Accidentally Expecting! Read Online Free PDF Page A

and we’ll visit the consulate here. They can get onto the Milan consulate. Now, let’s forget boring reality and concentrate on the important things—enjoying ourselves.’
    ‘Yes, let’s,’ she said happily.
    Dante was as good as his word, borrowing Toni’s car after lunch and driving her down the hill through the streets of the old town until they reached their destination near the coast.
    There the news was bleak. Neither her passport nor her credit cards had been recovered.
    ‘Considering how quickly they were reported, it looks as though someone made off with them,’ Dante observed. ‘But hopefully they won’t be any use to them.’
    ‘We can arrange a temporary passport,’ the young womanat the desk said. ‘But it will take a few days. There’s a kiosk over there for the photograph.’
    ‘No need, I’ll take it,’ Dante said. Eyeing Ferne’s bag, he added, ‘If you’ll lend me your camera.’
    She handed it to him. ‘What made you so sure I had it?’
    ‘You told me you always had it. And the woman who was smart enough to record her lover’s infidelity wouldn’t miss a trick like this.’
    She showed him how to work it, and they spent a few minutes out in the sun while she turned this way and that at his command.
    ‘Pull your blouse down this side,’ he said. ‘You’ve got pretty shoulders; let’s see them. Good. Now, shake your head so that your hair fluffs up.’
    ‘This is no good for passport pictures,’ she objected.
    He grinned. ‘Who said anything about passport pictures? Maybe I have a wicked purpose of my own.’
    Back inside, they switched the camera to ‘view’ and showed the results to the woman at the desk, who regarded them with saintly patience.
    ‘None of these are suitable. I think you should use the kiosk,’ she suggested.
    ‘We could have done that to start with,’ Ferne pointed out.
    ‘But then my wicked purpose wouldn’t have been fulfilled,’ Dante said unanswerably. ‘Come on; go into that kiosk and take some shots that make you look dreary and virtuous.’
    ‘Are you suggesting that I’m not dreary and virtuous?’
    ‘Which part of that question do you want me to answer?’
    ‘Let’s just get on with it,’ she said hastily.
    When the formalities were complete, Dante took her to a café by the beach and they relaxed over coffee.
    ‘If you think the villa’s a madhouse now,’ he said, ‘wait until tomorrow when the rest of the family get here.’
    ‘There’s quite a lot of them, isn’t there? Six, I think Hope said.’
    ‘That’s right, although they don’t all live around here. Luke and Minnie will be coming from Rome. Justin and Evie from England, with Mark, Justin’s son, and their baby twins.’
    A terrible thought struck Ferne. ‘Where will they be staying?’
    ‘At the villa, of course.’
    ‘And you’re there too, so whose room have I been given? Someone will end up sleeping on the sofa because of me, and I can’t have that. I’ve got to go.’
    ‘And stay where—in a hotel? With no money or paperwork?’
    ‘Well, if you could lend me some money I’ll pay it back…’
    Dante shook his head firmly. ‘Sorry, no. To tell the hotel that you’re a trustworthy person, when actually I don’t know if you are, would be most improper. And we must always behave with propriety, mustn’t we?’
    Despite her agitation, she couldn’t help laughing.
    ‘You,’ she said in a slow, deliberate voice, ‘wouldn’t recognise propriety if it came up and whacked you on the nose—which I am strongly tempted to do right now.’
    ‘Curses!’ he said theatrically. ‘She’s seen through me. All right, I’ll admit my true motive. I plan to keep you here, a prisoner, subject to my will. Cash would help you to escape, which doesn’t suit my evil purpose.’
    ‘I wonder if I can guess your evil purpose,’ she said dryly.
    ‘Well, I’m not exactly subtle, am I? But do I need to be? You’re in my power.’
    ‘In your dreams!’ she