‘You don’t regret it, turning down such a huge inheritance?’
‘I could not keep it, Cressie. I know that it is the one thing which would have reconciled your father to our …’
‘Liaison?’ Cressie said with a chuckle.
Giovanni’s hand stilled. ‘There is nothing temporary about what I feel for you. I will give you my name, I will give you all that I have if you will take it, but even if you don’t, I will never let you go.’
Cressie rolled over to prop herself on his chest. She touched his forehead. His cheek. His throat. He smiled at her in recognition of the gesture. ‘I have no intentions of going anywhere far from your side.’
‘You don’t think I made a mistake, turning down the count’s estates?’
‘You would have made a serious mistake, let me tell you, Giovanni di Matteo, if you had come here bearing riches with which to bribe my father. Of course you didn’t make a mistake.’
‘But your father—it is not him so much as what he can do.’
Cressie nodded. ‘I know. He could forbid my seeing my brothers, but I doubt very much if Bella would allow it. She knows how fond they are of me, and though she seems to love my father, she loves her sons more. As to my father—to be frank, I think the less I see him the easier it will be for me to love him.’
Giovanni gave a bark of laughter. ‘My thoughts exactly.’ His hand moved down her spine to stroke the curve of her bottom. ‘Do you want to marry me, Cressie?’
‘I don’t know. I want to be with you always, I know that much.’
‘I won’t have my children called bastards.’
‘They will be our children regardless. But if we are lucky enough to be blessed, then you may most certainly do me the honour of bestowing your name upon me.’
‘Grazie, signorina. You have a very naughty smile, did you know that?’
‘I did not, until you painted it.’ Cressie wriggled her bottom, and felt a most satisfactory response from beneath her. She smiled again, quite deliberately, and equally deliberately brushed her breasts across his chest. ‘Giovanni, do you still believe we are kindred spirits, you and I?’
‘I am certain of it.’
Another wriggle. He was definitely hard. She was definitely ready. ‘Does that mean you like what I like?’
‘Yes, it does.’
Cressie smiled, her new-found seductive smile. She kissed his mouth. Then she slid down on to the attic floor between his legs. ‘Good, then let me show you exactly what I like,’ she said.
Historical Note
The inspiration for writing a heroine who was a mathematician was sparked when I read Benjamin Woolley’s biography of Lord Byron’s only legitimate child, Ada. Estranged from her husband almost immediately after her marriage, Byron’s wife, Annabella, was terrified that her daughter might have inherited her father’s wild temperament, and introduced a strict regime of formal studies, including philosophies based on reason and logic, in an attempt to counter any such tendencies. My heroine was born thirteen years before Ada, but the two have read many of the same textbooks and share an acquaintance in Charles Babbage, whose counting machine is credited with being the progenitor of the computer.
The idea of having Cressie write a mathematical ‘theory’ of beauty which mirrored the technique which Giovanni used in his portraits came from two sources. I first came across William Hogarth’s ‘line of beauty’ when I took an arts foundation course with the Open University. Jenny Uglow’s excellent biography of the artist, Hogarth: A Life and a World, taught me a bit more on the subject, which I filed away, vaguely thinking that it might come in useful some day. Then, on a recent visit to Hampton Court with one of my sisters (sisters do tend to play a vital role in my life and my books), I saw Sir Peter Lely’s paintings of the ‘Windsor Beauties’ and was much struck by the theory that he’d actually painted each of the individual women using a sort of ‘template’ of beauty in order for the portraits to be more acclaimed. It was here, in Hampton Court, that the idea for Giovanni’s side of the story was born.
At the time Giovanni was painting, ready-mixed oils would have been unavailable. He may have made his own pigments, but would most likely have ordered them from a catalogue and mixed them himself. Much of the technical detail of his craft I gleaned from reading about the English artist Turner. Giovanni’s travelling box of oils is actually based on the one found in Turner’s studio. There are ‘models’ for the three paintings which Giovanni does of Cressie: ‘Lady Cressida’ is based on one by the portraitist Thomas Lawrence, ‘Mr Brown’ takes its inspiration from Goya and ‘Cressie’ is inspired by Goya’s famous painting ‘The Naked Maja’, reputedly the first portrait to depict pubic hair. Though Giovanni precedes the Impressionists by some years, I’ve tried to show his artistic journey from the glossy, idealised style of portraiture popular during the Regency to the more ‘impressionistic’ style which took hold towards the end of the nineteenth century. However, I’m no artist, so any mistakes I’ve made in describing Giovanni’s painting technique are most definitely all my own work.
Finally, for those who are interested, a few historical facts and figures and slight historical liberties I have taken. Though it was not exactly common, there is a precedent for Giovanni’s father, Count Fancini, making his illegitimate son his heir. Guilio de’ Medici was the Earl of Florence’s natural son, for example. Lord Armstrong’s trip to Russia to discuss the problem of Greek independence was actually made by the Duke of Wellington in 1826 and not 1828. Killellan Manor is based on Pollok House in Glasgow, which lies within the country park housing the amazing Burrell Collection, and which is very familiar territory for me. There is no whispering gallery in the cellar there—that particular piece of architecture was inspired by New York’s Grand Central Terminus. If you wish to know still more about the inspiration behind this book, please do check out my Pinterest page.
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
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First published in Great Britain 2013
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited.
Harlequin (UK) Limited, Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road,
Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
© Marguerite Kaye 2013
eISBN: 978-1-472-00379-9
Table of Contents
Excerpt
About the Author
Author Note
Title Page
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Copyright
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The Beauty Within Page 23