‘I just think you should be aware of all the facts, Cassandra.’ Gabriella’s eyes glittered. ‘You know that he was once in love with me? Wanted to marry me? Had his heart broken when I chose his brother instead?’
‘Yes, he told me,’ said Cassie woodenly.
‘Oh, did he?’ Gabriella drank another mouthful of wine. ‘And the exquisite irony is that I made the wrong choice. Totally the wrong choice. For a long time now, I’ve been toying with the idea of ending the marriage—and giving Giancarlo the chance to pick up where he left off. What do you think he’d say if he knew that such an opportunity was here for the taking?’
Cassie didn’t know what he’d say—all she did know was that if she didn’t get away from there soon she would do something irrevocable. Like faint. Or hurl a glass of wine all over Gabriella’s insulting face.
But through her anger and indignation that her hostess should have been so unforgivably rude came a terrible twisting of pain in her heart. Because what if Gabriella was speaking the truth? What if this was a terrible case of bad timing—with both Giancarlo and Gabriella having married the wrong people?
Raised voices heralded the return of the two men and Cassie lifted her head to look at them. Giancarlo’s expression was a shuttered mask which gave nothing away—but she thought that Raul looked curiously at peace. As if some sort of weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
Giancarlo looked across the room at her and his eyes narrowed. ‘Are you okay?’
From somewhere, Cassie summoned up a smile. ‘Yes, fine—just a bit tired. I’d quite like to go back, if you don’t mind.’
‘Oh, stay!’ said Gabriella brightly. ‘There are plenty of beds.’
‘Thanks for the offer, but we have a car waiting,’ said Giancarlo, and turned to his brother. ‘I meant what I said. Come and see me in London. Any time.’
‘Grazie, Carlo.’ Raul nodded. ‘I will.’
Cassie was aware of the suspicion in Gabriella’s eyes as they said their goodbyes and it wasn’t until they were back in the car and headed out on the road to Rome that Giancarlo spoke.
‘Well, that was an enlightening experience.’
Cassie hesitated, thinking how shadowed his face looked. ‘In what way?’
He shook his head as he pulled a pulsating cell-phone from his pocket and began to read the screen. ‘Just let me deal with this first.’
Cassie swallowed. Don’t get irate. Don’t tell him how rude he can be. It must have been a weird evening for him and she needed to be understanding. She waited until he had finished before clearing her throat. ‘I thought Allegra was lovely.’
‘She is. The one good thing to come out of that marriage.’ Sliding the phone back into his pocket, he looked at her thoughtfully. ‘Did Gabriella treat you properly?’
‘She…well, actually, she guessed I was pregnant.’
He glanced down at her belly. ‘That’s not something we’re going to be able to keep secret for much longer. But apart from that?’
She wondered whether to burden him with a word-for-word transcript of Gabriella’s bitchiness but some instinct stopped her. Because what if everything her sister-in-law had said was true? Suppose she was holding Giancarlo back from what he had always really wanted? Wouldn’t that force the subject out into the open? And then what? Questions like that required answers she might not want to hear.
‘She was okay,’ she said, with a shrug. ‘Not really a woman’s woman, I guess. But what about Raul? He…well, he looked much older than I expected. I could hardly believe he was the same age as you. Was everything all right with him?’
Was everything all right with Raul? Giancarlo’s mouth tightened with irony as he recalled the demons which had flown from his twin brother’s lips during their talk in the library, and he shook his head.
‘No, things are anything but all right with Raul,’ he said slowly, turning his head a little to watch the dark Tuscan landscape speeding by. From here he could see the indistinct outline of the countryside where he’d played as a boy. Played with his twin brother before ambition and money and a woman had driven a wedge between them.
‘The marriage is on the rocks,’ he continued. ‘It has been for some time, apparently. I told him it was clearly damaging to Allegra as well as to each other—and if it can’t be made better, then he should get out of it.’
‘Oh. Oh, I see.’ So he knew anyway. Raul had told him. A terrible fear began to prickle at Cassie’s skin. Did Giancarlo see what Gabriella saw—an opportunity for him to step in and take what should have always been his? And was he, like his sister-in-law, kicking himself because the timing was all wrong? That he had married his pregnant mistress at precisely the wrong moment. ‘That’s a pity.’