The Italian's Passionate Revenge

CHAPTER TWELVE

ELISE stepped under the shower and stood, relishing the water that splashed over her, enjoying the thought of what was to come.

In a few days’ time her three-month-old daughter would be christened in the same church where she herself had been married, but this was going to be a big occasion, with the church packed to the rafters.

It was Mamma who had insisted on calling the baby Olivia, which was Elise’s second name. The child had fulfilled everybody’s hopes, bringing new life to Mamma and a new softening to Vincente. He adored his daughter and spent every possible moment in her company, with the result that his best hopes had been realised and her first smile had been his.

The atmosphere between them now was amiable, but still wary. They knew they were standing at a crossroads, but the lanes stretched out of sight. Both were waiting for something to happen. As time passed her figure had regained its shape, her strength had returned and she had become more and more aware of how long it had been since they had made love.

She could use the term love-making to herself now. The love had always been there, and perhaps was still there, but it wouldn’t easily be tempted out of hiding.

Often she caught him watching her silently, as though reminding her of the closeness they had shared at the birth, and asking where it would lead. At any moment, she was sure, he would let her know that he wanted her in his bed. But nothing happened. If he met her eyes he’d turn his own away. The door to her room was unlocked, but these days he never tried it.

She shivered at the thought that perhaps he was content with this situation, that he no longer wanted her.

There was a long mirror beside the bath and, as she stepped out, it showed her whole length. She paused and looked herself over, recalling another occasion when she’d studied herself. On the day of her arrival in Rome she’d showered and considered her own nakedness because she had wanted to see herself through Vincente’s eyes.

She’d wanted him so badly. The weeks of lonely denial in England hadn’t altered the fact that her thoughts had been in Italy, with him, and all that mattered had been to make him desire her.

Then her figure had been elegant, almost boyish. Now the birth had left her more rounded, almost voluptuous, in a way that she instinctively knew that Vincente would like.

‘The perfect woman,’ he’d told her once, long ago, ‘is always changing, so there’s always something new to relish.’ His eyes had glimmered as he’d teased her. ‘And then he can have a new experience without the boring inconvenience of being unfaithful.’

She’d laughed and slapped him lightly. The next moment she’d been flat on her back on the bed while he lay on top of her.

‘Rough stuff, eh?’ he’d observed. ‘Two can play at that game.’

He’d then treated her to the most vigorous sex they had ever enjoyed, but when it was over it was he who had the scratch marks and she who had been apologetic.

Remembering it now, Elise smiled, then suppressed the smile as soon as she saw it reflected. Happy memories only led to more melancholy.

He’d joked about infidelity, but had he been faithful to her recently? She cast her mind back, trying to recall any unexplained absences, but there were none. He was always home early. It meant nothing, she told herself, almost determined not to think well of him. He could have done anything during the day, and she would never know.

But somehow that picture did not convince her. He was waiting, just as she was.

She was about to reach for the big towel when the bathroom door opened behind her. She whirled and saw him there, thunderstruck as he took in the full glory of her nakedness. For a moment they looked at each other without moving.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said in a harsh voice. ‘I didn’t know you were in here.’

Vincente backed out quickly and slammed the door.

It was all over in seconds but the effect was shattering. There in his face was everything she’d wanted to see-longing, loneliness, above all a desire so fierce that he’d been on the verge of taking her there and then.

But he’d conquered it, because by proving himself stronger than temptation he sent her a message of finality. She might be the most beautiful, sexually devastating woman in the world, but he would resist her because that was what he had decided to do. And his decisions were final.

Elise had no choice but to accept that, and confront him with the same. Their trial of strength had moved into a new phase, but it hadn’t come to an end.

Now she resented him for the way her body was thrumming with the thoughts and feelings he’d put there but refused to satisfy. For four years she’d lived untouched by Ben or any other man, had cared nothing, but this was a new woman, the one Vincente had brought to life, and her flesh screamed for his intimate caresses.

After a while she wrapped the towel around herself and returned to her room, moving quietly, not to alert him.

Vincente opened wide the windows of his bedroom, drawing back the curtains so that he could look out at the huge grounds, and let the faint breeze touch him. It wasn’t enough to cool him down. Nothing could do that.

With the lamp turned out there was only a faint hint of moonlight, casting a glimmer on a small part of the room and throwing the rest into black shadows. Throwing aside his clothes, he dropped on to the huge bed and lay on his back, staring up at the dark ceiling.

The click of the door was so soft that at first he wasn’t sure he’d heard it. But then there came another click as the door closed, and he turned his head slowly on the pillow.

A naked woman stood in the darkness. He could only just make out her shape, but he would have known her anywhere and lay, transfixed, as Elise approached noiselessly until she could stand looking down at him.

She paused for a long time while he wondered what was holding her back. She could have no doubts about her welcome. His arousal was fierce and hard, and just visible in the faintest moonlight, but she seemed to want to make sure because she reached out a gentle finger, caressing its whole length lightly and giving a faint sigh that might have been satisfaction.

‘Don’t start this if you don’t mean it,’ he said hoarsely.

She made no sound, but dropped on to the bed beside him, letting her hand drift here and there, following its own sweet will. He tried to reach up and pull her closer, but she prevented him, and he just made out a shake of her head.

Then he felt her finger placed lightly over his mouth and he understood. Whatever happened tonight was for her to say. If he disobeyed, she might vanish for ever, leaving behind only the respectable wife and mother that he’d made of her, when he wanted more-much, much more. He wanted the mischievous genie that lurked inside her, and he wanted to possess it completely-or at least until it vanished, to make him wait for the next time.

That was his last coherent thought. From then on thoughts and sensations swam into each other. Her hand continued to tease him, but absent-mindedly, as though she had other matters to think of. She pulled back again until she was in an upright position. He could see her hair hanging down, but her face was in darkness, except for an occasional gleam from her eyes.

‘Don’t make me wait,’ he groaned.

For answer she swung a leg over him and settled down so that he was enclosed inside her, not by his will but by hers. He waited for her to lean down against him, but she sat there, high up, proud and haughty, regarding his subjection with lofty enjoyment.

Now he could just make out her mouth, and the wicked smile that curved it-a smile that said, You’re mine and I’m going to make sure you know it.

Her hips were working powerfully, rising and falling, showing no mercy. A long groan broke from him. He arched his back, throwing his head backwards, and then she was stretched out on him, claiming his mouth with her own, still in control but finally offering the rest of her body to his embrace-the generosity of the victor.

Let her be the winner, then. Let her have anything she wanted as long as she could bring his heart and body alive as no other woman had ever done.

She seemed possessed of inhuman stamina, taking them both to the heights twice, three times. When she slid softly on to the bed beside him he tried to embrace her, but she was suddenly insubstantial and slipped from his grasp.

He felt only the lightest touch of her lips. Then she vanished into the darkness.

He lay peacefully, bathed in the joy of what had happened, trying to believe it. A new path had opened up for them, one that might lead to peace and happiness.

But there was still something missing, a grief in her heart that must be put to rest before her happiness could be complete. With all his soul he longed to make her that gift in return for what she had given him, but who knew if or when it would happen?

The phone beside the bed rang and he answered it.

‘It’s me,’ said Razzini’s voice. ‘I’ve got what you wanted.’

Vincente and Elise met at breakfast the next morning but, in Mamma’s presence, neither of them gave any hint of what had happened the night before.

Watching Elise’s slightly alarming self possession, Vincente wondered if he might actually be delusional, but the relaxed feeling that had infused his body when he’d awoken told its own story.

Then he pulled himself together. What he had to do today was vital, and might transform their whole lives. He left before breakfast was over.

He didn’t return that evening and there was still no sign of him when Elise went to bed. Lying awake in the early hours, she heard him creep into his room, making only the careful noises of a man who didn’t want to awaken anyone.

Fine, she thought angrily. If that was how he wanted to play it-fine! She turned over and fell into a furious sleep.

But the next morning he said to her, ‘I want to take you somewhere.’

‘Where?’

Vincente hesitated. ‘Trust me.’

When they were in the car she said, ‘Isn’t this the way to the church?’

‘Yes. There’s someone I want you to meet.’

When they arrived he led her into the churchyard, but not into the building. Instead, he turned aside and headed for Angelo’s grave. To her surprise, Elise saw two men there-one weedy and middle-aged, the other youngish and dishevelled. He was sitting down, leaning back against the headstone, his face unshaven, his hair untidy, his clothes slovenly. As they approached he took a long drag on something that he was smoking. He seemed oblivious to the outside world.

‘What’s he doing there?’ Elise demanded indignantly. ‘Who is he, and who’s that horrid little man?’

‘The horrid little man is Razzini, and he’s the best private investigator in the business.’

‘Private investigator?’ She stopped. ‘Is he the one you hired to find me?’

‘Yes, I told you he’s the best. No!’ He gripped her as she tried to turn away. ‘You mustn’t go.’

‘If you think I want-what are you playing at? How dare you do this?’

‘Elise, please-please don’t leave. This is important. It matters more than anything ever has before. You must talk to him.’

‘Tell me why.’

‘I can’t. You have to hear it from that young man. Elise, I beg you to trust me.’

She would have protested, but something in his eyes refused to be denied. This was the crossroads she had sensed approaching, and there were so many directions to take. But he was still holding her, drawing her along his chosen path, which might or might not be the right one.

‘I swear I would die before hurting you again,’ he said urgently. ‘Trust me!’

‘All right,’ she whispered. ‘I will trust you. I do.’

Not releasing her, he drew her along the path, talking gently. ‘I’d hoped for this to happen earlier, but it’s taken Razzini months to track that lad down.’

‘And you told him to?’

‘I had to. I wanted to know how Angelo died. Because we don’t know. Not really. We know he drove off and was found dead, and we’ve all made our assumptions, but there didn’t seem to be any witnesses. I told Razzini to move heaven and earth to find someone who could tell us more. That young man is Franco Danzi, and he knows everything.’

As he drew her closer, Razzini turned to them. ‘At last.’

They all looked at the young man, sprawled against the stone.

‘Get up,’ Vincente said, hauling him to his feet. ‘There’s no need to insult the dead.’

‘I do the best I can,’ was the strange reply. ‘I’d much rather insult Angelo alive. He ruined my life, and I can’t even pay him back as he deserves.’ He gave Vincente a bleary gaze. ‘We’ve met before, haven’t we? You came to see me in prison.’

‘Yesterday. We had a long talk.’

‘Ah, yes, I remember now. You’re Angelo’s cousin and I’m-’

‘Your name is Franco Danzi,’ Vincente reminded him with a touch of pity.

‘That’s right. Not that it matters. I barely have a name these days. Why should you remember it? Why should anyone? The prison authorities know it. They let me out this morning and said don’t come back. But I expect I will. I’ve nowhere else to go, and it’s his fault.’

He jabbed at the headstone.

‘I thought we were friends,’ Franco said in a whining voice. ‘But he was the one who got me started on these.’ He waved the thing he was smoking which, from its smell, was far more than an ordinary cigarette.

‘That’s not true,’ Elise said fiercely. ‘Angelo never touched drugs.’

‘That’s right, he didn’t,’ Franco agreed. ‘He was worse than that. He stayed clean himself, but he lured other people in so that he could make money. His family had money, but he said he wanted to get his own and be his own master.’

‘You’re lying,’ Elise said bitterly.

When Vincente said nothing she looked at him with indignation.

‘You don’t mean you believe all this?’ she demanded.

‘I didn’t when he first told me. Like you, I couldn’t square it with my picture of Angelo. But I’ve been thinking, and now I do believe. It explains some things that puzzled me at the time. Suddenly he’d be flush with money that he couldn’t account for, except to say that he’d won it gambling. But it happened too often.

‘Briefly he worked for me in the firm, but he was idle and self-indulgent, and he left just before I was going to fire him. I think it left him bitter.’

‘Bitter? He was furious,’ Franco said. ‘Then he started dealing, and he said it was the first thing he’d been a real success at. Oh, he was a success all right. He got his friends hooked. He thought it was all going to be easy, but Gianni didn’t like it.’

‘Gianni?’ Elise queried.

‘That’s how everyone knew him. He didn’t need a surname. You just had to say “Gianni” and people trembled. He was the big dealer in this area, and he warned Angelo off his patch, but Angelo wouldn’t take any notice. So Gianni killed him.’

Elise tensed. ‘But surely-he killed himself?’

Franco gave a mirthless laugh. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve been fooled by that story too. How he saw his girlfriend in the arms of another man, and was so heartbroken that he ended it all? Oh, he saw her all right. I know. I was there. And I’m not saying he wasn’t upset, because he was. But he wasn’t suicidal. He just wanted to get drunk.

‘He stormed off to his car, cursing his head off, and I had to run to keep up with him. I only just managed it and got in as he started up. I saw the other car pull out and follow us. Even in the dark I knew it was Gianni. He had this fancy car that you could spot anywhere. He came chasing after us. Angelo went faster and faster, trying to outrun him, but he couldn’t.

‘I could see how it was going to end, so I jumped out. Luckily we were out in the country by then and I landed on grass. I rolled down a bank, got knocked out and didn’t wake up for hours. Next thing I heard, Angelo was dead. They found his car smashed up and it took hours to free him. He didn’t do it himself. Gianni drove him off the road as a warning to others. He’d done it before to people who got in his way. We all knew.’

‘And you never told anyone?’ Elise asked, pale.

‘And have Gianni come after me? Are you crazy? I’ve never been so scared in my life. I went into hiding and for weeks I just took every drug I could lay my hands on. I don’t know how long I was out of it, but when I finally came round I knew my last hope of getting clean was gone.’

‘So Gianni got away with murder?’ Elise demanded angrily.

‘Not for long. He died three years later when someone did much the same to him that he’d done to Angelo. Only a lot nastier.’

‘Good,’ she said quietly, and Vincente gave her a look of admiration.

He handed a thick envelope to Razzini. ‘You’ve done a good job. Take this, and call me if you ever need anything.’

Razzini stared. ‘What did you say?’

‘I said you can come to me for help. I owe you.’

Razzini took the envelope, checked the contents and gave a satisfied grunt.

‘What about him?’ he asked, indicating Franco.

‘You can leave him with me.’

Franco had simply given up, sliding to the ground, muttering.

‘Go on, call the police. I could just use a nice comfortable cell.’

‘How about a nice comfortable bed in a rehab centre?’ Vincente suggested.

‘As if they’d have me!’

‘I think they will,’ Vincente said, looking up to where the priest was walking towards them. ‘Father, if you can find a place for him in one of the church’s centres I’ll pay all his expenses.’

‘You already make generous donations-’

‘This will be in addition. I think my family owes him something. Please get him away from here and into a safe place.’

Two young priests came hurrying out to help haul the now comatose Franco away. Elise stood watching them, unable to move. What she had just discovered had left her numb. From some distant place she had a sensation that everything was different. A burden had been lifted from her and, although it was too soon to feel relief, she knew that relief would come.

Not merely relief. Freedom. She’d hurt Angelo, but she hadn’t killed him. A miracle had saved her from a lifetime of suffering, and it was Vincente who had made it happen.

‘Elise.’ Vincente gently took her shoulders.

She opened her eyes.

‘Free,’ she whispered. ‘It’s true, isn’t it?’

‘I think it must be. As I said, it explains things I didn’t understand at the time.’

‘Then it wasn’t my fault,’ she whispered.

‘No, it wasn’t. None of it was your fault. Let’s go home.’

She sat quietly in the car, trying to understand what was happening, that a brighter future was opening up for them, but what she felt most intensely was a feeling of joy that started deep inside her and grew until it filled the world.

But it was too soon to give herself up to it. As Mamma came to meet them they shared a glance, silently agreeing that she must be protected from this revelation. The truth cleared Elise, but would only increase Mamma’s grief. They both hugged her and spoke warmly of tomorrow’s celebrations.

When they all retired for the night Elise stopped at her bedroom door and held out her hand. He followed her in, but he didn’t immediately take her in his arms.

‘Did it really happen?’ she murmured.

‘Yes, it happened,’ he said, sitting beside her. ‘And it gives us a chance we might never have had. Now we can emerge from the shadows and find each other.’

‘I was crushed by the weight of my own guilt. I thought I’d killed him. I didn’t believe that you could ever truly forgive me.’

Vincente shook his head. ‘It’s you that needs to forgive. When I look back on myself, the things I did, the deception I practised on you-I’m filled with shame. My rage and bitterness were so great that I thought of nothing else. I told myself that whatever I did was right because my cause was just.

‘And so I shut down all decent feelings for years. By the time I found you I was so obsessed that I could think of nothing else but my revenge, and my own rightness. But you-you changed everything. That very first evening, I knew things weren’t as I’d thought for so long, but I wouldn’t let myself believe it.

‘I clung to my illusions even while you cast your spell over me. I had to find a way to draw you into my life because I needed you to save me.’

‘Save you?’

‘I know now that by that time I was almost beyond hope, dead to most normal human feeling. But you awakened me, brought me back to life, taught me how to love again, as only you could have done.

‘When I knew I was falling in love with you I fought it with all my strength. Thank God I failed. It was too strong for me, and when I gave in to it I knew such a blessed sense of ease and freedom. It was right as nothing else had ever been.

‘I knew I must soon tell you everything, but I always drew back because you would condemn me, justly. Then I might lose you for ever, and that would be the worst thing that could happen. I kept saying, just a little longer, trying to make you fall as deeply in love with me as I was with you.’

‘Love?’ she whispered.

A tender smile overtook his face as he softly brushed her cheek.

‘Didn’t you know long ago that I loved you? Wasn’t it obvious?’

‘There was a time when you took trouble not to let me know.’

‘Of course. I thought it would give you the whip hand over me, and I couldn’t risk that. I still had so much to learn in those days.’

‘Me too,’ she said wryly. ‘I wanted the upper hand as well-just in case.’

‘But where the love is real, there’s no “just in case”,’ he said urgently, ‘no putting up defences against the dangers of commitment. But the dangers have to be faced if the love is to last. I know that now, but in those days I was still finding my way to you, step by step.

‘When I was away I came back to you like a creature seeking its home. My body needed you, and I could know no peace until we’d lain together again, but my heart needed you a hundred times more. The more I loved you, the more worried I became, because I could see how easy it would be to lose you.

‘And I mustn’t lose you, my beloved, because that might send me back to the man I was becoming. And I don’t ever want to be like him again.’

‘So who are you now?’ she asked tenderly.

‘I’m the man you want me to be, whoever and whatever he is. I’m not even sure myself, but you can show me.’

‘That’s a terrible power you’re putting into my hands,’ she said. ‘It’s scary.’

‘I’m not afraid, as long as it’s your hands and nobody else’s.’

‘If I hadn’t learned the truth as I did,’ she mused, ‘I wonder what would have happened.’

‘Don’t remind me of that night,’ he said with soft vehemence. ‘I never meant to say those terrible things to you. I was reacting to your anger. I’d have said anything to hurt you, but I regretted it bitterly afterwards. I knew that I loved you, but I was trapped in my own web. Once I’d started, I didn’t know how to stop.’

‘I seem to recall that I gave as good as I got,’ she mused.

‘I think you were possessed by the devil. When you taunted me with the men you were planning to have in the future I nearly went insane. Since then I’ve been jealous to the point of madness. Even when you were heavy with child it made no difference. I saw men look at you, I read their minds and I wanted to kill.

‘And you enjoyed tormenting me. That day you sold the apartment and let me think-’ He broke off, shaking his head in confusion at the memory.

‘Of course I enjoyed tormenting you,’ she said, smiling. ‘And I always will. Don’t think the years ahead are going to be easy for you.’

‘Let them be anything you say. Only tell me that you can love me, that you can forgive me for everything I’ve done.’

‘I forgave you long ago,’ she assured him. ‘I was wrong to blame you as much as I did. It was as though we were both caught up in a whirlwind, neither of us in control.’

‘I know. I was in despair, thinking there was no way out.’

‘But you discovered one,’ she said in wonder. ‘If you hadn’t looked for Franco this would have hung over us all our lives.’

‘It was the only thing I could do for you to atone for what I did in the beginning. You weren’t the only one carrying a load of guilt, but in my case it was deserved. I knew that while you were wretched I could never be happy. I can’t think of myself as separate from you. We have to be one person, or we’re nothing. My life is yours, Elise. Do with it as you will.’

She didn’t answer in words, but she put her arms about him, not passionately but resting her head against his shoulder, knowing she had finally taken the right road and come home. He held her in silence, sensing her thoughts, sharing them.

‘Do you mind very much about Angelo?’ he asked at last, fearful of the answer.

She drew away so that she could look him in the face, shaking her head.

‘But for Angelo we wouldn’t have met,’ she said. ‘And that would have been a tragedy, because you are the only man I shall ever want in my heart. If I hadn’t discovered what I did today, I should still have loved you, but in pain. But today frees me from the burden.’

Now she could say the words that had waited so long. ‘I love you, Vincente, and I shall always love you.’

‘Always,’ he echoed. ‘Promise me that.’

‘Always.’

‘Stay with me and love me for ever. I won’t let you go. I’ll fight to my last breath to keep you mine, and woe betide anyone who challenges me.’

She laughed fondly. ‘What became of the new man? That sounds just like the old Vincente.’

‘I never said I was going to be different to the rest of the world. Only in here-’ he laid his hand over his heart ‘-just for you, and Olivia.’

Suddenly he gave a brilliant smile, full of joy. ‘We haven’t said goodnight to her yet.’

The nursery was next door to her room. As they went in the nursemaid rose and slipped through the door to her own room, leaving them alone with the baby.

‘She’s fast asleep,’ Vincente murmured, sitting beside the cot and looking down on his daughter with the tender smile that Elise loved. To her and to his child he would offer that vulnerable face. But not to anybody else.

He leaned down to bestow a gentle kiss on the little forehead. Olivia gurgled but didn’t awaken.

‘Goodnight,’ Elise whispered, kissing her.

‘She’s so peaceful,’ Vincente said as they returned to Elise’s room. ‘I envy her that peace. I once thought that you and I would never know it. Can we find it now? Can we put the past behind us and forget what happened?’

But she was wiser and she shook her head. ‘I don’t want to forget everything,’ she said. ‘There’s too much that was beautiful, and in the bad times we learned to understand each other. We’ll need that in the years to come, because they aren’t going to be dull years.’

‘Not with us,’ he agreed wryly. ‘But we don’t have to fight, do we?’

‘I think perhaps we do,’ she said, considering. ‘Fighting can be-very interesting.’ She gave the last words a special meaning.

‘Yes,’ he said, understanding, ‘I’ve missed our battles-and the aftermath.’

She gave him a wicked smile. ‘You haven’t entirely gone without, have you?’ she teased. ‘I heard a rumour about some shameless hussy who flitted through here recently-but perhaps that didn’t really happen.’

‘I’m not quite sure whether it happened or not,’ he mused, catching her tone. ‘She didn’t leave a name.’

‘So you wouldn’t know her again?’

‘I’d know her anywhere,’ he murmured. ‘She was unforgettable.’

‘Should I be jealous?’

‘Not for a moment.’

‘Did she look anything like me?’

He considered, but shook his head. ‘No, she wasn’t wearing as much as you.’

Her fingers were already working on her dress. A moment later it was tossed aside.

‘More like that?’

‘Better,’ he agreed.

He removed the rest for her. There was a light in his eyes that she hadn’t seen for a long while, and it made her heart beat faster.

‘Tell me what happened,’ she whispered.

‘I was lying on my bed…’

‘Fully dressed?’

‘I don’t…think so.’

Her hands were busy. ‘Tell me when to stop.’

He helped her, and when the last of his clothes was on the floor he said solemnly, ‘You can stop now.’

‘So you were lying on the bed-like this?’

‘Just like this,’ he agreed, letting her press him back against the pillows. ‘She slipped in quietly through the door and lay beside me.’

‘The hussy!’

‘Yes, she was a hussy,’ he recalled with a reminiscent smile. ‘She knew every trick to excite a man, plus a few that I think she invented, and she used them without mercy.’

‘Shameless!’

‘Totally shameless. That was the best thing about her.’

‘What exactly did she do?’

He laughed softly. ‘Why don’t you experiment a little, and I’ll tell you when you get it right?’

She joined in his laughter, and they shared the joy that welled up in them both, until at last the moment came when she silenced him by laying her mouth over his, sending him a new message, one she’d never felt able to offer before, but which would sustain them for the rest of their lives.