Ashley had only met Pietro briefly at the wedding. The only child of Vito's elder sister, who was a widow, he bore all the marks of a self-indulgent, adoring mother and too much money. She had known that her marriage to Vito had shattered him. When he had taunted Tim, he had certainly not envisaged Tim's sister becoming his uncle's wife, and he disliked her thoroughly for that piece of apparent one-upmanship.
'Looking scared would only encourage him.' She glanced anxiously at her watch. 'I should be going.' Vito was striding through the hall when she returned home. She paled like a thief caught with her hand trapped in the till. 'You weren't due back until tomorrow'
'Should I look under the bed? Search the cupboards?' he teased.
Huddled inside her coat with her stomach sucked in, she looked at him blankly. 'For your lover,' he supplied rather drily. 'It was supposed to be a joke.'
Amusement failed her. As he searched her face, his dark features set hard, making him look tired, irritable. '''Welcome home, caro. I've missed you so much,'" he breathed with glancing satire in a high-pitched treble.
She flushed, her shoulders drooping under the weight of her depression. 'I'm sorry.'
'The last thing I need right now is an apology. Dio, what am I? Your gaoler, that you need to cringe when you see me?' he murmured in a fierce undertone.
The burden of her own secrecy constrained her. And what would he have done had she thrown herself into his arms? Such a demonstration would scarcely have been welcome when he no longer found her desirable. The passion had burnt out just as she had known it would, and when he wouldn't even argue with her she knew their relationship was on the rocks. Either that or he was sickening for something, she reflected morosely as she sat down in the palatial drawing-room.
'Mr Angeli, madam.'
Ashley glanced up from her magazine with a frown.
Who? Their staff didn't normally show a visitor in until they had established that the visitor was welcome…with one notable exception. Family members. And there, smirking like a cartoon baddie in a comic strip stood Pietro.
'Vito's upstairs if you want him.' She decided to call his bluff, every muscle in her slight body drawn unnaturally tense.
Pietro strolled over to her. 'You must think I'm stupid. He's in Milan.'
Ashley edged upright uneasily. 'He's upstairs.' He laughed. 'You wish!'
'Are you threatening me?' she enquired in disbelief. He drew out a cigarette and lit it with a flourish.
'What do you think?'
'I'd prefer you not to smoke,' she said quietly.
His dark eyes rested on her flatly. He was a very handsome boy, but there was something frighteningly unboyish about the cool way in which he looked her over, as if she was a piece of female flesh on a slab. 'If you think I'm about to listen to some cheap little tart telling me what I can and can't do in my uncle's house, you're even dumber than you look.'
'I'd like you to leave, Pietro.' She drew in a deep, shaky breath.
'I don't think so. You've got it made here, haven't you? I'd hate to rock the newly married boat,' he mocked. 'And I could, believe me. Giulia tells me he's very jealous… nearly made a scene at the engagement party. I can't imagine it myself. I always saw my uncle as a very astute guy, more into banking than bonking-'
'Get out!' she demanded unsteadily.
'You're as over-sensitive as your little twerp of a brother. I did for him nicely, didn't I?' He gave her a self-satisfied smile. 'My friends gave him a right going over, taught him quite a lesson. You should learn from his mistakes. I think you're going to be very nice to me indeed in the near future.'
Ashley was feeling physically sick. Pietro was a teenager like Tim, just a kid, she had to keep on telling herself. But that he should crow about having had her brother beaten up really shook her.
'So do I tell Uncle Vito that I saw you holding hands and weeping over the good doctor this lunchtime or do I keep quiet?' he taunted.
'You tell him whatever you see fit,' she dared. Pietro grimaced. 'But you see, once I start talking, I might get carried away. I might tell him about the money you took to dump him the last time-'
'What?' she interrupted hoarsely, unable to believe her ears.
'My mother told me about it. It's an open secret in the family,' he shared, enjoying her shock. 'You got a big fat cheque and he got Carina as a consolation prize.' 'I never cashed that cheque!' Ashley gasped, her head reeling.
'Uncle Vito's got a lot of pride… I don't think he's going to be too happy to find out he was dumped for a price-'
'You repulsive little swine!' Ashley suddenly erupted, shuddering with the force of her distaste. 'Have you any idea of how much you could hurt your own grandmother? The damage you could do to her relationship with Vito?'
He called her something foul. What happened next was a blur. Sick and dizzy, Ashley staggered, feeling the darkness threaten to fold in. She made it back down on to the sofa just as Pietro let out a strangled yell. When she raised her swimming head, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Vito had his nephew pinned up against the wall with one powerful hand and he was spitting at him in staccato Italian. Uncontrollable rage was the only possible description for the mood her husband was in. He was shaking Pietro as a terrier shook a rat before it went for the jugular.
In sudden alarm, Ashley leapt upright. 'You're hurting him, Vito!'
Her use of English caused Vito to switch to the same language. 'You dare to enter my home and threaten my pregnant wife?' he was roaring. 'When I am finished with you, you will wish you were dead!'
Ashley rather thought he might be, but on the brink of interference she fell back, the paralysis of deeper shock sinking in. Vito had said 'my pregnant wife'. A humming noise interfered with her eardrums. Without
the smallest of warnings, she keeled over in a dead faint.
CHAPTER TEN
WHEN Ashley came round, she was lying on her bed. In a flash, everything came back. Vito knew she was pregnant. All her ridiculous precautions had been a complete waste of time. In addition, she now knew why he had changed towards her. At the back of her mind, she had feared the cause had been that last row when she had raved at him like a madwoman. Now she knew differently.
'How do you feel?' Vito enquired with an anxious tremor in the normally level tenor of his voice. 'Should I call a doctor?'
She refused to open her eyes. 'No, that would be making a fuss.'
Vito sighed. 'I'm afraid I have already made a fuss.
I've called the family doctor out.'
'Then why did you bother asking me?'
'I was hoping for a sensible answer,' he admitted heavily. 'You know that I know now-'
'How?'
'That last night in Sri Lanka… I overheard your conversation with Priya.'
Her lashes flew up, revealing incredulous green. 'You didn't look as if you'd overheard!' she protested.
Gracefully he shrugged a shoulder. 'The ability not to betray emotion is useful in the banking world.'
She flinched, turned her head away. 'You should have told me. I feel a fool-'
He released his breath. 'I did hope that you would tell me freely if I gave you time. I was also very surprised,' he confessed quietly. 'Was it that nigh-' 'Yes!' she whipped the word at him to shut him up on a painful subject.
'You won't believe me, but I really am sorry-' 'You're right… I don't!'
'You weren't ready for this. It was badly timed,' he murmured tautly.
'My pregnancies usually are. I'm astonished that you're not over the moon!'
'Am I allowed to be?'
She said nothing, drained of response. She stared at the wall. His behaviour since they had returned to London was understandable now. He had been conserving her energies for the baby. Nothing but peace, quiet and tranquillity for the baby's benefit. Nothing else mattered, obviously.
'You've got what you want, so leave me alone,' she mumbled bitterly.