by Gina Kincade
She'd gotten a few hours of sleep, but rose early to rent a car again and make the long drive. It had been worth it.
Tem cleared his throat. "What happened?"
Alessandra pointed to the date on her birth certificate. "My mother," she said, "must have changed my age when we moved to America."
His jaw dropped. For the first time since she'd met him, she saw him speechless.
"It probably wasn't hard," she said, her voice robotic. "You don't need legal documents to go to school in America, so my mother didn't have anything to worry about, did she? Since we had no legal identification papers, who would know if she knocked off a couple of years?"
Tem shook his head slowly, as if he were struggling to take it all in.
"Of course, I had trouble when I went to get a job," Alessandra continued. "A private company is more careful than the government."
"What did you do?"
She gave a mirthless laugh. "I lived in California. I bought documents, of course. What else could I do?"
"You did the best you could," Tem said gently.
"Of course I didn't bother changing my age when I purchased my papers." She gave that odd laugh again. "I had no reason to think the age my mother had given me when we emigrated was wrong. But, in hindsight, I'm lucky she only reduced my age by two years."
"Why would she change your age at all?" Tem took off his glasses, and placed them on the table.
"To make herself look younger, of course. I was a constant reminder that she had to be a certain age to have given birth to a child who was growing older much faster than her mother was."
With an effort, she smiled at Tem. "That's all behind me now. Now I can prove my claim."
Tem closed his eyes and rested his head on the back of his chair. In the quiet room, the dog laid her head down on her paws. Alessandra watched the fire, trying to come up with a plan.
When Tem opened his eyes, a sliver of fear shot through her. What did that look on his face mean?
"I'm not sure," Tem said, "that your grandmother owned that land outright, child."
"What are you saying?" Panic lodged in her throat.
"I don't want you to pin all your hopes on it. I can tell you that Nona never intended for you to interpret her letter the way you did."
Alessandra stared. "I—I don't understand."
Tem put his hand on the arm of the chair and pushed himself to his feet. "I want to show you something." He walked slowly out of the room.
When he returned, he was cradling something in his gnarled hands. He stopped in front of Alessandra and held it out. A thin gold chain fell from his callused fingers. Dangling from the chain was a heart-shaped locket, delicate and gleaming.
He placed it in Alessandra's hands, and she wrapped her fingers around it as tears started in her eyes. "I remember this," she whispered. "Nona wore it always, around her neck."
Tem nodded. "I could say this is all I have left of her. But that's not true. I have my memories. Often, I have her presence." His dark eyes met Alessandra's. "I can feel her standing beside me almost as clearly as I see you."
For a moment, silence stretched out between them. Then Tem smiled sadly. "It is a precious gift to have, although it was never her most prized possession. It did represent her most prized possession."
"Her heart," Alessandra whispered.
Tem nodded. "Which represented, in turn, her love." He met Alessandra's gaze. "You need this more than I do."
"I can't accept this." Alessandra held out her hands, both of which were clutching the locket. "It's yours."
"You can," he said firmly. "It belongs to you as much as anything can. Open it."
Even as her fingers gripped the locket, Alessandra said, "No. I can't take this. She gave it to you."
"She prayed every day that you would come for it. That was her greatest wish, that you would know her love and, one day, be secure in it." Tem lowered himself slowly into his chair. "Open the locket."
With shaking hands, her head bent over the task, Alessandra found the tiny clasp, pressed it, and carefully spread the two wings of the heart. Two photos looked up at her. On the left, her Nona, just the face, with her still shiny black hair parted in the center, and pulled back behind her head. Alessandra knew the thick braid that would be wound into a bun behind Nona's neck.
She bent her head further, trying to shield her face from Tem's penetrating gaze. But her tears flowed like a waterfall, pouring out of the hole in her heart that had never been healed when she was torn from her childhood home.
When she finally recovered enough to view the second portrait, she knew she could never keep the locket.
It was a photo of Tem as a young man. His hair was dark, but still waving over his forehead like it did right now. His eyes were still deep-set, looking into emotions and dreams that only he could see. His lips were curved in a smile that she'd seen many times herself.
"This is yours, Tem." She handed it to him. "She gave this to you. To me, she gave her home."
He shook his head.
"What are you saying?" She tried to prevent herself from understanding. "You think I should stop fighting for Nona's home?"
"A home consists of people, child. Not property."
"What are you trying to tell me?"
"If you have love in your heart, that is what you need to protect. To cherish. To hold. No matter what has happened, always fight for love."
***
Tem and Alessandra ate lunch, mostly in silence, as Alessandra wrestled with her thoughts.
She knew what she had to do. She didn't know if she had the guts.
"You managed to crash a Valentine’s Day ball, the biggest social event in Bergserrat," Tem said at one point, and she knew he was reminding her of her strength.
She smiled. She couldn't tell him other things she'd dared.
Like exposing herself in a sauna.
Like sleeping with a man who didn't know who she was.
But none of those actions were as terrifying as exposing her heart.
Luckily, she still had the rental car from her trip to Daenos. After they'd cleaned up lunch, she told Tem where she was going, knowing that would be enough to put her new plan in motion.
She hadn't expected to arrive back at Nona's house with defeat behind her. Yet that's how she arrived, leaving the car once again in the road.
The scent of pine trees perfumed the air as she trudged through the snow, her boots barely high enough to keep out the wet stuff. But the sun was warm, and her heart, if not light, was at least hopeful.
She knew where the snowdrops would first appear. In a sunny spot on the west side of the house where evergreens didn't grow, and the sun urged new life out of the ground at the first opportunity.
The spot was seared in her memory because it was where she'd said goodbye to her best friend when she left Austria. She'd tried many times to forget the memory of Raul standing there as a ten year old boy, shuffling his feet in the snow, his head looking down, as if he didn't want to face reality.
He'd handed her the flowers he'd been clutching in his mittened fingers. "I brought you snowdrops," he said gruffly.
"Why?" She took the delicate flowers gently. The white petals could look like a field of fluffy snow, clean and bright. But the tender green stems were always a harbinger of spring, a sign of hope.
Raul briefly caught her eye, and then looked away. The always confident, brash boy had disappeared. "So you'll know," he said, "how to keep on going. The snowdrop blooms when no other flower dares to. It flowers in the face of the odds."
She stepped closer. Even then, he stood several inches taller than her so she lifted her face defiantly. "What do you mean? I'm moving to Hollywood. The sun shines every day. My mom is going to be a star, and we're always going to be happy!"
"I know." He pulled off a mitten, and touched her hair on the crown of her head, a trace of his brashness re-appearing. "But, just in case, remember the snowdrop, that blooms in the cold of winte
r. Even if things don't turn out exactly as you hoped, you just keep on trying. Okay?"
"You sound like a girl," she snarled. Oh, her sorrow had made her hard and bitter.
"I know." Raul had grimaced. "But it had to be said."
Now, she knelt down in the protected nook beside her childhood home. The snow was cold, but the sun warmed her. She drew off her glove and touched one of the tiny petals.
She wasn't surprised when a shadow fell over her.
Nor frightened.
Perhaps she felt the loving hand of her Nona touching her, encouraging her.
She looked up to see Raul standing there, as always, tall and strong. He was wearing a navy, hip-length ski jacket, and blue jeans. His dark hair was ruffled by a breeze, and his face flushed from the cold. He was everything she'd ever wanted in a man.
"I thought I wouldn't pick them," she said, her hand still resting by the flowers.
He smiled. "So they can grow."
"But I wanted to give you a bouquet."
"In exchange?"
She captured his gaze. "I remembered you giving me the flowers. Do you?"
He reached a hand down to her. "Always. Saturday night, after holding you in my arms all night, I didn't know in my mind, but I knew in my heart. I told Stephano the next day that I could not fight you for the land."
Her mouth fell open. "You did?"
He grabbed her hand, laughing. "That's the one thing that surprises you? Will you stand up?"
She stood. "Okay, I'll ask. How are you here?"
"Tem got hold of me through Stephano."
She nodded. "I figured he would."
"Enough talking." He stepped closer, slid his arms around her and lowered his head. Looking directly into her eyes until the last moment before contact, he kissed her as gently as she'd touched the snowdrop. The air around her was cold, but his heat warmed her. His scent enveloped her. Fire and snow.
"Lessie," he whispered. "You came back."
"You didn't even recognize me," she murmured. "I planned to go to the ball in hopes that you'd know me." Despite herself, her lips quivered. "But you didn't."
"Be reasonable, Lessie." His deep voice was very gentle. "You were expecting me. I wasn't expecting you. All I knew was that you'd appeared out of nowhere, claiming to be someone whose name, even all these years later, was a stab in my heart. I know now that I never got over losing you." He kissed her again, and this time his tongue ignited a flame within her as his hips moved against her.
When he lifted his head, their bodies remained entwined. "I still don’t understand why you say you’re only twenty-six. You, Calandre and I were the same age, weren’t we?"
Alessandra nodded. "I finally figured that out. My mother must have changed my age when we moved to America. When she gave me a new name."
Raul touched her hair. "And, of course," he said, "you've changed a lot."
"You haven't changed!" She gave him a half-smile. "Well, in some ways you have. You're much bigger." Her smile grew. "In ways I didn't even know about then." She wriggled against him.
He laughed. "Are you flirting with me?"
"Maybe."
"Do I dare to hope you'll be willing to do that forevermore?" His eyes gleamed down at her.
"Don't you know that I returned to Austria, just to do that?" She let all of her love show in her gaze. Finally.
"You took long enough to let me know," he grumbled. But he was smiling.
"I didn't know how you felt, Raul. I had no proof. You weren't exactly nice to me."
He lowered his head again. "I have a lifetime to make up for that, and I plan to start right now."
Epilogue
The Playboy Duke is Kissed by Love
Alessandra laughed, and Raul joined in. They'd been lolling on Raul's bed in his suite at the Stirling castle. Fortunately, they were fully dressed. So when his little sister, Bianca, had knocked on the door to show them the magazine, Europe Entertainment, they'd gotten up, and gone with her to the sitting room.
Bianca curled up on the love seat next to Alessandra, while Raul stood over them.
"You look beautiful, Alessandra," Bianca said.
"Hey, that's my line." Raul tugged a strand of his sister's long dark hair.
Alessandra smiled, grateful that she and Bianca had taken to each other right away.
The photo accompanying the ridiculous headline was, once more, the shot of the two them lying in the snow at the ski resort in Switzerland. Her red ski suit looked cool in comparison to the heat of their kiss, with Raul's face intent, and hers dreamy.
The popular magazine also had other photos, which had been provided by the Stirling public relations service. Once the engagement had been announced, press releases had been necessary. Alessandra had posed with Raul on the balcony of the Stirling castle, she in the blue gown she'd worn at the Valentine's Day Ball, Raul in his tux. He'd wanted to buy her a new dress, but she'd insisted on the blue one. It would always hold a special place in her heart, but it had to be returned to her friend. She wanted to capture the memory in a photo.
Fortunately, Raul was happy to go along with whatever she wanted. It was a delicious sensation, to be the object of his desire.
"How long until you move back here for good?" Bianca asked.
Alessandra smiled at her. "I need to pack up my life in California. It shouldn't take more than a month."
"And then you're going to law school?"
"That's right. At least, assuming I get in." Given the fact that she had excellent undergraduate grades, and a top score on the LSAT, plus Stephano was on the Board of Trustees of the best law school in Austria, she thought her chances were good.
Bianca tilted up her head. "So you aren't going to help Raul build his ski resort?"
"Our ski resort," Raul corrected. "Alessandra and I will own it together." He flashed a wink at Alessandra, and then walked around the love seat and held out his hand to Bianca. "Out you go," he said. "I have a special wedding present for Alessandra and I want to give it to her privately."
Bianca looked from Raul to Alessandra and frowned. "Why does it have to be private? Is it something sexy?"
Her brother burst out laughing. "No more questions, Bi. We'll tell you all about it at dinner."
She flounced out of the room.
Raul sat down next to Alessandra, curving one arm around her shoulders.
"First," he said, "I need a kiss. It's been at least ten minutes."
Alessandra laughed, and he leaned down and kissed her laughing lips. But when he released her so they could get some air, she said, "I don't need a wedding present, Raul. It's just enough to have this happiness. You know it took me long enough to realize that possessions are nothing compared to love."
He smiled and reached into the pocket of his shirt. "Tell me what you think after you know what the present is."
Bewildered, Alessandra unfolded the documents he handed to her. She couldn't imagine what it was. She began reading.
Then her hands began to shake. Tears started to roll down her face.
"Hey," Raul said. "You're not supposed to cry."
She raised her brimming eyes to his. "Tears of happiness, Raul. Nothing could be more perfect."
"No necklace of diamonds from the best jeweler in Austria?"
She shook her head.
"No couture gown to replace the one you have to return to Cindy?"
She clasped his hand. "You didn't spend money you don't have to do this, did you?"
He shook his head. "Stephano helped me work it all out. He's a good man to have at your side."
"Oh, Raul!" She flung her arms around his neck. "Tem would never have said anything. But I'm so grateful that he now has a clear title to his home."
"I got the idea when you said you still wanted to get your law degree so you could help the many Romany living in Austria who might be lacking clear titles to their properties. It didn't used to matter so much, but in the 21st century, they do need an advocate."
Alessandra smiled. She'd been practicing her German. "Ich liebe dich, Raul. I love you too."
The End
Where to find more of Carly Carson
Website: http://www.carlycarson.com