CHAPTER SIXPaola went down to dinner in one of the simplest gowns she had brought to Lucca with her.
She would have liked to wear one of the pretty new gowns her mother had bought for her, but she thought it would be a mistake.
The chandeliers had now been lit and glittered from the ceilings like stars.
When Paola saw the Marchese in his evening clothes, she thought that no man could look more handsome and, to be truthful, more raffish.
The dining room, as they found when they went into dinner, was very grand and impressive and the candle-lit table, decorated with gold ornaments and orchids, made Paola’s eyes shine.
‘This is just the way,’ she thought, ‘that aristocrats should live.’
And who could look more aristocratic than the Marchese sitting in a high-backed chair on which was ca
