The Prince's Nanny Read Online Free PDF Page A

to.  He was the complete opposite of the prince.  Warm, kind and friendly, he was the most attentive father a child could want.  A man who would never let work interfere with his responsibility as a parent. The contrast between him and her impression of the prince was striking. The less she saw of the enigmatic Vittorio the better.
    Since her employer was supposedly busy with work it shouldn’t be a problem. It was the girls who she hoped to win over.  A life-time of dealing with her own step-sisters would seem to be the perfect preparation for this job.  No one could be as mean and self-centered or spoiled as they were.  Sabrina had survived the worst they could dish out.  These twins couldn’t possibly be that bad.
    It was just a short walk through the town and up a cobbled path to the villa which sat on top of a bank with landscaped gardens, balconies and stairways.  Sabrina caught her breath, not from the climb, but from the  stunning gardens with masses of bright flowers that surrounded the villa. One was Japanese-inspired with bridges over a pond and a tea house.  Next came the rose garden, their blossoms still damp from the rain and their fragrance wafting through the warm air.
    “This was our mama’s garden,” Caterina said.
    “She loved roses,” Gianna added.
    Sabrina glanced at their father.  The only indication the subject of their mother was a painful one was the tightening of the lines in his face.
    “She’s dead now,” Gianna said with a sideways glance at Sabrina to see how she accepted this fact.
    Since she’d died right after the girls were born, and since they’d never known her, maybe they had long ago accepted her absence from their lives.  Just as Sabrina accepted the absence of her own mother who’d died when she was a baby.
    “That apple tree is where Caterina fell out and broke her arm,” Gianna said.
    “There will be no more tree climbing,” the prince said sternly as they paused to gaze at a the pear, cherry and plum trees heavy with fruit.
    “No, Papa,” they chorused.
    Sabrina studied their little faces to see if they were sincere.  She was beginning to wonder what all the fuss was about.  The twins couldn’t have been nicer or more polite.  Had everyone including the prince overstated the problems with the twins in order to excuse their own lack of ability to deal with them?
    Compared to her step-sisters Mindy and Jessica, these girls were angels.  A spider in the bed was nothing compared to a dead mouse.
    “Do you speak Italian?” Gianna asked, adjusting her tiara which was tilted over one eye.
    “Not very much.  I’d really like to learn more.”
    “We can teach you,” Caterina said, with an eager gap-toothed smile.
    “No Italian lessons,” her father said firmly.
    The girls didn’t argue or talk back to their father.  They just smiled at Sabrina conspiratorially.  When her father’s back was turned, Caterina held her finger to her lips.  Why her employer wouldn’t want her learning Italian was beyond Sabrina. If anyone in the family was difficult to get along with, it was him.
    They finally reached a long driveway lined with ancient cypress trees leading to the villa.
    “It’s beautiful,” Sabrina said breathlessly gazing at the large sprawling manor made of old stone.
    “It needs work,” the prince explained as the girls ran ahead to the front door.  “The fences are crumbling, the terracotta floors must be refinished and the roof of the private chapel leaks.  My fiancée thinks we should move to an apartment in Milan where my work is.  But my family has owned this property for centuries and I’m loathe to leave.  It was always their country house, a place to get away for the summer.  Now we live here year-round.”
    Inside the villa there was a high-ceilinged reception room with a massive stone fireplace at one end and huge French doors open to the terrace and the warm breezes off the lake.  It could have been the same terrace