by Lynne Graham
Dante had slept with Topsy the night before. She had been so desperately busy all day that she had not seen him since and had thought nothing of it. Now she truly understood why Sofia had warned her off her son, for clearly Sofia had known that there was another woman in Dante’s life. An engagement was in the offing? Or had that suggestion been only journalistic excess? And what did it matter to her now anyway? After all, whatever happened now she was finished with Dante. There would be no coming back from such a revelation as his infidelity and deceit.
The celebrities were assembling for the meal and the catering staff, clad in plain brown medieval dresses and mobcaps, were moving round serving drinks. Reluctant to risk being mistaken for a waitress, Topsy had picked a similar dress in green and left off the mob cap supplied. As she checked the seating for the guests she discovered that a famous Italian actor had brought two female companions instead of the allocated one and she gave up her seat to one of the women without regret because the last thing she needed to do right then was share a table with Dante and his truly gorgeous girlfriend.
What an idiot she had been not to ask him if there was anyone else in his life! Why had she assumed that there was no competition? Why hadn’t she smelled a rat the instant he came after her? As far as looks went she wasn’t in the same league as Cosima Ruffini and only a body transplant could have remedied that hurtful reality. Cosima was a classic beauty.
Pain gripped Topsy as she watched Dante lead his girlfriend into dinner, the two of them effortlessly regal and impressive together. She was remembering him touching her, kissing her, holding her throughout the night and she sped off to convene with the caterers in the kitchen and escape the view of the hottest society couple in Italy surrounded by friends and admirers. She was sick with jealousy and the horrendous pain of betrayal and her own misjudgement, she acknowledged dully. She definitely wasn’t as clever and cool as she had believed she was because her fun holiday fling had downshifted into a sleazy conclusion and now she would remember Dante with hatred rather than fondness.
* * *
The ballroom was beautifully decorated with flowers and the band was already playing when Sofia and Vittore entered to officially open the public event. Sofia, splendidly glamorous in crackling golden satin, rose behind the podium to give a short amusing speech, closely followed by Dante, who gave the latest figures for the fund along with the expected travel date for the little girl, Maria, suffering from leukaemia.
Thunderous applause and stamping feet greeted the good news and it was a couple of minutes before Topsy noticed the furore at the top table and rose from her chair in the corner to investigate. Sofia had fainted and Dante had lifted his mother into his arms to carry her out of the room with Vittore hurrying anxiously at his heels. Reluctant though she was to go anywhere near Dante, Topsy was fond of his mother and concerned about her and she followed the small procession into the drawing room where Dante laid his already recovering parent down on a sofa.
‘What the hell’s wrong with her?’ Dante demanded of his hovering stepfather. ‘You didn’t seem surprised when she fainted.’
‘Don’t blame Vittore, Dante, it was very hot in there,’ Sofia groaned, raising herself against the sofa arm with difficulty. ‘This is my fault. I didn’t want anyone to know until I had to tell them.’
‘Tell them what?’ Dante prompted tensely, his concern palpable. ‘What’s the matter with you? Are you ill?’
Well aware of what was about to be divulged, Topsy darted out of the room to fetch Sofia a reviving glass of water and by the time she returned the other couple’s secret had finally been brought out into the open.
Dante was tellingly still staring at his mother in stunned disbelief. ‘You’re pregnant?’ he was saying unevenly. ‘Seriously?’
‘At least you didn’t say, “at your age” but I know you have to be thinking it,’ Sofia muttered waspishly. ‘And no, it wasn’t planned but we’re over the moon about it now that it’s happened.’
‘Why on earth couldn’t you simply tell me?’ Dante demanded starkly as Topsy presented his mother with the glass of water.
‘At first I thought it was the menopause. I never dreamt that I might still be able to conceive in my late forties,’ Sofia confided ruefully. ‘Of course I was overjoyed that I had but I was also very embarrassed about telling people, particularly because I’ve had several miscarriages. What would be the point of astonishing people with such an announcement if I was likely to miscarry again? And initially it did seem quite likely that this pregnancy wouldn’t continue either.’
‘But Sofia’s been seeing a very good consultant and he advised her to rest as much as possible for what remained of her first trimester. She’s doing very well now,’ Vittore added, gripping his wife’s hand as he settled down on the arm of the sofa beside her.
‘That’s why I scaled back my busy life to such an extent,’ Dante’s mother explained ruefully. ‘I want this baby. I want this baby very much.’
‘Yet you couldn’t bring yourself to tell me?’ Dante breathed tautly.
‘I didn’t want to worry you. This is a risky pregnancy,’ Sofia conceded honestly. ‘I knew you would remember how ill I was the last time I miscarried and I didn’t want to put you through that again. I was also afraid that you would urge me to—’
‘Dio mio! I’m not completely insensitive and would play no part in suggesting you terminate my own little brother or sister!’ Dante shot back at her in a strained undertone. ‘Yes, I’m afraid you will fall ill again but I can see how much this baby means to you both. All that I’m interested in is keeping you healthy and happy.’
‘Thank you, Dante,’ Vittore said awkwardly. ‘I appreciate your generosity. I do not want Sofia to put herself at risk, I have never wanted that, but you understand that the dream of another child is very dear to her heart.’
Deeming her presence unnecessary, Topsy began to tiptoe tactfully back out of the room.
‘Topsy...stop right there!’ Dante raked at her when she had not even realised that he had registered her. ‘We need to talk.’
‘I have nothing to say to you,’ Topsy told him succinctly.
* * *
‘Vittore and I will return to our table in a few minutes,’ Sofia murmured, smiling tensely at the younger woman as her attention skimmed uneasily to her son’s combative stance. ‘Go ahead.’
Within seconds, Dante had crossed the room to Topsy’s side, gritty tension etched into every line of his face. She stepped away from the guiding hand he put to her back, his proximity acting like a repellent on her because every time she looked at him she was remembering things she didn’t want to remember, thinking thoughts she didn’t want to think.
‘We’ll talk out here,’ Dante breathed, pushing wide the door next to the drawing room. The lush plant-filled orangery with its highly decorative mosaic-tiled floor and indoor fountain had wide doors standing open onto the sunlit terrace beyond.
‘What is there to say?’ Topsy enquired curtly, fingernails biting sharp crescents into her palms as if pain could help her stay in full control.
‘I’ve got plenty. For a start, why didn’t you tell me that my mother was pregnant?’ Dante demanded, sharply disconcerting her with that choice of topic and angle of attack. ‘We’re lovers. Why didn’t you share that with me?’
We’re lovers. That statement stung like a whiplash, reminding her only of her stupidity. He spoke as though nothing had changed but her world had fallen apart and she felt as if she were still stumbling round, struggling to stay upright in the midst of the debris. She was having to fight harder than she had ever fought in her life to stay in control. Nothing, she appreciated dimly, had ever really hurt her badly before; her sisters had protected her too well.
‘I couldn’t share any of it with you. Sofia wanted her condition kept a secret and it would have been wrong for me to i
nterfere in a family matter. I only found out because of certain symptoms she had and her consultant’s visits,’ Topsy related flatly.
‘My mother almost died the last time she was pregnant. I was fifteen years old and I’ll never forget it.’ Dante raked fingers through his luxuriant black hair, disordering it, his whole bearing illustrating that Sofia’s illness had been a very disturbing experience for him. ‘I am very concerned about her. You should have warned me.’
‘I work for your mother. My first loyalty is to her and I respect other people’s privacy,’ Topsy parried in tart disagreement.
‘You still should have told me. I was already very worried about her,’ Dante revealed for the first time, pacing restively away from her. ‘That’s why I came home and stayed on. She had suddenly changed her whole way of life and I could see no good reason for it. Pregnancy never even occurred to me as a possibility. I was more afraid that Vittore might be having an affair.’
‘Vittore?’ Topsy exclaimed, astonishment bringing animation back to the frozen pallor of her heart-shaped face. ‘You would have to be insane or blind to suspect him of infidelity. Vittore worships the ground your mother walks on!’
Dante swung back to her, anger brightening his brilliant green eyes. ‘Yet your intimacy with him caused a good deal of local gossip!’
‘I beg your pardon? My...intimacy with Vittore?’ Topsy queried with sharp and sceptical distaste.
‘Suddenly my mother dropped out of sight and Vittore was seen squiring a young beautiful girl round the countryside. Of course there was talk and suspicion!’ Dante retorted crushingly. ‘You’re not that naïve.’
Topsy was feeling slightly sick as she registered what he was telling her and she cringed at the belated knowledge that she and Vittore had unwittingly become the target of unpleasant local gossip. ‘You came back home solely because you thought I might be having an affair with your stepfather?’ she questioned in disgust.
‘When a young beauty and an older man are seen together too often, people assume the worst.’
Topsy was frowning, staring back at him with her chin raised. ‘And you thought that too?’ she pressed.
‘I was worried that it was a possibility. Obviously my overriding desire was to protect my mother.’
‘And yet even thinking that dreadful thing of me, you still tried to get me into bed with you,’ she reasoned in shock at that truth.
‘Better me than Vittore and, let’s be honest, you do enjoy an unusually friendly relationship with Vittore.’
‘Only because Sofia was unwell when I first started work here and the usual barriers came down once I guessed that she was pregnant. My sisters have been pregnant a half-dozen times in recent years and I’m an old hand at recognising the symptoms. I also spent a lot of time talking Vittore out of his frantic anxiety about your mother’s health. That Vittore was feeling so upset and guilty about the situation put more of a burden on your mother,’ Topsy pointed out grudgingly, refusing to admit that she had deliberately taken the opportunity to get closer to the older man for more devious reasons of her own. She had wanted to get to know Vittore and find out what kind of a man he was before she approached him with her belief that he could be her father.
Better me than Vittore. That crucial little phrase Dante had used bit deep into Topsy’s self-esteem. ‘Were you willing to sleep with me to take my attention off Vittore?’ she asked bluntly.
At that thorny question, Dante compressed his wide, sensual mouth. ‘That was the original plan but it swiftly became much more complicated because I was very strongly attracted to you on my own behalf.’
Her lip curled, her scorn at that claim unconcealed. Obviously he hadn’t cared whether or not she got hurt in the process of his seduction. He had targeted her, wanting only to deflect her from his stepfather, and even though he thought that she might be a shameless slut encouraging the attentions of a married man he had still gone to bed with her. That did not say much for his morals, but then that could hardly come as a surprise to her, she reasoned wretchedly. He had betrayed both her trust and Cosima’s.
But the sense of hurt Topsy was feeling was even greater because she had honestly believed that Dante had been as blindly, instinctively drawn to her from the outset as she had been to him. Now she was appreciating that that was far from the case. Dante had needed her to want him and had succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, plunging them into an affair that she suspected he would never have had with her under any other circumstances.
‘You planned to seduce me,’ Topsy condemned, stricken, fighting to keep the pain and resentment out of her not quite steady voice when she thought of how intoxicated she had been by his attention and how recklessly trusting and naïve to let her head be turned so easily. Not once had she stopped to think that it was more than a little unreal that such a gorgeous male should be in hot pursuit of her! Why hadn’t that occurred to her sooner? After all, she did not possess her sisters’ beauty. In fact she was distinctly ordinary in comparison, pretty on a good day and, in her own eyes, dumpy with her lack of height and pronounced curves on a bad one.
‘By that stage I was already in over my head, bella mia,’ Dante fielded in a raw undertone. ‘Naturally once I realised you were a virgin I knew you were innocent of any involvement with Vittore and that the rumours about the two of you were mere gossip.’
‘Don’t call me your beauty. I’m not. Cosima is.’ Topsy whirled away and stared at the humming-bird fountain fanning down a shower of sparkling water droplets to dapple the surface of the pool below. She was already cursing her unruly tongue for she had not wanted to confront him about Cosima. His relationship with the other woman was an unarguable fact and she was not going to ditch her pride to fight with him over that unhappy truth. Dante had wanted to distract her from Vittore and he had succeeded to a level she couldn’t believe, even making her forget why she had come to Italy in the first place. She had come to Castello Leonetti solely to get to know the man she believed might be her father but since Dante entered the picture she had barely seen Vittore.
‘It may look like that. Perhaps I should have mentioned her.’
‘There’s no perhaps about it!’ Topsy hissed back at him as she spun back to face him, that casual comment cutting deep. ‘I had a right to know that there was another woman in your life!’
‘Let’s not have this conversation here and now,’ Dante urged in an undertone, eyes locked to her distraught face as if he couldn’t look away. ‘We’ll discuss this when the ball is over.’
‘Have you forgotten that I’m staying tonight and I’m planning to dance until dawn?’ another voice interposed and Cosima Ruffini, looking every inch a princess in her grand turquoise ball gown, strolled deeper into the orangery to subject Topsy to a head-to-toe scornful assessment that left Topsy’s cheeks burning. ‘She’s not your type at all. What could you possibly see in her?’
‘Cosima,’ Dante growled. ‘We have an agreement.’
‘And you’re cheating,’ Cosima pronounced dulcetly, smoky dark eyes hard as jet, scarlet lips pouting in challenge. ‘You’re with her when you’re supposed to be with me and this place is swarming with reporters and photographers...’
As Cosima planted a possessive hand on Dante’s arm Topsy walked away fast without another word. Nothing more needed to be said. Cosima evidently knew that Dante had not been faithful and did not seem upset. But then Cosima had mentioned that they had some sort of agreement. Thinking about what that agreement might encompass sent a shudder of very moral disgust travelling through Topsy. It was difficult to feel guilty about having slept with Cosima’s man when Cosima was such a tough case and seemingly willing to overlook infidelity.
Topsy’s cell phone vibrated in her pocket and she dug it out, pinning it to her ear.
‘It’s Kat. You have to come home immediately,’ her sister relayed in a staccato burst. ‘
Something’s happened and you can’t be abroad and unprotected while it’s going on. You’ll be picked up early tomorrow morning. Can you pack up quickly? It is an emergency.’
Topsy’s head was spinning, her mind buzzing like an angry wasp, concern building. ‘Can’t you just tell me what’s happened?’
‘Not over the phone. It’s not a secure line,’ Kat warned her. ‘So, please don’t say anything else.’
Topsy dug the phone back into her pocket. What had happened to which member of her family that could be called an emergency? A kidnapping? Her blood ran cold. It was a reasonable fear with her family circle. She went straight off to find Sofia, waiting until the older woman was free to tell her that a family crisis had arisen and she needed to return to London immediately. She wasn’t quite sure that Dante’s mother believed the excuse and didn’t blame her because the call to come home was a case of perfect timing when Topsy could not face staying in Italy if it meant seeing Dante daily.
CHAPTER TEN
‘I’LL BE VERY sad to see you leave,’ Sofia confided. ‘I’ve loved having you here, Topsy. You brighten my day and fit in so well with us. If only...’ Her eyes veiling, the older woman clearly thought better of what she might have been about to say. ‘Perhaps you’ll come and visit when we’ve moved into our new home.’