The man had been begging Sophie to marry him, but she was torn because she loved her parents and couldn’t stand to go against their wishes. Many times Lee had tried to put herself in Sophie’s place, but couldn’t. All she knew was that if she were the one madly in love, she’d probably forget her title and run off with Luciano.

But maybe she could say that so easily because she’d lost all sense of family when her parents and fiancé had been killed. That had been three years ago, a long enough time to stop actively grieving.

At the funeral, Lee’s aunt and uncle from West Yellowstone, Montana, had offered her a home with them. But Sophie had begged Lee to return to Switzerland where she could continue to live and work near her. She’d argued that Madame Simoness needed her, not to mention the girls at the school who would help her forget her pain.

In the end, Lee had chosen to go back to Nyon. Between everyone there, especially Sophie’s parents, she had been able to make it through that agonizing period. Now, sadly, Sophie was asking something of Lee that seemed such a betrayal of the Ramblets’s love and caring.

By the time the train reached the station in Zermatt, she could hardly breathe for the tension that constricted her chest. When the train emptied, she found herself in the middle of a crowd that swept her along the platform to the entrance.

She couldn’t have arrived on a more beautiful, brisk afternoon. The last time she’d stayed here overnight, with the boarders from the school, clouds had obscured the Matterhorn. Today it rose in the distance like a giant snow-covered sentinel, overlooking the lush green valley dotted with chalets and hotels.