by Maggie Cox
‘But I will tell you one thing: our child will have everything. There will be no sense of shame that he doesn’t belong. I swear it!’ Fastening his fingers firmly round Bliss’s upper arms, he impelled her towards him. ‘And my parents will adore their new grandchild; I am certain of that.’
‘If our baby has unconditional love, Dante, he will not have to worry about anything else,’ Bliss said quietly, for once feeling brave enough to meet his piercing gaze head-on.
‘Sì,’ he replied, grazing his knuckles thoughtfully across her cheek. ‘In this you are right.’
Dante had to go to Milan on business. That was what the phone call had been about. He told her he would be gone two or three days at most, then he would be back. In the meantime he commanded Bliss to rest as much as possible and let Isabella and the home help do as much as possible to help her enjoy her stay. He’d said goodbye with a brief kiss, a shutter coming down over his beautiful eyes when he studied Bliss, as if he regretted being so frank with her yesterday. It made her feel desperately sad that he still did not trust her sufficiently to let her get close. Yesterday, when Dante had revealed the truth about his parentage, her heart had lifted with hope because at last they had seemed to be making some headway getting to know each other. But now Bliss was miserable and unsure again about their future. How would they fare in such a marriage if they were both continually guarded about their feelings?
Hearing voices in the hallway, Bliss collected her magazine and was on her way out to the veranda to sit for a while and read when Isabella appeared with Alessandro Visconti beside her.
‘You have a visitor, my dear. I do not entirely approve of my nephew, if I am honest, but he is young like you and may provide a little welcome company while I make a visit to the hospital with Antonio this afternoon for his check-up.’
Her surprised glance colliding with Alessandro’s irrepressible grin, Bliss found she didn’t have the heart to tell Isabella that she would rather be alone with her thoughts than have to make conversation with someone she hardly knew. But then everyone was being so kind, making sure her every need was taken care of, that it would surely seem churlish to refuse Alessandro’s company.
‘Fine,’ she said, nodding her head a little. ‘Thank you, Isabella…and I hope everything goes well at the hospital.’
There was a brief glimpse of anxiety in Isabella’s vivid blue eyes, but her determinedly warm smile quickly drew attention away from it.
‘Sì. I too hope the news is good. I know Antonio is feeling so much better since you and Dante came home so I am sure your visit is doing him good. Don’t stay out in the sun too long will you, mia cara? I will see you later. Arrivederci.’
‘So…I have got you all to myself for the afternoon.’ Following Bliss out onto the veranda, Alessandro stood and watched as she settled herself comfortably into the sun lounger, his bold glance gravitating to the toned, beautifully shaped legs revealed by the white denim shorts she wore.
‘I wouldn’t quite put it like that.’ Suddenly getting a mental vision of Dante’s disapproving frown, Bliss was quick to ensure that Alessandro did not have the upper hand for even a second. She might have been initially cross with Dante for his rudeness to and jealousy of his cousin, but now she couldn’t help but believe that behind that charming and affable smile of Alessandro’s lurked a slightly more mercenary streak. She would definitely have to keep her wits about her. ‘Did you come to visit with your cousin?’ she asked, placing her magazine on the small raffia table beside her.
He grimaced. ‘I found myself at a loose end and came to pay my respects to my uncle, but I am not exactly flavour of the month with any of my family at the moment, and least of all with Dante. Forgive me for being so frank with you, Bliss, but he just has to snap his fingers and the women come running, yet he always behaves like the perfect gentleman. My mother always says, “Why can you not be more like Dante?” But it is not in me to be so good, I’m afraid.’
Walking across to the white balustrade of the veranda, Alessandro tossed his head as if to say, Ah, well, that’s life, then turned back to Bliss, his eyes suddenly seeming to light up.
‘I should take you for a drive through the countryside in my new car. It is really my papà’s car, but I know he will let me have it if I tell him I can’t live without it.’
‘Do you always get what you want, Alessandro?’ Bliss asked with a frown, sure as she spoke that she already knew the answer. How different his privileged childhood must have been from her own.
‘Yes, probably.’ He shrugged his shoulders in his light blue shirt without a hint of regret. ‘But then I am charming, am I not? And being charming is very attractive to people, no?’
‘Charm will only get you so far, I think. After that there has to be something of a little more substance. People are not so easily fooled as you might think.’
‘I can see why my cousin fell for you, Bliss. Apart from your beauty, you are also intelligent. Dante has said many times that there has to be more than physical attraction to keep his attention.’
But would she be able to keep her husband’s attention in the months to come? If he could get any woman he wanted, what reason would he have for sticking with her—apart from the baby? He clearly didn’t love her. Her throat ached so much she had trouble swallowing down her misery. She was in a beautiful place surrounded by breathtaking countryside and perfect weather, with her wedding coming up in just a few days back in England. Yet she was desperately unhappy because it was clear to her that Dante would never love her the way she wanted him to. Suddenly she needed to be out in the open breathing in some different air.
‘I will go for a drive with you if the offer is still open,’ she announced, getting to her feet.
His mouth splitting into a satisfied grin, Alessandro made an extravagant gesture of waving her back into the house ahead of him. ‘Signorina, it will be my honour to take you for a drive.’
With the warm wind flowing through her hair, hurtling down the winding Italian country roads in Alessandro’s outrageously flashy red sports car, Bliss told herself she truly was in another world. But, although the pleasure she derived from the experience was not to be discounted, she also knew that displays of wealth and its trappings did not impress her particularly. It certainly wasn’t what she longed for the most. Since she had became pregnant with Dante’s baby, a new longing had stolen into her blood—one that was seriously starting to consume her. What she craved more than anything else was having Dante tell her that he loved her and mean it. Then and only then could she go through with this intended marriage of theirs with any sense of doing the right thing. But as it wasn’t likely that Dante would make such a declaration—even on their wedding day—Bliss would have to resign herself to marrying a man who she knew didn’t love her and probably never would. Could she make such a mighty sacrifice for the sake of her unborn child?
‘What do you think, huh?’
Shouting to make his voice heard above the engine noise, Alessandro stole a glance at the dark-haired beauty beside him, obviously eager to impress—both with his driving skills and his access to such an expensive toy.
‘I think you’re driving a little too fast for my liking,’ Bliss shouted back, her stomach rolling over at the sudden acceleration in speed—particularly when they were on a very narrow strip of road curving into a hillside. She had a sudden vision of them careening into that hillside and that being the end of that. No more anguished decisions about whether marrying Dante di Andrea was the right thing to do or not. Her teeth clamped down hard on her lip. ‘Slow down, Alessandro! You’re driving much too fast!’
‘Speed is an aphrodisiac, no?’ Laughing into the wind, Alessandro made no effort to lessen his speed. The knot in Bliss’s stomach turned into a sudden knifing pain that almost took her breath away. Shocked by the severity of it, Bliss went quiet. When it was followed by another slice of agony almost more severe than the first, she grabbed Alessandro’s arm to get his attention.
‘Why? I cannot believe you are not having fun.’
‘Oh, God…’ Panicked by the now relentless waves of pain that were rolling through her body, Bliss knew she had to get Alessandro to turn the car around and take her back to the villa—either that or the nearest hospital. Whatever their destination, she was definitely in need of help. ‘Alessandro, please!’
She finally got his attention. Seeing the colour drain from her lovely face, Alessandro narrowed his gaze in concern and started to slow his speed. ‘What is wrong? Are you ill?’
‘I think it’s the baby,’ she replied desolately, her violet eyes shimmering with tears. ‘I think I might be losing it…’
Dante yelled at the hapless nurse who enquired what relation he was to Signorina Maguire, then swore at the doctor on duty who had attended her because he refused to give him any information on her condition until he received confirmation of the tests he’d run. In a cold sweat, Dante sat in the waiting room sightlessly staring at white clinical walls decorated with posters warning of the dangers of smoking, drinking and taking drugs, feeling as if he had had an argument with a ten-ton truck and come off the worst.
At first when he’d received an urgent telephone call from his mother, he had naturally thought that something had happened to his father. When Isabella told him that Bliss was in hospital suffering with severe stomach pains after being taken out on a drive through the countryside with Alessandro, Dante wanted to put his no-good cousin through the floor and bury him. He had made the forty-eight-kilometre drive from Milan at breakneck speed to get to Varese, his heart beating so wildly inside his chest that he could scarcely tell if he was breathing at all or simply surviving on the good will of God. If Bliss lost the baby, it would be his fault. He should never have left her. The business matter that had seemed so urgent when he had been back at the villa was not even akin to a speck of dust in his view now—let alone millions of dollars—in comparison to what was happening to Bliss.
Putting his head in his hands, he groaned, murmuring a heartfelt prayer, feeling as sick inside as if he had had poison injected into his blood. He had held onto the idea of his child since the moment he had found out Bliss was pregnant. Until that time he had had no idea how much he had secretly longed to be a father—to be important to someone in his own right. Now there might not be a baby after all and what reason would Bliss have for wanting to stay with him after that?
‘Signor di Andrea? I am Angelo Berticelli, the head medico on duty. I believe Signorina Maguire is soon to be your wife, yes?’
Already on his feet, Dante nodded dry-mouthed at the man who entered the room. ‘How is she? I must be allowed to see her!’
He had to get her out of this poorly equipped state hospital and into the private one his family used as soon as possible, his thoughts ran on. He would get her the best care money could buy. But why had Sandrine not picked up on the problem when she had examined Bliss? Now Dante feared he had been wrong to trust the woman who was a family friend. If only there were the remotest chance that they could save the baby…he would do anything…anything.
‘I have taken the liberty of contacting the chief obstetrician to come in and examine Signorina Maguire. Even though we have run some tests, we need his expertise. He should be with us within the next half an hour or so. Until then we have given the patient a sedative as she was somewhat agitated when she came in.’
Agitated? The possibilities that represented made Dante almost blanch. Did he mean that she was in great pain? He couldn’t imagine the mostly serene young woman he knew making a fuss just for the sake of it. Santo cielo! She must be so frightened. All his muscles tightened as if the whole world were going to come crashing down upon him and smash his body into bits.
‘Has she lost the baby?’ His gaze was haunted as he asked the question.
‘I am afraid I cannot tell you that, Signor di Andrea. You may speak with the obstetrician once he has examined Signorina Maguire. Please wait here and I will get a nurse to inform you the moment he arrives.’
‘I cannot just wait here and do nothing!’ Dante threw his hands up in the air, for once in his life feeling powerless and useless. It was not a feeling he welcomed, nor ever wanted to experience again, not in this lifetime.
‘I am sorry, Signor di Andrea, but you are going to have to do just that.’ With an apologetic smile, the rather portly middle-aged doctor turned and left Dante alone.
CHAPTER TWELVE
BLISS’S head felt so thick and heavy that trying to think was like attempting to find her way home through fog with a blindfold on. As she struggled to open eyelids that appeared to have become weighed down with lead since falling asleep after the obstetrician’s examination, she nevertheless registered the startling fact that the frightening pain in her abdomen was no more. What did it mean? Suddenly panicked, she tried to sit up. Had she lost the baby? Was that why she no longer felt any pain?
‘What do you think you are trying to do?’
The sight of Dante approaching the hospital bed, the smooth, clean lines of his face now appearing pinched and drawn—haggard almost—so surprised Bliss that she automatically slumped back against the pillows. At this moment it seemed wise to surrender the battle of trying to hold her head up when it felt almost too heavy for her shoulders.
‘I didn’t know you were here.’ Her lips were dry as sand and she longed for a drink. On the edges of her consciousness she wondered if Dante had been told she’d lost the baby and was wondering how to tell her. The thought was akin to being forced deep into the centre of a dank, dark cave with not a chink of light, then being told to find her own way out. She had a tendency to suffer from claustrophobia; now icy dread threatened to suffocate her.
‘Of course I am here. Did you think I would stay in Milan when I heard you had been taken into hospital?’
As his hungry, examining gaze roved across her pale, anxious features Dante badly wanted to hold her close and pour out all his grief and regret. But he knew he had to be strong for Bliss. In her thin hospital gown there was a vulnerability about her that tore at his heartstrings. She had suffered enough already and did not deserve to carry the burden of his anguish.
‘I—I can’t think about anything right now except that I need a drink.’
Without hesitation, Dante reached for the jug of water on the bedside locker and poured some into the plastic tumbler beside it. Sliding his arm around Bliss’s shoulders, he helped her to sit up and take a sip. Amazed at how fragile her bones felt against the solid strength of his arm, he experienced a wave of distress so acute he knew he was not very far away from tears. Was it only because Bliss might have miscarried their baby that his feelings were stirred so profoundly? Dante didn’t think so. His desire to take care of the woman he was gently supporting was so strong that he almost believed he could hold back the sky to stop it from falling down on her.
‘That’s better. Thank you.’
‘You’re welcome.’
Being protective was one thing—holding back the tide of emotion that threatened to engulf him was quite another. Dante resolutely clenched his jaw and helped Bliss to lie more comfortably back against the pillows.
‘Dante…have you heard? Do you know…do you know anything?’ If she didn’t mention the word ‘baby’, then maybe her terror would subside and she would be able to think what to do. But what did a woman do when she was possibly losing or had already lost a longed-for baby? Did she just calmly walk out of the hospital doors and try to carry on as normal—as if the awful devastation that had occurred inside her could be put aside as easily as an old CD that she had tired of listening to? She’d lost both parents and had been alone for a long time. Now, just when it had seemed that she might—just might—have a real chance at some happiness in becoming a mother, that chance was being cruelly snatched away again.
‘No, amorina. Right now there is nothing I can tell you. The obstetrician has done his tests and wil
l come and see us soon. That is all I know.’
Bliss had never heard Dante sound so unremittingly desolate. In the midst of her own deep sorrow her natural tendency to offer comfort made her want to reach out to him.
‘Dante…you can father other babies. You have your whole future ahead of you. I am sorry I—that I couldn’t…’ Her voice trailed off to a bare, ragged whisper.
He could not believe she was actually apologising to him for miscarrying their child…and what did she mean when she told him he could father other babies? Was she suggesting he do so with someone else? Was she already withdrawing from him, knowing that at the end of this episode in their lives she would walk away from him? No! The thought was simply too crushing to contemplate.
Because he was so hurt and angry Dante said the first thing that came into his mind.
‘What did you think you were doing tearing off round the countryside with Alessandro in that damned car?’
As she registered the scarcely veiled insinuation with disbelief, shock cut a swathe through the fog of dread that had enveloped Bliss. ‘You’re not suggesting that I somehow caused this situation by going for a ride in the countryside with your cousin?’ Her violet gaze was filled with horror.
‘No doubt the young fool was driving too fast—scaring you to death, most probably! When I get my hands on him he will rue the day his mamma gave him birth!’
