Moth to the Flame(37)

in spite of all her pathetic stories, had a sister.'

'So you sent those roses-and I signed for them. The same name,

the same initial.' She gave a little sigh. 'No wonder I couldn't

convince you that I wasn't Jan.'

'And yet I should have known,' he said roughly. 'The first time I

touched you-kissed you-should have told me. After all, I had

sworn I would destroy you, and instead I found myself wanting to

protect you. I didn't know whether to be angry with you or with

myself.'

'But I still don't understand.' Her eyes searched his face. 'When you

did find the truth-you made me pretend to be engaged to

you-and then you were so cruel, so uncaring.'

'Cruel perhaps, carissima,' he said softly. 'But never uncaring.' His

lips explored the line of her throat, and she heard him laugh

delightedly at her instinctive quiver of response. 'That pretence

engagement was all I could think of to keep you near me. I knew I

had frightened you-perhaps even repelled you. I wanted a

reprieve-time for us to get to know one another. I told myself to

rush you into marriage would not be fair to you, but in the fullness

of time I meant to tell you that the engagement was for real. As I

should have done,' he added frowningly, 'but for your sister and her

mischief-making.'

'I thought you were falling in love with her,' she confessed. 'At least,

I thought you wanted her. I thought that was why you had taken her

to Rome with you.'

He gave her an incredulous look. 'I took her to Rome to meet

Rizziani,' he said. 'On one of my business trips I'd heard he had

become a widower. Their first meeting was not quite the success I

had hoped for, which was why I had to bring her back to the

castello with me.'

'But she said-she made me think ...'

'I know what she made you think, cara,' he said grimly. 'Just as she

made me think you were yearning to return to England to the arms

of someone called Barry.'

'Oh, no, she can't have done!' Juliet stared up at him appalled. 'I

mean, there was never anything-and anyway, she didn't even know

about Barry,' she added rather incoherently.

He smiled. 'It seems your mother must have mentioned him in one

of her letters.'

'But why should she tell you such a thing?'

He shrugged. 'Perhaps she thought still that I was a better

matrimonial bet than Rizziani,' he said sardonically. 'I soon

disabused her mind of that notion.'

'But doesn't Signor Rizziani-mind about the baby?' she asked half

disbelievingly.

'Why should he?' Santino grinned faintly. 'I have it on the best                       
       
           



       

authority that it is probably his.'

She stared up at him. 'But who says that?'

His grin-widened. 'He does, cara, and so does your sister. So it

must be possible, to say the least. But enough of them.'

He drew her close to him. 'When will you marry me, Giulietta?

Don't make me wait too long. These past weeks have been agony.'

'And for me.' She put her hand up and stroked his cheek.

'So I should hope,' he said outrageously. 'It has been my only

consolation to know that you were suffering as much as I was.'

She pulled a face at him. 'Then why didn't you come sooner?'

'For a number of reasons. I had my business to see to. I have

neglected it lately, which is bad. And for a time I believed what

your sister had said-that you preferred this Barry, and could not

wait to get back to him.' He grimaced. 'I should have listened to my

mother instead. She told me that you were unhappy when you

walked out on me that day, and she told me why. It was then I

realised what the bella Janina had been up to, and I bullied the truth

out of her about you and this Barry.' He shook his head. 'It was

then, I think, that she decided her safest course was to settle for

Rizziani.'

'Your mother.' Juliet was troubled. 'Does she know-that you've

come to ask me to marry you?'

'Of course she knows,' he said impatiently. 'She is waiting to

welcome you as her nuora. Mario and Francesca are to be married

at the end of the month and she hopes that you will attend the

wedding in any case.'

'I should love to.' Juliet's eyes lit up. 'That is if I can get the time off

from school,' she added. 'And I shall have to give my notice in right

away if I want to leave at Christmas.'

'What is this notice?' Santino was suddenly at his most arrogant. 'I

want you with me now, cara, not when some employer gives you

leave. Leave it to me. I shall arrange everything.'

'I wish I could,' she said ruefully. 'But I shall have to leave in the

proper manner. I have the children to consider -and the other staff.

I can't leave them in the lurch.' She ventured a look at him and saw

he was frowning. 'Don't you understand?'

'I understand,' he said a little bleakly. 'I understand that I must learn

patience, mia cara, which will not be an easy lesson for me. But no

matter.' The frown lifted and the tawny eyes slid over her,

shadowed with desire. 'I shall use the time of waiting to plan some

lessons of my own to teach you, my beautiful one,' he murmured.

'You have taught me to love you. Bene. I shall teach you how to

receive love. I'll teach you to want me as much as I want you.'

'I've learned that already,' she whispered, lifting her face for his

kiss, trembling as he drew her closer still against him.

'And if I asked you to prove it?' he said almost roughly, then swore

under his breath. 'No-forgive me, cara, I've said that I'll be

patient. Perhaps it would be easier and safer if we were to get out

of this bedroom and go downstairs to drink your mother's tea. But

first'-he reached into his pocket-'we'll put this back where it

belongs.' ,

Gently he slid the emerald ring on to her finger, then raised her

hand to his lips.

'No pretence this time, cara,' he told her huskily. 'No pretence ever

again. This'-his arms went around her, demandingly,

possessively-'this is the only reality, and it is ours for the rest of

our lives.'