'He stays... I go,' Luca delivered in a charged undertone.
'Don't be daft...he's not doing you any harm!'
Luca spun on his heel. Darcy unfroze and flew through the door after him. 'Luca...where are you going?'
He shot her a scorching look of incredulous fury. 'I'm leaving. Per amor di Dio... I will not stay beneath the same roof as your lover!'
'Are you out of your mind?' Darcy demanded, wide-eyed. 'Richard is not my lover.'
His shimmering eyes murderous, Luca spread both hands in a slashing motion and shot something at her in wrathful Italian.
Darcy gulped, registering that she was dealing with a seethingly angry male, presently incapable of accepting rea¬soned argument or explanation and indeed at the very limit of his control.
'OK...OK, I'll get rid of him,' she promised in desperation, because she knew at that moment that if she didn't, it was the end of everything. Luca would depart never to return.
She lifted the phone by the bed and dialled the lodge. 'Karen...I need a very big favour from you...in fact, it's so big I don't quite know how to ask. Richard is drunk, Luca's here and he's got this ridiculous idea that Richard and I are lovers. He's really furious and he wants him out of the house, and I—'
'Richard, drunk...?' Karen interrupted that frantic flood. 'Helpless, is he?'
'Pretty much. Could you possibly give him a bed for the night?' Darcy felt awful making such a request.
'Oh, yes...' Karen coughed suddenly, evidently clearing her throat, and added very stiffly, 'Yes, I suppose I could.'
"Thanks.' Darcy sagged with relief.
'We're going to go for a little walk, Richard,' she said winsomely as she yanked the blanket off him again.
Running through his pockets, she extracted his car keys and, anchoring a long arm round her shoulder, tried to haul him off the bed. 'Richard, you weigh a ton!' she groaned in frustration.
'Allow me,' Luca breathed savagely from behind her.
In dismay, Darcy released her hold on Richard. In a dis¬play of far from reassuring strength, Luca accomplished the feat of getting Richard upright again.
'Where are you taking him?' Luca demanded roughly.
'Not far. Just get him down into his car. Don't...don't hurt him,' she muttered anxiously on the stairs, as Richard staggered and Luca anchored a hand as gentle as a meat hook into the back of his sweater.
Richard loaded up, Darcy swung into the driver's seat of the Porsche and ignited the engine,
'Where we goin'?' Richard mumbled.
'You'll see.' She didn't have the heart to tell him. He had found himself at the withering end of Karen's sharp and clever tongue too often. Handing him over drunk and incapable of self-defence was the equivalent of handing a baby to a cannibal.
Karen had heard the car. She walked out into the lane and had the passenger door open before Darcy had even alighted.
'Karen...?' Richard was moaning in horror. 'Relax, Richard,' Karen purred, sounding all maternal and caring. 'I'm going to look after you.'
Darcy gaped at her friend over the car bonnet. 'Karen...what's going on?'
'Have you any idea how long I've waited for a chance like this?' Karen whispered back, her eyes gleaming as she reached up to smooth a soothing hand over Richard's tou¬sled dark hair. 'Blondes are bad news for you, Richard,' she told him in a mesmeric tone of immense compassion. 'Yesh,' Darcy heard Richard agree slavishly as Karen guided him slowly towards the lodge.
Karen was either planning to lull Richard into a false sense of security before she turned a hose on him in the back garden to sober him up, or she was planning to per¬suade Richard that his dream woman had finally arrived in the unexpected shape of a small but very attractive brunette. Darcy walked back up to the Folly. Luca was waiting in the hall for her. He didn't even stop to draw breath. 'What was that drunken idiot doing here tonight?' he demanded rawly.
'For goodness' sake, he often stays, and he doesn't nor¬mally drink like that. He brings his girlfriends here too,' Darcy proffered tautly.
'I don't know where you get the idea that we're lovers—'
"Three years ago, you almost married Carlton. He jilted you!' Luca reminded her savagely. 'Porca miseria... do you expect me to believe that he's now only a platonic friend?'
'Yes, I do expect you to believe that.' Darcy met his burnished gaze levelly.
'Even though he's the father of your child?' Luca framed with driven ferocity.
Darcy turned pale as milk. 'I assure you that Zia is not Richard's child.'
The tense silence simmered, but she saw some of the tension ease in Luca's angry stance.
Desperate to know what Luca was thinking now that she had made that admission, Darcy murmured tautly, 'Until Richard and I both fell for other people, neither of us real¬ised what was missing in our relationship. We stayed friends. He's a terrific guy, kind, caring...'