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The stone floor and walls were softened by a huge fireplace and an antique bed with crisp linen, and there were some flowers on a table beside a huge leather chair—and there was a beautiful ancient crib, all dressed in white linen, for Sophia.

‘It’s perfect,’ Stella said. ‘Thank you so much.’

‘There is the courtyard for your enjoyment, and I have told Gina where she can walk in the grounds with the baby without disturbing the film crew. Will you require meals?’

‘No, I’ll eat with the crew or bring a meal back.’ Stella started to explain, but then her voice trailed off as she caught sight of Gabe’s family crest carved above the fireplace.

For the next week, as they filmed in the palazzo, she would be sitting beneath the Rinaldi family crest nursing a Rinaldi baby, and she was seriously wondering if Gabe even knew.

‘It’s just for a few days,’ she whispered to Sophia. A very crazy few days while they filmed at the palazzo, and then she’d stay on for take downs, but it would be at a less frenetic pace.

Gina, the nanny, was used to film sets, and understood the intensity of it all. In fact, she had been a set nanny to some celebrities’ babies. She would have her own walkie-talkie and would summon Stella for feeds or if there were any issues. But while Stella knew she was lucky, leaving Sophia was a wrench.

The first meeting, even though she was just a floor away from her baby, she felt a knot of anxiety, as if she should be closer.

The first day of filming, mid-conversation with Daisy, her walkie-talkie crackled into life. ‘Nanny to Stella…baby’s stirring, feed in ten?’

‘Copy that,’ Stella said, already grateful that she didn’t have to jump in a car and be driven down to Bella Vista, or have little Sophia being cared for on set.

But then she saw Damon glance over and purse his lips. He had been less than thrilled to find out that the rookie intern, as he’d called her, was pregnant.

To say the least.

‘Go,’ Daisy said, ‘but get Nanny to switch to a separate channel. I don’t think Damon will appreciate all the details.’

It really was so much better that she was staying in the palazzo. This way, she could sit in the stillness of her room and try to feed. At times too tense to let down and at other times her walkie-talkie would crackle into life just as she did…

‘Locations, locations…’ She would close her eyes as her walkie-talkie summoned her to the ballroom.

‘Stella, we need you to come to camera one—we’ve a problem with the chandelier casting shadows.’

Her wish to breastfeed exclusively seemed to be fading with each passing day.

The palazzo was, for now, her other baby. It was her job to know the unique constraints to filming and to know what was allowed under the palazzo’s preservation rules. And the assistant director needed her now if he wasn’t going to hold up the shoot.

She made her swift way over. ‘No touching the original crystal;’ Stella said, ‘you can dim it…’

It was hectic and intense, and Stella was actually grateful when, on the third day, a sudden storm rolled in, wrecking the chance of the sunset shoot of a car chase.

It should have meant a precious extra couple of hours with her baby.

Unfortunately, it did not.

* * *

Gabriel Rinaldi heard about the storm.

Or rather, he asked his PA if there were any updates on the filming.

‘It’s all being handled.’ Imelda smiled.

‘What is?’

‘Oh, I thought you were enquiring about the storm. I’ve just had the report in from the estate manager. A light rig fell, and there was some minor chipping to the balustrade…’

He held out an impatient hand for the report. He could not care less about some minor chipping on the balustrade; the insurance would take care of all that.

It was more that Stella was there.