“Do you know the boys look the most like their mother? She was a dark-haired beauty who bewitched men everywhere. But the only man she ever could see was her handsome Louis, who was a wonder in his own right.”

  Fleurine knew all about that from her own mother. Delphine Ronfleur had bewitched Louis Causcelle and had unconsciously cast a spell on Fleurine’s father, but she didn’t want to think about that right now.

  “Those triplet sons turned out to be the most beautiful boys imaginable. For my best friend to have died giving birth to them will always be my greatest sorrow. Now they’re too handsome for their own good, as you have found out.”

  “I and all the girls.” Fleurine nodded. “I grew up on the Causcelle estate and have known Raoul and his brothers since we were little children. As he got older, he reminded me of a dashing pirate.”

  Genevra laughed softly. “He’s that, all right, and you—like his mother—had to be the most beautiful girl on the estate. It’s the reason why Raoul has brought you here and never took his eyes off you out there.” The other woman saw what she wanted to see because she didn’t know what was really going on.

  “How did your two families meet?”

  “Alonzo and I got to know them right after they were married and vacationing here in Ischia. We’d just been married too, and all four of us were still in our late teens. While Alonzo and I were out fishing, we met Louis and Delphine at the same spot and started talking. My husband ran his father’s business, as did Louis. Both men had a lot in common and struck up a lasting friendship.

  “Delphine and I were so much alike we became friends overnight. We became pregnant around the same times with our first three. I had two girls and a boy. She had three girls. Then came three boys she would never see.” Her eyes filled with tears. “Before they were born, she had dreams for her triplets to help their father in business and support him after all his hard work.”

  Fleurine’s eyes smarted. “What a tragedy she died.”

  “It was, and so very hard on Louis. But he rose to the occasion in a most magnificent way. Six children to raise on his own with all his tremendous responsibilities. Thousands of people throughout France have relied on his leadership and generosity for years. He’s a saint. We’ve been to see him recently. It’s a miracle he’s still alive considering his bad heart.”

  Until three weeks ago, Fleurine hadn’t known anything about Louis Causcelle. Hearing Genevra’s loving defense of him made her ashamed of her outburst on that last day with Raoul at the palais. The reason why Louis had never known what Fleurine’s father had done to her and Raoul was because Raoul had wanted to protect his father from too much pain.

  Fleurine was also ashamed for having nursed a resentment against Raoul’s father for making him and his brothers go to college in Paris. She’d felt at the time he’d been too strict with his boys. His father had taken Raoul away from her. This woman’s revelations helped her see things clearly, including Fleurine’s selfishness and immaturity at seventeen.

  She understood Raoul’s reasoning now and his wisdom. She also understood something else. Raoul had believed Fleurine had been married all those years. In order to keep her and her family safe, he’d never done anything to find her. Raoul was made of the true stuff of heroes. She would always revere him, but that time had passed for both of them and couldn’t be recovered.

  Fleurine put a hand on Genevra’s arm. “You won’t understand this, but I’m grateful to you for everything you’ve told me. It has answered some questions for me, and I can’t thank you enough for confiding in me. It’s no wonder you and the Causcelles gravitated to each other years ago. Raoul told me he feels closer to his mother when he’s here. You’re an angel yourself.”

  As she leaned over to kiss the older woman’s cheek, Raoul walked in the bedroom. “Is everything all right, you two?”

  A smile broke out on Genevra’s face. “Everything is perfect when you come for a visit, mon fils. Your bedroom is ready for you downstairs.”

  The woman had a special spot in her heart for Raoul to call him her son. “Now, I’m going to find my husband, and I’ll see that your dinner will be served whenever you’re ready.” She kissed his cheek and left.

  Suddenly Fleurine realized they were alone and in a bedroom. How many times in the past had she dreamed of a situation like this where they could give in to their desire? But this was no fantasy trip, and it was ten years later. They were strangers now, never destined to be one.

  As her mother had written on that message long ago:

  You and Raoul were born into separate worlds. You were never meant to step out of them to be together. Remember that a woman can be fulfilled and successful without a man.

  Even if danger from her father weren’t a factor, Fleurine’s hopes for them had died in the past.

  Fleurine was a twenty-eight-year-old career woman at this point, no longer a starry-eyed teenager. Looking at life honestly, she could never hope to be with a man like Raoul. They weren’t from the same class of people. That old cliché that water and oil don’t mix rang true in their case. Raoul would never marry a software engineer, of all people. The thought was ridiculous.

  “Genevra is wonderful, Raoul. She loves you.”

  “It’s mutual, and from my vantage point, she’s taken with you.”

  “She’s made me very comfortable, but this isn’t my reality. I flew down here thinking I had a job to do, but all this—”

  “Is just too much?” he finished for her.

  She stared at him. “In all honesty, I’m thrilled to see you again in person and know that you are well. But I need to get back to the work I love.”

  Something flickered in the recesses of his eyes. “Why don’t you change into something comfortable, Fleurine? When you’re ready, join me on your terrace where we can talk as long as we want. Take your time.”

  “I’ll be right out.” She moved past him and went inside to the bathroom where she could freshen up. Raoul believed he could triumph over Garber Dumotte. Unfortunately, her mentally ill father would continue to be relentless in tracking him.

  As Genevra had said, the triplets had inherited their mother’s looks. Every time her father saw Raoul, he imagined the woman he’d never had a chance to love, all because of Louis Causcelle. Fleurine had always known what she had to do to prevent a disaster. It had meant never being with Raoul again.

  If only she hadn’t applied for that position at Rayonner-Tech...

  Fleurine had unwittingly set wheels in motion that had brought Raoul back into her world. Only he with his Causcelle connections could have planned a secret rendezvous to get them back together. But rather than be upset about it, she realized this trip to Ischia was giving them a chance to say a real goodbye.

  With her mind made up, she refreshed her lipstick. He would always be the most desirable man alive, but she couldn’t give in to momentary pleasure. She’d meant it when she’d told him she wanted to go her own way. Fleurine needed to be in charge of her life while her father was still alive and free to commit mayhem. Raoul had also been leading his own full life for years. From everything she’d read about him in the newspapers and seen on TV, he’d been enjoying his bachelor status since his university days.

  Forget the belated honeymoon he’d imagined here in Ischia. It would never happen because she and Raoul weren’t meant to be together.

  * * *

  One day Raoul would get used to seeing Fleurine in a modern-day wardrobe. But when she first walked out on the terrace in a luscious pink top and tan capri pants a few minutes later, he had to purposely erase his earlier vision of her in eighteenth-century garb.

  She smiled. “Why are you staring?”

  “You’re a stunning woman.”

  “But?”

  “I don’t want to say something that will bring back bad memories for you.”

  “You mean of always seeing the pathetic girl in white?” Fleurine could read his mind. She sat down on a chair opposite him at the patio table. “After I escaped, it took me a year to accept the fact that I could resemble a twentieth-century French girl. I used to look in the rooming-house mirror at the new clothes I was wearing and think it was some kind of trick.”

  He cocked his dark head. “I’m going to let you in on a secret. The face and long flowing hair above the dress enchanted me from day one. Those white dresses couldn’t hide your gorgeous figure. In fact, they made you more alluring, even with those brown ankle shoes your father forced you to wear. You always stood out, like the violets in the pasture that reminded me of your exquisite eyes.”

  “I had no idea.”

  “Forgive me if I’ve embarrassed you, Fleurine, but you have to know how attractive you always were and are. Why do you think Thomas and Remy followed you around with their tongues hanging out?”

  “If they did, I didn’t notice.”

  “They weren’t the only ones. Every guy at the school wanted a chance with you, but they were too terrified of your father.”

  “That didn’t stop you.”

  “No, because I had help. Oncle Raimond ran the estate. He knew how I felt about you, and he told me to waylay you at the north pasture after school on your way home. It was the one time of day when he arranged for your father to visit the other farms.”

  “He actually did that?” The news shocked and delighted her.

  “Even if our meetings had to be out in the open, we got lucky for a long time.”

  “Until—”

  “Let’s not go there. We’re here now. It’s time for you to know what I’ve done to keep all of us safe.”

  She leaned forward. “As long as my father is alive, we can never be seen together.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. I have the best minds in the country working on our problem.”

  “It won’t work, Raoul.”

  “The day I left your office, I had the security guards at the palais watch to see if I was being followed. We went through the surveillance-camera footage that covered the last three months and discovered one man who shouldn’t have been driving in and out at all hours. The police traced the plate to a man who lives and works in Paris.”

  Fleurine gasped quietly. “I knew it.”

  “This is only the beginning. After you left my suite wearing your disguise, I set up a meeting with two men to devise a plan. George Delong is the co-CEO with my cousin Pascal, but he’s also a brilliant attorney who helped my father rise to power. He knows the ins and outs of the law.

  “The other man, Claude Giraud, is the former secret-service agent who worked for the last president of France. He’s the one who found Jean-Louis for our family. The two men have contacts and inside connections with police and judges that reach everywhere. Between their findings, we’ve already taken steps to tie your father’s hands.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t see how.”

  “With that license plate lead, they got a warrant to tap the man’s phone and that of your father.”

  After a long silence she said, “That’s incredible.”

  “At that point they discovered that your father is in constant contact with him. He’s the one being paid to follow me. When I’m in the city, he tails me and reports back to your father. That man is called Franz Brust. Does that name ring any bells?”

  “Yes. He was one of those teenage guys from Switzerland my father ran around with. He works with my father in the dairy on the estate. Maman couldn’t stand him.”

  “Well, it appears your father moved him to Paris, and he works at the Causcelle cheese outlet watching my every move when I’m there.”

  “Maman spoke the truth, didn’t she?”

  “There’s more. Do you remember a local farmer, Ernst Keller?”

  He saw her shudder. “Keller was also part of that teenage gang from Souboz. It’s his son my father had planned for me to marry.”

  Raoul nodded. “Keller spies on me when I’m in residence on the estate. We now have proof your father’s well-paid cronies have been watching me all these years, just as your mother told you. Her testimony means everything.”

  She turned away to look out at the water. “What you’ve learned proves that my actions in going to that interview unknowingly put you in danger.”

  “Not any longer.”

  “How can you say that?”

  “The police have put both men under surveillance around the clock. I made it easy for Franz to follow me to Nice. Instead of flying, I drove the company Lexus from Paris. I made certain he saw me drive to the airport and talk to the two police officers.”

  “You mean he followed you?”

  “In his car. One of the officers went to get your luggage. Brust followed me to the waiting helicopter. He saw me take the bag from the officer and climb aboard. The second I closed the helicopter door, both officers arrested him on the spot for stalking and took away his phone.”

  Fleurine wheeled around, her expression one of total disbelief. “I’m having trouble comprehending any of this.”

  He longed to crush her in his arms, but he couldn’t. Not yet. She wasn’t ready. “I know how you feel. While we were on board the helicopter, the officers texted me that Brust is in jail in Nice awaiting arraignment before the judge. This means your father won’t have further contact with him. You and I are safe for the time being.”

  Fear darkened her violet eyes. “But Franz would have phoned him to report that you were last seen at the airport in Nice and could be anywhere. When my father can’t get hold of him, I’m afraid he’ll take his fury out on my family.”

  “No, Fleurine. First of all, he won’t know what happened to Franz for a long time. More importantly, I promise that your family is being protected day and night.”

  “I believe you, but Raoul—when he doesn’t hear from Franz, he’ll call one of the cult in Switzerland to help track you down.”

  “We’re hoping he does. Your father is the key that will give the police more names. They want to arrest all the men who murdered those monks and get confessions. Just remember, the police are surveilling him around the clock. So are my brothers who are making sure no harm comes to your mom and siblings. Everyone is on the alert.”

  “I’m sure you’re right, but I can’t stop worrying.” She got up from the table and walked to the end of the terrace to look out over the sea.

  He followed and put his hands on her upper arms from behind. “I realize you’ve been terrified for years,” he murmured into her hair. “Can’t you trust me for a little while longer? Your father is going to be arrested.”

  A tremor that he could feel shook her body. “I’ve always trusted you. It’s my father I can’t trust. He’s capable of anything. There are many things about his cruelty I learned when I had to stay with his sister. After ten years, his rage is stronger than ever.”

  He pulled her back against his chest. It had been so long since he’d held her in his arms. “So is my determination to stop him, Fleurine. I swear I won’t let him hurt you or your family ever again. Can you let go of your fear for this next week and allow us to enjoy some time together we’ve never had before?”

  She pulled away and turned to him. “I appreciate more than you know what you’re trying to do to solve this, but we’re not in school anymore, Raoul. We can’t pick up where we left off. What we felt years ago has been lost. Too much of life has happened to both of us.

  “I’d like to leave in the morning, and you need to get as far away from this part of the country as possible. When I get back to work, I’ll think up a reason to tell my boss why I didn’t stay in Nice.”

  Pick your battles, Raoul.

  He sucked in his breath. “We’ll fly to Naples in the morning and take the company jet back to Paris. I’ll phone your boss and explain that the new facility for the police department didn’t work out. We’ll pay you and Aire-Tech for your time and a lot more.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered, sounding shaken.

  “Tell me something, Fleurine. Why were you prompted to apply for the position at Rayonner-Tech in the first place?”

  “It has a sterling reputation and offers a fantastic salary.”

  “I see, but there’s more.”

  “It’s true I took a chance on getting the position when I knew they wanted a person with more experience. I was hoping to be hired on probation, but fate stepped in before the interview could take place.”

  He frowned. “That’s because I’d been called in and the receptionist told you my name. It ruined your plans. If you need money, I’ll give you whatever you need, Fleurine. In fact, I have a solution so you never have to worry about that again.”

  “That’s incredibly generous of you, but I’m able to take care of myself. Let’s just be thankful no damage has been done to Rayonner-Tech or your family’s corporation. I’ll go back to my job and you to yours.”

  Her refusal to have a heart-to-heart talk with him not only frustrated him, it crushed him. “After everything we meant to each other, is that all you have to say to me?” He didn’t understand her.

  “It’s been so long, Raoul. Our lives have undergone tremendous changes.”

  “But not our memories.”

  “True. We’ll always be able to remember wonderful times from our childhood. But we’re not the same people now.”

  His body stiffened. Since when? “We weren’t children when we kissed and talked about marriage.”

  “That was a teenage dream I’ll always treasure. Everyone has those, but life has taken us different places. I haven’t begun to achieve what I want to do.”

  “Like what, for example?”

  “We don’t have time for this, Raoul. We need to go downstairs.” She started to walk out of the room. “Genevra said she and Alonzo have prepared your favorite dinner for us. I wouldn’t dream of disappointing them when they love you so much and have been so kind.”