The Brides of Bella Rosa: Beauty and the Reclusive Prince

Isabella turned and glanced at her sideways. “How did you know?”

Susa smiled and looked superior, mixing gelatin into the whipping cream as a stiffener, preparing for the fabulous desserts she would be concocting that evening. Very casually, she shrugged.

“I know many things.”

Susa was like a member of the family. After Isabella’s mother died, it was Susa she often turned to for those familiar motherly things that she needed. It was Susa who taught her how to act with the customers, how to say, “Please,” and, “Thank you,” and look as if you meant it. When Luca was putting her into jeans and plaid shirts as though she were a little boy, Susa taught her how to wear frilly dresses. She had a lot to thank the woman for. But Susa could be annoying, all the same.

Just like family.

Her silver hair was set in neat curls around her head, augmented by tortoiseshell combs. She looked ageless and infinitely efficient, which was just exactly what she was. Looking at her, Isabella had a flash of appreciation for the woman. Without her, they couldn’t run this restaurant these days. If nothing else, she was completely loyal. And very good at making pastries.

Isabella stared at her for a long moment, then sighed. “Someone told you, didn’t they? Someone who saw me driving up there.”

“Perhaps. Or perhaps I saw it myself.” She threw out a significant look. “I’ve told you before, I have the gift.”

Isabella rolled her eyes, turning back to her garlic press.

“I just want to warn you to be careful,” Susa said after a long pause.”

Isabella nodded. “Everyone is warning me to be careful.”

“You need a warning.” Susa looked up sharply. “You’re reckless. You trust people too much and you get hurt.”

Isabella tried to keep her temper. “I also eat too many sweets and stay up too late watching old movies. We should put up a chart with all my vices on it, so everyone can see.”

It was Susa’s turn to roll her eyes and Isabella bit her lip, regretting that she’d spoken sharply.

But the woman wasn’t chastened. “Just a word to the wise,” she said crisply. “In the first place, stay away from the prince. But if you must go to see him, stay away from water.” She got up from her seat and headed for the washroom.

Isabella stared after her, then jumped up and followed her to the door.

“What are you talking about?” she demanded.

“Oh, nothing.” Susa disappeared into the washroom.

“Susa!”

Isabella began to pace impatiently, waiting for her to return. Whatever she was hinting at, she had to know her reasons. There was no doubt something was still bothering Max about his wife’s death. And there was no doubt he was overly worried about that river. She would see how much Susa knew—or thought she knew—and then try to find out the truth on her own.

Susa came back out, smiling happily, knowing she had rocked Isabella’s world.

“Well?” Isabella demanded. “Tell me what you mean by that water crack.”

Susa shrugged. “That was how his young wife died. She drowned right in front of him.”

“What?” Isabella suddenly felt breathless. “Why don’t I know about this?”

“The family kept it quiet.” Susa touched her arm in something close to sympathy. “There were whispers, but no one knew for sure what had happened.” She shook her head. “But signs were not good.”

Isabella regained her equilibrium and frowned, beginning to get suspicious.

“Why would you know about this if nobody else does?”

“I told you.” She pointed to her own temple. “The gift,” she said, her eyes widening.

“Susa!”

She smiled like a cat with a secret. “And also, I know because my cousin was working there, up at the castle, at the time.”

That put a little more credence behind it, Isabella had to admit. Susa seemed to have relatives working everywhere. Isabella shook her head. She supposed that was all a part of having “the gift.”

“So tell me everything you heard,” she demanded.

Susa shrugged, starting toward the refrigerator. “I know she drowned in the river, right there on the estate. The two of them were there alone. There are those who think…” She raised her eyebrow significantly.

“No!” Isabella cried. She was furious, but she had a deep, sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach all the same. “I don’t believe that for a minute.”

Susa shrugged. “You never know.”

But Isabella knew very well that Max could never have hurt anyone. Could he? Of course not. It was inconceivable.

Susa had no more information, but she’d said enough to send Isabella into orbit. This news was all she could think about. Her heart thumped as she went over this possibility and that probability. She wanted to run to Max, to see if he knew about these rumors. But how could she bring something like this up? Impossible. And she knew without a doubt that he wouldn’t want to hear a word about it.

Still, it made her crazy to think of people suspecting him. She ached with it, wanting to defend him even though…

Even though she didn’t even know if anything Susa said was real or just wild imaginings in the woman’s mind. Slowly, she calmed herself. There was really no point in letting herself get so worked up when she didn’t even know if any of this was true.

She looked at the clock. In just eighteen hours, she would see him again. Thinking about it, she felt a strange tingling spread from her chest down her arms to her fingertips, and that was when she knew she was letting herself make too much of this—and it was time to come back to earth.

The whole thing was a mistake and Max knew it. Sitting in his darkened library, he sipped from his third glass of aged port and pondered what he was going to do about it. A wood fire flickered in the stone fireplace. The huge old house creaked with its antiquity and echoed with its emptiness. He was alone—just the way he wanted it to be.

So what had he been thinking when he’d told Isabella she could come back here? He knew very well her presence would begin to eat away at everything he thought he’d settled years ago. He needed to be alone. He didn’t deserve anything else. What he’d done when he’d allowed his wife and the baby she was carrying to die in the river was an unforgivable crime. He would never be able to pay off that debt. It would take the rest of his life just to begin paying.

Closing his eyes, he fought back the doubt that had begun to tease him lately. He’d been sure all along that his scarred face was a judgement of fate, that it was a part of his punishment, that it helped to keep him in the private prison where it was fitting and appropriate that he be. For years he’d been—not content, exactly, but resigned.

Now Isabella had fallen into his life and that was a temptation in itself. He wanted her. He wanted to be with her. He wanted to be happy.

Was it really so wrong to want that? Could he resist all that Isabella had to offer him and his life?

“Laura,” he murmured, shaking his head. “Oh, Laura.”

If only he could feel that she was still there with him, he knew he could be stronger. As it was, he was going to have to count on his own sense of honor.

“Honor,” he muttered darkly, and then an ugly, obscene word came out of his mouth and anger boiled up inside him. Filled with a surge of rage, he threw the glass against the fireplace. It smashed into a hundred pieces with a satisfying crunch. Watching the broken shards of glass fly through the air, he felt his anger dissipate just as quickly.

He could only do what he could do, but he would resist. That was the life he had made for himself. He was stuck with it.

Max was waiting for Isabella as she drove up to the front entry of the old castle. She assumed he’d been warned by a signal from the gate she’d had no trouble opening with the code he’d given her. His shoulders looked incredibly wide in a crisp, open-necked blue shirt. His smooth-fitting chinos accentuated his athletic form, giving her a tiny bubble of appreciative happiness for just a moment. But something about his stance and the way his arms were folded across his chest told her he was bound and determined to get the two of them back on a cool, polite trajectory and away from all the warmth they’d managed to generate between them the day before.