only a female who couldn’t possibly understand the motivations of a shadow hugging man, right? You have no right to sound hurt. No right at all.” She had thought better of Luca, thought him more open-minded than most. Shayna had thought she and he were similar in nature, thought, and beliefs. Then he ruined her image of him in a millisecond. She was crestfallen.
“No, Shayna. You are the only reason I’m here. I had to see you again.”
“So, it was you at the other party.” She laughed. “You faked an accent to keep me from knowing it was you. Why would you feel the need to do such a thing?”
“Because my family isn’t rich enough for your mother and peers to accept me.”
Snorting a short burst of laughter, Shayna reached for the other door and tugged it open. “Follow me, Luca.”
They reached her rooms within seconds and stepped into the sickly yellow glow of a room lit only with a lamp burning at its lowest setting. Shayna engaged the bolt lock behind Luca and stepped away, so she could see him in detail.
How could she not have known the mysterious man was Luca after seeing him up close in the market? She motioned, and he followed her silently from the anteroom, through the dressing room where her vanity and stool sat, and finally into her bedroom.
“Stand there and I’ll light a candle.” She lit the candle. “Let us go into this room and talk without worry of being overheard. There’s a door to the hallway right there and Maria comes in without warning.” Shayna walked over to throw the bolt on the other door as well.
“It’s like a maze in here. I don’t remember all this from childhood.”
“Because we weren’t in the living part of the house; we played in the oldest parts of the castle; the parts which have fallen into disuse over the decades as the families grew smaller and smaller here. Now we’re only three. My father’s great-grandfather lived here with twenty-seven family members. I’d imagine they needed all the rooms and stairs and tunnels.” She laughed as they stepped into her solitude room.
There was a sofa, a small bed, many shelves laden with books, a writing desk and one small window above it. The chair against the far wall was from a time when the castle was much newer. According to Shayna’s father, her fifth great-grandmother had sat in the same chair for a portrait once. It was supposedly her favorite. Shayna had only sat on it a handful of times and kept it safely stored. Its threadbare and tattered fabric still intact, the finish had been worn away by the years. Pride still pulled her shoulders back a fraction and pushed her head higher each time she gazed at the heirloom.
Guiding Luca to the couch, she place
d the candle on a low table and sat at the opposite end facing him.
“Now, Luca Bianchi, I believe you have some explaining to do.”
He fidgeted and moved about like a worm in hot ashes but didn’t speak.
“I deserve to know why you’re here, Luca. Don’t you believe I do?”
He made eye contact and stammered, “Yes, you do. I’ve been waiting years for this opportunity and now—under these circumstances—I’m at a loss as how to proceed. I’ve cast myself in a bad light and can’t fix it, I’m afraid.”
“You’re speaking in riddles, Luca. Pretend we’re children again, and we’re about to go play Explorer together. Then blurt it all out. I’m not nearly as shallow as you must think I am, or you wouldn’t be hiding in the shadows.”
“You’re not shallow. I’ve never thought you were. I hide because your mother made sure to put my family in its place all those years ago, Shayna. She was the main spokesperson who so opposed us being part of her circle of peers. We were never more than peasants to her, and she would not rub shoulders with peasants as if they were her equals.”
Shayna could imagine her mother being haughty. It sickened her how Gianni had treated Luca’s family so cruelly. The Bianchi vineyards were famous and the owners wealthy, though they chose to live modest and simple lives.
“I’m sorry, Luca. I never knew.” Heat rushed over her; perhaps it was shame for her mother’s cruel actions.
“Of course, you didn’t know, Shayna. My family made out fine eventually, but the damage was done long ago. The worst part? I shall never be considered good enough to court one of her daughters. I hadn’t heard from anyone in the Ricci family in years until today. You came to the market and, when I arrived home, I found this under my door.” He handed her the invitation, written in Gianni’s own hand.
Shayna read it. “Maybe she invited you to let you know she accepts you now.” As the words hit the air, she knew they were wrong.
Luca shook his head. “I think she invited me, so I would see all the other possible suitors for you and Alexandria, to humiliate me, to taunt me because I’m a man who must work for his earnings. She would make me appear insignificant and prove a financial future with me would, at its best, be forever at the mercy of my continued ability to oversee the vineyard.”
“How would that be humiliating you, Luca? I’d be proud to work for what I have, to earn my wealth. None of these people work for a living, certainly. Lazy, entitled lot, they are.”
“She would make them look like the far better choice for a woman’s future because they have sitting money, old money and have to do nothing for it. I must continue to work until I someday pass my vineyards on to my children, who will likely never gain enough wealth to run the vineyards from afar, either.”
Shayna was quiet for a moment, allowing all the information to sink in. “All right. All that aside now, how am I the reason you’re here?” She grinned at him. The stuff about money, working, acceptance by Gianni’s peers meant little to Shayna.
“Really?” He looked incredulous.
“Yes, really. Why?”
“You truly haven’t surmised the answer yet?”
“Why should I put words in your mouth? I wouldn’t like it if someone did the same to me and I won’t do it to you.”
His expression sobered. “Shayna, please don’t run screaming away from me when I tell you.”
Shaking her head, she said, “Not at all. Not unless you tell me you are here to murder me and were only waiting for me to bring you to a quiet room so you could carry out your dastardly deed.”
Barking laughter, Luca sat forward. “You’re quite safe, I assure you.” Clearing his throat, Luca said, “Shayna Ricci, I have loved you from afar for years. I decided years ago you would be my wife someday.”
Shayna’s heart pounded. Love? She had been thinking more along the lines of infatuation. “Love? How would you know you love me? I might be a terror.”
Luca looked at the floor between his feet and shifted uneasily.
“What is it, Luca? There’s more. What haven’t you said?” She had desired distraction from Gianni’s surprise party; this was more than she’d hoped for, though.
“I’ve been preparing for the day you would agree for me to be your suitor. I’ve prepared for much more, as well. Shayna it would rend my soul to see you marry someone like Carlos. I’d die, I’m sure of it.”
“Are you asking to be my suitor?” She knew the answer, but she had to hear it from his lips.
“Shayna, would you allow me the honor of becoming your suitor?” He held her gaze.
The solid truth of his devotion and his feelings for her were laid bare in his gaze. Her breath hitched in her chest and tears sprang to her eyes.
“Luca Bianchi, it would be my honor to have you as my suitor.”
Chapter 13
Luca’s smile was instantaneous, transforming his features from the worried and dark to light and happy. Shayna let his smile into her heart. The joy of knowing Luca felt the same way she did on so many points in life was overpowering. There would be no need to hide her true self for him. She could carry on a civilized, educated conversation with him and not be scoffed at or dismissed as if she had no idea what she was talking about on subjects considered for men only.
He was handsome and made more so by the flickering pale light of the candle. What would it be like to kiss his beautiful lips, touch his gorgeous hair, and hold his hand? To see his smiling face every day and to know he was smiling at her and for her alone made her heart full to bursting. Shayna quivered.
“Are you cold?” Luca made to remove his cloak.
“No.” She smiled and looked down at her clothes. “I don’t think I could get cold in this thing.” She lifted a handful of the thick material and let it plop back to her lap.
Luca grinned and stifled a laugh. “That is...a...” His face crinkled and they both chuckled. He finished with, “horrid dress. Why?”
“Why what? Why am I wearing such a horrible ensemble? I thought to make Carlos know I wouldn’t dress to suit him. I can’t abide by him and mother keeps insisting I entertain him.”
“We must arrange for Gianni to know what we have decided. How will we tell her?”
“I don’t know what to tell Mother, but I don’t think she can force me to accept Carlos’ proposal. If she can, I’ll leave.”
“Let’s not be rash. We must think logically. Do you know what made her think to invite me here tonight?” Luca reached for the invitation.
Shayna recalled the grapes and how cheerily she had shared her story with Maria and part of the story with Gianni. Had Gianni seen her happiness and thought to ruin it? Shayna didn’t want to think her mother could be so coldblooded, but what else?
“Maybe, Luca. Let me talk to her tomorrow. I’ll ride to market with Dimitri and speak to you again.”
Reluctantly, and with a scowl, Luca agreed, and Shayna took him through the maze of back halls and stairwells to a door which let out onto the west woods side of the castle.
The guards had gathered near the front gates, laughing and carrying on, where their collective attention was being held hostage by three young women. To Shayna, they looked as if they might be from town; barmaids perhaps, or chamber maids. She was glad of their fortuitous appearance.
Luca stopped short of stepping outside. He turned to Shayna and leaned close enough for their foreheads to touch. He stood there looking into her eyes, and she into his. The connection between them refreshed Shayna’s soul. In his eyes, she found peace, serenity, and contentment.
Luca pulled back. “Shayna, may I kiss you?” His hand lingered on her cheek.
“I’d be upset if you didn’t.” Shayna tilted her head up and offered Luca her lips. She had never been kissed and didn’t know what to expect, but when his lips brushed hers, her knees turned liquid. Swooning against his chest, Shayna reacted only with instinct, returning the fervor of Luca’s kiss. His tongue flicked at her lips, entreating
her to open them.
Moaning, reveling in the new feeling, Shayna let his tongue slide into her mouth. His taste was sweet and hot. Their tongues explored until they were both trembling. Luca pushed Shayna to arms’ length and held her there.
“Shayna. Please, be still. I can’t control myself with you.”
His expression was pure passion, which sparked Shayna’s own passion. She was unsure what this new hot stirring in her lower belly and between her thighs was about, but she wanted Luca to quell it for her. She knew about the rudiments of relations between a man and woman, but didn’t know it could be accompanied by such a feeling. Such images mingled in her mind that her cheeks grew hotter, and she was ashamed.
Wanting to protest and unable to speak, Shayna dropped her gaze, tucked a loose curl behind her ear, and forced her feet to step back.
“Shayna, I love you. I must leave now.”
“Of course; while they are distracted.” She pointed toward the entrance gates.
He was shaking his head. “It’s not them I fear. I fear what I might do if we’re alone much longer.” He moved quickly, cupped her face in his hands, kissed her ferociously on the lips, and then pulled away.
He fled into the deep shadows of the property, leaving Shayna quite shaken and confused in the doorway—where she remained until her body returned its loyalty, and she could again trust her legs to bear her weight without dumping her on the floor.
Taking the roundabout route to her suite, Shayna didn’t bother excusing herself from the party, or asking Maria to assist her undressing. The two buttons she couldn’t reach on the back of the dress, she tore off as she shoved the garment down over her hips. Dressed in her nightgown, she tossed the dress and the shoes into the fireplace to be turned to ash in the next hearth fire.
Expecting her mother would burst through the door any minute demanding an explanation, Shayna lay awake for hours. The chamber door opened slowly only one time, long after midnight. Shayna’s heart skipped. Could it be Luca had returned? Would he kiss her again and awaken those wonderful feelings?
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