was going to be impervious to 'love'—yes, even
though that meant at twenty-six she would be facing
the rest of her life alone. What made it worse was
that John had seemed so trustworthy, so honest and
so kind. She had let him into her life and, even more
humiliatingly painful to acknowledge now, into her
fears and her dreams. No way was she going to risk
having another man treat her as John had done — one
minute swearing eternal love, the next…
And as for John himself, he was welcome to
Louise, and they were obviously suited to one another,
too, since they were both deceitful cheats and
liars. But she, coward that she was, could not face
going home until the wedding was over, until all the
fuss had died down and until she was not going to be
the recipient of pitying looks, the subject of hushed
gossip.
'Well, let’s look on the bright side,' Andrea had
said lightly when she had realised Jodie was not going
to be persuaded to abandon her plans. 'You never
know — you might meet someone in Italy and fall
head over heels in love. Italian men are so gorgeously
sexy and passionate.'
Italian men — or any kind of men — were off the life
menu for her from now on, Jodie told herself furiously.
Men, marriage, love — she no longer wanted
anything to do with any of them.
Angrily Jodie depressed the accelerator. She had
no idea where this appallingly bumpy road was going
to take her, but she wasn’t going to turn back. From
now on there would be no U-turns in her life, no
looking back in misery or despair, no regrets about
what might have been. She was going to face firmly
forward.
David and Andrea had been wonderfully kind to
her, offering her their spare room when she had sold
her cottage so that she could put the sale proceeds
towards the house she and John were buying — which
had not, with hindsight, been the most sensible of
things to do — but she couldn’t live with her cousin
and his wife for ever.
Luckily John had at least given her her money
back, but the break-up of their engagement had still
cost her her job, since she had worked for his father
in the family business. John was due to take over
when his father retired.
So now she had neither home nor job, and she was
going to be—
She yelped as the offside front wheel hit something
hard, the impact causing her to lurch forward painfully
against the constraint of her seat belt. How much
further was she going to have to drive before she
found some form of life? She was booked into a hotel
tonight, and according to her calculations she should
have reached her destination by now. Where on earth
was she? The road was climbing so steeply…
'You, I take it, are responsible for this? It has your
manipulative, destructive touch all over it, Caterina,'
Lorenzo Niccolo d’Este, Duce di Montesavro, accused
his cousin-in-law with savage contempt as he
threw his grandmother’s will onto the table between
them.
'If your grandmother took my feelings into account
when she made her will, then that was because—'
'Your feelings!' Lorenzo interrupted her bitingly.
'And what feelings exactly would those be? The same
feelings that led to you bullying my cousin to his
death?' He was making no attempt whatsoever to conceal
his contempt for her.
Two ugly red patches of angry colour burned betrayingly
on Caterina’s immaculately made-up face.
'I did not drive Gino to his death. He had a heart
attack.'
'Yes, brought on by your behaviour.'
'You had better be careful what you accuse me of,
Lorenzo, otherwise…'
'You dare to threaten me?' Lorenzo demanded.
'You may have managed to deceive my grandmother,
but you cannot deceive me.'
He turned his back on her to pace the stone-flagged
floor of the Castillo’s Great Hall, his pent-up fury
rendering him as savagely dangerous as a caged animal
of prey.
'Admit it,' he challenged as he swung round again
to confront her. 'You came here deliberately intending
to manipulate and deceive an elderly dying
woman for your own ends.'
'You know that I have no desire to quarrel with
you, Lorenzo,' Caterina protested. 'All I want—'
'I already know what you want,' Lorenzo reminded
her coldly. 'You want the privilege, the position, and
the wealth that becoming my wife would give you—
and it is for that reason that you harried a confused
elderly woman you knew to be dying into changing
her will. If you had any compassion, any—' He broke
off in disgust. 'But of course you do not, as I already
know.'
His furious contempt had caused the smile to fade
from her lips and her body to stiffen into hostility as
