own sake. But instead of telling Gino the truth she
had her pregnancy terminated — and told Gino she had
lost the child. He was devastated, and immediately
insisted on marrying her. So, through my interference,
one life was lost and another destroyed.'
Jodie had to swallow as she heard the raw emotion
in his voice. 'You weren’t responsible.'
'Yes, I was. If I had not interfered she would have
had the child.'
'And she would have gone on lying to your
cousin.'
'I tried to play at being God, and no man should
do that. I tried to control her behaviour because I had
not been able to control my mother's. She left my
father and she left me, too, to be with her lover.
Caterina stayed with Gino, but, like my mother, she
sacrificed her child for her own ends. It felt like I had
murdered my own brother.'
As she heard the pain in his voice it occurred to
Jodie that Caterina must have known how he would
react, and that her decision would have been motivated
by her desire to inflict that pain and guilt on
him.
'I can never forgive myself for it — never!'
'It was Caterina who made the decision — not you,'
Jodie pointed out quietly. 'It was her child, and her
body. You weren’t even the father.'
'If I had been there is no way she would have been
allowed to do what she did,' Lorenzo told Jodie passionately.
'Not even if I had to lock her up for nine
months to make sure of it.' He fell silent for a moment,
then spoke more quietly. 'My mother once told
me that she hadn’t wanted me. She hadn’t even really
wanted to marry my father. There had been family
pressure, and she had decided that marriage to him
was at least a form of escape from the strict control
of her parents.' Lorenzo’s voice was bleak.
'I was so lucky to have two parents who loved one
another, and me,' Jodie commented softly. She
couldn’t begin to image what it must have been like
for a young child to be told by his mother that he
wasn’t wanted.
'She was little more than a child when she got married.
Seventeen, and my father was twenty-four. He
loved her intensely. Too much. Her lover was a racing
driver she met through a friend. So much more exciting
than my father. She used to take me with her
when she went to meet him. I had no idea then of the
truth. I thought… He showed me his car and…'
And you liked him, Jodie recognised compassionately.
You liked him, and then you felt you had betrayed
your father — just as your mother had done.
'They ran away together in the end, and my mother
died of blood poisoning in South America, where he
was racing. My father never got over losing her, and
I swore then that I would never…'
'Trust another woman?' Jodie finished for him.
'Let my emotions control me,' Lorenzo corrected
her.
'Do we really have to stay married for a year?' she
asked him. 'After all, you’ve got the Castillo now,
and Caterina has left…'
'Our arrangement was that we would remain married
for one year,' he reminded her curtly. 'To change
that now would give rise to gossip and speculation,
and although Caterina has left she could decide to
challenge the will if she thought she might win such
a case. I Don’t want that.'
'Twelve months seems such a long time.'
'No longer than it was when you agreed to remain
with me for that period.'
But then she hadn’t known what she knew now,
had she? Then she hadn’t known that she would be
in danger of falling in love with him, that every extra
day she had to spend close to him would increase her
danger. But she could hardly tell him that.
'What will happen with the Castillo now?' Jodie
asked, knowing that there was nothing she could say
to explain her reluctance to stay with him that would
not give her away.
'I am arranging for several experts to come out and
inspect the paintings so that we can discuss how best
to restore them, and I also intend to put in hand the
necessary work to convert the Castillo into a centre
for rehabilitation and artistic excellence. I have spoken
already with several of Florence’s master guilders
and other craftsmen— But none of this can be of
much interest to you,' he told her tersely.
Jodie dipped her head so that he couldn’t see how
much his careless words had hurt her. But of course
he didn’t see her as a part of the future he was planning.
Why should he?
What was the matter with him? Lorenzo derided
himself. Just because he felt a connection with Jodie
that he had never experienced with anyone else, a
closeness to her, it didn’t mean anything. And it certainly
didn’t mean that he was falling in love with
her. He could feel himself tensing, outwardly and inwardly,
as though he were trying to lock out his
