Although, would they have been? Violet asked herself wryly. Possibly, their grandfather had known his own daughter better than most. In fact, their mum had still stood by her loser of a husband and their father long after most women would have thrown him out. Lies, cheating, thefts, not to mention alcohol and physical abuse had destroyed what should’ve been their safe home. But Lucia Blessington was the kind of woman who had stuck by her man through thick and thin for far more years than she should’ve done. Intensely loyal and loving towards her children but also, unfortunately, towards her undeserving husband.
Indeed, Violet wasn’t sure that if her father hadn’t himself walked out for another more promising prospect of a woman her mother wouldn’tstillbe by Sam Blessington’s side, wearing her wedding ring. Her father had pushed for the divorce although his affair had died soon after it was granted. High on his latest acclaimed exhibition as a leading artist, their father had put both ex-wife and daughters behind him for good. That had proved a relief to his daughters, if not their mother. Violet didn’t dislike anyone as much as she disliked her own father. She was always aware that he had made both her and her twin unjustly wary of and distrustful with men.
Holding a drowsy Belle in her arms, Violet clambered out of the car.
‘Do you need any help?’ Tore asked without noticeable enthusiasm.
‘Yes, thank you.’ Violet handed over her daughter with a bright smile. Tore was exhausted and cross and he was still doing the courteous bit, and in Violet’s opinion that deserved a reward and there was no greater reward than Belle. Belle patted his cheek and tugged at his bright silvery hair, equally impressed. Until now there had been no men in Belle’s world, and she had taken a liking to Tore at first sight.
They mounted the steps below the clear blue sky with the heat of the sun beating down on them. They were greeted in the ancient stone-tiled hall by a clutch of staff, all of whom crowded round Tore to volubly admire Belle even before greeting Violet.
‘Please may I hold her?’ a young woman urged, holding out her arms to Belle.
Belle turned her head away because she obviously preferred Tore. Violet smiled and laughed.
Introductions began. ‘Violet, this is Stella, who swears she’s a baby whisperer after all the babysitting she’s done over the years.’
Violet lifted Belle out of Tore’s arms, ignored her daughter’s little sound of protest and handed her to the young woman. ‘I’ll show you the nursery,’ Stella offered.
They climbed a twisting stone staircase, ornamented with narrow window casements and oil paintings and there on the first floor was a full-blown nursery, which took Violet by surprise.
‘Little children in the family visit often,’ Stella told her cheerfully.
And Violet, misery that she was, wondered if that meant, as Tore now owned the castle, that it would betheirrole to entertain those children and their parents. She wouldn’t have thought like that if she and Tore were a normal married couple, but keeping up the act that theywerein front of potential family members would be more challenging.
And there was everything in that room from a beautiful cot and junior beds to a wide selection of toys and necessities. A sound alerted her to Tore’s arrival. He stood beside her, his shapely mouth compressed into a tough line while Stella finished settling Belle in her giant cot. The young woman departed then, seemingly as aware as Violet of the new castle owner’s ominous mood.
‘What’s up?’
‘Our housekeeper has informed me that we’re still in store for all the usual family visits this month, which means that we will be meeting every nearanddistant member of my family and entertaining them. Inevervisit during July!’ Tore gritted out between hard-clenched teeth.
‘Not the sociable type?’ Violet guessed with rueful amusement. ‘So, Mr Grumpy Pants, how do we handle the situation since you evidently have inherited the responsibility?’
‘I can hardly cancel them at the last minute!’ Tore bit out with barely leashed rancour. ‘That would distress my grandparents.’
‘You have beenhad,’ Violet murmured with wry sympathy. ‘Your grandparents are being more appropriate than you assumed. This arrangement will hardly qualify as a honeymoon and it’s a neat way of getting you to conform to expectations that you have, clearly, previously ignored.Familytime…’
Tore swore vehemently under his breath in Italian and swung round to her, one hand momentarily brushing her shoulder to ensure that she turned to face him. ‘Did you think I hadn’t already worked that one out?’ he raked furiously down at her, green eyes flashing sparks in that lean, darkly handsome face.
‘Don’t put angry hands on me or raise your voice,’ Violet told him in sharp, icy warning. ‘I won’t stand for being treated like that!’
Tore gazed down at her in total shock at the sudden alert and he stepped back a pace. ‘I barely touched you,’ he objected straight off. ‘And I was only expressing my annoyance. It wasnotdirected at you personally.’
‘I’m sorry…you unnerved me there for a moment. I don’t like tall, angry men getting too close,’ she admitted uncomfortably.
‘Who taught you that lesson?’ he prompted with a frown of censure.
‘My father. Let’s just say that he was a terrible husband and parent,’ she replied flatly.
‘I would nevereverlose control of my temper with a woman or become physical,’ Tore assured her squarely. ‘I’m not built that way. I may storm up and down a little and curse but that’s the height of my flaws in that field.’
‘Good to know,’ she muttered, pink-cheeked with embarrassment that she had been forced, in fairness to him, to admit her father’s appalling parental failures. She had heard enough of Tore’s comments concerning his grandparents to know that an unhappy home life with them was far removed from his experience and that felt humiliating to her just at that moment.
‘There is another problem,’ Tore murmured very quietly as he preceded her out of the nursery. ‘We can’t occupy separate bedrooms with family members under the same roof. I also doubt if there would be enough rooms free to accommodate the guests. Although my grandfather added an extension when I was a child, it’s still not a large property.’
Violet breathed in slow and deep but inside herself she was secretly filled with amusement. Tore was no longer on the front foot. His grandparents had stymied him by landing him with a month of happy family togetherness, which he craved about as much as he craved a broken leg. She hoped she was a more generous person than he was in adversity.
‘If you can respect my privacy, I can respect yours,’ Violet responded quietly.
