by Lynne Graham
She phoned Miles and, on the brink of sharing her discovery about her family background, remembered her sisters’ somewhat puzzling request for discretion. Her stepbrother seemed very preoccupied. He made an audible effort to sound cheerful at the prospect of her impending visit but generally seemed in unusually low spirits.
Before she could lose her nerve, she went off to find Luciano to inform him that she would be taking time off.
‘Yes, I can see why a jacuzzi would hit the right spot…’ the architect Luciano had brought in as a consultant was confessing with a companionable shudder at the cheerless stone interior of the bathroom adjoining Luciano’s bedroom.
‘A…what?’ Kerry exclaimed from behind the two men. ‘Only a vandal would rip out an early copper bath and put an anachronism like a jacuzzi into a sixteenth-century tower house!’
Dark golden eyes landed on her in a sudden glancing volatile collision. ‘A non-functional bath is a waste of space.’
‘It’s living history—’
‘Perhaps I don’t want to live history,’ Luciano gritted between even white teeth.
With a harried excuse, his architect went into retreat.
‘I just wanted to check that it’s all right for me to be away for a couple of days. I’m off to London too—’
Luxuriant black lashes narrowed over Luciano’s reflective gaze and he almost smiled. ‘You can travel with me tomorrow.’
Kerry wondered if there was a bedroom on his private jet. It was a ghastly, demeaning thing to have to admit but she was not sure that she was up to resisting his powers of persuasion in a confined space. ‘No, thanks. I’ve…er..already made my arrangements.’
Luciano’s lean brown hands flexed straight into fists and then more slowly out of them again. ‘Why has London suddenly become an attraction?’
Kerry made the first excuse that came to mind. ‘I want to see Miles—’
‘Even knowing how I feel about you seeing him?’ Luciano ground out in a lethally quiet enquiry.
The very sound of that chilling intonation made her feel as if he had raised a tripwire against her knees. Inside herself, she discovered a truly terrifying desire to sacrifice Miles, sacrifice anything and everything, just to steal a little happiness with Luciano. But at what cost? That was just a silly girlish dream, Kerry labelled with anguished understanding, for she would never abandon her grandparents.
‘Yes, even knowing how you feel about that,’ Kerry confirmed flatly.
Luciano did not trust himself to speak. He walked away with the same hard, self-contained cool and acceptance that he had practised when he was threatened with knives in prison. He showed nothing and he refused to brood. But he could no longer comprehend why he had been wasting time considering the castle’s deficient plumbing when he could sell Ballybawn for an enormous, comforting profit. He told himself that, in the best of Irish traditions, he was feeling on top of the world. In the mood to celebrate his wonderful freedom from all female ties and expectations, he got so drunk that night that he ended up toasting Florrie O’Brien’s gloomy portrait in the great hall.
‘I shall die single too!’ he swore in Italian before he fell to thinking about Paola. Paola Massone, who would make a suitable wife in every way, who would ask nothing from him but the means to shop until she dropped. Paola, who rejoiced in every possible feminine and practical attribute but to whom he remained inexplicably impervious.
When he slammed the door on his exit, he did not notice that Florrie’s canvas fell off the wall. He did not notice that a trio of shivering wolfhounds were hiding under his bed again either. He did dimly recognise that eerie sobbing sound again but he knew it to be the wind whistling down the chimney, for as he was all too well aware Kerry cried over all sorts of things but never, ever over him.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE car that picked Kerry up at a London airport the following afternoon had a large envelope lying on the rear seat that carried her name like an invitation.
Tearing open the envelope, Kerry extracted a single sheet of paper which contained a concise history of her mother’s life. The amount of pre-planning that her sisters appeared to have put into her reception was starting to amaze Kerry.
The account opened with the information that Carrie had at some stage changed her name from O’Brien to Carlton and continued with the details of her mother’s first marriage to a man called Sutton. Kerry learned about the birth of her eldest sister, Freddy, now a woman in her thirties, and winced when she read about the extramarital affair during which Carrie had fallen pregnant again by her lover. Her husband’s subsequent discovery that his wife’s infant twins were not his children had led to a nasty divorce. Freddy had been raised solely by her father. The twins had been separated; the older, known as Misty, had been placed in the care of foster parents, the younger, named Ione by her adoptive family, was raised in Greece.
Carrie had returned to using the name of Carlton and had pretended to be a single woman when she married Harold Linwood, who had had no idea of his bride’s past. A few years after leaving Kerry behind in Ireland, Carrie had died in a London boarding house and by that time she had been an alcoholic.
Entering the grand and intimidating central London hotel where she was to meet her sisters for the first time, Kerry was extremely nervous. Outside the designated top-floor suite her heart began beating so fast at the foot of her dry throat that she felt dizzy. Just an instant later as the door shot open in answer to her knock she was engulfed in a hug by a tall, laughing redhead and an animated hum of female voices surrounded her.
It was a minute or two before Kerry was fit to absorb impressions and separate the voices.
‘I’m Misty Andracchi, the older twin,’ the redhead informed her with a grin.
‘Ione Christoulakis…I’m three minutes younger and Misty never lets me forget it!’ A tiny, exquisite blonde beauty kissed Kerry on both cheeks.
‘And I’m Freddy al-Husayn, the eldest…’ A smiling pregnant woman with honey-blonde hair swept up in an elegant style came forward last.
‘We were excited to death when you wrote to the solicitor right out of the blue!’ Misty confided. ‘After four years, we’d given up hope of anything coming from those enquiries. We’d found a baby photo of you in Mum’s things and we knew you existed but we had no way of finding you until we discovered that Mum’s second husband was called Linwood. We had all the Linwoods we could trace contacted to see if we could establish any link with our mother’s second marriage.’
‘I’m afraid the letter took rather a long time to reach me,’ Kerry said awkwardly.
‘It doesn’t matter, we’re just overjoyed that you’re here now.’ Misty grasped both Kerry’s hands in hers, her eyes bright with satisfaction. ‘I have to be frank with you and admit that we already know an awful lot about you because we had some checks made. We had to be sure of your identity.’
Taken aback by that admission, Kerry stiffened. She had already noted the glitter of precious jewellery, the designer garments and the expensive air of confident gloss that suggested that her siblings were all rather more privileged in life than she was herself.
‘Our second biggest surprise and joy was discovering that we still have grandparents living. Oh, Kerry, we can’t wait to meet Hunt and Viola O’Brien!’ Freddy confided with delighted anticipation. ‘That was the best news ever—’
‘We ought to tell you something about ourselves first.’ Ione seemed to grasp Kerry’s bemused sense of dislocation. ‘We’re all married and our children range in age from nine years right down to six months old. So you’re an aunt as well—’
‘This is almost too much to take in all at once. I’ve been alone for a long time.’ Kerry’s voice wobbled a little, for she was touched by the affectionate acceptance that each woman had offered her yet she could already see the obvious differences between her sisters. Misty was the first to speak up, a natural leader with a lively personality. Freddy was quieter and more thoughtful. Ione with
her husky Greek accent was more of an enigma, but, though she might have less to say, she had a lovely, warm smile.
Freddy patted Kerry’s shoulder in an understanding gesture. ‘You’ve had a horrid struggle trying to manage on your own—’
‘But you’re not on your own now. You have us and all your problems are over,’ Ione assured her.
‘Which…er…problems would those be?’ Kerry questioned uncertainly.
Misty winced…. ‘Obviously we know that Luciano da Valenza evicted our grandparents from their home and that you’ve been forced to work for him—’
Freddy frowned. ‘We don’t think that your ex-fiancé has any excuse for the way he’s behaved since he came out of prison.’
‘He certainly sank very low in his treatment of you and our grandparents!’ Ione opined in angry disgust.
Kerry was surprised by the extent of her siblings’ knowledge of her circumstances and frankly dismayed by their opinion of Luciano. Keen to give them a more balanced view of recent events, she tried to explain. ‘Five years ago, Luciano gave just about everything he had in the world to Grandpa in a very generous loan. I know that Grandpa and Grandma have had to leave the castle but—’
‘Stop panicking. Nothing that’s happened is your fault,’ Ione asserted. ‘Sit back, relax and watch us in action. Our husbands agree that Luciano da Valenza needs a lesson.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Kerry asked in honest bewilderment.
‘To be vulgar…’ Misty pulled a comical face ‘…we’re all loaded. Freddy is married to an oil-rich Arab prince, I’m married to a very wealthy businessman and Ione is a billionairess in her own right. Our combined resources make us very powerful and we can put huge financial pressure on da Valenza’s empire. In fact we could ruin him—’
In receipt of that recitation of facts, Kerry lost colour and felt distinctly queasy.
‘But first we want to ensure that da Valenza sells Ballybawn castle back to us…whether he wants to or not,’ Ione declared.
Misty nodded in agreement. ‘In fact we’ve already made him an offer that he had better not refuse.’
‘How can you threaten Luciano when you don’t even know him?’ Kerry demanded in disbelief.
‘Does that bother you? Surely you would be much happier with him out of your life?’ Misty was studying Kerry in surprise. ‘You ditched him five years ago and it looks to us as if he’s come back looking for revenge. If he has, we can stop him in his tracks by hitting him where it hurts—’
‘Don’t you dare!’ Before Kerry was even aware of formulating those angry words in her mind, they had leapt off her tongue. ‘If you make any move against Luciano, I’ll fight you every step of the way. If you want to blame someone for our grandparents being forced out of Ballybawn, blame me for not managing to make a profitable enterprise of the estate!’
‘You’re in love with Luciano da Valenza…’ Ione murmured in a shaken tone of discovery.
Making no attempt to hide her disconcertion, Misty groaned out loud. ‘We didn’t know…’
Kerry was still very much on the defensive. ‘Well, now you do know.’
‘I’m afraid we’ve been talking at cross purposes.’ Misty’s discomfiture was clear. ‘We assumed that Luciano was making you unhappy.’
‘We’re your sisters and we care about you, so I think we also need to admit that we have access to confidential information…and we’re trying to warn you that in our opinion you can’t trust Luciano da Valenza,’ Ione stated uneasily. ‘He’s a very clever and dangerous man who is already hurting your family.’
‘I’d have to know you a lot longer before I could think of you as family and I won’t ever forgive you if you try to hurt Luciano. You have no right to threaten him and no justification either. He was planning to take care of Grandpa and Grandma…you’ve got him wrong.’ Kerry found it hard even to voice those words, for she was hurt and distressed and alienated all at the same time. Without warning, her meeting with her sisters had gone horribly wrong and all the bright promise of a continuing relationship with them had evaporated before her eyes.
Misty groaned out loud. ‘I can see that we’ve come across as interfering but we weren’t aware that you were involved in a relationship with Luciano—’
‘Yes, and I’m not ashamed of that either.’ Kerry lifted her head high. ‘Look, I think I’d be more comfortable leaving now. We all have a lot to think about. I’ll tell our grandparents about their three new granddaughters so that when you go to see them—as I assume you plan to do—you won’t come as too much of a surprise to them.’
‘From now on, we’ll be responsible for taking care of their needs.’ Freddy gave her a warm, reassuring smile. ‘You don’t need to fret about them any more.’
Ione rested rueful green eyes on Kerry. ‘I’m sorry that we’ve made such a hash of our first meeting with you. Hopefully we’ll do better on the next occasion, little sister.’
‘Maybe when sisters are already grown up, it’s too l-late to be meeting for the first time!’ Before her pent-up emotions could make her stammer even worse, Kerry walked out of the suite.
Without caring where she went and in too much turmoil to stand still long enough to decide, Kerry left the hotel and walked through the busy city streets. What she had learnt from her newly discovered sisters had sent her into shock. It was clear that Misty, Ione and Freddy were behind that mysterious offer to buy Ballybawn at any price. Naturally. Who else would value Ballybawn as much as her own flesh and blood? Her half-sisters were as linked to O’Brien history and their ancestral home as she was herself and it was hardly surprising that they should blame Luciano for their grandparents’ plight.
Hadn’t she once blamed Luciano too? When had she stopped blaming him quite so much? Just when too had she started believing that no matter what happened her grandparents would be coming back to live at Ballybawn? For, in a moment of frank acknowledgement, Kerry recognised that she did have total faith in that reality and complete trust that Luciano would bring it about. Did that mean that she had been playing games with him as he had accused her of doing? Hanging out for a better offer from him? Why was what went on in the back of her own mind as big a puzzle to her as it might well be to him? Mingled tears of pain and reluctant amusement stung Kerry’s eyes.
If ever anything had served to increase her understanding of herself, it had been the disorientating experience of her own automatic recoil from her sisters’ threats against Luciano. In the space of seconds, her siblings had seemed more like the enemy than her own kin. She had not been able to bear that they should talk of harming Luciano in any way.
Her sisters seemed so confident of their right to stand in judgement over Luciano. How could they understand the forces that had made Luciano the tough guy that he was? Right from the moment of his illegitimate birth, nothing had come easy to him. His grandfather had been a hard-drinking bully and his mother had been virtually illiterate. Luciano had never been praised for his hard work at school because his parent had felt threatened by her son’s unsettling ambition to make something more of himself. In short, Luciano had always had to forge his path in life alone and without support.
And it was that knowledge that made Kerry ache for him most of all. At the height of his success in the business world when he had been only twenty-eight years old, Luciano had been charged with theft and imprisoned and everything he had achieved had been taken from him. His career, his reputation, his financial security, even his fiancée, Kerry conceded with an agonised sense of guilt.
He had been too proud to reach out to her then and she had not thought enough of herself to keep faith in him. Convinced that he had fallen back into Rochelle’s arms, she had found it that much easier to believe that he was a fraudster as well. After all, the whole Linwood clan had believed that and, heartsick with the pain of losing him—as she had believed—to her stepsister, she had not had sufficient trust in her own judgement to dare to think anything different.
But Luciano had loved her…he had loved her then. That awareness just tore Kerry apart and her throat closed over with anguished regret for what she could not alter. It was way too late now to see how her low self-esteem and his arrogant self-sufficiency had weakened their relationship. However, the past did not have to make the present, Kerry reminded herself fiercely. Nor did she have to repeat the same mistakes or behave as if nothing she could do could change anything.
Just when Luciano had regained his freedom and the right to live his life again, her sisters were threatening to ruin him. She had to warn him. She had to ensure that he understood exactly who he was dealing with and what he was up against, and that he backed off. This need clear as day before her, she pulled out her mobile phone and punched out the number of his London office. She was eventually put through to Costanza.
‘Luciano is booked up until six,’ his PA confirmed.
‘I have important information for him. I know who’s behind that offer for Ballybawn.’
‘I’m sure I can find a space for you somewhere,’ Costanza conceded.
Kerry smiled, glimpsed her own reflection in a shop window and stilled. Her smile fell away while she stared because she looked wild: her face coloured hectic pink from hurrying at a breakneck pace through the streets, blue eyes big with anxiety, springy red-gold curls on end from her efforts to tidy her hair with her fingers. At best, with all the stops pulled out, her hair done by a stylist and with full cosmetic assistance, she could make pretty. Yet regardless of that reality, Luciano had chosen her over Rochelle and yet still she hadn’t had the courage to give their relationship a second chance!
Her imaginative older sisters had tried to persuade her that Luciano was out for revenge. But Kerry believed that that suggestion was nonsensical. Understandably, her siblings felt very protective towards the grandparents they had yet to meet. It was not surprising either that her sisters preferred to blame Luciano entirely for the old couple’s present predicament. But to be fair, what businessman did not insist on collecting his debts? Nor could it be deemed Luciano’s fault that her grandfather, in ignoring all efforts to find an earlier solution to his indebtedness, had acted as his own worst enemy.