AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jane realised, as she pushed the door open, that she was shivering. From the cold, or surprise of seeing Liz again, she couldn’t say.
“What do you want to talk about?” She asked through stammering teeth.
“Can I come in?” Jane eyed her suspiciously, and finally opened the door a little wider.
“Yes, but only for a moment. I… well, if I’m honest, I don’t know if you could say anything I want to hear.”
Liz grimaced. “I understand. Lord, Jane, please go and get changed. I can’t stand seeing you like that. You must be freezing.”
Jane shook her head. “It’s not cold. Just wet.”
“Go and change. I’ll make tea.”
Jane squared her shoulders. “No.” She held up a hand to forestall Liz’s protest. “I’m so sick of being handled with kid gloves. Can you imagine what it’s like to discover how I’ve been watched and managed and hand-held without my consent for the last three years?”
Liz looked at her thoughtfully and finally nodded. “Fine. But at least let me switch the heating on.”
Jane didn’t make a noise of objection, so Liz reached behind her and pressed a yellow button. The sound of central heating whirred to life.
“What did you want to talk about?” Jane queried with an attempt at calm. She closed the door, and moved deeper into her townhouse.
“Carlo.”
Jane stopped walking and turned around. “He’s off limits.”
“No, Jane, I need to speak with you.”
Jane groaned. Her stomach lurched, as the mere mention of her ex-husband’s name sent her whole body into some kind of hormonal response. “Please, Liz. I just want to put everything with Carlo behind me.”
“Do you?” Liz walked through the home, to the lounge. She cast an appraising look over the untidy state, and then sat down on an armchair. “I highly doubt that.”
“With all due respect, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Liz crossed her legs and reclined naturally against the leather chair. She looked relaxed. In contrast, Jane felt like a tightly wound coil, about to spring.
“I think of you as one of my closest friends, Jane. I appreciate you might feel differently, now, but I hope in time you will come to forgive the information I kept from you.”
Jane narrowed her eyes, trying to keep a grip on her temper. “You were employed by my ex-husband to spy on me. Would you be able to forgive that, if our positions were reversed?”
Liz sighed softly. “You have to understand that Carlo was very worried about you. The first death threats put him in a state of hell. He looked at you and saw only what he might lose, if he did not do everything he could to keep you safe. He is a wealthy man, used to buying whatever he needs. In your instance, it was protection.”
“But I’m not some weak little dove, waiting to be slaughtered. I know I was young when I married him, but I’d spent my life drifting through foster homes. I’m tougher than I look. Something he would have known if he’d spent time getting to know me, not just my body.” She huffed impatiently. It wasn’t a strictly fair accusation. In the beginning, they’d spent nights lying awake, talking, swapping stories. He knew all of her, not just her body, but she was angry and hurt. “He should have told me what was happening. And what he was afraid of.”
Liz nodded. ‘Yes. I believe he should have. I think he probably agrees, too. But he didn’t. I can’t believe you would hold that against him, when his decision came out of a desire to insulate you from harm.”
“But he harmed me. His stupid lies, his determination to make these choices on my behalf. I spent the year we were married believing he didn’t love me. That he regretted our wedding. That he was sleeping with other women. So don’t talk to me about being in hell. I was there. I lived it. And I was alone in that barren, fiery landscape. Carlo was nowhere to be seen.”
Liz dipped her head forward. Jane was behaving more stubbornly than she’d anticipated. “He felt protective of you. He probably took that too far, but his intentions were good.”
“His father killed my father,” Jane whispered, finally giving in to her unsteady limbs and sitting on the edge of her sofa. She stared straight ahead. “He knew. I didn’t. He came to find me, and instead of telling me the truth about our awful connection, he seduced me.” She closed her eyes with a heavy heart. “He let me marry him, thinking that we were just two people who’d fallen in love.” Tears stung her eyes, and she didn’t bother to check them. “But he wasn’t in love.”
Liz shook her head. “You’re wrong.”
“No. I’ve had a week to think about it, and I understand now. Carlo is someone who believes in black and white. Good and bad. His father is bad. I am good. He met me, and mistook my innocence, youth and inexperience as markers of pure saintliness. He married me, and then he tried to keep me in a time capsule. He didn’t want a wife. At least, he didn’t want me to be his wife. He wanted me to remain his talisman of goodness, to ward off the evil he believed to be in his blood.” She stood uneasily and rubbed her hands over her arms.
“He loves you, Jane. Trust me.”
“Trust you?” Jane commanded shakily. “Not with my life. I’m sick of people lying to me. I’m sick of being lied to. I want you to go now, Liz.”
