LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER SIX

      SHANNAY CAME AWAKE slowly, stretched a little, reached for her watch to check the time and gave a gasp of dismay.

      Nicki.

      She flung back the covers, caught up her robe and hurried through the en suite to the adjoining bedroom, felt her heart leap to her throat at the sight of Nicki’s bed neatly made and no sign of her daughter.

      Where …?

      It was then she caught sight of the note propped against the pillow, and she hurriedly snatched it up, read the brief script in bold black ink, “Nicki downstairs in Maria’s care,” and felt the panic begin to subside.

      All it took was ten minutes to shower, pull on dress jeans and a casual top over bra and briefs, slide her feet into heeled sandals, then she made her way down to the informal dining room to greet a glowing Nicki being fussed over by the benevolent Maria.

      ‘Marcello said not to wake you,’ the housekeeper relayed as she poured steaming aromatic coffee into a cup, offered a wide choice of food for breakfast and shook her head slightly when Shannay chose fresh fruit and yoghurt.

      ‘It’s mid-morning,’ Shannay reminded with a wry smile. ‘My body clock needs time to adjust.’

      ‘Marcello said we can go to a park after lunch,’ Nicki informed as Shannay took a seat at the table.

      ‘That’s nice.’ What else could she say? Any hope Marcello might absent himself in his city office each day seemed doomed. Which meant any form of freedom wasn’t going to happen.

      Goodbye to checking out theme parks as carefree tourists. No spur-of-the-moment shopping excursions.

      This was Madrid. Here she was affiliated to the Martinez family, where extreme wealth necessitated due care with a bodyguard in attendance beyond the safety of home.

      She hadn’t liked it then. Any more than she did now. Except there was Nicki, with little or no conception of her true identity … yet. A vulnerable child who hadn’t been groomed almost from birth to always be aware of possible danger, to unquestionably obey the people in charge of her welfare, or having been taught simple but vital diversionary survival tactics.

      It was a heavy load for such a young child, and not something instantly learned.

      Although she was loath to admit Marcello had been right in bringing them into his home, it made perfect sense to utilise their three-week sojourn as a learning curve.

      It was no use wishing fate hadn’t had a hand in bringing Nicki’s existence to Sandro and Luisa’s attention.

      Life was filled with coincidence, occasionally against all the odds … and she had to deal with it.

      Shannay finished her breakfast, drained the rest of her coffee and extended a hand towards her daughter.

      ‘Shall we go explore?’

      The house first, then the grounds … with Carlo in attendance at a reasonable distance when they ventured outdoors.

      High walls, electronic gates, sophisticated security monitoring the grounds.

      Together she and Nicki trod the neat paths as they viewed the immaculate lawns, the gardens with their beautiful flowerbeds providing brilliant colour, carefully tended shrubbery precision-clipped to landscaped perfection.

      ‘It’s pretty,’ Nicki announced, then pointed in excitement. ‘There’s a swimming pool. Are we allowed to swim in it?’

      ‘Only when I’m with you,’ she cautioned firmly.

      ‘Or Marcello?’

      Shannay inclined an agreement, and felt a degree of maternal alarm at the thought of Nicki being left unsupervised when she wasn’t around. Then she calmed down a little. For the next two years, Nicki’s sojourns here would be restricted to a few … except how could she ever learn to let go?

      She’d be a nervous wreck from the time her daughter boarded the jet until she returned to Australian soil.

      ‘It’s a very big house,’ Nicki declared, visibly awed by the luxurious interior as they moved through the various rooms.

      Shannay provided a running explanation as they completed the first level and trod the stairs to the upper level.

      ‘I like our wing best,’ Nicki clutched a tighter hold of Shannay’s hand, ‘‘specially my room.’

      Who wouldn’t?

      Marcello joined them for lunch, and from his casual attire he’d obviously conducted the morning’s work in his home office.

      Black jeans, a white shirt unbuttoned at the neck and the long sleeves rolled back at the cuffs, he resembled a dark angel, rugged with his hair less smoothly groomed than usual … almost as if he’d thrust fingers through its thickness in exasperation. And if so, why?

      In the early days of their marriage she would have walked up to him, cupped his broad facial features between both hands and leaned in to savour the touch of his mouth. Feel his arms close round her slim body as he deepened the kiss, and exult in his arousal.

      A time when she’d thought nothing could damage their love.

      How naive had she been?

      ‘Must I have a nap?’

      Shannay caught the subdued excitement bubbling beneath the surface as Nicki silently pleaded with her.

      ‘Uh-huh.’ She tempered it with a smile, hating the disappointment clouding her daughter’s expressive features. ‘Everyone has a siesta after lunch.’

      Nicki’s eyes grew round with surprise. ‘Even grown-ups?’ She looked at Marcello. ‘You, too?’

      ‘Sometimes, if I’m home and not too busy.’ His smile transformed his features, and Shannay felt the familiar sensation curl deep within in memory of how they’d shared the afternoon siesta when sleep hadn’t been a factor.

      Marcello’s sanction made it OK, and Nicki obediently caught hold of Shannay’s hand as she led her daughter upstairs to her room.

      With outer clothes removed and tucked beneath light covers, Nicki fell asleep within minutes, and Shannay moved through to her own room, too restless to do other than flick through a magazine.

      No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t shake an instinctively inexplicable feeling of impending … what?

      She shook her head in exasperation, then dispensed with the magazine. It was crazy. She was crazy.

      It was mid-afternoon when Carlo brought the expensive Porsche four-wheel-drive to the front door, and with Nicki happily ensconced in the rear seat between Shannay and Marcello they headed for the nearest park.

      Her daughter’s enthusiasm for everything new appeared boundless, and she watched as Nicki explored, frequently calling for Marcello to come look at a butterfly, a bee, a pretty flower.

      By day’s end, fed and bathed, Nicki contentedly settled in bed as Marcello read her a bedtime story,

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