"Dio, no," said Lorenzo swiftly. "Not that." His mouth twisted. "Though in some ways I believe she would have actually preferred this, so that the guilt was not hers."

Renata, he began slowly, had been in the habit of staying for long periods in her family's country home near Perugia. Lorenzo had been grateful for solitude in the house in Oltramo, and Renata, never suited to matrimony, had been happy to stay for weeks at a time with her widowed mother. When her mother died Renata had inherited the house and spent even more time there.

One summer, while the housekeeper was on holiday, Renata had been alone in the house during one of the violent storms which had always terrified her. The man who took care of the garden had just left, and when the bell rang at the gate Renata, thinking it was the old gardener, returning to shelter from the storm, had run through the rain to let him in, desperate for company. Instead of the gardener she had found a drenched young man with a backpack asking for shelter until the storm passed.

Jess moved closer. "What happened then?"

"Renata grew even more hysterical at this point," said Lorenzo tonelessly. "Eventually I learned that the man was a foreign tourist, young, and very beautiful, "with long golden hair like an angel, she told me. Fortunately for Renata, who was no linguist, he spoke a little Italian. When the storm grew fiercer he asked to stay the night. She agreed, and gave him wine and food." His mouth twisted. "She even gave him dry clothes that I had left there once."

"So he was tall, this stranger," said Jess thoughtfully. Lorenzo shrugged. "More important than that, Renata confessed that for the first time in her life she was physically attracted to a man-"

"Even though she was married to you?" said Jess fiercely, and clutched his hand. "She was a fool!"

"Thank you, carissima. You are very good for my self-esteem." Lorenzo gave her a fleeting smile. "To end the story, in the night lightning struck a tree in the 'garden. Renata screamed, the stranger rushed to see what was wrong, and the rest you can imagine."

"How on earth did you feel when she told you that?" said Jess, outraged.

Lorenzo shrugged graphically. "I have no English words to describe this. I cared nothing that she had taken a lover at last. But I cursed the man who went on his way next morning without a thought for the woman who spent most of her life afterwards on her knees in penitence. Renata looked on the pregnancy as punishment for her sin. This must sound dramatic to you, I know well, but all her life she had been very devout. Her guilt was so great she lost the will to live." Lorenzo's arm tightened. "She would not eat, could not sleep, and spent hours every day in prayer. The result was inevitable. When Renata gave birth, months too early, she died with her child."

Jess shuddered, and held Lorenzo close. "I was such a fool," she said bitterly.

He turned her face up to his. "A fool, innamoratat Why?"

"Because I didn't trust you." Her eyes blazed into his beneath their swollen lids. "I once gave Leo a lecture for failing to trust Jonah, but I was no better where you're concerned. When Isabella told me how Renata died I should have confronted you with it right away. But my blind instinct was to run as far away from you as I could get." She smiled shakily. "I was so disillusioned, Lorenzo. To me you were unique. Not only because I was madly in love with you, but for being such a saint where Renata was concerned-"

"I am no saint," he said harshly, and pulled her close, his eyes boring into hers. "But I did not lie to you, Jessamy. And I never will. Sempre la verity. I promised. And I meant it."

Jess flung her arms round his neck and kissed him with passionate remorse. Lorenzo's response was everything she'd dreamed of in the long, unbearable days since she'd left him. At last he held her away a little, breathing rapidly.

"Since you left me I suffered torment for another reason, also."

"Why?"

Lorenzo took her face in his hands. "I desired you so much I did not take the necessary care. I feared you might be expecting my child and would never tell me."

She shook her head. "I'm not"

He sighed heavily. "In one way I hoped so much that you were."

Jess smiled a little. "So did I."

Lorenzo's answering smile transformed his face so completely she was dazzled. "You mean this?"

She nodded. "When I had time to think, alone in the flat, I realised that even if you weren't the prince in my fairy tale, but just a normal, mortal man after all, I still loved you, Lorenzo. Just like all the Dysart females I'm a one-man woman, it seems." Her mouth drooped. "I was heartbroken when I found I wasn't pregnant."

Lorenzo's English deserted him completely. He held her close, saying a great many things that Jess needed no interpreter to translate, but eventually, with mutual reluctance, they agreed it was tune to go over to the house.

"Before another minute passes," said Lorenzo, "I must ask your parents' approval. Do you think they will agree to give me their daughter?"

Later that evening, when the newlyweds arrived, Leonie exclaimed in delight when she found Lorenzo with Jess, and after drinks had been served to mark the homecoming of the bride and groom the family gathered round the dining table for the celebration dinner Kate had been helping her mother prepare for most of the day.

Fenny, in all the glory of her bridesmaid dress, was allowed to stay up for dinner, and asked Lorenzo endless questions about his house, then turned on Jonah with equally relentless curiosity to ask when the baby would come.

"Fenellal" said Frances in dismay.

"People always have babies when they get married," said Fenny, undeterred. "My friend Laura told me."

"Then of course it must be true," said Tom Dysart, chuckling, and smiled apologetically at Jonah. "Sorry about that"

"No problem," said Leonie, exchanging a glance with her jubilant bridegroom. "Actually, we think about Christmas time. Fen."

Jess felt Lorenzo's hand tighten on hers under the table, and smiled to herself.

Kate stared at the blushing bride in surprise. "Which Christmas?" she demanded.

"This one," said Jonah smugly.

Fenny frowned in disappointment "That's a long time yet." She stared, puzzled, as everyone laughed, and Jess relaxed, aware that her parents, at least, had known before the general announcement

"You knew this?" asked Lorenzo.

Jess nodded. "You should be grateful for if too."

"I?" he demanded.

"If Leo hadn't wept all over me and confessed she was pregnant I wouldn't have come rushing to Pennington that night to collect her earrings."

"Then you are right," said Lorenzo fervently. "I am very grateful."

When the meal was over, and they were still sitting round the table over coffee, Tom Dysart opened two bottles of champagne and with Jonah's help refilled all the glasses. Then he held up his hand for silence, smiling at the expectant faces turned towards him. "This seems to be a night for important announcements I'm sure everyone here will be happy to know that earlier today Lorenzo asked our permission to many Jess. He doesn't need it, of course, but both Frances and I were very happy to give them our blessing." He raised his glass. "To Jess and Lorenzo."

After the expected rush of kisses and congratulations Lorenzo Forii, looking very different from the dishevelled, wild-eyed man Jess had found earlier in the Stables, stood up, his face eloquent with such happiness and pride Jess felt a great tide of love rise inside her as he replied to the toast.

"I am very grateful to all of you for your kindness and good wishes," he began, and smiled down at Jess. "I know it is a very short time since I met Jessamy, but I wanted her for my wife from the first moment I met her, and promise to take great care of her. I consider myself the most fortunate man alive to have won her love."

There was much applause and excitement, and eventually Kate elected to haul an excited Fenny off to bed.

"Can I be bridesmaid, Jess?" Penny demanded as she kissed her goodnight.

"I'm counting on it!"

"Let's get that dress off, then," said Kate, laughing. "You may need it again."

Later, when they were all gathered in the drawing room, Leonie left her place by Jonah to join Lorenzo and Jess on the sofa they were sharing.

"I'm the only one in the family who has the least idea how things were for you in the past, Lorenzo," she said in an undertone. "This time I know you'll be happy."

"I cannot fail to be with Jessamy for my wife," he said with certainty. "You know from Roberto that life has not always been good for me, but all that is in the past, Leonie. The moment I met your sister my life changed."