‘You still should have told me. I was already very worried about her,’ Dante revealed for the first time, pacing restively away from her. ‘That’s why I came home and stayed on. She had suddenly changed her whole way of life and I could see no good reason for it. Pregnancy never even occurred to me as a possibility. I was more afraid that Vittore might be having an affair.’
‘Vittore?’ Topsy exclaimed, astonishment bringing animation back to the frozen pallor of her heart-shaped face. ‘You would have to be insane or blind to suspect him of infidelity. Vittore worships the ground your mother walks on!’
Dante swung back to her, anger brightening his brilliant green eyes. ‘Yet your intimacy with him caused a good deal of local gossip!’
‘I beg your pardon? My...intimacy with Vittore?’ Topsy queried with sharp and sceptical distaste.
‘Suddenly my mother dropped out of sight and Vittore was seen squiring a young beautiful girl round the countryside. Of course there was talk and suspicion!’ Dante retorted crushingly. ‘You’re not that naïve.’
Topsy was feeling slightly sick as she registered what he was telling her and she cringed at the belated knowledge that she and Vittore had unwittingly become the target of unpleasant local gossip. ‘You came back home solely because you thought I might be having an affair with your stepfather?’ she questioned in disgust.
‘When a young beauty and an older man are seen together too often, people assume the worst.’
Topsy was frowning, staring back at him with her chin raised. ‘And you thought that too?’ she pressed.
‘I was worried that it was a possibility. Obviously my overriding desire was to protect my mother.’
‘And yet even thinking that dreadful thing of me, you still tried to get me into bed with you,’ she reasoned in shock at that truth.
‘Better me than Vittore and, let’s be honest, you do enjoy an unusually friendly relationship with Vittore.’
‘Only because Sofia was unwell when I first started work here and the usual barriers came down once I guessed that she was pregnant. My sisters have been pregnant a half-dozen times in recent years and I’m an old hand at recognising the symptoms. I also spent a lot of time talking Vittore out of his frantic anxiety about your mother’s health. That Vittore was feeling so upset and guilty about the situation put more of a burden on your mother,’ Topsy pointed out grudgingly, refusing to admit that she had deliberately taken the opportunity to get closer to the older man for more devious reasons of her own. She had wanted to get to know Vittore and find out what kind of a man he was before she approached him with her belief that he could be her father.
Better me than Vittore. That crucial little phrase Dante had used bit deep into Topsy’s self-esteem. ‘Were you willing to sleep with me to take my attention off Vittore?’ she asked bluntly.
At that thorny question, Dante compressed his wide, sensual mouth. ‘That was the original plan but it swiftly became much more complicated because I was very strongly attracted to you on my own behalf.’
Her lip curled, her scorn at that claim unconcealed. Obviously he hadn’t cared whether or not she got hurt in the process of his seduction. He had targeted her, wanting only to deflect her from his stepfather, and even though he thought that she might be a shameless slut encouraging the attentions of a married man he had still gone to bed with her. That did not say much for his morals, but then that could hardly come as a surprise to her, she reasoned wretchedly. He had betrayed both her trust and Cosima’s.
But the sense of hurt Topsy was feeling was even greater because she had honestly believed that Dante had been as blindly, instinctively drawn to her from the outset as she had been to him. Now she was appreciating that that was far from the case. Dante had needed her to want him and had succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, plunging them into an affair that she suspected he would never have had with her under any other circumstances.
‘You planned to seduce me,’ Topsy condemned, stricken, fighting to keep the pain and resentment out of her not quite steady voice when she thought of how intoxicated she had been by his attention and how recklessly trusting and naïve to let her head be turned so easily. Not once had she stopped to think that it was more than a little unreal that such a gorgeous male should be in hot pursuit of her! Why hadn’t that occurred to her sooner? After all, she did not possess her sisters’ beauty. In fact she was distinctly ordinary in comparison, pretty on a good day and, in her own eyes, dumpy with her lack of height and pronounced curves on a bad one.
‘By that stage I was already in over my head, bella mia,’ Dante fielded in a raw undertone. ‘Naturally once I realised you were a virgin I knew you were innocent of any involvement with Vittore and that the rumours about the two of you were mere gossip.’
‘Don’t call me your beauty. I’m not. Cosima is.’ Topsy whirled away and stared at the humming-bird fountain fanning down a shower of sparkling water droplets to dapple the surface of the pool below. She was already cursing her unruly tongue for she had not wanted to confront him about Cosima. His relationship with the other woman was an unarguable fact and she was not going to ditch her pride to fight with him over that unhappy truth. Dante had wanted to distract her from Vittore and he had succeeded to a level she couldn’t believe, even making her forget why she had come to Italy in the first place. She had come to Castello Leonetti solely to get to know the man she believed might be her father but since Dante entered the picture she had barely seen Vittore.
‘It may look like that. Perhaps I should have mentioned her.’
‘There’s no perhaps about it!’ Topsy hissed back at him as she spun back to face him, that casual comment cutting deep. ‘I had a right to know that there was another woman in your life!’
‘Let’s not have this conversation here and now,’ Dante urged in an undertone, eyes locked to her distraught face as if he couldn’t look away. ‘We’ll discuss this when the ball is over.’
‘Have you forgotten that I’m staying tonight and I’m planning to dance until dawn?’ another voice interposed and Cosima Ruffini, looking every inch a princess in her grand turquoise ball gown, strolled deeper into the orangery to subject Topsy to a head-to-toe scornful assessment that left Topsy’s cheeks burning. ‘She’s not your type at all. What could you possibly see in her?’
‘Cosima,’ Dante growled. ‘We have an agreement.’
‘And you’re cheating,’ Cosima pronounced dulcetly, smoky dark eyes hard as jet, scarlet lips pouting in challenge. ‘You’re with her when you’re supposed to be with me and this place is swarming with reporters and photographers...’
As Cosima planted a possessive hand on Dante’s arm Topsy walked away fast without another word. Nothing more needed to be said. Cosima evidently knew that Dante had not been faithful and did not seem upset. But then Cosima had mentioned that they had some sort of agreement. Thinking about what that agreement might encompass sent a shudder of very moral disgust travelling through Topsy. It was difficult to feel guilty about having slept with Cosima’s man when Cosima was such a tough case and seemingly willing to overlook infidelity.
Topsy’s cell phone vibrated in her pocket and she dug it out, pinning it to her ear.
‘It’s Kat. You have to come home immediately,’ her sister relayed in a staccato burst. ‘
Something’s happened and you can’t be abroad and unprotected while it’s going on. You’ll be picked up early tomorrow morning. Can you pack up quickly? It is an emergency.’
Topsy’s head was spinning, her mind buzzing like an angry wasp, concern building. ‘Can’t you just tell me what’s happened?’
‘Not over the phone. It’s not a secure line,’ Kat warned her. ‘So, please don’t say anything else.’
Topsy dug the phone back into her pocket. What had happened to which member of her family that could be called an emergency? A kidnapping? Her blood ran cold. It was a reasonable fear with her family circle. She went straight off to find Sofia, waiting until the older woman was free to tell her that a family crisis had arisen and she needed to return to London immediately. She wasn’t quite sure that Dante’s mother believed the excuse and didn’t blame her because the call to come home was a case of perfect timing when Topsy could not face staying in Italy if it meant seeing Dante daily.
CHAPTER TEN
‘I’LL BE VERY sad to see you leave,’ Sofia confided. ‘I’ve loved having you here, Topsy. You brighten my day and fit in so well with us. If only...’ Her eyes veiling, the older woman clearly thought better of what she might have been about to say. ‘Perhaps you’ll come and visit when we’ve moved into our new home.’