The Italian's Passionate Revenge

‘It’s the nicest surprise I ever had.’ She gave him an eager hug. ‘I’ll go and order you some supper.’

She swept out, leaving them alone.

If Elise had had any doubts, his face told her the worst. She walked towards him and spoke quietly.

‘You knew. You’ve known who I was all the time.’

He didn’t reply in words, but he nodded. She stared at him, stunned. Her sense of betrayal was terrifying, blotting out everything else, but she knew she must struggle to keep calm. This was only the beginning.

‘I never dreamed,’ she whispered. ‘But I should have done, shouldn’t I? It’s so obvious when you know the missing detail.’

‘Elise-’

‘Angelo was your cousin.’

‘Hush!’ he said urgently. ‘Don’t let my mother hear you. She has no idea who you are, and she mustn’t know. I didn’t mean you to meet like this.’

‘You didn’t mean us to meet at all, lest I find out what you’ve been up to. I’ve been like a puppet dancing to your tune, haven’t I?’

‘There’s more to it than that. Wait until we’ve talked and don’t let my mother suspect, that’s all I ask.’

The Signora came bustling back with the news that his supper was on its way.

‘Just a snack, Mamma,’ he said quickly. ‘I have little appetite. I should take Elise home.’

‘Nonsense, my dear. Elise isn’t ready to go home. Now sit down while I bring you something.’

They had no choice but to obey her although the strain was written on both their faces. Almost singing with delight, the Signora placed food and coffee in front of her son and sat watching him possessively while he ate it.

‘Did your trip go well?’ she asked.

He forced himself to smile and reply. ‘So well that I felt able to return early.’

Elise wondered how he could manage that smile, that almost normal tone. But then she remembered that he was totally heartless, without feelings of his own and oblivious to those of others. How else could he have held her in his arms, speaking words of passion while secretly scheming against her?

Everything she’d thought was between them was compromised by the secret he’d been keeping. From the first moment, not one word he’d spoken to her had been true.

From the very first moment…

The pain was almost unbearable, but from somewhere she drew on reserves of courage to match his performance. If he could deceive, so could she. At all costs she would protect this sweet, elderly woman who had welcomed her so warmly.

So Elise said a few things that she could afterwards never recall, sounding as cheerful as possible, even managing a smile, while inside she was dying.

To make things worse, the Signora beamed from one to the other, clearly expecting matters to resolve themselves happily soon.

At last it was over. Vincente rose, declaring that he would take her home.

‘There’s no need,’ she said. ‘I can get a taxi.’

‘I will take you,’ he said firmly.

‘Of course,’ his mother said, kissing his cheek and adding in a stage whisper, ‘there’s no need to hurry back.’

They drove in silence until they reached her apartment, and then sat for a moment as though neither could find the strength to move.

‘Let’s go inside,’ he said at last.

‘I’d rather you left,’ she told him quietly.

‘Don’t judge me until you’ve heard what I have to say,’ he said in a hard voice.

They didn’t speak in the lift, or as they entered the apartment. Elise threw aside her jacket and shook her hair loose, wishing it was as easy to free herself from the recent events of her life.

‘You knew my connection with Angelo from the start,’ she said, like someone still trying to explain the facts to herself. ‘Before you came to England.’

‘Yes, I knew.’

Vaguely she recognised that there was something wrong with his voice. He didn’t sound like a man triumphant at the success of his schemes. He sounded as though tonight had left him feeling as stunned as herself.

Then she pushed the thought aside. She couldn’t afford any weakening.

‘How did you find me?’

‘I employed an investigator.’

‘My God!’

‘I knew almost nothing about you, even your real name. Angelo only ever called you Peri. The night Ben went to Trastevere he barged into the flat and barged out again without telling anyone his name. Afterwards I went through those rooms with a fine-tooth comb, certain that I’d find something to identify you-a letter, anything. But there wasn’t a scrap of paper connected with you.’

‘That was Ben’s doing,’ she said in a daze. ‘I remember he insisted on clearing everything out. He was obsessive. I was his property and he wasn’t going to leave any trace of me behind with another man.’

‘That sounds like Ben. At any rate, there was nothing there. I had to make do with a photograph of you that I found in Angelo’s pocket after he died.’

‘You gave my photograph to a private eye?’ she demanded, aghast.

‘It was all I had and, before you condemn me, you never saw Angelo when they took him out of that car, his face and body smashed…’

‘Don’t,’ she said huskily, turning away so that he couldn’t see the tears that sprang to her eyes.

‘I felt I was justified in anything I did, so I hired an investigator, but he found nothing. I had to give it up and for years that’s where it stood. But last year I heard of another man, called Razzini, practically a genius in this kind of work. He found you in a month.’

‘And that was why you offered Ben a job-to get him here, so that he’d bring me,’ Elise said bitterly.

‘Not just to make him bring you,’ Vincente said. ‘I hated him on his own account for what he did to Angelo and I wanted to make him pay.’

‘How? What were you going to do to him? Bankrupt him? Frame him for a crime and put him in gaol for years?’

‘I toyed with the idea. It would have been a pleasure.’

‘But you must have decided on something,’ she harried him. ‘Don’t be shy about it at this late date.’

A change was coming over Elise. Deep down she knew there was grief, but she could abandon herself to that later. Anger would be more use to her now.

She stood in front of him, furious and challenging.

‘So why don’t you give me a blow-by-blow description of everything you’ve done, starting with that day we met over Ben’s grave? I want to know it all-every lie you’ve told, every deception you’ve practised. Tell me about the times we’ve lain together and you’ve pretended to make love to me with a cheap, cynical laugh in your heart.’

His face darkened in a way that some people would have found frightening, but Elise was too blazingly angry to care.

‘How you must have relished that! What did you say to yourself at the time? This one’s for Angelo? Or did Angelo’s revenge come later-tonight, maybe, when you stood there and watched me as I suddenly saw the truth and understood the whole horrible thing you’d done to me?

‘But of course the revenge isn’t over, is it? It’ll be with me every moment from now on, poisoning each memory I have-not just of you but of him. My God, I was better off with Ben!

‘So tell me the whole story. I want to know every last detail, Vincente. Go on. Tell me! ’

‘Shut up and listen,’ Vincente snapped. ‘If you want me to tell you what my final plans were, I can’t. I was waiting to meet you before deciding. Ben boasted about you. He might have betrayed you with every woman he met but he was still proud to have people know you were his, because you were beautiful. When I heard the pride in his voice I knew how I could hurt him.’

‘Through me?’