The Echoes of Love (35 page)

‘Looking at you now,
cara
, hard as it will be, I promise I'll go.'

He wandered into the sitting room to pour them both a shot of
grappa
, while Venetia headed for the bedroom to fetch a cardigan. The temperature had dropped somewhat and she was beginning to feel slightly chilly.

Then with a little cry she stopped in the doorway, rooted to the spot. Appalled, she came into the room, unable to believe her eyes. There, lying pitifully on the ground in an unrecognisable pile was the beautiful purple dress that she had entrusted to Ernestina. It was ripped from the oval neckline through to the hem and, as if that had not been enough, the ethereal purple chiffon had been slashed in the most savage way, the shredded lengths of it scattered around the room. A cold, sick feeling gripped Venetia's heart, crushing it with a mixture of fear and anger. It was a deliberate expression of violence and malice. She could think of only one person who could have wrought such a wanton, passionate act of hatred… Allegra.

‘Venetia, what's wrong?' Paolo came bursting into the room.

‘I've just found this.'

Paolo looked horrified as she held up the garment. ‘But how… who could have done that? I can't believe that anybody could do something so utterly evil.' Something indefinable flickered for a moment in his eyes but his expression was ferocious.

‘Jealousy is very corrosive.' Venetia stared back at him, trying to control her emotion.

‘You mean Allegra?'

‘I haven't the faintest idea, but there are not so many people at Miraggio who would have a bone to pick with me.'

‘Though I know Allegra can be swayed by her passions, I think it very unlikely that she would attack you in this underhanded way. She would be more likely to start a fight with you, I think. This is the work of someone with a tortuous mind – it is more likely to be Antonio than his niece.'

Perhaps this was true. To Venetia's knowledge, the girl hadn't had a chance to see the dress. Could it have been Antonio? She had difficulty imagining the caretaker doing such a thing, but maybe... As she picked up one of the pieces of ruined fabric, her eyes brimmed with unshed tears of outrage and resentment.

‘Here,
cara
, let me see.'

She handed it to him, but didn't look at his face. Somehow, she couldn't let him see how much it had affected her. Bringing it up to the lamp, he examined the thin purple cloth closely.

‘As I thought… it's the work of an animal. Rufus… See?' He gave her back the dress and paced the room, looking pensive. The holes made by the sharp incisors were showing clearly in some parts of the material, still damp with the dog's saliva.

‘Yes, you're right. Antonio must have set Rufus on it,' she said quietly.

‘I don't like this one bit.' Paolo suddenly looked up and saw the look on Venetia's face. ‘
Cara
, are you all right?' He gathered her firmly into his arms, pressing his mouth against her hair. ‘
Comportamento scandaloso
, outrageous behaviour! I will ring my lawyer tomorrow to terminate Antonio's contract – I want them both off Miraggio
.
'

‘Don't be so quick, Paolo,' Venetia said. She turned her face up to his, watching the scowl darken his features ominously in a way she hadn't seen before. ‘Wait until we get back and then maybe you can have a talk with him and sort this out. I don't want to be the cause of a rift between you and Allegra. After all, you do love her as a daughter and maybe you'll be able to talk her into being sensible about…' she hesitated, ‘… about us.'

It wasn't exactly her first impulse, she thought uncharitably, but despite her bitter feelings towards the Italian girl now, she knew she would regret it later if she didn't try to give Allegra a second chance.

There was a warm light in Paolo's eyes. ‘Oh,
amore mio
, you have such a kind heart. It's one of the things I love most about you. I'm so sorry about this nasty mess – it's very disturbing and, yes, I'll put it right as soon as we get back to
Miraggio after Easter.'

Venetia felt herself relax a little and pulled away from him. ‘I think I could do with that drink now.'

They walked back into the sitting room and Paolo handed her one of the shots of
grappa
he had poured. She sipped at the fiery amber liquid and welcomed the warmth in her stomach that seeped through her limbs. She watched as he downed his own drink in one gulp. Seeing her raise her eyebrows, he glanced at her.

‘I needed that too,' he explained. His features had grown tense and distracted again, and she knew his mind was playing on what he was going to do.

‘Paolo, please don't worry.'

He set his glass down and started pacing again, the fingers of one hand loosely on his hip, the other combing through his hair. ‘Of course I'm worried,
cara
. I think I should stay with you tonight.' He stood in front of her, his piercing blue gaze anxious.

She hesitated for a moment, putting her own glass on the small coffee table, next to the bowl of fruit. ‘No, Paolo – you don't need to do that, I'll be fine.'

‘Venetia, how do you think I can leave you tonight, after this?' He reached out and traced his thumb along her bottom lip. ‘If something ever happened to you because of me, I could never forgive myself,' he murmured.

She sighed, blinking up at him. ‘Paolo, please, we'll sort this out. If it was Antonio, he wouldn't actually harm me. He wouldn't dare. It's obvious this was just meant as scare tactics. Nothing's going to happen. I've been on my own since I was nineteen and managed fine.'

‘But,
cara
, you're not on your own. You have me, now.' He took her chin in his hand.

‘Yes, I know, and it's wonderful, believe me, Paolo. But I'm a big girl and I can look after myself. I can't explain… it's just important that I still can. Besides, if you stay, they will have won, whoever they are. I refuse to be intimated. My English backbone will see me through, you know that.' In an attempt at teasing she touched his raised forearm and gave him her most plucky smile. She would not give Antonio or his niece the satisfaction of knowing they had got to her.

Paolo's eyes were still wary but he nodded his agreement. His hands pulled her close, and she held up her flushed face. For a minute or two, he held Venetia tightly, and the hard pressure of his lips on her mouth as he bent down and kissed her was so thrilling that she almost weakened and asked him to stay the night. The temptation to lie in his comforting arms until dawn was almost overwhelming. The only measure of time was the pounding of Venetia's heart and, unconsciously, her hands moved towards his face as the kiss slowly ended.

‘
Ti adoro,
' he whispered huskily, now placing a chaste kiss on her forehead. ‘You mean everything to me. I will never let anything happen to you, Venetia.' His eyes were shining with passion but there was also a trace of sadness as he stroked her cheek softly with his finger. Taking her hand as they both went to the door, Paolo kissed her once more. Then he walked away towards the house.

Venetia stood in the doorway until he had disappeared and she could no longer hear his steps on the gravel. Finally she went in.

She walked back to the bedroom, undoing her blouse, her mind and body still full of Paolo. Sitting on the bed, she was jolted back to reality by the sight of the pieces of ripped fabric still littering the floor. Who on earth would go to these lengths to separate her and Paolo? If Ernestina had left the door of the cottage open after having hung up the dress in the bedroom, perhaps the dog could have come in and mangled it. It was a rather far-fetched idea but, without a witness, who knew what was possible? No, surely it was the caretaker: Antonio. Ferociously in favour of his niece, obviously aware of the relationship developing between Venetia and Paolo, he had declared his own war on her to make her leave. Or Allegra herself had perhaps put him up to it. A beautiful Amazon, a nasty giant and a dangerous dog… Venetia shivered, feeling frozen to the bone in a world of hostility from which she could see no chance of escape, at least for the moment.

She glanced at her watch. It was late; she should get some sleep. She picked up the tatters of her lovely dress and stored them away in the cupboard and then, on a second thought, shoved them into her suitcase.

That night, she went through a dreary hell while she lay for hours in her bed, staring out of the open window, gazing at the moon and the stars, trying not to think of the frightening possibilities. Her imagination worked at a hundred miles an hour, conjuring all sorts of dreadful scenarios. What ogres the mind calls forth in the darkest depths of night can be dwarfed in the warm light of morning, carried away on the wings of dawn. And so Venetia told herself that she would look at things differently tomorrow. She got up, made herself a cup of hot milk, and went back to bed, finally dropping off into a restless sleep.

* * *

The next morning, Paolo dressed quickly and made his way to his study. Perhaps Venetia was right, he thought, as he strode through the dark gothic corridors of the house; he ought to wait to deal with Antonio until after they returned from Sardinia, when he had calmed down.

But he'd made up his mind: the man had to go. That the caretaker could have let his dog into the cottage with the deliberate intention of scaring Venetia, even if she wasn't there, was unthinkable. And if she had been there, what then? Would he have hurt her, even accidentally? Antonio had always been protective of Allegra, and would probably do anything for her if he thought she was threatened in some way. He had never been any trouble before, but Paolo wouldn't be able to trust the man again. He had been thinking about the problem of the caretaker and his niece even before Venetia had come on to the scene. And if he and Venetia were to be together… No, Antonio was finished at Miraggio.

He frowned deeply. As for Allegra… He hadn't promised Venetia that he would defer dealing with
her
. At first light, when Ernestina had brought him coffee in his room, he had asked the housekeeper to tell Allegra to meet him in his study in an hour. He was going to have it out with the girl before he set foot on a plane to Sardinia. This was a conversation he couldn't put off. His fury at her behaviour was unlike any he could remember since taking her in all those years ago. Had he misjudged how damaged she was?

Her constantly dissolute ways were one thing – he had shown weakness there out of indulgence, and a mistaken faith that she would grow up, change. This new outrage wasn't just designed to get his attention, like her other unsavoury antics; this time, she had involved Venetia. Well, she had his attention now, she could be sure of that. He had loved and trusted her like a daughter but she had repaid him with bitterness and betrayal.

As he strode up the steps to his study, Paolo tried to calm himself, wrestling with disappointment and anger. When he opened the door, she was already there, draped in one of the armchairs near the door. She was wearing a low-cut green dress, fitted at the bodice with a flowing skirt that was hitched up around her thighs as she hung her shapely legs over the side of the chair. Paolo regarded her coldly. It was now even more distasteful to him that she persisted in flaunting herself with such unsubtle and adolescent clumsiness.

‘You wanted to see me, Paolo?' Allegra stared at him, her voice sweetly purring and her smile innocent, though it did not reach her eyes.

‘Yes. Was it you or Antonio?' He cut straight to the point.

‘I've no idea what you're talking about, Paolo.'

If he was unsure before, Paolo now knew the truth. Just by looking at her he could tell that she knew exactly what had happened, and a fierce mixture of all the anger, disappointment and guilt that he'd been feeling towards her surged through him. He stood in front of her, his hands behind his back, struggling to keep his composure.

‘What you did was unforgivable, Allegra. An act of pure malice that I would never have thought you capable of! Now I know better, and I cannot forgive you for that.'

The young woman watched him through her thick, black lashes for a moment, seemingly unfazed by his outburst, but didn't answer.

Paolo glowered at her and gritted his teeth. ‘The dress, Allegra – Venetia's dress! You got Antonio to set his hound on it, didn't you? Thought you'd try and scare off your “rival”, no?'

‘Fine, the dress, Paolo! Yes, I might have asked
Zio
Antonio to help me make you see sense. It just isn't fair that you spend so much time with that woman. What can she give you that I can't?' She pouted and shifted sulkily in her chair.

Paolo blinked, incredulous. ‘So you thought breaking into the cottage and getting Rufus to savage her clothes was the solution? What if she had been there? She would have been terrified!'

‘So what? Perhaps being a little scared would have made her reconsider her stay here and she would have run off back to Venice, where she belongs.'

He paused, trying to rein in his temper and his voice was dangerously low. ‘She belongs here with me, Allegra, and I cannot give you what you want from me. You'll just have to accept this is the way things are.'

The raven-haired girl suddenly jumped out of her chair and rounded on him, her eyes now wild.

‘I will never accept that Englishwoman as long as I breathe!'

His brow furrowed. ‘
Dio mio
! Stop acting like a child, Allegra.'

‘I'm not a child. I'm a woman and the sooner you see that, the better,' she hissed acidly. ‘This Englishwoman cannot give you the kind of love you need. She doesn't know you –
I
do!'

Paolo's eyes frosted and his stare was unwavering. ‘This is the first time I have found real love with a woman and I mean to marry Venetia.'