adores. So I don’t really feel guilty. My love, never fear. To you I will be faithful. With you I find a completeness and a fulfilment that I never found with Drago.
Here it was, the proof that Drago was fooling himself. Far from being the woman who had given him all of herself, she’d shared herself out pretty freely, it seemed. He’d endured her betrayal and loss, but this would break his heart finally.
A sound from the kitchen made her stuff the letter back into the envelope. It was instinctive. Without thinking about it, she knew she wasn’t going to show him this.
‘Anything interesting?’ he asked, coming in and setting down the hot chocolate.
‘No, just more of the same,’ she said casually. ‘Oh, that looks lovely.’
He gathered up the letters and tossed them back into the bag.
‘Enough of them for tonight,’ he said.
He pushed the bag onto a low shelf. Alysa watched, blaming herself for not taking the letter while she’d had the chance. Now she could do nothing without arousing his suspicion.
She maintained a calm facade as she bid him goodnight and retired to bed. She even managed to sleep for a while. But then she awoke, every nerve on edge, knowing that she must secure that letter before he saw it.
She might argue with herself that it was illogical for her to protect him, but this wasn’t logic. This was emotion, a luxury she hadn’t allowed herself for too long. Drago had said he trusted her, and what happened to him now was in her hands.
Moving silently, she got out of bed and looked out into the corridor. The house was silent, and no light could be seen beneath Drago’s door. This was her one chance. It took a few seconds to creep into the main room where there was still a faint glow from the dying fire, locate the bag on the shelf and speed back to her room.
A quick search revealed the cruel letter. She read it briefly to make sure it was the right one, then slipped it into the drawer of her bedside locker. Feverishly she began searching through the remaining letters, just in case there was another mention of Carlotta’s infidelity. She found it in James’s reply, and took that too. When she was sure she’d removed everything dangerous, she slipped back into the corridor and stood in the darkness, listening fearfully. But there was no sound.
Then a quick dash to replace the bag where Drago had left it. It was done. Now all she had to do was get back to her room. She was almost there when she heard his door opening, and turned, standing petrified in the light of the window.
Then she saw something that shocked her. A smile illuminated Drago’s face, so that for a moment it was brilliant with joy. His hand moved as if to reach out to her, but then it fell back to his side and the smile died.
‘Are you all right?’ he asked politely.
‘Yes-yes. I just had to-get up for a minute. Goodnight.’
She fled to her room and stood leaning against the door, trying not to believe what had happened: for a split second in the darkness Drago had thought she was Carlotta. He’d smiled, almost reaching out to her. But then the smile had died as the sad truth had overcome him again.
Now Alysa was passionately glad at what she had done. It was wrong, disgraceful. She was a thief. But she had protected him from further grief, and she wasn’t sorry.
She could hear him moving about in his bedroom next door to hers, and the mysterious communication that seemed to unite them showed her his movements-from the door to the window and back again, from the door to the wall, to the window.
A pause, then the sound of the window being opened. In her mind she could see him standing there, looking out at the dark mountains with the moon rising behind them, trying to cool himself in the chill air. Vainly seeking an elusive peace.
She knew the moment when he closed the window and began to pace the room again, until he ended up by the wall that separated him from her. She held her breath, hoping he’d gone to bed.
But then came the sound of a long groan, like an animal caught in a trap. It shivered away into nothing, and after that there was silence.
CHAPTER EIGHT
FOR the next couple of days they continued going through the letters, but there were no more revelations, and at last they could relax. The pills worked well and her cold improved fast, until they were able to go out for a breath of fresh air. Drago acted like a nanny, making her wear his own coat, and buttoning it up to the throat, while she laughed with pleasure. It was bliss to be fussed over.
‘You’re twice my size,’ she said, regarding herself in the mirror, almost vanishing into the huge coat, and flapping the sleeves which hung comically off the ends of her arms. ‘Whatever do I look like?’
‘You look like someone who needs a scarf,’ he said, wrapping one around her neck several times. ‘Has nobody ever taken any care of you?’
‘My mother did, until she died. But after that I’ve been pretty independent.’
‘What about James?’ he wanted to know.
She made a face. James hadn’t been the protective kind, and until this moment it hadn’t bothered her.
The beauty of the mountain was overwhelming as they went carefully up the slope, Alysa clinging to his arm at his insistence to avoid slipping. Overhead the trees hung heavy with snow, while in front of them the white path led up out of sight.
‘I’ve never seen anything so lovely,’ she sighed.
‘Don’t you have snow in England?’
‘It turns to sludge very quickly. But this…’
She let go of his arm and turned round and round, looking up so that the bright morning sun fell on her face. Drago watched her, smiling at her ecstasy.
‘You look like a scarecrow,’ he said.
‘Thank you, kind sir. Yes, I do, don’t I?’ She began to spin faster.
‘You’re scaring the birds,’ he protested as a startled flock rose from the branches above, fleeing these wild noises.
The next moment they were engulfed in snow that had been disturbed by the scattering birds. Alysa collapsed with laughter, leaning back against a tree and sliding down.
‘Don’t sit on the ground, you crazy woman,’ Drago said, brushing snow out of his hair and taking hold of her.
He yanked her unceremoniously to her feet, so that she staggered and he had to steady her against him.
‘Behave,’ he told her firmly. ‘Are you totally intent on getting pneumonia?’
‘That would be very awkward for you,’ she laughed. ‘Especially if I died. You get me up here, and I vanish for ever. You could be in big trouble.’
‘Nonsense, they’d give me a medal. Now, come on, I want to get you safely into the warm.’
‘Suppose I want to stay?’
His answer was to pick her up and march firmly back to the villa.
‘Why do some women argue about everything?’ he growled.
‘Some men are made to be argued with,’ she said, steadying herself with both arms around his neck. ‘The temptation is irresistible.’
He gave a bark of laughter, turning his head to glance at her, and immediately wished he hadn’t. Her mouth was so close to his that their lips almost touched. He looked ahead quickly, shaken by the vibration that went through him, almost causing him to stumble, and feeling her arms tighten about his neck.
‘Steady,’ she said in a trembling voice. ‘I don’t want to be dumped on the ground again.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he said huskily.
She struggled to control her breathing, which was coming in awkward jerks, thankful that he couldn’t sense the beating of her heart. Or could he? She could sense his. Unless it was merely the echo of her own.
