Free Empress Bianca by Lady Colin Campbell Page B

who promised excitement, satisfaction. An interesting, indeed fascinating, woman. Two years older than Ferdie, she had lived for ten years with the multimillionaire Prince Vittorio dell’Oro, a man two and a half decades her senior. There was no chance of her becoming the Principessa dell’Oro, however. That role was already filled, by a hawk-nosed Papal contessina who had provided the prince with eight children, the last of whom was only four years old, despite the fact that he and his wife were never together, save for family holidays.
    Although Gloria’s prince and his contessina were effectively separated, divorce was not a possibility in Italy in the fifties, and the nature of the relationship between Gloria and her prince was therefore not exceptional. Indeed, Italy at that time had many couples who were not married (at least, not to each other) but who, like the prince and the soprano, were accepted as established couples. In some ways, Gloria was even happy about the situation. She was only too aware that, but for Italy’s archaic ban on divorce, she might never have been the declared consort of a prince because the Italian aristocracy seldom married outside of their own caste; and Gloria was only one of many women who secretly hoped that the state did not reform its divorce laws and force public humiliation upon them when their men refused to marry them.
    Within days of their meeting, Ferdie asked Gloria to join him in Capri for a long weekend. ‘Why not?’ Gloria told herself, aware that a single multimillionaire with his future before him was a better prospect than a married multimillionaire with a past.
    That first night in Capri, Ferdie and Gloria consummated their romance. From his point of view, it was interesting, exciting and fun. From hers, it was also interesting, exciting and fun; but neither of them had been profoundly moved by the other, even though they both wanted to meetsomeone with whom they could fall in love and ultimately marry.
    By the end of their time together, they had enjoyed themselves enough to be prepared for more, despite the fact that what they had experienced was far from the real thing, merely a pleasant diversion.
    However, they both wanted it to be more than it was, and in their anxiety to mistake it for something more profound, neither of them listened to the inner voices as they whispered their doubts.
    For Gloria, the moment to listen ought to have been when Ferdie told her he loved her after they had made love on the morning of their departure. Pleasant as they were to hear, those three magical words seemed slightly out of place. Slightly optimistic. Slightly anticipatory. They were words she wanted to hear, words she might even want to hear from him one day, but if she had been honest with herself, she would have acknowledged that she did not want to hear them from him at that time and in that place.
    As for Ferdie, he ought to have listened to his doubts that first time he said ‘I love you,’ to Gloria, for, as he was doing so, a small voice within him said: ‘No, you don’t. Not yet. You might one day, but you don’t now.’ But Ferdie ignored his inner voice, rationalizing that if those three words might one day be true, it was all right to use them now. After all, he lived in Mexico City, Gloria in Rome; and they could hardly conduct a long distance romance without some declaration of intent.
    ‘I’m so glad you do,’ Gloria responded, as the gap between the words she was uttering and her true feelings started to hit her.
    Tactics. Tactics. A girl had no other option but to use tactics unless she was prepared to ruin her chances. And Gloria was not about to do that. Not with someone who was as attractive, as interesting, dynamic, interesting and rich as Ferdie Piedraplata.
    ‘I don’t want to lose you,’ Ferdie said.
    ‘Nor I you.’
    ‘You’re not coming to Mexico for a while, are you?’
    ‘I wasn’t planning to.’
    ‘I’ve got a hell of a week of