with a string of lovers.
'Where are you going?' Caterina demanded shrilly
as Lorenzo turned on his heel and walked away
from her.
From the other side of the hall Lorenzo looked
back at her.
'I am going,' he told her evenly, 'to find myself a
wife — any wife. Just so long as she is not you. You
could have seen to it that I was warned that my grandmother
was near to death, so that I could have been
here with her, but you chose not to. And we both
know why.'
'You cannot marry someone else. I will not let
you.'
'You cannot stop me.'
She shook her head. 'You will not find another
wife, Lorenzo. Or at least not the kind of wife you
would be willing to accept — not in such a sort space
of time. You are far too proud to marry some little
village girl of no social standing, and besides…' She
paused, then gave him a taunting look and said softly,
'If necessary I shall tell everyone about the child I
was to have had, whom you made me destroy.'
'Your lover’s child,' he reminded her. 'Not Gino’s
child. You told me that yourself.'
'But I shall tell others that it was your child. After
all, many people know that Gino believed you loved
me.'
'I should have told him that I loathed you.'
'He would not have believed you,' Caterina told
him smugly. 'Just as he would not have believed the
child was not his. How does it feel to know that you
are responsible for the taking of an unborn child's
life, Lorenzo?'
He took a step towards her, a look of such blazing
fury in his eyes that she ran for the door, pulling it
open and sliding through it.
Lorenzo cursed savagely under his breath and then
went back to the table where he had dropped his
grandmother’s will.
He had been filled with fury and disbelief when his
grandmother’s notary had finally managed to make
contact with him to tell him of his fears, and how he
had managed to prevent Caterina from having all her
own way by deliberately removing her name from the
will so that it merely required Lorenzo to marry in
order to inherit, rather than specifically having to
marry Caterina.
The notary, almost as elderly as his grandmother
had been, had apologised to Lorenzo if he had done
the wrong thing, but Lorenzo had quickly reassured
him that he had not. Without the notary's interference
Caterina would have trapped him very cleverly. She
was right about one thing. He did want the Castillo.
And he intended to have it.
Right now, though, he had to get away from it before
he did something he would regret, he reflected
as he strode out into the courtyard and breathed in
the clean tang of the evening air, mercifully devoid
of Caterina’s heavy, smothering perfume.
CHAPTER TWO
SHE was going to have to give in and do that U-turn
she had sworn she would not make, Jodie admitted
unhappily to herself. She hadn’t a clue where she was,
and the bright moonlight was illuminating a landscape
so barren and hostile that she was actually beginning
to feel quite unnerved. To one side of her the ground
dropped away with dramatic sharpness, and on the
other it was broken by various jagged outcroppings
of rock.
Up ahead of her she could see where the narrow
track widened out to provide a passing place.
Determinedly she headed for it, and started to manoeuvre
the vehicle so that she could turn round.
Suddenly there was a loud noise, and the back
wheels of the hire car began to spin whilst the car
itself lurched horribly to one side. Thoroughly
alarmed, Jodie put the car in neutral and climbed out,
her alarm turning to despair as she saw that one of
the rear wheels was stuck fast in a deep rut and looked
as though it had a flat tyre.
Now what was she going to do? She certainly
couldn’t drive anywhere in it.
She went back to the car, massaging her aching leg
as she did so. She was tired, and hungry, and thoroughly
miserable. Opening her bag, she reached for
her mobile phone, and the wallet in which she had
placed all the details of her travel arrangements and
car hire.
As she picked up the phone her eyes widened in
dismay. Her phone was already on, and by the looks
of it there was no signal. Not only that, but when she
attempted to dial a number anyway the phone gave
an ominous bleep and the display light died. She must
