‘Have they followed you here?’ he said.
‘Not that I know of,’ Elisabetta said. ‘Why are you frowning? Aren’t you pleased to see me? I cancelled the rest of my season on Broadway to spend time with you. This is the only place I’ll be left alone. I was going to stay with Jake but he’s always got some girl coming and going. And Miranda refuses to get involved. Not that I’d want to stay in her poky little flat.’
‘Look, now’s not a good time,’ Julius said.
Elisabetta pouted. ‘Don’t give me your stupid work excuse. Your work can wait for your mother, surely? Don’t you realise how desperate I am? Your father’s ruined everything.’ She paused long enough to narrow her gaze at him. ‘Why are you all wet? And your shirt is buttoned up the wrong way.’
Julius gave himself a mental kick. ‘I was having...er...a quick dip. You caught me by surprise.’
Elisabetta continued her tirade. ‘I’m so furious. Do you know the girl’s mother was a housemaid at the hotel he was staying in? A housemaid! How could he be so pathetic?’
Julius pushed back his wet hair with his hand. ‘I really don’t have time for this right now.’
‘You never have time,’ Elisabetta said, flouncing up the steps. ‘All you have time for is work.’
‘Mother, you can’t stay,’ Julius said. ‘It’s not...convenient. My housekeeper’s away for a few days and I’m not prepared for visitors.’
Elisabetta turned with a theatrical swish of her designer skirt. ‘Why do you always push me away? Can’t you see I need you to support me right now?’
‘I understand things are awful for you just now but you can’t just dump yourself here without giving me notice,’ Julius said. ‘You could’ve at least called or texted first.’
Elisabetta’s gaze narrowed again. ‘Have you got someone with you? A lover? Who is it? You’re such a dark horse. You never tell me anything. Even the press never knows what you’re up to—unlike your brother.’
How could he explain his relationship with Holly to his mother? How could he explain it to himself? Was it even a relationship? Wasn’t it just a fling? A temporary thing they both knew would come to an end at the end of the week? ‘I like to keep my private life out of the news,’ Julius said. ‘Which is why you coming here is such a problem for me. You’re a press magnet.’
‘I hope you’re not going to suddenly take your father’s side in this,’ Elisabetta said as if she hadn’t heard a word he’d said.
‘Why would I do that?’ Julius said. ‘What he did was unconscionable.’
‘I blame that tramp who seduced him,’ his mother said as she entered the front door of the villa. ‘She betrayed him by not having the abortion he paid for. At least he offered to sort things out for her but what did she do? Went ahead and had the brat. The decent thing would’ve been to get rid of the mistake. Pretend it never happened. But no. Those ghastly little gold-diggers are all the same.’
His mother’s logic—if he could call it that—had always been hard to follow. He was pretty certain Katherine Winwood would not like to be referred to as a ‘mistake’ or hear her deceased mother referred to as a ‘ghastly little gold-digger’.
‘If Kat’s mother was such a gold-digger why did she wait until she was on her death bed to reveal her daughter’s paternity?’ he asked. ‘Why not come forward years ago and line her pockets with silence money?’
Elisabetta threw him a fulminating look. ‘How can you defend her? She was a housemaid, for God’s sake.’
Just then Holly appeared dressed neatly in a skirt and blouse with her still-damp hair scraped back in a neat chignon. ‘Welcome, Ms Albertini,’ she said. ‘Would you like me to take your things upstairs to your room?’
Elisabetta gave Holly an assessing look before turning to Julius. ‘I thought you said your housekeeper was away?’
‘She is,’ he said. ‘Holly’s filling in for her.’
Elisabetta looked at Holly and then back at Julius, her expression tightening. ‘So that’s how it is, is it? You’re sleeping with the hired help. Just like your father.’
Julius clenched his jaw. ‘I won’t have you insult Holly.’
His mother glared at Holly. ‘I suppose you think you’ve got yourself a meal ticket by seducing my son.’