Betsy froze to the spot in disbelief and wondered if she had misheard the other woman. ‘You thought that Cristo could be in love with me? For goodness’ sake, when?’
‘After we got married I discovered that he carried a photo of you in his wallet,’ Belle admitted ruefully. ‘Before that find I had assumed that you were only friends—’
‘But we were only friends,’ Betsy retorted with uncomfortable stress, wondering just how much alcohol Belle had imbibed that evening. ‘There was never anything else, not even a minor flirtation between us—I swear it—’
Belle wrinkled her nose in embarrassed dismissal. ‘Of course I know that now but I didn’t know that back then and Cristo had quite a job convincing me because, let’s face it, you are beautiful and very feminine, Betsy, so obviously I could see your appeal. At the time I was so afraid that you were much more Cristo’s type than I could ever be—’
At that instant Belle’s rambling speech was interrupted by a sudden noise behind Betsy and a harsh bitten-off masculine exclamation. She spun in consternation, just in time to see Nik’s tall, broad-shouldered figure swinging round in the doorway to fire back out into the corridor.
‘Nik?’ she called after him anxiously while she wondered how long he had been standing there waiting for her to notice his presence. ‘Were you looking for me? Wait for me...’
‘Oh, hell!’ Belle gasped in undiluted horror. ‘Nik must’ve heard what I told you about Cristo...’
The two women raced out of the conservatory to return to the party and reached the hall just as Nik grabbed his brother Cristo by the shoulder and punched him in the face. A split second later Nik had Cristo physically pinned to a wall, black fury and outrage etched in every flushed line of his lean, rigid features. ‘My wife...you were in love with my wife?’ Nik was growling with enraged incredulity.
Betsy realised that Nik had indeed overheard Belle’s deeply damaging admission that she had once believed that Cristo was in love with Betsy and she gritted her teeth in frustration at the realisation, because it was not at all the sort of revelation that Nik was likely to take lying down or with a large forgiving pinch of salt. Nik was a proud and possessive man and even his close friendship with his brother would not excuse what Nik would regard as an unforgivable betrayal of trust. Even so, it was all a stupid storm in a teacup, Betsy thought in exasperation, reluctant to credit that Belle’s suspicions could ever have had any foundation in fact.
‘Calm down, Nik. Think this through,’ Cristo was urging with admirable cool for a male who had blood running from the corner of his mouth. ‘You’ve got this all wrong—’
‘You had a photo of Betsy in your wallet?’ Nik was roaring, apparently deaf to any plea for calm.
‘It’s not like it sounds,’ Cristo protested.
‘My own brother? I trusted you, totally trusted you around my wife and you deceived me!’ Nik growled as if Cristo hadn’t even spoken and with that embittered accusation he threw back his arm and hit Cristo again.
Cristo finally tore himself free of Nik’s punishing hold and shot a string of words at his brother in fast, fluent Italian.
‘For goodness’ sake, someone stop them!’ Betsy exclaimed in consternation as the two brothers began to exchange punches in earnest with both of them so well matched in powerful build and strength that there was no hope of a quick conclusion to the fight.
Belle darted across the hall to the main reception room, which still contained a handful of lingering guests, and called her brother-in-law Zarif out to join them.