Authors: Sara Craven
slightest physical contact between them and she had the oddest
sensation that she would shiver into a thousand tiny fragments.
'Please don't let's talk about—last night,' she said at last, haltingly;
'Of course not,' he agreed too urbanely. 'Let us dismiss it from our
minds—pretend that it never happened.'
Staring down at the pebbles at her feet, she said slowly 'After all, it
isn't as if it—meant anything. You—you thought I was Jan, that's
all, which is what I wanted you to think, so it was my own fault ...'
Her voice tailed away rather desperately and there was nothing on
earth that could have forced her to look up and meet his gaze.
'Very true.' His voice was silky. 'You are an accomplished actress,
mia cara—
almost too accomplished for your own good, if you will
forgive me for saying so. If you intend to make impersonations of
your sister part of your way of life, I advise you to choose your
company rather carefully. Next time you may not get off quite so
lightly.'
A voice inside her was screaming, 'But I didn't get off lightly! Not
lightly at all.' And for a moment she was terrified that she had
spoken aloud, and betrayed to him all her misery and regret and
hopeless longing.
'Jan can manage without my help from now on,' she said with a
surface lightness she was far from feeling. 'She has a husband to
look after her now and ...'
'It seems not.' His tone was dry. 'I'm afraid your dangerous pretence
was all in vain, Giulietta. Mario and your sister are not married, nor
ever likely to be, according to my mother's information.'
'But they must be!' Juliet burst out wildly. 'It can't all have been for
nothing—it can't!'
She sank down on the nearest rock and buried her face in her
hands. It was impossible that she'd let her whole life be turned
upside down, relinquished her peace of mind and much of her
self-respect, possibly for ever, only to be casually told that it had all
been in vain.
At last, with a long quivering sigh, she looked up and met his eyes.
'So you've won—after all.'
'It isn't a victory I'm particularly proud of,' he said harshly. 'And it
isn't complete by any means.'
She made the effort to get to her feet. 'The favour I wanted to ask,'
she said wearily. 'Can you have me taken to Naples to see Jan?
She'll be upset. She'll need someone.'
'At the moment she is in good hands,' he said. 'Yet I can understand
your anxiety. My mother also fears some calamity will happen if
she does not visit Mario immediately. But there is a problem.'
She looked at him, startled, and he gave a little twisted smile.
'I did tell you that I needed your help,' he reminded her. 'When my
mother received the message from the hospital, she was spending a
few days in a villa at Brindisi with
my
stepfather's sister. When they
set off to come to me here, she insisted on accompanying
them—for. reasons best known to herself.' He paused. 'When they
arrived, I had no idea they were not alone, and I was frankly
horrified when Mamma revealed that Vittoria was waiting in the
car. She is clearly determined to accompany us to Naples later this
morning, and there is no way of preventing her without arousing her
suspicions still further.'
'But why should you wish to prevent her?'
Santino thrust his hands into his pockets irritably. 'Because she is
not only my mother's sister-in-law,' he said with an edge to his
voice, 'she is also the
madrina
—the godmother—to Mario's fiancée
Francesca.'
'Mario's—fiancée?' The breath left Juliet's body in a disbelieving
gasp.
He smiled thinly. 'You didn't know he was already
fidanzato?
Your
sister had left that small detail out of her marriage plans?'
'She mentioned something—about an arranged marriage.' Juliet bent
her head. 'But I got the impression that it was all in the
future—nothing definite.'
He raised his eyebrows. 'The date of the ceremony had already been
fixed,' he drawled. 'Francesca naturally knows nothing about your
sister's existence. She is young, very lovely, very innocent, and she
loves my headstrong fool of a brother more than he deserves.
Naturally, we do not wish her to know how churlishly he has repaid
her devotion.'
'No,' Juliet agreed dully. 'But what has this got to do with her
godmother? Surely she wouldn't... ?'
'You think not?' Santino shook his head. 'When Vittoria's husband
died he did not leave her as well provided for as she believed he
would—or should, though she is far from poor, you understand.
Francesca's family on the other hand is very wealthy, and Francesca
herself is a considerable heiress—and Vittoria has a son, one year
younger than Mario. If she could destroy the engagement between
Mario and Francesca, then perhaps ...' He paused significantly.
'But that would be wicked,' Juliet said incredulously. 'To
deliberately set out to ruin someone's happiness for monetary gain
...' She caught his ironic glance and her voice tailed into silence,
while a blush rose to the roots of her hair.
'Wicked, yes,' he said drily. 'But to Vittoria's mind, eminently
practical. She already suspects that Mario has been—playing
around. If she arrives at the clinic and finds your sister in an
adjoining room, injured in the same crash, it will not take her long
to supply the rest of the details.'
'So how are you going to stop her?' Juliet spread her hands out
helplessly.
'I am going to create a smokescreen,' he said. 'With your help. She
knows your sister well, of course, but you she does not know,
although she will have little difficulty in detecting the resemblance
when you do meet.'
'I think we met outside the bathroom earlier,' Juliet confessed.
He shrugged. 'It doesn't matter. All you have to do when we return
to the
castello
for breakfast is to accept without comment the story
I shall tell her to explain your presence, and also Janina's presence
in the clinic in Naples.'
'What are you going to say?' Juliet felt slightly sick.
'That you and I are engaged to be married,' he said blandly.
'What?'
She almost shrieked the word. 'You're mad!'
'No.' He shook his head. 'Listen to me,
cam,
and don't be hysterical.
By now Vittoria will have seen the newspapers and know there has
been some muddle because I am not here with Janina, I am here
with you. She enjoys scandal and has a nose for gossip. In fact she
is not above selling stories about some of her dearest friends to
newspaper columnists, not merely here in Italy but abroad as well.
Well, I can explain away that particular story—a reporter was too
hasty and made a mistake. Two sisters, both red-haired, both
English and beautiful—a simple error in identities. So today, I
announce that we are going to be married, and that I had already set
the wheels of a family party in action by inviting Mario down here
and requesting him to bring your sister with him; Before I could
issue invitations to the rest of the family—including
Francesca—Mario's car was involved in that unfortunate incident.'
'I won't do it!' Juliet's hands clenched into fists at her sides, the
knuckles showing white.
'Your help in exchange for mine—that .was the deal,' he reminded
her.
'But you can't bargain like that,' she protested.
'Why not?' The tawny eyes were fixed compellingly on her face.
'You are an accomplished actress,
mia,
as I told you. All you have
to do is act the part of my loving fiancée for a few days—and
persuade your sister to co-operate in our story.'
'I—persuade Jan?' Juliet shook her head. 'You have to be joking!'
'Oh, I was never more serious,
cara,'
he said softly. 'Consider, if
you will. At the moment, the only hint of scandal surrounding this
unsavoury affair is the story I myself fed to the newspapers, which
our engagement will give the lie to. But what will happen if the true
facts emerge, eh? Publicity will be unavoidable—Vittoria will see
to that—and it won't be simply in a few Italian newspapers. She
will make sure the story makes the headlines in London and New
York as well. It can only be a matter of time before your mother
whose feelings you are so anxious to spare sees it. You cannot
pretend it would add to her happiness or well-being to read such
things.'
There was a long, appalled silence while Juliet frantically attempted
to collect her thoughts. She remembered the malice in the eyes of
the woman she had seen that morning and imagined that malice
translated into newspaper terms and pictures. It was a degrading
and frightening prospect, and a blow from which Mrs Laurence
might never recover.
'One last point,' Santino said gently but inexorably. 'You may not
know, but Vittoria is the Contessa Leontana at whose party your
sister once disrobed with such spectacular success. I cannot
imagine she would leave out such a juicy incident if she
decided—regretfully, of course—to tell what she knew to the gutter
press.'
'But there must be some other way,' Juliet said desperately. 'I—I
can't pretend to be engaged to you—you must see that.'
His brows drew together haughtily. 'I regret that I see nothing of the
kind. The engagement I propose is largely for your own sake,
although considering the trick you played on me, I owe you nothing.
Once you are safely established as my
fidanzata,
Vittoria will not
dare snipe at you, because you will be under the protection of my
family, of which her own brother is a member. Even she would
hesitate to make trouble under such circumstances.'
Juliet looked away at the sun-drenched horizon and found it blurred
by the tears that were threatening to overwhelm her.
'And your mother?' she asked as soon as she thought she had
sufficient control over her voice. 'She has no very high opinion of
either my sister or myself, from what I gathered last night. How will
she accept this pseudo-engagement, or do you mean to tell her that
it's only a fraud?'
'That,
cara,
will remain a secret, just between the two of us,' he
drawled. 'You will oblige me by not even confiding in your sister.
As for my mother, there is no need for you to concern yourself. I
will deal with her.'
'And how long has this—farce to go 'on for?' she demanded bitterly.
'Until Mario and Francesca are safely married—or until I decide to
call a halt,' he said very softly. 'Whichever is the sooner. Don't look
so anguished, Giulietta. Our betrothal will be conducted in public
only. I shan't force my attentions on you in private.' He took her
chin in his hand and studied her face almost reflectively. 'Are you a
virgin?'
She could have reacted in a number of ways to such a question,
from old-fashioned outrage to a defiant reminder of the fact that it
was none of his business. Instead, her face burning under his
scrutiny, she heard herself mutter, 'Yes —does it matter?'
'I think it does.' He released her chin. 'I may not have been kind to
you, Giulietta, but at least I don't have to live with the knowledge
that I seduced you.' He smiled rather mirthlessly. 'In Italy, a girl's
purity before marriage is still highly prized. I am glad I did not
cheat your husband,
mia cara.'
He waited for a moment, but she did not reply, then reached
forward and took her unresisting hand.
'Come,' he said. 'Let us go back now and tell them our —joyous
news.'
And as Juliet followed him across the rocks to the road and the
steps up to the
castello,
she realised for the first time in her life that
sometimes the most painful tears of all are those that one cannot
afford to shed.
'Well, darling, you have been clever.' Jan leaned back against her
pillows and stared up at her sister, her eyes glittering. 'I never knew
you were quite such a fast worker —and Santino Vallone is the
cherry off a very big cake.'
Juliet felt her already guilty flush deepen at her sister's mocking
words.
'Let's not discuss that now,' she said hurriedly. 'How— how are
you, Jan ?'
'As well as can be expected—isn't that the phrase they use?' Jan