Vettori's Damsel in Distress (Harlequin Romance Large Print) by Liz Fielding Page A

too wrapped up in my own misery at the time to realise that she was playing the idiot in order to keep me busy. Doing her best to take my mind off Valentina.’
    ‘Valentina? Your fiancée?’
    ‘She’s not my anything.’ In the low slanting sun his face was all dark shadows. ‘She’s married to someone else.’
    ‘So soon?’ Not the most tactful response but the words had been shocked out of her.
    ‘My father was ready to give her everything I would not.’ Grey... His face was grey... ‘And it seems that she was pregnant.’
    His father?
    They’d reached the first market stall and, while she was still trying to get her head around what he’d told her, he unhooked his arm and stepped away. ‘Give me your phone and I’ll put my number in your contacts.’
    Geli handed over her phone but her brain was still processing his shocking revelation.
    Valentina had been cheating on him with his father? No wonder he’d withdrawn into himself or that Lisa was so worried about him.
    Dante slipped off a glove, programmed in his number and handed her back her phone. ‘Give me a call if you need any help haggling over the price of designer clothes and shoes.’
    ‘What...?’
    He’d dropped an emotional bombshell and was now casually discussing the price of shoes. But there had been nothing casual or throwaway about his earlier remark. His mention of Valentina had been deliberate; he’d chosen to tell her what had happened before someone else—before Lisa—filled her in on the gossip. And then, just as deliberately because he didn’t want to talk about it, he’d changed the subject.
    ‘Oh, yes.
Grazie
,’ she said, doing her best to sound equally casual as she dropped the phone back in her pocket. ‘I love looking around a new market but I’m afraid that clothes and shoes are on hold until I find out if the bank is going to refund my money.’ Concentrate on the most immediate problem. ‘My first priority is to take a walk back to where I found Rattino and see if anyone is missing him. Do people put up “lost pet” notices around here?’
    ‘I can’t say I’ve noticed any. I suppose we could put up some “found” ones?’
    ‘That’s probably a lot wiser than knocking on strangers’ doors when I barely speak a word of Italian,’ she agreed.
    ‘Not just wiser,’ he said, ‘it would be a whole lot safer. Do not, under any circumstances, do that on your own.’
    ‘You could come with me.’
    ‘Let’s stick with the posters. Can I leave you to take a look around the market without getting into any trouble while I take a photograph of the rat and run off a few posters? I’ll come and find you when they’re done.’
    ‘Trouble?’ she repeated, looking around at the bustling market. ‘What trouble?’
    ‘If you see anything with four legs, looking lost, walk away.’
    * * *
    Geli explored the market, using her phone to take pictures of the colourful stalls and sending them to her sisters. Proof that she’d arrived, was safe and doing what came naturally.
    She tried out her Italian, exchanging greetings, asking prices, struggling with the answers until her ear began to tune in to the language of the street as opposed to the carefully enunciated Italian on her teach yourself Italian course.
    Despite her intention to simply browse, she was unable to resist some second-hand clothes made from the most gorgeous material and was browsing a luscious selection of ribbon and beads on a stall selling trimmings when Dante found her.
    The stallholder, a small, plump middle-aged woman so bundled up that only her face was showing, screamed with delight and flung her arms around him, kissing his cheeks and rattling off something in rapid Italian. Dante laughed and then turned to introduce her.
    ‘ Livia
, questa è la mia amica
, Angelica. Angelica, this is Livia.’
    Geli offered her hand. ‘
Piacere
, Livia. ’
    Her tentative Italian provoked a wide smile and another stream of unintelligible Italian as Livia