Milly, stunned, threw at her, ‘Is that all you can say? Don't you feel anything? Don't you care'?' She took a pace back. The sister she'd admired and loved all her life now seemed like a stranger.
Jilly shrugged. ‘It's a lot to take in. 'Course I care, damn you! So don't come the Holy Joe with me! Anyway, she didn't have much to live for, did she'?' 'And whose fault was that'?' Milly wanted to strangle her! 6At least she died firmly believing you'd one day make good the money you lost. She kept faith.'
‘WeII, I did try,' Jilly defended herself, for the first time looking uncomfortable, and Milly tipped a pile of underwear off a chair and sat down because her legs had started to shake beneath her. She had never said a harsh word to her twin in her life and now she couldn't seem to stop.
‘How?' she demanded, tight lipped. ‘By stealing it'?' 'What did you say'?' Jilly looked as though sibling strangling was a two way street.
Taking a deep breath, Milly told herself that they were getting nowhere by yelling at each other.
As calmly as she could she ran through the whole story, starting at the point where Cesare had mistaken her for Jilly and she had gone along with it, getting so caught up in the plot that she ended with 'He's been really good about it. Those cheques you forged I mean. He's got the proof but he promised not to take it any further.' Her eyes sparkled with tears. ‘Oh, Jilly-how could you do that? I'm really worried for you'
'The bastard's got you well and truly hooked' 'What are you talking about'?' Milly looked into her twin's eyes and shivered. Cold. Hard. Two flags of bright colour flamed angrily on her cheekbones.
‘I think you know. Or if you don't you're even dafter than I thought you were' Jilly took another cigarette the wreathing plume of smoke making her eyes look mean and narrow. ‘Is that his ring you're wearing? Has he got you into bed yet'?' Taking the violent flush that suffused her twin's face as an affirmative seeing the way she instinctively placed a protective hand over the huge emerald she snapped.
‘I thought so. So cut the lecturing. Okay, so I helped myself to some of the old girl's money.It's not as if she'd miss it; the old bat's loaded.' Shooting off the bed, she paced the cluttered room then swung round faced Milly and announced bitterly, 'And after Cesare dumped me when I told him I was expecting his baby, I needed it'
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
MILLY FELT THE blood drain from her face as wave after wave of dizziness made her sway where she sat. She clutched at the sides of the chair for support. This wasn't happening. It could not be happening! She must have misheard.
'You're expecting Cesare's child'?' Her voice sounded weak threadlike her eyes pleading, begging to hear a denial .
‘Was,' Jilly corrected with a sigh. ‘I miscarried. I had a tough time with the early stages of the pregnancy-it was the reason I didn't come home to England. Ma would have been devastated with the shame of having a daughter who had a baby without the benefit of a wedding ring on her finger-you know what she was like.'
Milly put her fingertips to her temples. The squalid room was tilting around her and her ears were buzzing. She had known this interview would be difficult. But not as bad as this, please, not as bad as this ! She flinched as Jilly put a hand on her shoulder, shaking her head violently as her twin asked, 'Want a brandy or something, kid'?'
Rebellion stirred. She wasn't a kid! And Cesare wasn't the type of man to turn his back on his own child. He was her future husband! She trusted him, didn't she? It was on the tip of her tongue to tell Jilly that she knew she had to be lying because Cesare had confessed that he found Jilly a total turn-off but, to spare her sister's feelings, she kept her mouth shut.
It would be bad enough for her to know she'd been branded a thief without the further humiliation of hearing that the gorgeous Cesare Saracino preferred the quieter twin over the sex-on-legs version.
'We're going to be married, I won't believe anything bad of him' The words were out before she could stop them.
She cringed when her twin countered drily, 'Yeah? 'Course you are. That's what he led me to believe too.'
Jilly dragged a chair from under the table and settled at Milly's side. ‘Listen kid, you're in denial and I can't blame you. But haven't I always looked out for you'?'
‘Like you did when you left me to pick up the pieces after you lost every penny Ma had and more? Not that I minded looking after her the best I could, but you could at least have phoned or written told us where you were and what you were doing.'
Attack was the best form of defence wasn't it? Anything to change the subject, because she couldn't bear to hear any more of Jilly's lies. They were lies, weren't they? They had to be! She tried to stand, to leave this hateful place, but her legs had turned to jelly and wouldn't hold her upright. Miserably she sank back on the chair and let her twin's words wash over her.
‘I had my reasons, okay? Listen there I was working in an unmarked club in Florence when this fabulous guy walks in with another man. Every woman around was riveted. Well he's pretty hard to overlook. I think I fell for him there and
then. I asked around and found he was the head of the Sacracino empire. Next thing I knew he was advertising for a companion for his ancient grandmother.
I was in there like a shot, and he hired me on the spot. I could tell he was interested. Well a girl can, can't she? Well things progressed. From what I gathered from the old woman he was rarely home-flying here there and everywhere on business-but he hung around because of me. And give him his due, he's a fantastic lover. Talk about insatiable! He vowed he loved me, all the usual guff, asked me to marry him.' She snorted her contempt. ‘Even gave me a ring.'
Picking up Milly's hand she examined the emerald her eyes narrowing with spite. 'Yeah. Same one. I left it behind. I would have kept it and sold it and not had to dip my fingers into the old bat's bank account out of desperation. But I had it valued. It's a cheap fake. Like him! 'Course, I wasn't supposed to wear it openly,' she scorned. ‘He wanted to bring the old woman round slowly to the idea of his marrying a foreigner.'
Her jaw set as if she were trying to keep emotion at bay. ‘If you still don't believe me you could tackle him head on. He'II deny it, of course. And if you ask the old woman for corroboration of the so-called engagement you'll draw a blank. He made sure she knew nothing about it. And I fell for it. I was madly in love with him and believed every lying word he said. I even thought with him being so filthy rich he would give me a whopping allowance after we were married and I could begin to pay Ma back. But face it, kid, his kind doesn't marry down. When he proposes and actually means it she'll be upper crust and filthy rich.'
Milly stared at her twin with shattered eyes as the words dripped agonizingly into her mind like poison. She didn't want to believe any of this but- Had Cesare given her twin a chain too? To keep their fake engagement secret? He'd insisted that they keep their plans secret hadn't he? Using his grandmother as an excuse the same excuse he'd given Jilly. In her twin's case to give him time to talk the old lady round', in her own case he'd insisted that they wait to break the news until his grandmother was strong again.
It came to the same thing .
And why on earth would Jilly lie about the pregnancy? It made no kind of sense, she thought on a wave of nausea. Such a wicked fabrication would gain her absolutely nothing. It made far more sense to take everything she'd said as the truth.
Pregnant and dumped by the man she'd believed she would marry, she'd admitted she'd been desperate. And so she'd stolen what she'd thought she was owed. It didn't excuse theft, nothing ever would, but it did explain it.