âCaterinaââ Aldo emerged from the shadows.
âWhat is it?â Cat asked thinly. âWhat do you want?â
âTo be alone with my wife.â A small smile lingered on his incredibly sexy mouth.
Cat drew in a ragged breath. âSo you finally remembered my existence. It took you long enoughâtwo months by my reckoning.â
âCaraâI admit my absence was regrettable, but it really was necessary ifââ
âIâm sure it was,â she said, cutting him off. âBusiness, was it?â
He pulled her hard against him and she gasped as she tried to pull in enough air to enable her to tell him to stop this pretense, but all that emerged was a tiny despairing groan.
âDonât be sad, cara,â he said, obviously mistaking that distressed sound for something else entirely.
And as he murmured soft words of comfort in Italian, he sounded so sincere that she could almost believe he cared.
âYOU canât be serious! Are you actually suggesting I marry this Aldo Patrucco character?â Catâs green eyes flashed withering scorn in her grandfatherâs direction. She pulled herself up to her full five feet nine inches, towering above him, her patrician nostrils pinched with a mix of disbelief and outrage.
Gramps looked oddly shrunken, his clothes suddenly seeming too big for his frail bones as he sat in his favourite armchair. She felt sorry for him, of course she did, very sorry, and she loved him dearly, but no way would she fall in with the insane suggestion heâd just thrown at her.
âListen to yourself, wonât you?â she pushed out through her teeth. âYouâre asking me to sell myselfâitâs positively medieval!â
âAnd you are overreacting as usual, Caterina,â Domenico Patrucco objected flatly, his black eyes immediately softening in his lined face as he went on to ask gently, âWhy donât you pour the tea and then we can sit and have a civilised discussion? Without shouting.â
Cat let out a long, pent-up breath. It would cost her nothing to humour him, would it? Poor old Gramps had had a tough time recently. He had lost both his sister Silvana and his beloved wife Alice in the space of three months. She and Gramps were still grieving for Alice, so she knew how he felt. Sheâd never met her Italian great-aunt Silvana, of course, but she knew how much Gramps had looked forward to those long, gossipy letters which had told him of the doings of the Italian side of the family he had split from all those long years ago.
He was all alone now apart from Bonnie, who had been housekeeper here from the year dot. It had been Bonnie who had waddled over to the converted barn in what had once been the stack yard, where Cat had her workshop beneath her living quarters, to announce that her grandfather wished her to join him for afternoon tea.
As she dealt with the tea things Cat wondered if she should offer to move back into the farmhouse to keep the old man company. To stop him brooding and being too lonely. The farmland had been sold off years ago, when heâd retired, and the poor old guy had nothing to do with his time but come up with manic suggestions.
She owed him big time. He and Gran had brought her up since his only child, her mother, had been killed with Catâs father in a road accident when she had been little more than a baby. Their love and care had been unstinting.
Two years ago when sheâd left college with a degree in jewellery and silversmithing her grandparents had offered her the use of the barn as a workshop and had reluctantly agreed to her plan to move out of the main house and convert the barnâs upper storey into a self-contained flat. Sheâd been twenty-one and eager to have her own space where she could work or relax, entertain her friends, as the mood took her, be independent.
Keeping him company, keeping an eye on him for a few months, just until he was more himself, wouldnât hurt her. It was, she supposed, the least she could do after all he and Gran had done for her.
The tea poured, she handed him a delicate china cup and saucer and flopped down on the opposite side of the hearth to where he was sitting, her long jeans-clad legs stretched out in front of her, and offered brightly, âWhy donât I move back in here for a month or two? We could spend time together.â
She could sub-let her booth in the craft centre for three months and put her work on hold, she mentally sacrificed, and because that was not the best idea in the world as far as her career was concerned she flashed him a brilliant, Gramps-deluding smile. âWe could take days out together; Iâll drive you wherever you want to goââ
âAnd give me a heart attack!â he interrupted drily. âThe way you drive is as flamboyant and erratic as the way you dress!â And, seeing the way her vivid, animated and lovely features went blank, her wide mouth compressing, he amended gently, âI thank you for your concern, but I assure you I am not in need of such a sacrifice. What you can do to make me a happy man is give serious consideration to my suggestion.â