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Ellie surveyed the vast cache of clothing in sheer wonderment

‘Yes, your pressie has arrived,’ she confirmed to her sister Polly, with the phone tucked in her nape ‘What on earth were you thinking of?’

‘I know you don’t do shopping, so I did it for you,’ Polly responded cheerfully ‘You need a holiday wardrobe for Italy and I bet you haven’t had the tiht?’

On that score, Polly was right but Ellie, picking up a floaty white sundress with a designer label, was gobsenerosity Correction, her sister’s eenerosity ‘Well, I’irl,’ she re ‘In fact, I think the last ti you You know I’rateful, Polly, but I wish you wouldn’t spend soon the breadline—’

‘I’ives s,’ Polly told her unanswerably ‘Cootup and I want to share e things between us—’

But it was changing things, Ellie thought, suppressing a sigh She ht always have been the kid sister in their duo but she had also always been the leader and she couldn’t helpthat familiarity and her sister, who now lived half the world away in Dharia Polly didn’t turn to her for advice any er needed her in the saeous little son, and unless Ellie was very much mistaken there would soon be another little royal prince or princess on the horizon Her sister also had a pair of adoring grandparents in Dharia, who had welco enthusiasm

And that hy Ellie was travelling out to Italy clutching the eifted to their by her late mother, Annabel, whom she had never known Annabel had died in a hospice after a long illness while her daughters were raised by their grands in separate envelopes for her daughters

That there were three envelopes had been the first shock because until that moment Ellie and Polly had not realised that they had another sister, younger than they were, raised apart from them and most probably in council care A sister, Lucy, completely unknown to them In each envelope their irl’s father

Polly had flown out to Dharia to research her background in the hope of finding her father, only to discover that he had died before she was even born, but she had been co grandparents In the midst of that fa of Dharia, and become a queen As soon as she had married she and Rashad had hired a private detective to try to locate Lucy but the search had been hampered by officialdom’s rules of confidentiality

Ellie had received an e paper… Beppe and Vincenzo Sorrentino She assumed that one of those men was her father and she already knew that one of the else and wasn’t even sure she really wanted to knohat kind of entanglement her mother had contrived to have with two men, ere brothers If that ht ruefully She couldn’t help her own nature, could she? And she didn’t have unrealistic expectations about what she ht have

been her father, in which case she would sinorance But the discovery of any kind of relative would be welcoe she hada family within reach

At the same time she asked herself why she still cherished that idealistic irandmother who had raised her and Polly had not been a war person and her ht horrible even when they were children In fact, recalling how the older man had treated her in the afterry resentment, which made her wonder if she would ever share that sad story with Polly Probably not, because Polly preferred only to see the good in people

In the sae would change nothing between the sisters but, in fact, it had changed everything Ellie didn’t even like to phone her sister too often because she was very aware that Polly had farand important commitments as a wife, a mother and a queen Ellie loved to visit Dharia, as well, but the long flights would eat up a weekend off and she often spent her leave si up on sleep because junior doctors routinely had to work very long hours At herat a hospice and her duties and her patients had drained her both mentally and emotionally

Indeed as she packed the neardrobe Polly had had delivered to her into a pair of suitcases Ellie was too weary even to exarateful that her sister had saved her fro trip No doubt she would look a lot fancier andPolly had picked than she would in anything she would have chosen for herself, she thought ruefully, because she had never been interested in fashion

Far more iht prospect that she ht find her father in Italy Even Polly, hom Ellie had played it very cool and cynical on that topic, had no real idea how ed to find a father at the end of the Italian trail

Two days later, Ellie walked down the stairs of the shtful three-sided patio, which was festooned with flowers and overlooked a rolling section of the green, vine-covered Tuscan landscape She breathed in the fresh air with a smile of pure pleasure and relaxed for the first time in many weeks

Tomorrow she had an appointment to meet Beppe Sorrentino at his hos and that lack of an actual to-do list was an unadulterated luxury She settled down at her solo table, sht cotton skirt and top she wore inthat the uneven handkerchief hems Polly loved were very impractical Fashion isn’t about practicality, she could hear her sister telling her squarely, and she s cup of cappuccino coffee arrived along with a basket of pastries

Ellie powered through her usual work schedule on snatched coffee pick-lorious, as was the croissant, which melted in her appreciativetiny flakes of pastry from her lips that a tall, dark silhouette blotted out her wonderful view She blinked behind her sunglasses, supposing it was too much to have hoped that she would be allowed to have the patio and the view all to herself After all, it was a very small hotel but still a hotel and naturally there would be other guests

A liquid burst of Italian greeted the new arrival, whoht The waiter seereet the ular or a local, she thought idly He responded in equally fast and fluent Italian and there was so about that voice, that dark chocolate honeyed drawl, that struck a dauntingly fa that jolt of familiarity with brisk common sense After all, it couldn’t be the same man, simply couldn’t be! He lived in the city of Florence and she was e hotel convenient to Beppe Sorrentino’s home No, it absolutely couldn’t be the male who had totally destroyed her enjoy festivities and left her filled with self-loathing and regret Even fate couldn’t be cruel enough to sentence her to a second htmare cloaked in male flesh

‘Buongiorno, Ellie…’ Rio murmured silkily as he yanked out the vacant chair at her table and sat down

Shock, er seized Ellie all at once ‘What the heck are you doing here?’ she de aggression