Other people existed only to be useful. She felt a chill run through her as her heart slowed to a pace where she could think. Her thoughts were calm, purposeful, almost scary in their cool resolution.
‘How did you know to come to this house?’ she asked.
‘When the train drew in to Rome I saw you, just for a moment, and I recognised the man you were with. Fallucci tried a friend of mine last year, and I was in court when he passed sentence. Five years. He’s a hard man, without mercy. What a joke, you living in his house! Did it take you long to seduce him?’
She reacted too fast for thought, striking him across the face so hard that he nearly fell. He stepped back quickly, his hand to his face, staring at her, shocked.
Holly was aghast at herself. Never before in her life had she lost control. But his easy, cheap judgement had caused a furnace of rage and resentment to explode within her, making her lash out on blind instinct.
She backed off, breathing hard, afraid of this new self and what it was prepared to do.
‘I don’t think I deserved that,’ he said warily. ‘When I saw you walking out of that station I could have given you away to the police right then. But I didn’t.’
‘Of course you didn’t. You thought if you could escape from the police you could catch up with me later-’
‘So that I could throw myself at your feet-’
‘So that you could find out where the picture was-’
‘Why must you think the worst of me?’
‘Guess.’
He changed tack, putting his arms about her.
‘Let’s not quarrel. I’m sorry I made you angry. I shouldn’t have made that remark about seducing him. It’s just that you’re so beautiful you could seduce any man. I’ll bet he’s crazy about you already-’
‘I’m warning you-’
‘All right, I won’t say any more. I know you’re faithful to me.’
It was almost funny, the way this creature deluded himself. She wanted to laugh wildly.
‘You’ve been brilliant,’ he went on, oblivious, ‘and now we have everything waiting for us. Just get the picture, and we’ll be out of here.’
‘What?’ She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
‘It’ll bring us a fortune, but we have to get back to England.’ His arms tightened. ‘I know you’re mad at me, but you’ll forgive me.’
Had there ever been a man so conceited? After what he’d done to her, he still believed that he had only to sweet-talk her and she would fall for him again.
From behind her there came a faint noise, but Bruno heard nothing. Absorbed in his performance, he was oblivious to all else. Suddenly she knew what she was going to do. The hot rage that had swept her had died, replaced by a freezing feeling that was delicious.
Time to stop being a little brown mouse. Time to stop taking it and start dishing it out.
‘Of course I want to be with you,’ she said, giving him a slow smile.
‘Then get that picture, quickly.’
‘I can’t. It isn’t here. I hid it.’
‘Where?’
‘In Roccasecca. I had to dump it somewhere and there was a church next to the station. I hid it behind the altar, in a little hole. It’ll still be waiting when someone goes to find it.’
He tensed. ‘Describe it to me exactly.’
She did so, watching his face in the moonlight, fascinated to see the perspiration as his excitement increased.
‘I’ve got to get there fast,’ he said, trying to pull away.
She made a play of holding on to him.
‘Not yet. Stay with me a little. I’ve missed you so much.’
‘And I’ve missed you,’ he said hurriedly, ‘but there’s no time to lose.’
‘But you’ll come back for me?’ She managed to put a note of pleading in her voice.
‘Of course I will.’
‘Promise?’ she asked urgently.
‘I promise, I promise. Now let me go.’
Bruno wrenched himself from her arms and made off down one of the paths. Holly waited until he was out of sight before glancing over her shoulder at the man who was no more than a shadow concealed by the trees, and saying, ‘Did you hear all that?’
CHAPTER SIX
‘I HEARD enough,’ said Matteo, coming out of the shadows.
‘I was afraid you’d appear too soon, and spoil it.’
‘I wouldn’t have spoilt it for the world. How long did you know I was there?’
‘Only near the end, but it would have been the same whether you were there or not.’
‘I thought it was for my benefit.’
‘Some of it.’ She added with relish, ‘But most of it was for mine.’
In the darkness she couldn’t see the curious look he gave her, but she didn’t need to. She sensed it with every inch of her body and it filled her with satisfaction.
‘What are you going to do now?’ she asked, apparently casually.
‘I ought to alert the household to pick him up at the gate-or perhaps even the police-’
‘No,’ she said quickly. ‘Let him go.’
‘A soft heart?’ she demanded, outraged. ‘You saw what I did.’
‘Yes, I’ve never seen a woman strike a man so hard, with such passion-’
‘With such anger.’
‘Are they very different? Or are they two sides of the same coin? He had only to hint that you might look at another man, and you were ready to kill him.’
But the ‘other man’ was Matteo himself. Now she remembered more details of that conversation and she felt herself growing warm all over, as though her whole body was blushing. If he should think she was exerting herself to attract him she would die of shame.
To cool down she went to the monument and plunged her hands into the water, laving it over her face, discovering that once more her heart was pounding with a mysterious excitement that had nothing to do with Bruno.
‘I was ready to kill Bruno anyway,’ she said, forcing herself to speak sharply. ‘I’m not pining for him.’
‘I think you are, or you’d see yourself as you might have been, locked up, behind bars. And then you’d want to see him in the same place. Don’t yearn for an illusion, Holly. It’s a weakness you can’t afford. Get free of him
‘And you think I’ll do it like that? I mean to get free, but it’s vital that you let me do it my own way.’
‘By letting him escape?’
‘The way I see it, he’ll never escape. You said he didn’t know the miniature had been found.’
‘Yes, I heard you tell him where it was…’ he said slowly as understanding dawned. ‘He’ll go there…be caught red-handed in the church, seeking something that he’ll never find because the police already have it.’
‘If you think you should alert the police, you’ll do so,’ she observed. ‘Personally I should prefer to think of him just searching-searching-’
‘Fruitlessly,’ he murmured. ‘He could be there forever.’
‘That’s what I thought.’
He stood before her and regarded her in the silver light. She met his gaze defiantly.
