'You didn't want to try to save your marriage?'
'There was nothing to save,' she said tensely. 'It was over.'
'So quickly? So easily? So ruthlessly?'
The last word was like a dagger.
'I really have to go,' she said, rising. 'Thank you for the coffee.'
'Are you offended with me?'
'
She fled without a backward look.
Chapter Seven
Justine spent the rest of that afternoon in St. Mark's Basilica, judging angles, working hard to put Riccardo out of her mind by sheer force of will.
But when she returned to the Palazzo Calvani, Dulcie was bubbling with the day's events.
'Riccardo came this morning to check things for the party. I was just talking to him when you called.'
So their meeting had been no accident. He had known where to find her. The thought gave her a strange feeling.
The palazzo was filling up with guests. On the day of the party several of the count's cousins arrived from distant parts of Italy.
Once, looking out of a window, Justine saw Riccardo arrive in a barge laden with food and two members of his staff. She turned away quickly. She did not want to think about him. He had left her thoughts in turmoil with his casually cruel remarks.
What did he know?
'You look upset,' Dulcie said.
'It's just that I found myself talking about Neil yesterday. Now I wish I hadn't.'
'Do you regret divorcing him so fast?'
'Not you, too! I did what had to be done. That was it.'
More guests arrived and Dulcie went down to greet them, leaving Justine with her thoughts.
It had been a mistake to marry Neil – she'd known that even on the wedding day. They were in love, but she didn't believe in love – not the lasting kind. How could she when her parents' divorce had left her homeless? Both of them had remarried, and she had been shunted around to a series of aunts, 'until things settle down.'
But things had never settled down. Eventually she'd realized that there was no place for her in either home. After that she had set her face against the world.
She had an eye for shape and color, which had made her a success as a photographer. As her success grew, so did her social life. She was beautiful. Men wanted her. And that was fine, as long as they didn't ask for her heart as well.
She had locked that up in a safe, bolted, barred and labeled Do Not Touch.
With Neil she'd taken the risk, and it had been a mistake. Luckily they'd both seen the light in time. They'd had a nice, civilized divorce, and in future she would stick to adventures.
Riccardo should have been an adventure. But he wouldn't stay in his right place. A few moments of alarming insight had turned him into a threat.
For dinner she put on a figure-hugging cream dress cunningly contrived to be demure and enticing at once. Around her neck she wore a chain of solid gold. With her dramatic red hair, the effect was striking.
'You'll have them all at your feet,' Dulcie had predicted earlier, chuckling.
But the first one at her feet was Riccardo, literally. He was waiting at the foot of the grand staircase as she descended. He was more formally dressed now, in black trousers, snowy shirt and black tie.
As she neared, she waited for his grin of lusty appreciation, but tonight his demeanor was grave and gentle.
'I won't keep you a moment,' he said quietly. 'I had to tell you that I'm sorry for having distressed you yesterday.'
'You're very kind, but I wasn't distressed,' she said, trying to sound cool and indifferent.
'Forgive me, but I know that you were, otherwise you would not have run away.'
'I did not run away,' she said, her temper rising as she began to feel threatened again. 'I had work to do. End of story.'
'Do you know how often you use that expression?' he asked softly. 'Always you try to bring the story to an end at the moment of your choosing. But nobody can do that. The story ends when it ends.'
'And do
'I'm sorry. Yes, that is a fault of mine.'
'Why do you think you have the right?'
'Because you matter,' he said simply.
'No, I do not matter to you, and you do not matter to me. Please let me pass.'
He stood back and inclined his head politely.
'As the signora pleases.'
She stared, shocked. He'd reminded her that tonight he was here as a servant. Perhaps he thought she was a snob who'd cold-shouldered him on that account. But before she could tell him he was wrong, Dulcie called back from the door, 'Justine, come and meet somebody.'
She smiled, hurried across to where boats were drawing up at the palazzo's landing stage, and was engulfed in cheerful greetings.
When she next looked, Riccardo had gone.
Chapter Eight
A party in the Palazzo Calvani was a step back into an age of elegance. Thirty people dined at the long rosewood table, eating off Sevres porcelain and drinking from crystal etched with the Calvani crest.
Riccardo had prepared a banquet fit for a king. It was served by the palazzo servants, but under his eagle eyes. As he had told Justine, tonight he was the headwaiter.
It was Justine's first experience of Venetian cuisine, and she promised herself it wouldn't be the last. A dish of sardines in onions, pine seeds and sultanas was only the start. After that there was squid in tomato sauce, pork loins with Swiss cheese and shallots, with pears in hot chocolate to follow.
Clearly, whatever else he was economizing on, Riccardo had hired a superlative chef. There was more to him, she realized, than a lusty charmer. There was also a serious businessman who knew exactly what he was doing.
She tried to smile at him to show her appreciation, but discovered that it was impossible. He never came near her or met her eyes.
Obviously he'd blanked her out because of his absorption in his work. In which case she could hardly complain, she thought wryly, because it was exactly what she had done to him.
And she would be glad to believe that was the only reason. She didn't like to think of what the other one might be.
After dinner there were toasts, then everyone drifted into the garden to drink coffee under trees hung with colored lights.
