“Oh, Giovanni – ”
Rosella felt tears of disappointment spring into her eyes. The gondolier had betrayed her just as she suspected.
“Wait, Signorina. Listen! I told her you were safe and happy and that you were with your love.”
Giovanni glanced over at Lyndon and there was a brief moment of regret in his black eyes, but he quickly continued,
“I told her that you wished to marry him and to go somewhere far away from Italy, from England, from the people that might know you.”
“How could you?” Lyndon cried.
“Signore, I did what I thought was right and the Contessa told me, ‘if they wish to go, Giovanni, then let my ship carry them wherever they wish to go and I will ask no questions. But if they will come back to the Ca’ degli Angeli, I would welcome them with my open heart.’ She is a good woman, Signore.”
Lyndon shook his head, bemused.
“Rosella, what do you make of it?”
“I – don’t know – I can’t think,” Rosella said, torn between a great longing to see the Contessa again and an even greater desire to leave everything behind and set sail at once for Greece with Lyndon.
Giovanni was clearly waiting for their answer, but she simply did not know what to do.
“What about your letter?” Lyndon said suddenly.
He took it from her.
“Who has written to you?”
“I don’t know,” Rosella replied. “I don’t suppose it matters now. Read it, if you want to.”
Her need to be gone and to escape was growing stronger, as she looked at the graceful ship that stood just off the shore.
Lyndon then slit open the envelope and, as his eyes skimmed the contents, he turned very pale.
“What is it?”
“My darling Rosella, I think we will not be going to Greece, after all.”
“But – why not?”
Lyndon reached to take her hand.
He seemed to have grown taller suddenly and a new strength had come into his face.
“Your letter is from someone called Thomas,” he said. “Your gardener’s boy you told me about.”
“Thomas?”
Rosella remembered the brown-haired lad who had helped her and then had inadvertently led Mr. Merriman to find her in Venice.
“There are few words – but he says he is sorry that the Head Gardener opened your letter and gave it to his Lordship.”
“That is all in the past now –” Rosella began, but Lyndon had not finished.
“And he says that my father, Carlton Brockley is dead. What is this – I cannot quite – ”
Lyndon frowned as he tried to decipher Thomas’s handwriting.
Rosella suddenly realised how cold she was in the wind that blew off the sea.
“Ah! He became ill at dinner one night and died suddenly.”
Lyndon turned to Rosella, his expression grave, yet his eyes shining with a new clear light.
“We shall not be going to Greece, my darling. I am taking you home.”
“What do you mean?”
“I am his only son. New Hall is mine now. I can take you home.”
Rosella was speechless, as the joy that filled her heart was pulling it up and up like a kite into the patch of blue sky that was opening up in the clouds above them and she cried,
“Look, Lyndon. The sun is coming out!”
“Yes. We shall have a fair voyage home.”
He caught her to his breast and she closed her eyes, surrendering to the heavenly bliss of being in his arms once more.
“But shall we go and see the Contessa first?” she whispered after a moment.
“Of course,” he answered. “And before we leave we must give our thanks to Venice – La Serenissima – the serene and lovely City that brought us together.”
“I shall never forget her,” Rosella sighed, “she will always have a special place in our hearts.”
Lyndon then caught her up in his arms in the bright sunshine and carried her to the rowing boat to begin their joyful journey home to their new life together.
* * *
Where to buy other titles in this series
The Barbara Cartland Pink collection is available for download at the following online bookshops :-
www.barnesandnoble.com - epub format for the Nook eReader
www.whsmith.co.uk - epub format for the Smiths/Kobo eReader
www.firstyfish.com - epub format
ebookstore.sony.com - epub format for Sony eReaders
www.amazon.co.uk - For UK Kindle users
www.amazon.com - For international Kindle users
itunes.apple.com - for Apple iOS users
www.barbaracartland.com - Printed paperbacks
100. A Rose In Jeopardy Page 14
