She couldn’t move. Could only stand there, with her fingers pressed against her mouth to stifle a cry. Afraid to breathe. Unable to blink even.
And then a tall figure filled the doorway. A powerful presence entered the small space of the waiting room and…
And Charlotte wasn’t alone any more.
‘Carlotta…cara…’ Nico gathered Charlotte into his arms and held her close. ‘Grazie a Dio ho trovato voi.’
He’d had to come even though he had no real news for her yet. Standing there, in the observation deck of the operating theatre, it had come back with a vengeance.
That empty feeling.
Had it really been the challenge of fighting for Jendi’s life that had made it go away? The focus on medicine that was the most important thing in his life? Or had it had been because Charlotte was so close to him again?
He had to find out. His shift in the emergency department was finished and there would be no professional distraction for him now. If he found Charlotte and that empty feeling disappeared then he would know the truth.
And it had. Dio mio, but it had evaporated like mist in hot Italian sunshine as soon as he’d gathered her in his arms and held her close to his heart.
The truth was irrefutable. It wasn’t work he needed like the oxygen in the air he breathed. It was this woman. Charlotte. Without her, he would have that horrible, empty feeling for the rest of his life.
‘Carlotta…’ The word was a breath that got lost in her hair.
‘I don’t understand,’ she said.
Neither did Nico. But it was wonderful. So joyous.
‘I can’t speak Italian, Nico…’ She was wriggling in his arms, pulling back so she could see his face. ‘What’s happening?’ Her breath was a fearful gulp. ‘Where’s Gran?’
How could he be so selfish? Nico stroked her hair and focused enough to change languages.
‘There’s a break in surgery. They’re doing a biopsy of the tumour. It will be a bigger operation if they decide to try and remove it all and it would be too much of a risk if it’s…’
She knew what he was saying. If the tumour was aggressively malignant, they would only attempt a palliative procedure to deal with the bowel obstruction.
But Charlotte’s eyes had widened. ‘The surgeon thinks there’s a chance it’s not malignant? That it’s…benign?’
Was it cruel to give her hope or a gift that he could share with her for at least a little while? The point was moot because she knew the answer. They wouldn’t be interrupting surgery for the length of time it took to use a technician on Christmas Day if it wasn’t a good possibility.
‘Are you going back? Can you find out?’
Nico shook his head. ‘They’ll come and tell us. I want to wait here with you. I…I have to.’
‘You have to?’ Charlotte’s tone was as odd as his had been. A note of wonder? ‘Why?’
‘Because…’ There was no point in being less than honest with her. There never had been and never would be. ‘Because being with you…it makes the empty feeling go away.’
‘Oh…’ Charlotte’s gaze was holding his and he could actually see it melting. Getting misty. ‘It does…It so does, doesn’t it?’
‘You feel it too?’ A surge of emotion was threatening to explode inside Nico’s chest. Gratitude? Relief? Hope? No. It was bigger than any of those. ‘I’ve never felt like this,’ he confessed. ‘I don’t know what this is…but it’s…it’s…’
‘I think it’s love,’ Charlotte whispered. ‘I’m in love with you and that’s why I have the empty feeling when you’re not here.’
‘I’m in love with you…’ Nico tested the words out loud. Strange and new but…yes…they felt right. He tried them in Italian to make sure. ‘Cara mia, innamorata di te.’
And that made them real but still unbelievable. ‘How?’ he whispered. ‘How did this happen? So fast?’
‘I don’t know…’ But Charlotte was smiling. Almost laughing, but there were tears in her eyes at the same time. ‘But it’s Christmas…and it’s the most wonderful gift I could ever have been given. I love you so much, Nico. I’ve never felt like this before. It feels like everything that’s ever happened to me, even all the bad things, were worth it because it led me here. To you.’
He had to kiss her then. Slowly. Tenderly. The bursting feeling inside him intensified and turned to molten joy. It was a long time before he could lift his head to look into Charlotte’s eyes again.
‘When I was in Venice,’ Nico told her with a smile, ‘a moment or two before I saw you at the accident scene I was having to push my way through the crowd and I heard this old woman and you know what she said?’
‘No.’ Charlotte was smiling up at him. A tear escaped and Nico let go of one of her hands so that he could brush it away for her. ‘What did she say?’
‘That it was almost Christmas. A good time for a miracle to happen. I think that’s what this is, Carlotta. A miracle.’
Charlotte sniffed and the sound was so unromantic that Nico could feel himself fall even deeper in love with her. Had he really thought he was incapable of doing this? He was good at it. With a bit of practice he would be the best.
When Charlotte scrubbed at her nose, he caught her hand. The one with the ring on it. He seemed to remember it had been quite a struggle to get it onto her finger but it came off quite easily.
Charlotte went very, very still.
‘You know what this is.’ Nico had to clear the sudden gruffness of his voice away. ‘Of all the people in the world, you are the only one who can know the symbolism of this ring. The…’ His voice cracked again. ‘The promise it carries.’
Her gaze clung to his. Her head dipped and rose again in a slow, solemn nod.
‘I didn’t give you a choice about wearing it before,’ Nico continued. ‘I’m giving you that choice now. Will you wear this ring, inamorata? Will you accept my promise?’
‘Oh…yes, Nico.’ Her hand was shaking as she held it out for him to slip the ring back on her finger. ‘But…’
He stilled her words with a gentle finger on her lips. ‘It’s like your nonna said,’ he murmured. ‘It doesn’t mean we have to get married next week. It’s a promise of commitment. We can take all the time we need to make sure it’s perfect.’
The sound of footsteps outside the waiting room sent a sudden chill down Nico’s spine. Someone was coming to give them news.
What if it was bad news?
The only way this could be truly perfect would be to have Jendi at their wedding, wouldn’t it? To see her, at some point in the future, cradle her first great-grand-child in her arms.
To know that the biggest thing on that bucket list of hers had been well and truly ticked off.
It was the surgeon, who’d come straight from Theatre to find them. He’d stripped off his gown and gloves but he was still in his scrubs and white gumboots. He still had a hat covering his head and neck.
But he was smiling. ‘Your gran’s a real trouper,’ he told Charlotte. ‘Tough as old boots, in fact. She’s come through this astonishingly well. You’ll be able to go and see her in Recovery very soon.’
‘Oh…thank God…’ Charlotte was clinging to Nico’s hand with a vice-like grip. ‘And…and the tumour?’
‘Benign. We got it all out. Can’t see any reason why she won’t keep ticking along for a good few years yet.’ The surgeon’s smile widened. ‘Merry Christmas.’
Charlotte was sobbing in his arms now. Nico had tears on his own face.
Buon Natale, indeed.
The best ever, without a doubt.
EPILOGUE
CHRISTMAS WAS LONG GONE.
Lady Geraldine Highton didn’t remember it at all. She remembered Venice, of course, and the magic of the Orient Express journey. How could she ever forget when it had made her most cherished dream come true? Her beloved Charlotte had found the love of her life.
And here they were, in the gardens of Highton Hall, in the springtime. Surro
unded by daffodils and bluebells with the gentle perfume of apple blossom and tiny puffs of cloud in an otherwise blue sky making this day perfect.
Their wedding day.
They’d waited until she was fully recovered, bless them, and these last few months had been a gift in themselves. She hadn’t been allowed to rely solely on the wonderful care Betty had co-ordinated. They’d both moved into Highton Hall themselves, despite the hassle of commuting to London for their busy working lives.
And somehow Nico had got out of all those overseas commitments that had threatened to keep him and Charlotte apart for the foreseeable future. They hadn’t had to rely on that new-fangled Scope thing at all. It had been, in fact, as if they couldn’t bear to be apart from each other for a heartbeat longer than they had to.
And when they were together, they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. Not that anyone minded today, of course. It was only expected that they would link hands when Charlotte had wound her way through the chairs set out in the bluebell woods under the ancient oak trees to join her husband-to-be in front of the celebrant. That Nico had immediately bent his head to place a lingering kiss on her lips might have been a tad premature but…he was Italian. What could one say?
And it wasn’t as if Charlotte was wearing a veil to cover her face. She may have chosen a traditional, stunning white dress that made her look beautiful enough to bring a tear to anybody’s eye, but she’d left her hair loose and flowing.
It had been a joke when Geraldine had offered her beloved tiara as the ‘something borrowed’ but there it was, sparkling in her blonde hair as a shaft of sunlight found a way through the unfurling leaves of the oak trees. A glint of silver on her wrist was the only other adornment Charlotte had chosen. That tiny ring of hearts that had the emblem of the Orient Express engraved on its catch.
Geraldine eyed the rings on her own fingers as she smoothed the skirt of her lovely new pink silk dress. Maybe she should tone down her own accessories? No. That would be tantamount to curbing all sorts of things. Acting her age even, and that would never do, would it?
She had to shift a little on her chair in the front seat as the proceedings started. There were still moments of discomfort as she recovered from the major abdominal surgery that had removed that thankfully benign growth but she would never complain.
This was more than a bonus of time that she hadn’t expected to have.
What had occurred during this last Christmas season had been the most amazing gift ever.
Although…
She’d interrupted something last night. A moment between Charlotte and Nico that had looked like more than an intimate goodnight on the eve of their wedding. Nico had had the palm of his hand on Charlotte’s belly. She’d had her hand resting on top of his and the look they’d been giving each other was one of those that could speak volumes.
She hadn’t let on that she’d seen them.
And she certainly wouldn’t advertise the fact that her bucket list now had a new item on the top.
She was already the luckiest woman in the world, even though she knew her granddaughter would dispute that title. It would be her secret that she would be keeping her fingers crossed for another amazing gift next Christmas.
A gift they could all share.
A baby…
ISBN: 9781472003478
FROM VENICE WITH LOVE
© Alison Roberts 2013
First Published in Great Britain in 2013
Harlequin (UK) Limited
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From Venice With Love Page 15
