become essential to her.
She thought of him as the man she might have loved if love were not impossible for her now. Deeper than that she didn't dare to look into her own heart.
When the restaurant closed she went wearily up the stairs and shut herself in. Her brain felt as though it were going around and around on a treadmill. She must go to bed and try to sleep, but she knew she would only lie awake.
The building was old-fashioned, with shutters on the windows. As she went to close them for the night her gaze was caught by something in the
Pushing open the window, she leaned out and saw a man standing there.
'Come in,' she called.
She was at the door, waiting for him as he turned the corner of the stairs, ready to open her arms to him in her relief.
'I didn't think you'd come,' she said fervently.
He nodded almost curtly, but made no move toward her. 'I had to.'
'I thought you were angry with me after what I said.'
She stepped back to let him into the room, realising that there would be no embrace.
'No, I'm not angry any more,' he said. 'You were in a state of shock. Let's forget that it happened.'
This wasn't the joyful reunion she'd anticipated when she'd seen him in the street. He was here, but emotionally he was holding back from her in a way he'd never done before. When she laid a hand on his arm he smiled cautiously, but didn't take her into his arms.
'Perhaps you'd make me a coffee,' he said politely.
'Of course,' she replied, matching his tone.
As she was working in the kitchen he came and stood leaning against the doorway.
'I may even have deserved your suspicion,' he said. 'I wouldn't spirit her away, but for a moment I did wish I could turn the clock back, to before you appeared, and stop it happening. Rosa has been part of my family for five years. I love her. Do you think I wanted to admit that she's yours?'
'Does that mean that you're going to say that she isn't?' she asked sharply.
'I can't do that. I wish I could, but I did some checking on the internet tonight. I found several reports about the robbery, confirming everything you told me. One of them had a tiny picture of your husband, just good enough to show that he really was the same man as James Cardew.
'And the first time I ever saw you, that night Piero brought you home, there was something familiar about you. I didn't understand it, but actually I was looking at you and seeing Rosa.'
'But we're not alike.'
'Except for one thing-her forehead. She has exactly the same low forehead that you have. Usually her fringe hides it, but tonight I saw her brush the fringe back, and then everything became clear.'
They returned to the main room and he chose a single chair rather than the sofa where she might have sat beside him.
'I need to know more,' she said quietly. 'Everything you can tell me about him.'
'Does it really matter now?'
'I have six years of blanks to fill in. I won't like what you tell me, but I have to know.'
'Yes, I suppose you do,' he said at last. 'All right. I'll tell you everything I can.'
CHAPTER EIGHT
Vincenzo took a deep breath, and started.
'It seems as though your friends who thought they'd seen him in Venice and Rome were right. Bianca met him in Rome, where he was as an art dealer.'
'An art dealer?' Julia cried in disgust. 'But he knew nothing except what he learned from me.'
'He seems to have been a genius at presentation. Plus he had a lot of money and his premises were in the wealthy part of town.'
'That would be his cut from the robberies,' she guessed.
'Yes, it must have been enough to give the impression of success. When Bianca came home he followed her here. He said he was expanding, establishing a branch in Venice. The truth, as I later learned, was that he'd had to get out of Rome, fast. He'd sold some apparently priceless artefacts to a powerful family, who naturally wanted their money back when they turned out to be fakes.
'They sent people to Venice, who explained to James that, if he didn't pay up, bad things would happen to him. So he did, having no choice.
'After that, what money he had left ran out quickly. He was extravagant. He bought useless rubbish for show, made bad investments. He was a rather stupid, shallow man.'
'Yes,' she said. 'That's exactly it.'
'But there was nothing to make me suspect him of worse than that. He had a passport in the name of James Cardew and hers said Rosa Cardew. He had a whole file of paperwork establishing that James Cardew was a successful art dealer with a list of grateful clients in several countries. Someone in the gang must have forged them for him before they parted company.'
'I don't think so,' Julia said. 'Otherwise the man who split on him could have given the police his new name. No, it must have been done later, by someone else. I dare say false documents are easy enough to get, if you have the money.'
'He certainly had money for a while. When it ran out he got desperate. He tried to get some out of me, although this was after the crash and the whole world knew that we had nothing. But he was sure I had some secret cache hidden from the creditors. He suggested that it was time I handed over Bianca's 'share'.'
'Yes, that was how his mind worked,' she remembered. 'He could never believe that things were exactly as they seemed, especially where cash was concerned. Did he think she had a secret fortune when they married?'
'He as good as admitted it. I don't think he married her entirely for love. Maybe not at all.'
It took her a moment to appreciate what he was saying, and then she turned on him.
'Is that supposed to delight me?' she demanded furiously. 'Do you think I care who he loved?'
'I don't know how you feel. You were once deeply in love with him.'
'That was in another life.'
He nodded wryly. 'I keep telling myself that things happened in another life. But it's odd how the lives overlap when you least expect it. Anyway, like a fool I borrowed against the restaurant for my sister's sake. She'd had a rough time. I didn't want things to get worse for her.'
'How long did it take him to come back for more?'
'Not long. This time we had a fight and he ended up in the canal.'
'Good,' she said simply.
'The one good thing I know of him is that he honestly seemed to love Rosa. In his way he was a good father.'
'A good father, after the way he separated her from her mother, without a thought for either of them?'
'I only meant that he always showed her a lot of affection, and interest. If she tried to tell him something he'd stop what he was doing and listen, however long it took. Lots of parents can't do that, however much they love the child-'
'Yes, all right,' she interrupted him in a strained voice. 'You're right, he was a good father. I remember now how he loved being with her.'
'And she adored him. She also came to love Bianca. That's not easy for you to hear, but you have to know what you're dealing with.'
'Thank you,' she said in a colourless voice. 'I couldn't tell much from seeing her today.'
'No, she didn't cry or show any emotion, did she?' he said heavily. 'It's been four months, and still-'
Julia stared. 'You mean she's never cried?'
