Stravaganza: Any likeness of the books doesn't belong to me; it belongs to the brilliant Mary Hoffman.
Prologue:
The duchessa and the duke of Bellezza are in Giglia tending to some laws. The duchessa is planning to stay in Giglia for three more weeks, until the arrival of a special new addition.
Meanwhile, Georgia and Nick are both planning their weddings to separate people. Neither one knows that the other is unable to stop thinking of him.
Sky is in the United States with his father and Loretta. He is in an art university. Alice and him broke up and nobody has heard from her since.
Tom Dee, Lucien Mulholland's best friend, talks to Alice regularly, especially about Georgia.
Tom Dee sat in the hard, uncomfortable chair. He wasn't paying attention to the guest speaker. Instead, he was staring at the picture he had bought at the antique store. The picture reminded him of someone he had once known. She was gorgeous, and he had fallen for her. She was long gone now.
That night, Tom lay in bed; next to a woman he didn't know. His mind was racing. He reached out and grabbed the picture off of his bedside table. He couldn't stop thinking about the girl with the red and white streaks in her hair.
Chapter One: Two Worlds, One Apart
"The sunset is beautiful, especially this time of year. I don't remember it ever being like this in London. Of course, you weren't there, beside me, and you make it even lovelier," the duke of Bellezza said. His beautiful wife, the duchessa, watched as the memories of his past came flooding back to him suddenly. She knew it had been tough for him to leave London four years before that, but she was glad he was here.
"I'll never forget all those day we spent wondering Bellezza. Your father took me under his wing and taught me everything I know about stravagating. I am forever in debt to him because of how he saved my life and because he allowed us to get married. I don't know where I would be without him, Doctor Dethridge or, especially, you. I love you Arianna."
Arianna watched her husband walk back into the room that separated them. Her thoughts turned to her parents. At least they can finally live together happily, she thought. She knew the rules about separate bedroom and understood the reasons. She just didn't enjoy being so far from Luciano.
Georgia felt like she should have been somewhere else. Nick was somewhere in Greenwich by now. Last time they had seen each other was when she had returned the stuff he had given her. That was back when he had graduated. Georgia smiled at the thought of Nick. Oh, how she missed him. He had been her first true love where as Lucien Mulholland had always been the boy she admired from afar. Georgia had loved Nick since he had still been Falco di Chimici and had still lived in the palaces of Giglia. Georgia had never felt that way about anyone. She quickly pushed the thoughts aside as her fiancé walked back into the room.
In Greenwich, Nick was busily preparing for the most important night of his life. He had just asked his girlfriend of seven months to marry him. Suddenly, his thoughts turned to Georgia. He had been thinking about her a lot lately.
"Why aren't you as talkative as you usually are tonight? I feel like you aren't happy with me. If you aren't just tell me and I'll leave. I know you've been thinking about someone else. I just wish I knew whom," Nick's fiancée was telling him.
"Don't worry so much. For all I know, she's married with kids by now. Besides, Nick had no idea how far off he was.We have a week before we will be man and wife. Relax and let me take care of everything. It will be fine. You know about my past and you know how much it means to me. Just imagine how I feel. The first woman I loved is somewhere out there and she was my best friend. I can't just forget about her. She will always be a part of my heart. You have the rest, which is most of my heart, but she has a small part of it and always will. She saved me."
Nick walked back to the hotel where he was staying. His thoughts were now completely on Georgia. As he walked into the door, he searched for the ram. He tore up the hotel room in search of it. When he found it he grasped it tightly. As he lay in the bed, his mind drifted to Giglia and he thought about the plan. He fell into a deep sleep thinking of Georgia. He was sure that she hated him. He thought she probably never wanted to see him again. He thought he was such a jerk in her mind. Nick had no idea how far off he was.