It Happened In Rome: The Forced Bride / The Italian's Rags-to-Riches Wife / The Italian's Passionate Revenge

In the kitchen, she unloaded the groceries in the welcome pack. As Angus had indicated, there was a fresh chicken in the fridge, along with some carrots and a small cabbage.

But, for now, she would make do with a can of soup, and tomato at that, she thought, operating the ring-pull on the can. The ultimate comfort food.

When it was hot, she poured it into a large pottery mug and carried it into the living room. As she sat down one of the logs in the grate collapsed, making her jump, emphasising her awareness of the cottage’s isolation.

It seemed strange to have no real idea of the landscape outside the dark rectangle of window, she thought with sudden unease. Maybe it would help if she drew the thick woven cream curtains, closing out the darkness and the unknown together.

But this is what you wanted—a hiding place with total seclusion, she argued inwardly. So why be a wuss about it?

As she began tugging the heavy folds into place, she became aware of two things. That snowflakes were dancing in the air, just as Angus had predicted. And that she could hear the sound of an engine and see a pair of powerful headlights approaching the cottage.

Oh, God, she thought, groaning inwardly. Surely it wasn’t Angus paying another visit on some pretext. He didn’t seem the type to make a nuisance of himself because she was female and on her own, but how did she know? What did she know?

She would just have to make it perfectly plain that she didn’t need any kind of complication in her life. And, whatever he’d said earlier, she’d keep that damned door locked.

But, even as she turned to do so, she heard a vehicle door slam and footsteps approaching on the gravelled area just outside.

As the cottage door opened, she said breathlessly, ‘Whatever you have to say can wait until tomorrow. Now, I’d just like you to go.’

‘But how inhospitable of you, carissima,’ came the drawled reply. ‘Particularly when I have come so far to find you.’

And, as Emily halted in stunned disbelief, Raf Di Salis stepped into the lamplit room.

Emily couldn’t speak. She could hardly think. She just stood there, rooted to the spot, staring at him. Watching him strip off his gloves.

He can’t be here, she thought. It wasn’t possible for him to have found out her destination and followed her so quickly. Yet he was only too real.

There were snowflakes clinging to his dark hair and to the shoulders of the parka he was wearing and he was carrying a leather travel bag, which he allowed to drop to the floor with a thud that sounded ominously final.

‘Lost for words, mia bella?’ he asked, the hazel eyes raking her mercilessly. ‘How strange. You seemed eloquent enough when you spoke to my lawyers the other day. And very frank.’

Her throat closed in fright as she remembered every reckless word she’d thrown at them. His arrival had made the cottage seem suddenly smaller and more cramped. And there was a note of cold, quiet anger in his voice that made her shiver.

He noticed instantly. ‘You are cold, my angel? Forgive me.’ He kicked the door shut behind him. ‘So, Emilia, are you pleased with the cottage?’

She found her voice at last. ‘I was—until a moment ago.’ She took a deep breath. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’

‘I have come to talk to you, naturalmente,’ Raf said softly. ‘To discuss your recent ultimatum—among other things. I told you so in my letter. And you must have received it, or why would you be here?’

‘I came because I chose not to see you—not to have this conversation.’ She tried to keep her voice steady as her mind ran in crazy circles, trying desperately not to think what she was thinking. ‘As you must have known.’

He shrugged. ‘But that was not your choice to make.’ He unzipped his parka and tossed it across the back of a sofa. Underneath he was wearing a black roll-necked sweater and his long legs were encased in blue denim and tough-looking boots.

He too, it seemed, had dressed for bad weather—and a long stay. And a voice in her head was silently screaming, No…

‘I made my wishes clear to you, Emilia,’ he went on. ‘You should have listened.’

‘Ah,’ she said. ‘We’re back to the old obedience issue.’

‘There are a number of issues,’ he said. ‘In time, we shall deal with them all.’

‘No,’ she said angrily. ‘I came here to get away from you, as you’re clearly aware. Either you leave or I do.’

He walked to the door and opened it again. A flurry of snow blew in on a wind that seemed to come straight from the Arctic Circle. ‘Then go, mia cara. I hope you have a destination in mind, because it is not a night to be homeless.’

He paused. ‘Or you could be sensible and accept that this interview is inevitable. Which is it to be?’

There was a silence, then Emily turned away almost blindly, wrapping her arms round her body.

‘You are wise,’ he said and closed the door.

She said, ‘How did you know where I’d be?’

‘I think you already know the answer to that.’

She said fiercely, ‘I suppose you must have forced it out of poor Simon somehow.’

‘No force was needed,’ he said. ‘I have known about this house for a long time. My friends originally offered it to me for our honeymoon and I regret now that I did not accept.’ He looked round him appraisingly. ‘It is charming and ideally secluded, don’t you think?’

The sensation that she was standing on the edge of a precipice was so vivid that Emily almost swayed. She made her way to the sofa and sat down.

‘Friends?’ she echoed hoarsely. ‘What friends?’

‘Marcello and Fiona Albero,’ he said casually. ‘You met them in London when he was at the Embassy, but I knew you would not remember. You were always too enclosed in your little private block of ice, mia sposa, to care about any of the people I introduced to you.’

That, she thought indignantly, is so unfair, but she could not deal with it now.

She swallowed. ‘Then Simon must know them too.’

‘Signor Aubrey,’ he said with distaste, ‘knew only what I told him to say and what I told him to do. You see, I guessed, Emilia mia, that you would wish to avoid me if you could. Acting under my instructions, he provided you with the means to do so.’

He paused. ‘And he sent you here. To me.’

‘No,’ she said. ‘He wouldn’t do that. We—we’d found each other again, Simon and I. We had plans…’ Her voice tailed away, then she rallied. ‘You must have tricked him.’

‘Of course.’ There was harsh mockery in his tone. ‘I tricked him into allowing me to pay the worst of his debts. They were considerable.’

‘How did you know he owed money?’

‘I promised your father I would protect you,’ Raf said. ‘Therefore, I needed to know what Signor Aubrey was doing—especially when he ignored an earlier warning and came back into your life—with his plans.’

She gasped. ‘You mean you’ve been having him—watched? Investigated?’

‘Of course.’ His tone was brisk. ‘I have to be away a great deal, so how else could I obtain the information I needed? And the money he owed featured prominently in the reports I received.’

‘That’s nonsense,’ Emily said, her voice shaking. ‘Simon has his own successful business.’

‘There is no business. He has only what his wits can provide,’ Raf said curtly. ‘And he is running out of options.’ He shrugged. ‘I did not choose that you should be one of them.’