Page 67 of The Vagabond Viscount
She was a stubborn woman, and from the expression on his face, she could tell that Gideon had immediately taken her words to heart.
“Of course, I will do what I can. In return, I ask that you stay well away from things. I don’t want you hurt. This is a dangerous situation. You need to hold back any romantic notions you might have of Cupid coming to the rescue. Serafina’s father is not a man to be crossed. He values her bride price and will do everything in his power to make sure his daughter is married to the man of his choosing. And from the way he raged against Serafina and me being together, I can tell you he would be more than happy to see me dead.”
After Gideon left, Augusta paced the floor of her private suite. She was still contemplating what she would do if her brother wasn’t able to rescue Serafina when a gentle knock came at her door. When she opened it, Flynn stepped across the threshold and quickly closed the door behind him.
Her resolve faltered. Augusta threw her arms around Flynn and cried, “Oh, what are we to do? I can’t bear the thought of Gideon fighting Matteo in a duel.”
He held her for a moment, his silence doing nothing to help calm her already frayed nerves.
“I am trying to figure out a possible solution to the problem of Gideon and Serafina getting married. As for Matteo, I doubt very much that he will fight your brother. Not unless his father is holding his sword hand. Enzo is the only one who is outraged about what happened tonight. I saw Donna Francesca when I arrived at the palace earlier, and I got the distinct impression that she was quite relieved that Serafina had defied Enzo and slept with Gideon.”
With Gideon having taken Serafina’s virginity, the contessa had a new and powerful bargaining chip. Signore Magri wouldn’t likely view a tainted bride too favorably. It would only take the right word in the right ear, and the wedding would be called off.
The weight of Donna Francesca’s support for Gideon and Serafina was an unexpected but welcome piece of news. And of course, no matter how good he was with a sword, she wouldn’t be happy for her eldest son to be fighting in a deadly duel.
“I know Serafina’s mother was against her marrying Signore Magri. According to the palace servants, she and Enzo have had several terrible fights over it.”
Flynn nodded, and for the first time this night, hope flared in Augusta’s heart.
“Do you have a plan?” she asked.
“I’m not entirely sure of how things work here in Rome, so I am going to go and pay a visit to my friend Michael Cooper. He has lived here for some time. Hopefully, he will have a good idea about what we can do to get your brother and Serafina legally married.”
Augusta had been hoping Flynn was going to stay and perhaps share her bed. Her insistence on her own room had been more about them, than staying away from the duchess.
At the moment, however, the matter of Gideon and Serafina’s wedding was, of course, the higher priority. But if they could solve that thorny problem, then there would be plenty of time for her and Flynn.
She offered him her lips, and he bent and kissed her. When he finally drew back, she caught the look of determination on his face. “It’s an ungodly hour, but I need to go and see if I can rouse Michael. If time allows, I will come back here before the morning, and we can spend a little while together. In the meantime, try and get some sleep Augusta.”
There was a glint of hunger in his eye.
“Do what needs to be done, Flynn. Soon all your nights will belong to me.”
ChapterThirty-Nine
Augusta’s lips were still humming with the warmth of Flynn’s kisses when she stepped out of her room late that morning. She was too caught up in her private thoughts to notice the duchess until it was too late. Her mother fixed her with a haughty glare. “You look like the cat which has caught a tasty mouse.”
That’s not all I got, but we digress.
“A few hours of sleep has done wonders for me. I was going to go and check on Gideon. See if he had any news,” Augusta replied.
She was quite prepared to lie to her mother. If Lady Anne felt it was acceptable to bend the truth about why they were still in Rome, then she was well within her rights to do the same.
The hard edges on her mother’s face softened. “I saw him just now. He told me that Flynn has discovered that a Church of English minister and his family are staying at the hotel. If Gideon can arrange to smuggle Serafina out of Palazzo Lazio, they can be married today. The priest will officiate at the wedding. When he returns to England, the minister will take the paperwork back with him and register their marriage with your Uncle Hugh.”
It paid to have a member of the family who was the Bishop of London. Lord Hugh Radley was Lady Anne’s brother, and the perfect person to make sure that the nuptials between the future Duke of Mowbray and Serafina de Luca were legal in the eyes of the Church of England. It ensured that their children would be legitimate and their eldest son able to one day inherit his father’s title.
Augusta feigned her surprise. She had already heard most of this from Flynn, who had returned to the hotel after seeing his friend Michael Cooper. Word of him having located an English priest in the hotel was an additional piece of welcome news.
The only major hurdle left to overcome was possibly the biggest. How to get Serafina out of the palace?
The duchess moved closer and held out her hand. “You and I should talk.”
Augusta took one look at her mother’s tentative peace offering and shook her head. “No.”
“But you will be leaving for England shortly. We can’t part on bad terms.”
She had no intention of making this easy for her mother. If the duchess was going to abandon her family and remain in Rome, then as far as Augusta was concerned, she deserved to know what her eldest daughter thought of her decision. “You lied to me. You kept me here under false pretenses. Any right that you might have once thought you held to tell me what to say and do is long gone, your grace. If you are going to stay here in Rome, I have no interest in offering you a sweet farewell. You can go to the devil for all I care.”
