She couldn’t relax in his arms, her body stiff and unyielding. He was so distant from her, so aloof, that he didn’t seem at all like the man who had held her passionately in his arms but a few short weeks ago.
He looked down at her. ‘You are upset about Vidal’s change of loyalties.’
It was a statement, not a question, but nevertheless Suzanne denied it hotly. ‘Vidal is quite at liberty to escort whom he pleases.’ She would have liked to have said more, but Celeste had sworn Robert and herself to secrecy about her marriage plans. It seemed Vidal hadn’t yet told his brother and until he had it was not for public discussion.
‘But you now feel neglected. Is that why you welcome the arms of your past lover so easily?’ he demanded harshly.
Suzanne stood back in his arms. ‘I won’t pretend to know what you’re talking about.’
‘Robert Thompson.’
‘Robert?’ she frowned. ‘He’s a friend, nothing more than that.’
‘Do you deny he is the married man you had an affair with?’
‘I deny both counts.’
‘Both?’ Cesare looked puzzled. ‘I do not understand.’
‘Robert isn’t married, and I’ve certainly never had an affair with him.’
‘You do not have to pretend with me, Suzanne, I know how much you liked Vidal. I admit I did not approve of your association with him, and would have done anything to stop it, but I did not expect him to then take up with your stepmother.’
To Suzanne only one part of what he had said seemed important. ‘You—you would have done anything to part Vidal and myself?’ she repeated huskily. ‘Does anything include pretending an interest in roe yourself so that Vidal would believe me to have now transferred my interest to you, the richer and also titled brother?’
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘Is that what you think?’
Suzanne remembered his complete control on the day of their picnic and knew it to be true, that he had only been pretending an interest in her as an inducement to Vidal to stop seeing her himself. And it had worked! Anger boiled up within her, hot boiling anger that gave her cheeks the warmth they had lacked of late, and gave life to her sparkling green eyes.
‘Yes,’ she replied sharply. ‘Yes, that’s exactly what I think! What a pity you didn’t quite succeed—Vidal changing his interest to Celeste didn’t enter your head at all, did it? Well, I’m glad it’s happened,’ she whispered vehemently. ‘You think you’re so clever, so omnipotent! Well, you’re not! You can’t always direct people’s lives in the direction you think they should go. I’m glad Vidal’s defied you, really glad!’
‘I understand that you are upset and I—’
‘I’m not upset, Cesare,’ she laughed. ‘I just find it rather sickening that you should try to deceive me this way. I never for one moment imagined your desire for me was anything but desire, but I certainly didn’t expect you to have improvised even that.’
Cesare was angry too now, his eyes glacial. ‘You go too far, Suzanne!’
Again she laughed, past caring where he was concerned. ‘Oh no, Cesare, you did the first time you kissed me.’ How could she act like this when inside she felt as if she were bruised so badly she might never recover? ‘But then you’re an expert, aren’t you, practised in all the arts of lovemaking. Vidal warned me you were made out of pure granite, I should have listened to him.’
‘You discussed me with Vidal?’ His mouth was tight.
‘Oh no, I didn’t do that. That little snippet of information was just given in passing.’ She pulled out of his arms. ‘I believe I have something that belongs to you, I’ll return it tomorrow, I don’t have it with me.’
He frowned deeply. ‘Something that belongs to me? I do not understand.’
‘Don’t you? Then let me tell you. I don’t accept expensive gifts from any man, and that wristwatch certainly comes under that category. What did you think, Cesare, that I would be bought off, that I would get out of Vidal’s life for a few gifts from you?’ Her voice had risen shrilly, but she didn’t care any more. ‘When Vidal described you to me he didn’t go quite far enough—you’re a cold, unfeeling, arrogant brute, and I want nothing more to do with you! Excuse me.’
She turned on her heel and made her way back to their table, making her excuses to leave, much to the annoyance of Celeste, who was enjoying herself immensely, mainly at Suzanne’s expense. ‘It’s early yet,’ she insisted.
‘We have to leave,’ Suzanne said firmly. ‘Robert’s taking me to meet some of his friends at a discotheque.’
‘But surely he can meet them another night,’ Celeste frowned.
‘No, it has to be tonight. Robert’s only down for a couple of days.’ Poor Robert, he looked totally confused. As he had never been to London before she felt sure he was mystifyed as to her saying he had friends here, but he wisely kept quiet.
Cesare had become seated again by this time, watching them through enigmatic eyes. ‘If they have to leave, Celeste, they are perfectly at liberty to do so. They are probably bored by our company—’
‘Oh, no—’
‘They want to be with people their own age,’ he continued.
Her denial died on her lips. Cesare had just effectively reduced her to the role of the immature teenager he no doubt considered her to be, so why should she argue with him. ‘Are you ready to leave, Robert?’
He gulped down the last of his whisky before standing to his feet. ‘Ready,’ he agreed.
Their goodbyes made they quickly made their way to the exit, Suzanne breathing a sigh of relief as they came out on to the street. She held her black velvet jacket against her body, the evenings could still be quite cool even though it was early summer.
‘That was a bit sudden, wasn’t it?’ Robert matched his steps to her shorter ones.
‘What? Oh, sorry. Yes—yes, it was. That man has a way of making even the largest of places seem too small to contain both of us,’ she muttered moodily.
‘That man …? Oh, the Conte,’ he nodded his understanding. ‘Bit overpowering, isn’t he, almost too much to believe.’
Suzanne grinned. ‘That’s him exactly! Too damned much of everything.’
‘But especially sex appeal, hmm?’ He eyed her curiously.
‘That too,’ she agreed. ‘Oh, Robert, what am I going to do?’ It was a cry from the heart.
‘You love him, don’t you?’
‘How did you—?’ she sighed. ‘It’s obvious, I suppose.’
‘No,’ he shook his head. ‘No, it isn’t that. You just aren’t the same Suzanne that left Manchester three weeks ago. You’re all grown up somehow. I had hoped I could be the one to make you feel like this, but I know a better man when I see him,’ he admitted ruefully.
Suzanne put out a hand to touch his arm. ‘He isn’t a better man than you, Robert. You aren’t cruel, and cold, and bitingly sarcastic like he is. I can’t understand why I feel this way about him, he isn’t at all what I expected the man I fell in love with to look like. And he treats me as a child,’ she added disgustedly.
‘That isn’t the impression dear Celeste gave, or the one I received myself. A child hardly describes how he regards you.’
The two of them were walking slowly beside the river, the bright lights of the city reflected in amazing beauty. There was quite a breeze blowing across the water and she shivered slightly before wrapping her jacket more tightly about her. ‘I didn’t say that he doesn’t find me attractive, but he also finds me juvenile. You’ve seen the way he treats, me—hardly polite, is it?’
‘Hardly impolite either, I don’t think he could ever be that. No, I agree with Celeste, he’s definitely interested in you. I didn’t like the way he looked at you at all.’
She threaded her arm through his. ‘He’s only ever looked, Robert.’
‘Oh, I realise that, you haven’t changed that much. Where does the beautiful Elena come into the scene? Is she his fiancée or just a friend?’
‘She’s his cousin
, actually, although I think she wishes it was more than that,’ she said dryly.
‘I think you’re right,’ he grinned. ‘Look, how about if we really do go on to a disco, we could have fun, discuss the crowd back home? Like, did you know Eddie and Kay have got engaged?’
‘No!’ she cried excitedly. ‘Tell me about it.’
In the end they didn’t go to a disco but to a coffee bar, their conversation taking them into the early hours of the morning. Suzanne enjoyed the way she could relax in Robert’s company, it was such a change after the last few weeks. They laughed and joked together as if nothing had changed between them, and in a way nothing had, she had always regarded him as nothing more than a very dear friend.
They parted at the hotel with an agreement to meet for lunch the next day. ‘And don’t worry about the Count, Suzanne,’ Robert reassured her. ‘Things will work out.’
Back in her room Suzanne wished he hadn’t mentioned Cesare again this evening—or rather, morning. She stretched, yawning. Goodness, she was tired. It had been a long day, a long, long day.
* * *
‘So Vidal still hasn’t told his brother?’ Suzanne confirmed.
‘No.’ Celeste pulled another dress off the rack, turning it from side to side before deciding she didn’t like it. She wrinkled her nose. ‘When Vidal and I are married I intend having all my clothes specially made for me, none of this making do.’
Suzanne would have liked to point out that Celeste had never ‘made do’, but didn’t think it worth the ensuing argument. ‘And how soon is the wedding to be?’
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Celeste replied carelessly. ‘We don’t need Cesare’s permission, you know.’
‘I know that, but—’
‘Don’t fuss, Suzanne.’ She picked up a lime green silk scarf, holding it against her. ‘How does this look with my hair?’
‘Fine,’ Suzanne replied distractedly. ‘Couldn’t you stop looking at those clothes for a moment and talk to me sensibly?’
‘I asked you to come out shopping with me, not to have sensible conversations. I can sort out my own life, thank you, I’ve managed to up until now and I should think I’ll continue to do so. Vidal isn’t the strongest of men.’
‘But Cesare told me that Vidal—’
‘Supposedly has a fiancée in Venice,’ Celeste finished for her. ‘He told me the same thing. Unfortunately for him I couldn’t give a damn about this so-called fiancée, and apparently neither can Vidal.’
‘Cesare isn’t going to like it. He warned me quite strongly.’
Celeste shrugged. ‘So what can he do? Vidal has his own money, he isn’t dependent on Cesare for anything, not even his job, the company is a family concern.’
‘But Cesare—’
‘Oh, damn Cesare!’ Celeste snapped angrily. ‘Will you stop saying Cesare said this and Cesare said that! You’re beginning to sound like Vidal. Cesare isn’t omnipotent, you know.’
‘He just gives that impression,’ Suzanne returned dryly.
She shrugged. ‘So what? Vidal will tell him about us in his own good time, I’m leaving it completely up to him.’
‘Does he know—’ She began again. ‘Does Vidal know that you—we don’t have any money?’
Celeste smiled. ‘He knows,’ she confirmed. ‘I told you, Suzanne, this hasn’t happened at all the way I planned it,’ she dismissed the assistant who was heading in their direction. ‘Falling in love with Vidal wasn’t part of my plan. Of course he knows I’m broke, but it doesn’t make any difference. He wasn’t fooled by my rich widow routine, and apparently neither was Cesare.’
‘Are you saying Vidal doesn’t mind?’
‘Why should he? He has enough money not to need any more. We’re going house hunting this afternoon,’ she exclaimed excitedly.
Suzanne raised her eyebrows. ‘You intend living in London?’
‘Not London, but somewhere very near. Vidal will still have to travel into work each day.’
This new unselfish Celeste was quite a surprise after her usual behaviour. Not that she minded this new Celeste, she just hoped it was going to last. There could be no doubt that she was in love, it was there in her glowing blue eyes and the constant curve to her painted lips.
‘Cesare will be returning to Venice quite soon,’ Celeste continued. ‘Vidal has to tell him about our forthcoming marriage before then or it will be too late.’
She continued to chatter on, and in her excitement didn’t notice Suzanne’s monosyllabic replies. Cesare would be returning home soon! And when that happened she wouldn’t see him again. She was so quiet during lunch that eventually Robert had to say something.
‘What’s happened?’ He grinned. ‘Is Celeste back to her old obnoxious self?’
Suzanne’s answering smile didn’t quite reach her shadowed eyes. ‘Not yet. I suppose love can change some people.’ It had certainly changed her, and not for the better; she felt so miserable it was unbelievable.
‘I think the younger Martino will handle her just as well as the Conte would have done. With his brother he may be a little weak, who wouldn’t, but with a woman I should think it’s a completely different story. He’s a fine specimen, isn’t he?’
‘If you say so.’ Vidal still wasn’t her favourite person, in fact she felt Celeste and Vidal deserved each other.
‘I thought you went out with him first?’ he probed.
‘Only once or twice. What are we going to do this afternoon?’
‘Changing the subject? Oh well, I suppose we’ve discussed the Martinos enough. Oh, except—well, I met the Conte earlier, he was acting very strangely,’ he frowned.
‘Strangely?’
‘Mmm, peculiar looks, things like that. I had the feeling he heartily dislikes me.’
‘I’m sure you’re wrong,’ she shook her head. ‘It’s me he dislikes. He thinks I’m after a man, any man.’
Robert burst out laughing, signalling the waiter to bring their bill. They had chosen to eat at a restaurant in town, leaving the exclusive part of London where the hotel was situated, and walking until they found a restaurant they liked. It was in a quiet side street and wasn’t too crowded.
‘You’ve got to be kidding,’ he chuckled. ‘You, a man-chaser? It took me months to get you to even have coffee with me. There’s only one man-chaser in your family, and we both know who that is.’
They spent the afternoon window-shopping, parting quite early as Suzanne was feeling rather tired after her late night the previous evening. She was in bed by ten o’clock, tossing about restlessly in covers that seemed far too hot and heavy. By twelve o’clock she was up and dressed again, deciding to take a stroll in the garden, at least it was cool outside. Actually it was cool inside, it was just that she wasn’t in the mood for sleep. Where was Cesare?—she hadn’t seen him all day. For all she knew he might have already left for Venice. But no, Robert said he had seen him earlier, so he couldn’t have gone yet.
The hotel was deserted at this time of night, except for a few meagre night staff, so she slipped quietly out of the side door. It was curiously quiet in the garden, although she felt sure that in the centre of town a mile or two away there would be plenty of people and traffic, and noise that she couldn’t stand at the moment.
‘Who are you sneaking off so stealthily to meet?’ demanded a taut voice. ‘Your married lover, or could it be my gullible brother?’
Suzanne swung round. ‘Do you have to keep creeping up on me like that?’
He looked very remote and she blanched at the contempt in his face. ‘Answer the question, Suzanne.’
She turned away uninterestedly. ‘I’m not sneaking off to meet anyone. I came out for some air.’
‘At twelve o’clock at night?’
‘Why not? It seems as good a time as any, especially when you can’t sleep.’
Cesare moved closer to her, his dinner jacket gleaming whitely in the darkness. ‘And why can you not sleep?’
‘I’m too hot,’ she
mumbled.
‘Your room is air-conditioned, all the rooms are.’
‘I didn’t say the room was hot, only me.’
‘Feverish thoughts of one of your lover’s?’ he taunted.
Suzanne just wasn’t in the mood for his barbed comments at the moment and she turned on him angrily. ‘You’re letting your imagination run wild!’ she said savagely. ‘Or else you know something I don’t.’
‘I know your body responds to caresses like a finely tuned instrument,’ he drawled, moving forward and smiling slightly as she stepped back. ‘It does not appear to be the reaction of a novice. I am sure that while I was away you found someone else to entertain you. And of course you now have Robert. God, you must really be something for him to abandon his wife and run down here at your bidding!’
‘It wasn’t my bidding,’ she denied impatiently. ‘Celeste asked him to come here.’
‘But only because of your condition,’ he snapped. ‘You have deteriorated since I last saw you, you have lost weight, you do not appear to sleep. This Robert loves you as much as you appear to love him, so why does he not leave his wife?’
‘Would you—in the same circumstances?’
‘I do not know,’ he admitted bitterly.
She knew this was some admission coming from a Venetian, who upheld the marriage vows at all costs. ‘You—you don’t know?’ she repeated.
Cesare moved away impatiently. ‘No,’ he agreed tautly, ‘I do not know. You have my permission to laugh if you wish.’
She gave a broken sound that was nothing like a laugh. ‘Why should I laugh?’ she said softly.
‘No,’ he smiled sardonically. ‘You have little to laugh about, do you? How do you think it will end, Suzanne? Will you continue all your life with this helpless passion for a married man, always on the outside of his life but unable to give him up?’
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