by Sara Craven
‘Oh,’ she said, ‘I meant to do that.’
‘From now on, I will attend to it.’ He gave her a brief smile as he got to his feet, adding lightly, ‘I do not wish you to ruin
your hands,cara . Or give your admirer another excuse to call.’
She said between her teeth, ‘Once and for all, he is not my admirer.’
He gave her a dry look. ‘No longer, certainly,’ he agreed, as he sat down at the table.
She was trying to think of a suitably chilly riposte when her attention was suddenly distracted.
‘Oh, God, it’s snowing again.’
‘We were warned that it might.’ Raf poured the coffee. ‘Is it a problem’
‘Your car,’ she said. ‘I thought we might be able to dig it out—and leave.’
‘To go where’ He sounded politely interested as he cut into his toast.
‘Does it matter Just—away from here. After all, we—we both have lives to get back to.’
‘And it would suit you much better if those lives were resumed hundreds of miles apart,’ he murmured. ‘No
deal,carissima . The forecast in the newspaper warns that roads in this area may become impassable for a while and only
essential journeys should be attempted in the rest of the region. Your reluctance to be alone with me hardly justifies the
risk.’
He paused. ‘And you made the decision to come here.’
‘I had no idea it would be like this,’ she said. ‘What’s more, I bet you didn’t realise that we might be marooned here
when you set the arrangement up.’ She shook her head. ‘Oh, God, I was so damned stupid. I should have realised it was
a trap.’
‘Is that how you see it’ Raf asked silkily. ‘Yet I find it delightful. Quiet, remote. The ideal place to begin married life.
Don’t you think’
‘You don’t want to know what I think,’ she said bitterly.
‘Perhaps,’ he said. ‘If you relaxed a little, Emilia, you might enjoy being here too.’
And he was not simply referring to the environment, Emily thought, biting her lip.
When the meal was over, Raf cleared the table, in spite of her protests, and carried the used cups and plates into the
kitchen. Emily followed unwillingly and found him crouched in front of the fridge studying the chicken.
He said, ‘Do you wish to cook it in wine Shall I fetch some from the cellar’
‘No, thank you. I’m simply going to roast it.’
‘And these are the vegetables’ He looked at them with an air of faint disbelief. ‘May I help prepare them’
‘That won’t be necessary.’ She hesitated. ‘As you can see, this is a very small kitchen, so could it be designated as my
space Please’
There was a brief silence, then he said too courteously, ‘But of course. Forgive my intrusion.’
He disappeared into the living room and Emily tackled the washing-up. When it was completed, she cleaned all the
surfaces until they shone, then wiped them over again. She was tempted to scrub the floor—anything that would delay her
from having to join him in the living room—but she didn’t want him to think that she was nervous. Even though she was.
But when she eventually ventured in he barely seemed to notice. He’d discovered a box of chessmen and a board
somewhere and seemed absorbed in a problem he’d found in the newspaper.
She sat on the sofa opposite, her legs curled under her, and watched the leaping flames in the grate. But she realised, after
a while, that she was also stealing covert looks at Raf. It occurred to her that she’d never before spent such a long time
completely alone with him. And that, for at least half of it, she’d been naked. And so, of course, had he…
‘Do you play chess’ he asked suddenly and she jumped, colour flooding her face, as she realised where her thoughts
had been drifting.
‘I know the basic moves,’ she said. ‘Nothing else.’
‘Would you like to learn’
‘No, thank you. I always preferred backgammon.’
‘Yes,’ he said quietly. ‘I remember.’ He paused. ‘There is a set in the cupboard over there, if you would like a game.’
‘Oh, no.’ Her disclaimer was hasty. ‘I—I only ever played against my father.’
‘And a different opponent would naturally be out of the question,’ he said expressionlessly and returned to his chess
problem.
There was another silence.
‘I see there are books here, but I brought some others with me,’ Emily mentioned eventually. ‘They’re upstairs. But they
might not appeal to you.’
‘They are romantic books, perhaps—for women The search for Mr Right’ His faint smile did not indicate any particular
amusement.
She said coolly, ‘One of them’sAnna Karenina. I don’t think she fits that category. And there are some detective stories
too. You’re welcome to borrow them—if you want.’
‘Grazie,’ he said. ‘And the cupboard also contains a radio, a pack of cards, three jigsaw puzzles and a game of Snakes
and Ladders. Even without television, we do not lack for entertainment,’ he added sardonically.
‘Never a dull moment,’ Emily commented and got to her feet. ‘I’ll go and find the books.’
She had to steel herself to enter the bedroom. She didn’t want to look at the bed either but, to her annoyance, she found
her glance drawn to it. She was surprised to see that it had been neatly made, its pillows plumped up and the covers
smoothed. As if it had never been occupied. His handiwork, she realised with bewilderment, and quite the last thing she
would have expected.
She lifted the bag out of the bottom of the wardrobe and turned, only to cannon into Raf who was standing right behind
her.
Her mouth went dry. Oh, God, surely he couldn’t have construed her departure upstairs as some kind of invitation she
thought, hugging the bag defensively against her body. ‘What—what do you want’
‘To help you with these,’ Raf told her curtly, taking the bag from her slackened grasp. ‘What else’
He walked away from her out of the room and, after a brief hesitation, Emily followed him downstairs.
She said stiltedly, ‘I’m sorry. I—I thought…’
‘I know what you thought.’ He was putting the chess pieces back in their box. ‘But you were wrong.’ His tone bit. ‘So
let us leave the subject.’
‘But can’t you see now why I want to leave here’ She looked at him pleadingly. ‘It—it’s so cramped. And if we
keep—bumping into each other, it’s bound to lead to—to misunderstandings,’ she ended miserably.
‘Only in your own head,cara .’ He sounded bored, his attention now focused on the contents of the book bag. He went
through them all, then chose the new Patricia Cornwell, which Emily had mentally reserved for herself.
Not that she intended to argue about it, she told herself. Anything at all that might keep his mind off her had to be a
bonus.
It was almost a relief when she could disappear into the kitchen and begin preparations for supper.
But once the chicken had begun to sizzle in the oven and the vegetables were prepared, there was nothing to detain her
and she came back to resume her seat on the other side of the hearth. And to wrestle with her unhappy thoughts.
Eventually, she cleared her throat. ‘Rafaele—may I talk to you’
‘With pleasure.’ He put his book aside. ‘But I thought you preferred silence.’
‘I suppose that’s really one of the things I want to talk about.’ She swallowed. ‘The way things are, you can’t really mean
for us to live t
ogether—not in any real sense—when we leave here. Not even on a temporary basis.’
‘But that is exactly my intention,cara . I thought I had made that clear.’ He shrugged. ‘And the duration of the marriage
has yet to be decided.’
She stared across at him. ‘And that’s all you have to say’
‘What else is there’
‘I’d have thought—plenty.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I—I acknowledge that I made you angry over the annulment thing.
But can’t you now also acknowledge that you’ve punished me enough And let me go Let us both go, in fact’
His brows lifted. ‘You think this is my only reason for being here—to teach you a lesson’ He sounded politely curious.
‘In your own words—what else is there’
He said slowly, ‘Perhaps—that you are a beautiful girl with an exquisite body.’
She flushed. ‘Even if it was true, I’d be just one more on a long list,’ she said tautly. ‘As we both know. So please don’t
think that offering me meaningless flattery will make last night—what you did to me any more acceptable.’
‘I shall consider myself rebuked.’ He watched her for a moment. ‘But at least when you find another husband you will
have some experience of married life to take with you. Comfort yourself with that.’
‘You’re all heart,’ Emily said bitterly. ‘But, after due consideration, I think I shall prefer to remain single.’
She paused. ‘However, while we’re on the subject, I understand you are intending to remarry. Is—is that true’
‘Perfectly true.’
She leaned forward, her voice suddenly intense. ‘Then how can you possibly be here with me—like this What about the
woman you love I—I presume you do love her’
‘Yes,’ he returned coolly. ‘But she has a husband, just as I have a wife. And, as I cannot live with her as I wish, then you
make a charming substitute,carissima . After all, who better to share my bed at this juncture than the wife I have so cruelly
neglected in the past’
‘We have very different ideas on cruelty,’ Emily said cuttingly. ‘Won’t she care that you’ve decided to begin sleeping with
me—after all this time’
‘She knows that our marriage was solely a matter of convenience, certainly. But so was hers, and she is realistic enough
to understand that these arrangements have their obligations and their inevitable compromises.’ He gave her a level look.
‘For us, happiness is the future, not the past or even the present.’
‘That’s an incredibly cynical viewpoint.’ Emily lifted her chin. ‘I wouldn’t want to think of the man I loved having even
duty sex with another woman.’
‘Especially if duty also becomes a pleasure,mi amore ,’ he murmured, his mouth twisting. ‘Is that what you were going to
say’
‘No,’ she said. ‘Especially if I thought he was forcing himself on someone who didn’t want him.’
‘Do not let it trouble you, Emilia,’ he said softly. ‘I am sure a man that you loved would do none of these things. That you
would fill his heart to the exclusion of all others.’ He smiled at her. ‘But until you find this prince, you will continue to be
my wife. And—do your duty. As I shall do mine.’
‘You’re quite adamant, aren’t you’ she said bitterly. ‘There’s nothing I can say—nothing I can do to persuade you to
release me from this—unspeakable situation’
‘You exaggerate,cara ,’ Raf drawled. ‘You have spoken on the subject quite frankly. And it is hardly a life sentence,’ he
added with another faint shrug.
‘Although it already seems like it.’ She looked back at him, her green eyes clouded with resentment. ‘Does your future
wife realise,signore , how easily you break your promises And what a casual approach you have to commitment’
‘When I make my vows to her, Emilia, they will be kept.’ There was a sudden harshness in his voice. ‘And, when she is
all mine, I will belong to her as completely. There will be no other—ever. Now, do you have anything more you wish to
ask’
‘No,’ she said quietly, aware of an odd twist of the heart. ‘If she’s prepared to settle for your future fidelity, that’s her
concern.’After all, someone as glamorous and sexy as Valentina Colona would hardly see me as any kind of rival, even in
the short term .
She swallowed. ‘At the same time, I feel really sorry for her husband.’
‘There is no need, I assure you. He is content to settle for what he has.’
‘Then there’s nothing more to be said.’ Emily got to her feet. ‘And I’d be better employed checking on dinner.’
‘One duty at least that you can perform without reservations,carissima ,’ he said blandly and picked up his book.
In the kitchen she attempted to relieve her feelings by slamming the oven door and clanging saucepans together, but her
sense of mingled anger and bewilderment persisted unabated.
I can’t bear what’s happening to me, she thought swallowing. I have to get away from him. But how
Even without the snow, she couldn’t think of a place to go where he wouldn’t be able to trace her and follow. Financially
her options were limited too. Until her twenty-first birthday, she had no direct control over her affairs and she was
beginning to realise how deeply this could matter.
Up to now, admittedly, Rafaele had kept a light hand on the reins, as well as strictly maintaining his distance, so she’d
been able to stifle her resentment at the arbitrary way his dual role in her life had been imposed, in the sure knowledge
that it would soon be over.
Now, in the space of twenty-four hours, there were suddenly no more certainties and her countdown to freedom had
turned into a test of her endurance that she dared not fail.
Demanding the annulment had been a supreme mistake. What on earth had made her think she could challenge him like
that and get away with it
I was angry, she thought. It was as simple as that. And maybe I simply wanted to make him angry too.
But why That was the question that she could not answer.
Had she allowed the stories in the gossip columns to get to her at last Was this some kind of—personal backlash
because she found herself being air-brushed out of his life in this arbitrary way An impulsive but misjudged bid to remind
him that she still existed
Yet why should she even care—when she herself was supposed to be in love with Simon
None of it made any sense, she thought unhappily.
Yes, she’d been stupid to attract his attention so blatantly, when she could just have accepted his terms and faded quietly
out of the picture, which was, after all, what she’d always expected would happen.
Even so, she’d never dreamed her attempt to needle him would have such dire consequences. At most, she’d expected
an icy rebuke. Never this kind of retribution.
But then, what had she ever really known about Rafaele Di Salis, except that her father had trusted him, even though the
younger man had owed him some mysterious debt
And, apart from the stories in the scandal sheets, and in spite of the enforced intimacies of the previous night, Emily