Secret Prince's Christmas Seduction. Carol Marinelli

are out. Could you not at least have diluted such a prominent guest’s criticism?’

      ‘But I did dilute it,’ Antonietta said. ‘Anyway, I thought Tony was happy to be working on Christmas Day.’

      Vincenzo just huffed off, leaving Antonietta wondering what on earth she’d said wrong this time. Still, there wasn’t time to dwell, and for the rest of the day she worked with Chi-Chi. Or rather Antonietta worked while Chi-Chi did the slowly-slowly.

      The slowly-slowly was a way to look busy while getting precisely nothing done, and Chi-Chi had perfected it. She had even tried to share her method with Antonietta.

      ‘You can doze in the cleaning room, but keep some dusters on your lap, so that if Francesca pops her head in you can look as if you’re in the middle of folding them,’ Chi-Chi had explained when Antonietta had first started working there. ‘But never cross your legs while you sleep or it will leave a red mark on your calf, and Francesca will be able to tell you’ve been in there for ages.’

      ‘I don’t want a bar of it,’ Antonietta had told her.

      She had known Chi-Chi her whole life, but she wasn’t a friend, exactly, just someone she knew and, unfortunately, with whom she now worked. Chi-Chi’s aim in life was to find a husband and do as little as she could get away with in the meantime. Once, Antonietta had actually seen her dozing on her arm as she supposedly cleaned a mirror, only to suddenly spring into action when Antonietta made her presence known!

      ‘I saw your papà yesterday,’ Chi-Chi said as she ate one of the turn-down chocolates while Antonietta dusted. ‘He couldn’t stop and speak for long, though, but he said he was busy getting things ready for the Christmas Eve bonfire. Will you be going?’ she enquired, oh, so innocently.

      ‘Of course,’ Antonietta said. ‘The fire in the village square is a tradition. Why wouldn’t I go?’

      Chi-Chi shrugged and helped herself to another chocolate. ‘What is he like?’ she asked.

      ‘My papà?’ Antonietta said, pretending she had no idea to whom Chi-Chi was referring.

      ‘No, silly! The new man who is staying in the August Suite. I wonder what his real name is? He must be important. I have never seen so much security.’

      ‘All our guests are important,’ Antonietta said, refusing to be drawn.

      Still, at the mention of the August Suite, and not for the first time, Antonietta glanced at her pager. But, no, Rafe had not paged her. Nor, when she checked, had he made any requests for in-suite dining. In fact later that afternoon she found out that his nurse had been given her marching orders for daring to make an unscheduled check on her patient.

      Rafe had clearly meant what he’d said about not wanting to be disturbed.

      At the end of her shift, as she walked back to her little cottage, Antonietta found she was glancing up in the direction of the August Suite. It was too far away for her to tell if he was on the balcony, but she wondered about him, wondered how he had spent his day and how he was.

      For the first time ever Antonietta truly wondered about a man...

       CHAPTER TWO

      THE CHRISTMAS ROSTER was definitely the main topic of conversation over the next couple of days.

      Antonietta was training in the Oratory, which was unusually quiet, but whenever she entered the staffroom it was all that was being discussed.

      ‘It’s not fair,’ Chi-Chi huffed. ‘Even Greta has got Christmas off and she only started three months ago.’

      ‘She has children, though,’ Antonietta pointed out.

      ‘How come you are off, Vincenzo?’

      ‘Because I live in Florence, and if I am to spend any time with my family then I need adequate time to get there.’

      ‘But it is the Old Monastery’s first Christmas,’ Chi-Chi said. ‘Surely the head of PR should be here and tweeting...or whatever it is you do.’

      ‘I do rather more than play on my phone,’ Vincenzo said, and then looked to Antonietta. ‘How are things in the Oratory?’

      ‘Quiet...’ Antonietta sighed as she peeled the lid off a yoghurt. ‘It’s fully booked for next week, but the place was dead yesterday and it’s almost empty today. I think people must be saving up their treatments for Christmas.’

      She looked up as Francesca came to the door.

      ‘Ah, there you are Antonietta. Could I ask you to service Signor Dupont’s suite? I know you are meant to be doing your training in the Oratory today—’

      ‘Of course,’ Antonietta said, and went to get up.

      ‘Finish your lunch first,’ Francesca said. ‘He has asked that it be serviced at one o’clock.’

      ‘I’m glad she asked you and not me,’ Chi-Chi said, the very second Francesca had gone. ‘I’ve been working there the past couple of days, and he might be important, but he’s also mean.’

      ‘Mean?’ Antonietta frowned.

      ‘He told me to refrain from speaking while I do my work.’

      ‘Well, I expect he has a headache,’ Antonietta said, without adding that she certainly did when Chi-Chi was around.

      Vincenzo looked at the time and then stood and brushed off his suit, smoothing his already immaculate red hair in the mirror before heading back.

      ‘For someone so vain, you’d think he would have noticed that he’s putting on weight,’ Chi-Chi said the moment he was gone. ‘His jacket doesn’t even do up any more.’

      ‘Leave him alone,’ Antonietta snapped.

      But Chi-Chi would not, and carried on with her grumbling. ‘He’s only got Christmas off because he’s a manager.’

      ‘No.’ Antonietta shook her head. ‘Francesca is working. I’d better go.’

      ‘But you’ve barely sat down.’

      She was happy to get up. Antonietta was more than a little bit fed up with Chi-Chi’s rather grating nature.

      ‘I need to get the linen ready to take up to the August Suite.’

      Fetching the linen was one of Antonietta’s favourite tasks. Here at the Old Monastery the linen was tailor-made for each bed and was washed and line dried without a hint of bleach.

      Antonietta breathed in the scent of fresh laundry as she walked in. Vera, who worked there, must be on her lunch, so Antonietta selected crisp linen and then walked across the stunning grounds.

      A guest who had just arrived that morning had told her that it had been raining and grey in Rome when they’d left. Here, though, the sky was blue, and it was a little brisk and chilly, with cold nights.

      The guard checked her ID and actually addressed her. ‘He will be back by two, so please make sure you are done and out by then.’

      ‘Certainly.’

      Given that it took well over an hour to service the August Suite to standard, guests often went for a stroll, or down to the Oratory for a treatment, or to the restaurant while the maids worked. Usually she was relieved when the guests were out, but today she felt a stab of disappointment that she chose not to dwell on.

      Of course she knocked before entering anyway, and when there was no answer she let herself in and stood for a moment, looking around. The place was a little chaotic, and she was wondering where to start when someone came in from the balcony.

      Certainly she had not been expecting to see him.

      ‘Buongiorno,’