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Nicola didn’t hesitate. She didn’t say she suspected Alessio di Bari was a man fundamentally incapable of happiness, because that was not the answer any mother wanted to hear. There were many different grades of lies, she thought fleetingly—and if there was such a thing, then this was a good one.
‘He is,’ she said softly, her heart clenching with guilt as the beautiful Italian matriarch gave a trembling smile in response.
‘It was worth it, then,’ she said.
But Nicola didn’t have time to ponder the meaning behind Rosetta’s sad words because an unknown guest had suddenly arrived in their midst, followed by a flustered-looking housekeeper. Surrounded by a miasma of cigarette smoke, a statuesque redhead in a tight white dress came to a halt at the far end of the table. She looked at each one of them in turn, leaving Lord Bonner until last. And then she smiled with the look of a starving predator who had just spotted a piece of glistening meat. There was a split second of silence while everyone stared at the glamorous intruder, and then all hell broke loose.
Nicola heard Rosetta gasp and thought Lydia’s and Sebastian’s eyes were going to pop out of their heads as their father rose to his feet and made his way towards the stunning intruder, like a man who was caught up in the midst of a powerful spell.
‘Monica,’ he said, but the shock in his aristocratic voice was underpinned with something which sounded remarkably like triumph. ‘This is...unexpected.’
‘I guess it is.’ She lifted one bare, bronzed shoulder and shot him another vermillion smile. ‘You always said you wanted to show me your Italian home, so here I am,’ she drawled. ‘Show me!’
But Alessio was on his feet, too, his face thunderous, his fists white-knuckled and clenched by his sides. He surveyed his stepfather with a mixture of disbelief and contempt as his mother began to quietly cry. ‘Get her out of here.Now,’ he snapped from between gritted teeth and his stepfather nodded, as if unwilling to confront the ire of his furious stepson.
Alessio watched the couple depart before turning to his sister. ‘Take Mamma to her room,’ he instructed. ‘I’ll be along to see her in a moment. And, Nicola, go and start packing, will you? We’re leaving.’
Nicola gazed at him blankly—but what else could she do but obey? She waited until Lydia had taken her mother away and only Sebastian was left, having watched the drama unfold, his head turning this way and that, like a spectator at a tennis match.
‘Long time coming,’ he said, his posh accent unsteady as he picked up his wine glass and drained it in one.
‘I wouldn’t know,’ answered Nicola coldly.
But it seemed surreal to be back upstairs, pulling out all her new and mostly unworn clothes and layering them back into the plush leather suitcase which had also been purchased for this trip. It seemed that her brief tenure as Alessio’s paid companion had come to an abrupt end. All that angst about sharing a bed had come to nothing.
Taking off the fairy-tale dress, she pulled on a denim skirt and a shirt and walked over to the window, where the almost full moon had turned the landscape into something magical. But just like magic, none of this was real. The silvery light hid the weeds and snakes which lived in the shadows of the gardens. The seeming perfection was flawed because there was no such thing as perfection. Not in places, nor in people, she reminded herself bitterly. Especially not in people.
She heard the door open and close and when she turned around she saw Alessio standing there, just inside the room, his hard body unmoving. And if she’d thought his expression had been forbidding earlier, that was nothing to the anger which harshened his stony features now. But she wasn’t here to analyse or offer an opinion. Matter-of-factness was what he needed, which might remove some of the heat from the situation.
‘So, what happens next?’ she said calmly.
At the sound of her words, his eyes cleared, as if he had only just remembered he was not alone. ‘Just that?’ He gave a short laugh. ‘No other questions?’
‘It’s none of my business,’ she replied.
‘You’re not curious about why my stepfather was openly flaunting his mistress in front of his wife?’
She shrugged. ‘Even if I was, surely that’s irrelevant?’
‘Certo.Totally irrelevant. But I applaud your attitude, Nicola. Not many women would have resisted the temptation to dig deeper. It’s one of the things which made me realise you would be the ideal candidate for what I needed.’ His gaze was speculative. ‘Your coolness. Your...’ He hesitated, as if he could not find the right word in either English or Italian. ‘You are an enigma,’ he said at last. ‘And that’s why I felt it safe to employ you.’
Nicola didn’t know if she liked the sound of that. He made her sound like a robot, but at least his words reinforced the transactional aspect of their relationship. ‘Which brings me back to my original question,’ she said crisply. ‘What do we do now?’
‘We’re leaving, of course. I want my mother to come with us, but she is refusing.’
‘Can’t you...insist?’
‘Don’t you think I’ve tried?’ he demanded. ‘But short of forcibly bundling her in the car, she’s going nowhere. She’s waiting for my father to “come to his senses”.’ He gave a bitter laugh. ‘And I refuse to hang around to witness any more of her inevitable humiliation. Plus, if the truth were known, I don’t trust myself not to hit him, and I am not a violent man.’ In the moonlight, his eyes were shards of pure silver. ‘Still no questions?’ he added roughly.
As his narrowed gaze bored into her, Nicola shook her head. If he thought she was fascinated by his dysfunctional family, he was wrong. Didn’t she have one of her own to worry about, which made his look like amateurs? She thought about Callum pacing his prison cell and pregnant Stacey, watching TV in her poky bedsit, and as she realised she had only ‘worked’ for one afternoon and evening, a wave of anxiety washed over her. Because what if all this had been for nothing?
The words came blurting out in a rush before she could stop them. ‘Are you still intending to pay me?’
Did she imagine his look of distaste? No, she was pretty sure she did not—nor the sudden scorn in his voice.
‘Oh, yes, Nicola. Have no fear. I will pay you in full.’
‘And...we’re flying back to England tonight?’
