She did not turn and look at him. In a wooden little voice she said,
'Jan wants to come back to the castello with us. She's tired of the
clinic and-and she feels a quiet rest in the sun would do her good.'
'An admirable idea,' he approved. 'Did you imagine there might be
some difficulty?'
Still not looking at either of them, Juliet said in the same wooden
voice, 'I wasn't sure that we would be returning to the castello.' Her
hands were gripped in front of her so tightly that her knuckles were
white with the strain.
'Naturally we shall be returning there,' he said almost casually. 'And
it would be an excellent arrangement for your sister to accompany
us. She would make a far more adequate compagna over the next
few weeks than Annunziata.'
'A chaperone?' Juliet heard Jan giggle. 'Well, it will be novel
anyway.'
Feeling slightly dizzy, she turned away from the window,
murmuring something about finding one of the sisters and retrieving
Jan's case. As she gained the corridor, Santino came after her.
'What's the matter with you?' he demanded, his fingers grasping her
arm. 'Where are you running to?'
She faced him. 'Jan will need her things,' she said defensively,
trying to free her arm.
He gestured impatiently. 'She will certainly not be allowed to leave
the clinic tonight,' he averred incisively. 'Both she and Mario are
still under observation. Tomorrow will be soon enough to find what
things of hers were salvaged from the car.' He gave her a searching
look. 'What is troubling you?'
'I can't go back to the castello,' she said desperately. 'Santino, I
can't. I-I must go home-back to England. I have responsibilities
...'
'You have responsibilities here,' he interrupted coldly. 'You
involved yourself in this affair of your own will, but you remain
here through mine, and we will see this thing through to the bitter
end.'
'And is it your-will that Jan should move in with us to the
castello?' she demanded.
'The idea had not occurred to me before,' he said coolly. 'But it has
much to recommend it, particularly as I learn that Francesca and her
mother are on their way here to visit Mario. I would prefer in some
ways for your sister to be at a safe distance before their arrival, so
that Vittoria does not get the chance to plant any of her little
poisoned darts.'
'And that is the only reason?' she asked, sick at heart.
'No,' he studied her face for a moment, his own expression
hardening, 'I admit frankly that it is not. You are neither a child nor
a fool, Giulietta, so you must know why I have agreed to invite her.'
'Yes,' she said almost inaudibly, 'I think I do.'
She heard him draw a little breath, and felt his fingers cup her chin
lifting her face towards his. With a sense of panic, she knew that he
was going to kiss her, and she tore herself free from his slackened
grasp, stepping backwards.
'You promised.' Her voice sounded high and a little strained. 'You
said that our engagement would only exist in public.'
He took a half-step towards her, his eyebrows lifting mockingly. 1
can think of few places more public than the corridor of a hospital,
with the good Sisters likely to come upon us at any minute,' he
observed. 'But don't worry, cara. Your precious chastity is safe for
the moment. My mother has asked me to bring you to Mario's
room, so that you may meet him.'
'What a farce it all is,' she said bitterly. 'Very well, signore, I'll go
and be presented as your future wife. But you don't have to
accompany me. As you said, I'm neither a child nor a fool, and I
can-just-manage to find two adjoining rooms in a hospital
corridor.'
'There are times, Giulietta,' he said quite pleasantly, 'when I could
quite willingly beat you. I should go quickly, if I were you, before
my impulse turns to compulsion.'
At the door, she hesitated. Inside, through the thin partition, she
could hear the Signora talking with great rapidity, with occasional
low-voiced interventions by her husband, and she could guess what
the subject of the good lady's diatribe was. For a moment she
regretted telling Santino she did not want his company. It wasn't the
easiest thing in the world to push open a door and walk into a room
where you would only be received on sufferance.
If he was still watching her, she decided, she would swallow her
pride and ask him to come with her. She swung towards him and
paused, the words dying unuttered on her lips. He wasn't watching
her. He wasn't even glancing in her direction. He was walking with
cool purpose back to Janina's room, and as Juliet stood watching
with a kind of sick incredulity, he reached the door and stepped
inside.
The door closed behind him, and she was left standing alone in a
long empty corridor.
As she viewed her luxurious hotel suite that evening, it occurred to
Juliet rather forcibly the kind of influence that money like Santino's
could have, producing accommodation like this for his family in one
of the best hotels at the height of the tourist season.
Nothing had been forgotten, from the well-stocked refrigerated
cabinet full of drinks of all kinds to the huge bowl of red roses
placed on the table beside the bed. Courtesy of the management,
she supposed, as she bent appreciatively to drink in their rich
perfume, but she was wrong. There was a small white card wired to
one of the stems, its surface crossed by the one uncompromising
word 'Santino'.
Juliet straightened abruptly and glanced at the signature. She was
strongly tempted to sweep the flowers, bowl and all, into the
wastepaper bin at the other side of the room. But that would only be
an empty gesture, she told herself, as empty as that which had sent
the flowers of love to a girl masquerading as the beloved. Her most
dignified course of action would be to ignore them altogether, and
this would be far easier if they were not beside her bed.
She picked them up and carried them resolutely out of the bedroom,
into the small elegant sitting room which opened off it. There was a
small gilt-legged table behind the sofa and she put the bowl down
on this, turning it so that the tell-tale card was concealed.
When a knock fell on the door of the suite just as she was
completing this task, she started so violently that she jerked the
bowl and a few drops of water spilled out on to. the marble top of
the table.
'Oh, damn!' She scrubbed at it with her handkerchief, remembering
belatedly to call 'Avanti,' and then in the same moment wishing that
she had not done so, because it was probably Santino.
But it was the Signora who entered, dressed fashionably in grey
lace with the inevitable sparkle of diamonds at her throat and
wrists. Juliet gazed at her in some surprise. During the brief visit
she had paid to Mario's room, the Signora's manner had been cool
and remote, and she had certainly not expected her to seek her
company.
The meeting with Mario had been as awkward as she could have
imagined. During the rather stilted conversation that followed the
introduction, she felt his eyes resting on her wonderingly, and knew
resignedly that he too had been struck by her resemblance to Jan.
She supposed that he too bore a superficial resemblance to Santino,
but it was purely physical. He was good-looking, admittedly, but
his face showed his immaturity, and from what she could gather of
the ensuing conversation he seemed inclined to blame everyone but
himself for what had happened. He was clearly embarrassed to
meet Juliet, and his glance at times was speculative, as if he was
wondering how much she knew of his affair with her sister, and its
result.
She guessed that neither of them was sorry when a nun entered and
announced that visiting was at an end for the day. There was no
sign of Santino when they emerged, and Santino's stepfather Signor
Peretto took it for granted that he would be driving Juliet to the
hotel with his wife and the Contessa Leontana, who was waiting
downstairs in the foyer.
Since she had arrived at the hotel and been installed in this suite,
Juliet had not heard a word from Santino, except for this token
offering of roses which he had probably not even chosen himself,
she told herself crossly. Arid now this unexpected visit from his
mother. Unconsciously, she squared her shoulders.
'Sit, Giulietta.' The Signora gestured imperiously towards the sofa.
'We talk.'
She waited until Juliet had sat down, then took her place beside her,
fixing her keen dark eyes on the younger woman's pale, rather
strained face. Juliet bore her scrutiny for a moment or two, then
said quietly, 'Was there something you wanted to say to me,
signora?'
'Plenty things.' The Signora nodded. She gave Juliet a shrewd look.
'You think it strange that I wish to speak to the girl who is to marry
my Santino? You are to be mia nuora. It is right we should speak.
Besides, today I watch you. I watch closely.'
'I had noticed,' Juliet said half under her breath.
'You think that strange too?'
'No-at least, not exactly.' Juliet looked down at her hands clasped
in her lap, where Santino's emerald gleamed like green fire. 'I