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‘You little slut!’
Lina bit her lip. ‘Mama, please—’
‘What else should I call you when you’ve just spent the night with Salvatore di Luca?’ A truculent jaw was thrust forward. ‘Are you going to deny that, Nicolina?’
‘I—’
‘And you lied to me about being with Rosa, didn’t you? Or are you going to deny that, too?’
Lina stood completely still as she stared at her furious mother, her heart racing as she tried to piece together her thoughts. She’d known something was wrong from the moment she’d entered the neat little house, her body still warm and tingling with pleasure. She’d been feeling almost proud of herself for having walked away from Salvatore’s luxury villa so coolly and calmly. For having accepted the status quo. Of course, she wouldn’t have been human if there hadn’t been a tiny ache in her heart as she’d driven away, because who wouldn’t have wanted more? But all those hopeless longings had been forgotten the instant she’d walked in and seen her mother’s angry face.
‘How did you find out?’ she questioned, her cheeks flushing.
‘How do you think I found out? I rang Rosa. The friend you were supposedly spending the night with!’
‘You rang her?’ Lina repeated dully.
‘Oh, she tried to lie.’ Her mother was in her element now. ‘To make up some sort of flimsy excuse about why you couldn’t come to the phone. But I didn’t believe a word of it, and then Sofia Bertarelli confirmed that you’d been with him—that you’d turned up there yesterday afternoon, as bold as brass!’
‘Sofia Bertarelli?’ Lina was puzzled now.
‘A customer of mine, who happens to be a cousin of the billionaire’s housekeeper!’ Her mother spat the words out. ‘Who couldn’t wait to tell me!’ She clenched her hands, her bony knuckles growing white. ‘I can’t believe you would behave like that, Lina—like a common little slut! That you would spend the night with a man you barely know and ruin, not just your own reputation, but mine too—as if it hasn’t suffered enough already! But it has confirmed one thing. Oh, yes.’ A grim look of finality locked her mother’s bitter features. ‘You won’t be leaving this village again until you have had a few lessons in morality.’
Afterwards Lina would wonder what gave her the sudden urge to stand up for herself in a way she’d never been able to do before. Had her first experience of sex liberated her in more ways than she’d thought? Was that why she was able to stare at her mother, not with fear or dread or regret, but with a growing awareness that this was all wrong? That it had been wrong for a long time and she could no longer tolerate it. ‘You were checking up on me,’ she said dully.
‘Of course I was checking up on you—and with good reason, it seems!’
‘You have no right to check up on me,’ said Lina very quietly. ‘I’m twenty-eight years old and I should be free to behave as I wish, just so long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. And I haven’t.’ She lifted her chin very high. ‘I haven’t hurt anyone.’
But it was as though she hadn’t spoken, for her mother raged on. ‘You will not leave this village again until I say so! You will work hard and accept your position in life. It’s time you were grateful enough to marry a decent man who truly wants you—that’s if it’s not already too late! But never again must you i
nvolve yourself with someone who just takes advantage of your stupidity and lack of judgement by bedding you and then discarding you!’
It was possibly the most brutal thing her mother had ever said, but in a way it spurred Lina on to do something she should have done years ago. But that didn’t make it easy. It was never easy to break a pattern which had become so entrenched that you couldn’t image a different way of living. ‘You can’t keep me here by force,’ she said quietly.
‘Just you try to stop me!’
‘No, Mama. I don’t think you realise what I’m saying.’ Somehow Lina managed to speak quite calmly, even though her stomach was churning. ‘I want a change. I need a change and I should have done it a long time ago. I’ve had it with slaving my fingers to the bone and getting no thanks for it. Just like I’ve had it with you bossing me around as if I’m a child of five, rather than a fully grown woman.’ She sucked in a deep breath. ‘I’m leaving, Mama. And I’m leaving right now.’
‘Oh, really?’ Her mother’s voice ascended into a shrill shriek as she followed Lina upstairs. ‘How am I expected to run the business without you to make clothes for me?’
Lina pulled out an old suitcase and started packing the clothes she’d made to take to her cousin’s wedding in Florida, but which had never been used. ‘You’re perfectly capable of sewing them yourself. Or why not take on an apprentice? There are young girls in the village who will be glad of the opportunity.’
And just see if you can get away with treating someone else the way you’ve treated me. But she didn’t say that.
‘And where do you think you’re going to go?’ demanded her mother. ‘Who on this island do you think will want you?’
Lina snapped the suitcase closed, found her pristine passport and her small stack of savings, then she removed her denim shorts and blouse and wriggled into a clean dress, wishing her mother would give her a little privacy. ‘I’m going away. To San Francisco.’
‘To be with him?’ Her mother gave a discordant laugh. ‘You think he’ll want you now he’s got what he wanted?’
Lina shook her head. No. She wasn’t that stupid. She didn’t think there was going to be some kind of fairy-tale ending for her and Salvatore di Luca. In the intervening hours since she’d left his bed, he was unlikely to have decided she was the woman of his dreams and he couldn’t live without her. But although her billionaire lover had painstakingly explained that he didn’t want a relationship with her, he didn’t strike her as a dishonourable man and surely he would help her. He owned a plane and was presumably in a position to help her find a job in America. For someone with his wealth and influence, that wouldn’t be too big a deal, would it?
After all, it wasn’t as if she wanted anything else from him.
Was it?
