LUCIANO BERNALDI placed Lee’s suitcase inside the train, then gave her a fierce hug. “Thank you for helping us,” he whispered in heavily accented English. “I’m counting on you.”

Lee shivered at the remark which had come straight from his heart.

After he stepped back on the platform to pull Sophie into his arms again, the two of them waved to Lee until the train moved out of the station. Once they’d disappeared, she picked up her suitcase and found a seat inside.

Sophie’s Swiss boyfriend lived in Ascona, a town in the Italian canton of Ticino. Though he came from a family of wealthy hoteliers, he held no title and could never be on a par with Raoul. The prestigious House of D’Arillac had prevailed over the Frenchspeaking cantons for centuries.

The year before, the two of them had met by chance while Sophie and Lee were vacationing at one of the Bernaldi hotels on Lake Maggiore. When the lift had stuck because of a brief power outage Sophie, who feared heights, had become very frightened.

It was Luciano himself, with his black hair and aquiline features, who had rescued them. Lee might as well have been nonexistent because he and Sophie had fallen for each other on the spot. Over the last twelve months their feelings had deepened until they could hardly bear to be apart.