Nicolo turned off the motorway and a few minutes later he drove through the village. At one o’clock in the morning, the only sign of life was a fox slinking along the grass verge. At the top of the hill he looked down over the dark valley and was puzzled by the curious glow he could see in the distance.
The orange glow became brighter as he wound along the country roads, and when he reached the lane leading to Chatsfield House the brilliant light visible above the treetops filled him with foreboding. Racing on, he rounded the bend and braked hard.
‘Santa Madre di Dio!’ he whispered fearfully.
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHATSFIELD HOUSE WAS ABLAZE. Stunned by the sight in front of him, Nicolo spoke in his mother’s language. He quickly realised the most likely explanation for the fire was that the west tower had been struck by lightning. Much of the brickwork had collapsed and a fire now raged across the roof of the house.
His brain functioned automatically as he pulled out his phone and called the emergency services, giving the necessary details swiftly and efficiently.
Is there anyone in the building? he was asked. When he confirmed that there was one person inside he was advised not to attempt to enter the burning house but to wait for the fire crew.
‘Like hell,’ Nicolo muttered as he leapt out of the Jeep and ran towards the front door. He could hear Dorcha barking frantically from inside the house. Even if Sophie had slept through the storm, it seemed impossible that she could not hear the racket the wolfhound was making.
Unless she had been overcome by smoke? His blood ran cold, especially when he opened door and was greeted by a thick black cloud.
‘Sophie!’
Through the smoke he could see that the ground-floor rooms were not yet alight, but upstairs the flames were roaring, destroying everything in their path.
‘Angel …’ For a moment Nicolo was overwhelmed by a feeling of utter despair. Sophie and his unborn child were trapped in the inferno. It was worse than any nightmare. This surely was hell on earth. And perhaps it would be his grave, he thought grimly. If he was unable to rescue Sophie he would die trying.
Holding his jacket over his face, he crossed the hall and stared up at the flames that were already curling around the wooden banister at the top of the staircase. He did not have much time. The heat as he ran up the stairs was unbelievable. He remembered the terror he had felt as a teenager caught in the fire in the penthouse, and he felt the same paralysing fear now as he remembered the pain of his skin blistering, the smell of his burning flesh.
His steps did not falter. Adrenalin pumped through his veins as he reached the landing and saw the true horror of the fire. At the far end of the corridor the ceiling had collapsed and burning roof struts were raining down. Guided by the sound of Dorcha’s barks, Nicolo tore down the hallway, ignoring the danger of the flaming debris falling around him. Sophie must have barricaded herself in the bedroom. She must be terrified. Driven by a primal instinct to protect her and his child that she carried, Nicolo forgot his own fear and rushed towards the flames.
Sophie could not understand what was happening. She had been asleep and did not know what had woken her. The room seemed to be filled with a dense haze that was making her eyes sting, and bizarrely, she could hear music.
She suddenly realised she was wearing earphones attached to her music player. The minute she pulled them out she heard Dorcha barking outside the bedroom door. There was another sound too, a strange roaring noise. What on earth? She smelled smoke and began to cough. Heart thumping with panic, she groped her way over to the door and opened it.
The wolfhound threw himself at her. Sophie rubbed his shaggy head, but her eyes were locked on the horrifying sight before her.
‘Dear God!’ she whispered when she saw flames leaping up the walls, devouring an oil painting and flicking along the ceiling. A wall of fire barred her route to the stairs. Sick fear churned in her stomach when she realised there was no other way down.
‘Oh, Dorcha, you were trying to warn me, weren’t you?’ As she hugged the dog she thought of how devastated Nicolo would be to lose his faithful companion. ‘Now we’re both trapped,’ she choked. Pulling the dog into the room, she shut the door and instinctively hurried over to open the window. Far below was the gravel driveway but there was nothing to cushion her if she jumped. Even if by some miracle she survived, what would happen to the baby?
In that instant Sophie was overwhelmed by a desperate urgency to protect her baby, her little miracle. How could she ever have thought that her pregnancy was an inconvenience? Against huge odds she had been given the chance to be a mother. But now it seemed that neither she nor her child had a chance.
She would never see Nicolo again, never be able to tell him what she should have told him weeks ago. Tears filled her eyes. Her stupid pride had stopped her from telling him that she loved him, and now it was too late….
‘Sophie.’
For a moment she thought she had imagined Nicolo’s voice, but as she swung round and peered through the smoke that was rapidly thickening in the bedroom, she saw him standing in the doorway, silhouetted against the flames in the hallway.
‘Thank God you’re all right.’
‘Nicolo …’ She could not believe he was real. ‘You’re in London,’ she said inanely.
‘I decided to drive back tonight, thankfully.’ He strode across the room and stared down at her, a nerve jerking in his cheek. ‘Dio, Sophie—’ his voice cracked ‘—I thought I’d lost you and the baby.’
Of course he was concerned for the baby, Sophie reminded herself. But it did not matter as he snatched her into his arms and held her so tight against his chest that she could feel the powerful beat of his heart.
‘By the time I arrived, the fire had already taken hold,’ he explained quickly. ‘Why didn’t you get out of the house while you could?’
‘I fell asleep with my earphones in, and I didn’t hear Dorcha barking. Nicolo, why did you enter the house if the fire was already serious? It was madness—’ her voice caught on a sob ‘—probably suicide … We can’t get out.’
‘Do you think I would leave you in danger?’ He shook his head, ‘No way, angel. I’m going to get you out of here.’
The fire on the roof must have reached the far end of the house and was now above the master bedroom. Sophie screamed as a burning rafter smashed through the ceiling. Shaking with fear, she burrowed closer to Nicolo. ‘You shouldn’t have risked your life for me.’
He caught hold of her chin and tipped her face up. The room was too dark and full of smoke for her to be able to see his expression, but she heard raw emotion in his voice as he said roughly, ‘My life would have no meaning without you.’
‘I’m sorry I said those awful things to you,’ she whispered brokenly. ‘I saw the press conference you gave about the charity you set up to help burns victims. I’m sorry I doubted you.’
‘It doesn’t matter.’ Through the open window Nicolo saw the flashing lights of a fire engine. Relief flooded through him as he leaned out and shouted down to the fire crew.
He tightened his arms around Sophie. ‘Do you trust me, angel?’
She felt safe in his arms and knew he would give his life to protect her. ‘Of course I trust you.’
Nicolo felt her stiffen as she turned her head and saw the extendable ladder from the fire engine rising towards the window.
Panic gripped Sophie as she watched the ladder coming closer. The fireman standing at the top seemed to be precariously balanced, and the realisation that she would have to join him on the small platform filled her with terror. ‘Nicolo … I’m scared.’
‘I know, sweetheart, but it’s going to be fine. You are going to be rescued first.’
Sophie clutched him. ‘Why can’t we be rescued together?’
‘There’s not enough room on the platform. They’ll send the ladder back up for me.’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t want to leave you.’
‘You said you trust me.’ Nicolo dropped a brief, hard kiss on her mouth before he lifted her up and carried her to the window. ‘I promise I’ll make it out, Sophie. But I want to know you’re safe first.’
What followed became a blur of images as Sophie stood on the platform with the fireman while the ladder slowly descended. She stared up at the blazing house, her eyes locked on Nicolo. She could see an orange glow behind him and knew the fire must be taking hold in the bedroom. ‘Please hurry,’ she muttered, urging the ladder to descend quicker so that it could return for Nicolo and Dorcha.
A sudden loud noise shattered the night and she watched in horror as the roof above the bedroom collapsed. Flames leapt towards the sky and black, choking smoke billowed through the open window.
‘Nicolo … Nicolo …’ Sophie screamed his name over and over as her eyes searched desperately for him. But he had disappeared.
Sophie had a vague recollection of travelling in the back of an ambulance, blue flashing lights, being jolted on a trolley as it was pushed through the doors of the accident and emergency unit at the local hospital.
After being checked over by a doctor she was eventually taken to a small private room where the glare of the bright ceiling lights made her eyes water.
‘Your eyes are suffering from the effects of the smoke from the fire,’ the nurse told her.
Sophie knew that the tears running down her face were for another reason. She sat up on the trolley and clutched the nurse’s arm. ‘Please, have you heard any news about Mr Chatsfield, the other person who was trapped in the fire?’
‘I haven’t heard anything yet. But I do have some good news for you,’ the nurse told her. ‘The ultrasound scan showed that your baby is fine, and doesn’t seem to have been affected at all by your awful experience.’
Sophie felt a momentary sense of relief that her little miracle was still defying the odds. But her joy at hearing the baby was unharmed was replaced with cold dread that there was still no news about Nicolo.
‘Miss Ashdown, what are you doing?’ the nurse demanded as Sophie slid off the trolley. ‘The doctor hasn’t discharged you yet.’
‘I can’t stay here. Where are my shoes?’
‘Miss Ashdown, I must insist.’
‘You don’t understand,’ Sophie said fiercely. ‘I have to find out what has happened to Nicolo. I need to know if he is alive. And if he’s not …’ She broke off and closed her eyes as she thought of the terrible, unthinkable possibility that Nicolo had not escaped from the fire.
‘I have to find the man I love,’ she told the nurse. ‘Without him, my life might as well be over!’
‘Sophie?’
She jerked her head round and released her breath on a shuddering sigh when she saw Nicolo standing in the doorway. His shirt was ripped and blackened with soot and he had a cut running down one cheek, but he still looked like a devilishly sexy highwayman. Sophie’s legs trembled beneath her. ‘Thank God,’ she said thickly.
‘I’ll leave the two of you alone,’ the nurse murmured, slipping out of the door.
Silence stretched between them, and the noises of the busy casualty unit faded to the background. Sophie swallowed. ‘How long have you been standing there?’
‘Long enough to hear what you said.’ Nicolo’s eyes narrowed on her white face. He wondered if she could tell that his heart was slamming violently against his ribcage. ‘Did you mean it?’
She stared at his chiselled features and the stern line of his unsmiling mouth, and her stomach plummeted. He had risked his life for her, she reminded herself. He had faced his greatest fear and rushed into a blazing building to save her knowing that he could be burned, and suffer the same agony he had experienced when he had been burned as a teenager.
She lifted her chin and met his gaze, her eyes blazing with emotion.
‘Yes, I meant it. I love you with all my heart.’ She put her hand up to stop him as he opened his mouth to speak. ‘I know you asked me to marry you for the baby’s sake—’ her voice shook a little ‘—and I know that you probably don’t share my feelings—’
‘You don’t know anything,’ Nicolo interrupted her roughly. ‘For a clever woman, you’re incredibly slow at working things out.’ He closed the gap between them and looked into her eyes and his expression made Sophie’s heart tremble.
‘You broke into my house and stole my heart,’ he told her, his voice as unsteady as Sophie’s had been a few moments earlier. ‘Right back then, that first day, I knew I was in trouble. That’s why I was so determined to make you leave Chatsfield House.’
He threaded his fingers through her honey-gold hair and drew her against him. ‘But you refused to go. You thwarted me and irritated me.’ He smiled as her eyes flashed at him.
‘You made me love you,’ he said softly.
Sophie bit her lip. ‘If that’s true, why did you send me away?’
‘I genuinely believed it was best for you.’ Nicolo exhaled heavily. ‘I doubted myself. I was everything you had accused me of being—remote, aloof, detached from my emotions. But I discovered after you had gone that I wasn’t at all detached and I had more emotions than I could handle. I missed you,’ he confessed. ‘I actually looked forward to the shareholders’ meeting because I knew I would see you again. But the meeting was cancelled, so I came to your flat.’
‘And discovered that you are going to be a father,’ Sophie said drily. ‘For someone who has shunned emotional commitment for most of his life, I can understand it was a shock.’
‘A wonderful shock,’ Nicolo insisted. ‘I had never expected to have a child, and I’d never expected to fall in love. I do love you, Sophie,’ he whispered against her lips, ‘more than you can ever know. I think it’s fantastic that we are going to have a baby, but that’s not the reason I want to marry you. The truth is that I can’t bear the idea of living without you.’
He cradled her face in his hands and gave her a crooked smile that tugged on her heart.
‘Will you be my wife, Sophie, and let me love you for the rest of my life?’
‘Yes,’ she said shakily. ‘As long as you understand that I will never stop loving you.’
Tears that she had been struggling to hold back filled her eyes and slid down her cheeks. The memory of seeing the blazing roof of the house collapse—she’d believed onto Nicolo—would be with her for a long time. ‘I thought I’d lost you,’ she choked.
Nicolo shuddered as he relived the moment when he had discovered the fire and realised that Sophie was trapped inside the house. ‘The idea that I might never hold you in my arms again was beyond unbearable.’ He brushed her tears away with his thumb pads. ‘Don’t cry, angel. Or you’ll make me cry too.’
Sophie drew a ragged breath when she saw that his lashes were wet, and she hugged him fiercely as if she could somehow imprint her body onto his. ‘Once again, by a miracle, our lives have been spared.’ She tensed. ‘What happened to Dorcha?’
‘He’s fine, apart from a bit of a singed coat, but luckily his hair is so thick it protected him. He’s staying with the vet and I’ll pick him up in the morning. Of course we won’t be able to return to Chatsfield House until it has been repaired, but I have an idea that I want to discuss with you.’
He looked intently at Sophie, but to her surprise he did not talk about their living arrangements. ‘I visited my father yesterday and made my peace with him.’
Her eyes widened. ‘Did you tell him that you had seen him with another woman at the penthouse all those years ago?’
‘No.’ He smiled softly. ‘I took your advice and decided to let go of the past. Gene has fallen in love with a charming woman, and they are going to get married. I hope he has many years of happiness ahead of him,’ Nicolo said deeply. ‘My father is excited at the prospect of being a grandfather. He has suggested donating Chatsfield House to the charity and turning it into a convalescent home specifically for children with burns injuries.’
He dropped a soft kiss on Sophie’s mouth
. ‘I’d like us to buy another house and start off our married life in a home that we’ve chosen together.’
‘I’d like that too.’ A thought struck her. ‘How will you carry on with your financial trading business if your computers were destroyed?’
‘Actually, the fire crew reported that the ground-floor rooms aren’t too badly damaged. Anyway, I can run my hedge fund company from any computer. But in future I will spend less time playing the stock markets so that I can concentrate on my role as head of the burns foundation.’
He brushed Sophie’s hair back from her face. ‘I know you are going to be busy looking after the baby a few months from now, but if you decide you would like to work too, then there is a vacancy for a PA to the new CEO of the Michael Morris Burns Support Foundation.’
‘It sounds interesting.’ Sophie stood on tiptoe and linked her arms around Nicolo’s neck. ‘What would my duties be?’ she murmured against his lips.
‘To love me with all your heart for eternity, like I promise I will love you.’
She smiled. ‘In that case I’m definitely perfect for the position. When can I start?’
‘Immediately,’ Nicolo said huskily as he claimed her lips in an achingly tender kiss that captured Sophie’s heart for ever.
* * * * *
If you enjoyed this book, look out for the next instalment of THE CHATSFIELD:
TYCOON’S TEMPTATION by Trish Morey, coming next month.
UNCOVERED!
Read on for an exclusive interview with Chantelle Shaw
Creating a world as large as The Chatsfield must be very exciting—did you discuss the hotels with the other authors?
Yes, we were in constant contact via e-mail and discussed details such as the lay-out of the hotel. One of the authors suggested that we have a Chatsfield Hotel signature scent, which was a great idea. I think that scents and smells are very evocative and for my hero, Nicolo, The Chatsfield scent reminded him of his childhood and his mother.
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