He had seen her collection of candles at Ballybawn but he didn’t admit that because it was much more enjoyable to bask in her wondering admiration of his extraordinary perception. ‘I’ll call you when dinner’s ready…’
‘You’re cooking too…?’ Kerry settled back into the water and gave him a dazed smile of approbation. ‘I can hardly wait.’
She soaked in the bath and contemplated her candles. Ione had said that no guy was perfect but Ione was very, very wrong. Luciano was sheer perfection in masculine form! He looked gorgeous, he was gorgeous. He was utterly fantastic in bed and pure sex on legs even clothed. He was clever, honest, kind, incredibly thoughtful, full of insight and caring. She had to be the luckiest bride in the world.
Two days before their departure from the island, Luciano received the call that he had long awaited and almost lost hope of ever receiving from his lawyer, Felix Carrington. Normally the most cool and calm of men, Felix could not keep the edge of excitement out of his
own voice as he brought his client up to speed on recent events.
The big breakthrough that five long years of frustrating investigation had failed to turn up had finally occurred. A member of the Linwood family had made a discreet approach to Felix through his own lawyer to offer startling new facts. Steven Linwood had confessed his part in creating the false evidence that had framed Luciano for the charges of theft and false accounting and set him up for his prison term. Kerry’s cousin had sworn that he was prepared to go to the police and make a formal statement to that effect and accept the consequences for the crime he had committed. Why? Five years ago, Steven Linwood had been bullied into doing a blackmailer’s bidding. When his tormentor had threatened him yet again in an effort to force him into further wrongdoing, Steven had realised that he could only protect himself by coming forward to tell the truth.
‘You’ve been so quiet all evening,’ Kerry remarked when they went to bed that night. ‘Is there anything wrong?’
‘No.’ Once all the facts were out in the open, everything would be right for a change, Luciano reflected with quiet satisfaction.
It was very wrong that he could not be honest with his own wife but what choice had she given him? All along, Kerry had refused to take sides. It was her own fault that he could not trust her with confidential information about his case, and until Steven Linwood had actually made his statement to the police Luciano knew he would have to keep quiet. Kerry would need heavy persuasion before she would even consider accepting unpleasant truths about people she cared about. In a mistaken show of loyalty, she might even rush off to phone Miles and warn her stepbrother about the allegations about to come his way. If Miles got the chance to flee the country before he could be arrested, Luciano knew he would be ready to strangle his wife.
In the darkness he smiled and tugged Kerry into his arms, acknowledging that sometimes it was wisest to keep his own counsel. What she didn’t know wasn’t likely to hurt her in the short term…
Having enjoyed an idyllic ten days of wholly sybaritic pleasure on the island, Kerry and Luciano flew back to London.
Early the next morning, Luciano headed straight into the office and Kerry called her grandparents to ask how they had settled back into Ballybawn. During her absence, her sisters had engaged staff for the castle and had overseen the elderly couple’s return to their much-improved home.
‘I hope to fly home tomorrow,’ Kerry told her grandfather cheerfully.
‘Now, don’t be hurrying back just for our benefit,’ Hunt O’Brien warned. ‘This afternoon we’re off to Quamar to stay with Freddy. Your grandmother wants to be with your sister when the new baby arrives.’
Kerry came off the telephone feeling ever so slightly abandoned: her grandparents were turning into seasoned globetrotters. Reminding herself of the very real fears that she had once had for their well-being, she shook off that instant of regret, for their future was now very much more secure. With a caring team of well-paid employees to ensure their every comfort, her grandparents would never be so dependent on their youngest granddaughter again and she had sensed her grandfather’s relief and satisfaction that that should be the case.
Mid-morning, Costanza arrived and explained that she had to find a file which Luciano believed he might have left at the townhouse. Kerry watched as her husband’s PA began to leaf through the filing cabinets in the room he used as an office.
‘Can I help?’
The brunette gave her a surprised look and then smiled. ‘Yes, please. Luciano’s expecting me back as soon as possible. I do wish he’d thought to mention what a mess he’d made of the filing system!’
For a couple of minutes the two women worked side by side.
‘Why is everything in the wrong place?’ Kerry grumbled.
‘Because Luciano finally has the excuse he has been waiting for all his working life,’ the brunette said in her usual acerbic style. ‘He is now way too rich, important and busy to put things back where he found them!’
Kerry burst out laughing.
‘Of course, his current excuse might well be exhaustion. Send him to bed early tonight,’ Costanza quipped. ‘Only half an hour after he came in, he fell asleep at his desk!’
Kerry blushed to the roots of her hair. ‘That was jet lag.’
‘But you only flew back from Sicily!’ The PA checked the desk drawers and then produced keys to access the wall safe.
A couple of files spilled out from the precarious pile inside the safe and fell to the carpet. Ignoring them, Costanza pulled another file from the heap with an exclamation of satisfaction. ‘Got it!’ Halfway to the door again in her eagerness to get back to the office, the brunette paused to take account of the files now littering virtually every surface and winced. ‘Luciano’s in a massive hurry for this…can I leave you to tidy up?’
‘If you promise not to tease him about falling asleep—’
‘He’s a man…they love the kind of teasing that suggests they’re incredible studs!’ Costanza mocked on her way out.
Still smiling, Kerry knelt down to gather up the loose papers that had spilled from one of the fallen files. The bright yellow logo on the letterhead of one of the documents stole her attention: Salut. Stilling in surprise at the logo of the wine-store chain that Miles had said was cutting Linwoods’ profit margins to ribbons, Kerry began to examine the papers she had been about to slot back into the file.
The first document she scrutinised startled her, for it was a very detailed and businesslike report on the strengths and weaknesses of her father’s wine-store operation. The information it contained was both confidential and damaging to Linwoods, and moreover the report was marked as being only for the eyes of the Salut management team. What the heck was Luciano doing with a report like that in his personal possession? As Kerry leafed through the rest of the file, her skin began turning clammy and her sensitive tummy churned.