LITMIR.BIZ

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curious to know if what I heard is true.’

      ‘So ignore the gossip and ask your bridegroom for the real story. If you don’t make a major issue out of it, he’ll probably be quite happy to tell you what really happened,’ the older woman opined.

      Jess knew that was sensible advice, but it was frustrating advice because she couldn’t imagine questioning Cesario about something that personal. She returned to her seat at the top table and sipped her champagne, still longing for the real fizz of fun and optimism to magically infiltrate her bloodstream and lift her mood. Her boss, Charlie, came up to talk to her about the locum vet he had engaged to cover for her while she was in Italy. In the end, after much debate, she had not opted for a partnership at the practice, reluctant to own a rise in status that could only be attributable to Cesario’s wealth and influence and concerned that such a move would only burden her with even more responsibility than she already had. Since there was only so much of her to go round, she had decided that working part-time would suit her changing circumstances better, allowing her to continue her career and keep abreast of new developments while allowing her more free time in which to meet Cesario’s expectations and to work towards her ambition of having her animal sanctuary registered as a charity.

      Charlie was moving away when a tall young man with dark curly hair approached her. She didn’t remember him from the guest line-up and she was surprised when he asked her to dance, although she stood up with good grace.

      ‘I don’t think I remember meeting you earlier.’

      ‘You won’t. I’ve only just arrived with some friends for the evening party,’ he told her cheerfully, reaching out a hand to clasp hers with relaxed courtesy. ‘I’m Luke Dunn-Montgomery.’

      He was a member of the family that had once owned Halston Hall. Jess felt her mouth fall open in surprise and she swiftly cloaked her gaze, although she could not resist subjecting him to one intense appraisal to satisfy her curiosity, for she knew by his name exactly whose son he was.

      ‘Obviously, I know who you are,’ Luke remarked once they were safely on the floor and the music had ground conveniently to a halt so that they could talk briefly. ‘You’re the cat that’s not allowed out of the bag for fear that my father might lose votes for his youthful indiscretion with your mother…’

      At that irreverent explanation for her birth father’s refusal to acknowledge her existence, Jess lifted startled eyes to his. ‘I didn’t realise anyone else in your family even knew I existed.’

      ‘I heard my parents arguing about you when I was a teenager,’ he confided. ‘My mother was furious when she found out that you existed.’

      ‘I don’t see why. I was born long before your parents married,’ Jess pointed out tightly.

      ‘Actually, they were dating at the time you were conceived,’ Luke explained in a suitably lowered tone, his eyes dancing with rueful amusement. ‘I was sworn to secrecy about you.’

      ‘I didn’t think I was that important,’ Jess confided a touch bitterly when she cast her mind back to the cold reception she had received on the one and only occasion when she had tried to make the acquaintance of her birth father.

      Currently a well-known member of parliament with a political career that meant a great deal to him, William Dunn-Montgomery had refused to have anything to do with the illegitimate daughter born to Sharon Martin while he was still a student. He had even had a solicitor’s letter sent to Jess warning her to stay away from him and his family. It was as if she might be the carrier of some dread social disease, she recalled painfully. She marvelled that she had ever expected any warmer a welcome from the man when he had given her teenaged mother the cash to pay for an abortion and had then considered his responsibility discharged even after he learned that he had a daughter.

      ‘I’ve always been madly curious about you—my only sibling,’ Luke told her. ‘My word, with that hair and those eyes you do look very like Dad’s side of the family, although you’re a little on the short side!’

      At that quip, Jess glanced up at him, saw that he was tall and she grinned, her tension suddenly dissipating. He was her half-brother, after all, and she was pleased that he’d had the interest to attend her wedding and introduce himself to her. ‘I didn’t even know there were any Dunn-Montgomerys on the guest list.’

      ‘Your bridegroom got to know my parents when he bought this place and my father’s very proud of his extensive connections with the business world. I’m sure Father made a very polite excuse for his and Mother’s non-attendance. I imagine he was very shocked when he realised who Cesario was marrying. It’ll be a challenge for him to avoid you now.’

      ‘Cesario doesn’t know about my background,’ Jess admitted. ‘And I have no plans to tell him.’

      ‘I can understand why you would prefer to keep quiet about my father.’

      ‘Some secrets are better left buried. I don’t see the point of treading on anyone’s toes now.’

      Luke took the hint and dropped the subject, walking her off the floor while happily answering all her questions. He had all the assurance of a much-loved only child and explained that, in the family tradition, he was a pupil barrister as his father and grandfather had been before him.

      Cesario glanced over Alice’s shoulder and saw Jessica with her tall male companion. His dark golden gaze zeroed in on his bride, noting the happy glow she exuded, and his eyes widened in surprise when she laughed, showing more animation than she had shown throughout the whole of her wedding day. That she liked the company she was in was obvious and he could see that she was chattering away. Cesario, who had never yet got his bride to chatter, stared and frowned, wondering who the young man was because he didn’t recognise him.

      Sharon intercepted her daughter to ask in a worried undertone, ‘What were you talking about with Luke Dunn-Montgomery?’

      Jess laughed. ‘He knows about me and he couldn’t have been friendlier.’

      ‘His family won’t like that,’ her mother pronounced.

      ‘That’s not my problem,’ Jess replied, reaching for another glass of champagne and registering that she felt remarkably buoyant.

      ‘Watch out,’ Sharon said anxiously nonetheless. ‘It’s safer not to get on the wrong side of people like that.’

      ‘Times have changed, Mum. The Dunn-Montgomerys are not lords of the manor any more and the locals don’t have to bow and curtsy when they pass by.’

      And, at that moment, Luke reappeared at her elbow and insisted on being introduced to her mother before sweeping Jess off to meet his friends. The champagne had loosened her tongue and made her more of a social animal than usual. Luke’s friends were fun and she was giggling like mad over a silly joke when Cesario approached their table, spoke to everyone with rather chilling dignity and anchored a hand that would not be denied to Jess’s elbow to raise her from her seat and walk her away.

      Bristling at that high-handed intervention, Jess shot him a reproving look. ‘What was that all about?’

      ‘It’s time for us to bow out of the festivities.’

      ‘But we aren’t leaving for Italy until tomorrow morning,’ Jess protested, realising belatedly as she glanced at her watch that time had moved on without her awareness and that, at what felt like very little warning, she was about to embark on her much-agonised-over wedding night.

      ‘It’s after midnight and our guests are beginning to leave, a fact that seems to have passed you by while you were flirting—’

      ‘I’m not Cinderella.’ Jess froze, facial muscles tightening, slight shoulders stiffening as Cesario herded her out to the magnificent main staircase. ‘And I wasn’t flirting!’

      ‘You’ve been flirting like mad with Luke Dunn-Montgomery for the past hour! Maledizione! I could hear you laughing across the dance floor.’

      On the wide first

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