to say a single word. ‘I have a room,’ he’d said. ‘It’s not much, but it’s somewhere to lay your head.’
Sadie smiled to think she’d lived there ever since. The simple bedsit with its view over the rooftops of Madrid was spotlessly clean and extremely comfortable, and, best of all, it was quiet. There was no shouting, no china crashing to the floor and no violence. There was just the hum of purposeful activity in the restaurant kitchen far below. Some might have thought it a comedown after the brash opulence of her parents’ home, but Sadie had always felt like a clumsy intruder in the huge, echoing mansion, with its screening room, swim-up bar, and regular shouting matches.
‘Everyone loves it, Sadie,’ one of the waiters exclaimed as he swept past her as if on oiled wheels. ‘Your party’s a huge success.’
‘Our party,’ she called after him, smiling.
With a little gentle prompting by Chef Sorollo, her story had come out. The great man had insisted on taking charge of her education, sending her to night school, where she’d formally trained to be a chef. When she was qualified, he’d taken her under his wing and had completed her training, saying that a loyal and loving family stayed close and looked after each other. That was why work consumed her now, and why there had never been a more important night for Sadie—because this was her way of thanking a man who had turned out to be her saviour.
Excellence was paramount tonight. With so many celebrated guests present, the papers would report Annalisa Alegon’s party, and there would be photographs of everyone present. A shiver ran down her spine at the thought of one guest in particular. She’d had chance to read up on Don Alejandro de Alegon and had learned something of his colourful history. He was descended from a long line of aristocrats on his father’s side, while his late mother had been a Spanish gypsy princess. Both his parents had been killed in a tragic accident, leaving Alejandro to raise his younger sister. Everyone thought it a great honour that he’d chosen El Gato Feroz as the venue for his sister’s engagement party. Sadie guessed he made all the choices; even on the briefest sighting, he’d struck her as that type of man. He played out his life on the world stage while she was content in the kitchen, and she would never belong in his world any more than she had belonged in her parents’ world. Bottom line: the Don commanded while she was happy to serve.
Serve him?
Certainly not! Sadie concluded with a short laugh as she served up a fresh batch of delicious entrées. The thought that there was no buffer between Sadie and Don Alegon in the comforting form of Chef Sorollo might make her tense, but she would allow nothing to get in the way of making tonight the success her mentor and his team deserved. It would be business as usual tonight at El Gato Feroz.
* * *
For the rest of the night he was aware of Sadie somewhere close by, and he looked for her constantly. No other woman had ever affected him this way, and he couldn’t explain the feeling. It took his sister linking arms with him to return his attention to where it should have been all along.
‘I can’t thank you enough for tonight,’ Annalisa said as she snuggled into his side. ‘It’s more than I deserve—’
‘A lot more,’ he agreed dryly.
They laughed together. Annalisa was the one person in the world who could shake him out of his city tension. There were so many plates to keep spinning he could barely spare her a moment when he was in Madrid, but Annalisa had always gone where angels feared to tread, and tonight was a special occasion.
‘Are you happy? Are you sure about the Prince?’ he asked with concern as his glance swept over the man in question and his party, who were doing their best to drain the last bottle of wine in the cellar of El Gato Feroz.
‘I know I love you,’ his sister told him fervently as she stared up into his eyes. ‘You do know that, don’t you, Alejandro? You’re so stern, I wonder sometimes if you realise how much I appreciate all you do for me. I just hope the day will come when I can do something for you.’
‘Behave yourself,’ he said mock sternly. ‘That’s what I want you to do. And don’t worry about me.’
‘But I do worry about you,’ Annalisa insisted. ‘You should be thinking about your life going forward, not mine. What would it take to make you happy, Alejandro?’
‘Whatever it takes for you to have a good life,’ he said, glancing with concern at Annalisa’s husband-to-be, who seemed more interested in talking to the pretty woman at his side than looking after his sister. ‘You will tell me if anything goes wrong, won’t you?’
‘I know you’re always there for me,’ she said. ‘But I don’t want to talk about me, I want to talk about you. It’s time you did something for yourself, instead of always for other people. You deserve happiness too.’
‘Nobody deserves anything,’ he stated firmly. ‘You just concentrate on your upcoming new life as a princess.’ As he said this, he wondered how much of Annalisa’s latest romance was based on the idea of becoming a princess, rather than the reality of marrying such a weak man. His sister wasn’t a fool, but she was a dreamer. It wasn’t up to him to live Annalisa’s life for her, he reminded himself, though living up to that wasn’t easy. ‘Happiness is fleeting,’ he warned as he held her gaze. ‘Grab it while you can.’
‘That’s a lesson for you too,’ his sister told him. ‘I know you’re thinking about our parents when you say things like this, and I also know they’d want you to be happy. Grab some happiness while you can, Alejandro, and hug it tight.’
He smiled. ‘You’re a lovely young woman and I’m very proud of you. You know that, don’t you?’
‘If I don’t,’ his sister assured him with one of her sideways looks, ‘I’m sure I can rely on you to tell me.’
They laughed together, and for a few moments everything was simple and warm, as it had always been before the Prince came on the scene. ‘Just make sure you tell me if the Prince lets you down,’ he said, turning serious.
‘You’ll be the first to know—your cast-iron security team will make sure of it,’ Annalisa added with a cheeky glance as she turned away to her friends.
He watched the young women in their huddle at the table, wondering what they were discussing so avidly. He soon found out.
‘We want the chef to step out so we can thank her for the most marvellous evening,’ Annalisa came to tell him.
‘Annalisa!’ he exclaimed as she bolted away. Too late. She’d already attracted the attention of the maître d’.
A few minutes later, his sister returned with a slightly pinker version of Sadie, who emerged from the kitchen to a storm of applause. In spite of Chef Sorello’s absence, the food had been absolutely delicious and everything had gone without a hitch. He surprised himself by leading the applause, and even offering a personal vote of thanks. When their eyes met, Sadie held his stare with that same mix of professional cool and not quite hidden glint of something more. It was a combination that made his senses roar.
It was the early hours before the guests began to leave. As the restaurant emptied, he stepped outside to find a hint of dawn tinting the night sky lavender. It was a particular light that reminded him of daybreak in the mountains he loved, because it was there, in the wild, dramatic land of his mother’s people, where he felt most at ease. His mother and father’s very different personalities would always war inside
