The Italian's Rightful Bride Part 10

By late that evening Joanna was in London, installed in the Ritz, desperately relieved to have got away from Gustavo.

His contrition had been welcome, but it hadn't wiped out the memory of their quarrel when she'd seen a side of him that had shocked her-a man who demanded his own way as a right, who could be coldly autocratic to anyone who dared defy him.

She supposed it was inevitable in his position, but it was new to her, and it made her realise that she'd had a lucky escape.

She really would like to consult the British Museum, although it was perhaps less urgent than she'd made it sound. She spent three days there, hard at work. Every evening she called Billy, ready to return at once if he seemed less than happy. But his cheerful voice always rea.s.sured her.

'How is Gustavo?' she asked politely on the third evening.

'He's a bit worked up at the moment,' Billy observed. 'I think he's got shares in an airline.'

'Shares in an...? Billy, what are you talking about?'

'They're all on strike. Every airport in the country is closed down.'

'Oh, yes, I think I saw something on the news last night. Poor Gustavo. He does have bad luck. Is he around for me to talk to?'

'No, he's out for the evening.'

'Oh, well, it doesn't matter.'

For the evening or for the night? she wondered as she hung up.

But it was no concern of hers.

The following afternoon she returned to the hotel, hot, tired and eager for a shower. A strand of hair flopped over her forehead and she knew she looked far from her best. As she collected her messages the receptionist said, 'There's a gentleman waiting to see you.'

In the heartbeat before she turned to see him Joanna knew who she wanted it to be more than anyone in the world.

He had risen as she came in, and stood quietly watching her, an uncertain smile on his face. Joanna walked towards him, pa.s.sionately glad to see him.

'I don't understand,' she said. 'How do you come to be here?'

'I happened to have business in London.'

'What a coincidence that we should both stay here.'

He shrugged. 'I always stay here, and I guessed that you might, so I asked at the desk.'

'So the airports are open again?'

'I've no idea. They were closed yesterday, so I took the train.'

'All that way by train? Why, it must take-'

'Twenty-eight hours.'

'Your business must be very urgent.'

He nodded, not taking his eyes from her. 'Yes,' he said quietly. 'It is.'

She made no answer. It mattered too much for words.

A sudden awkwardness overtook them both. The moment wasn't right.

He glanced at the books she was carrying. 'From the museum?'

'Yes, I treated myself in the museum shop.'

'They look heavy. May I carry them up for you?'

She relinquished them to him. Together they went to the lift, then up to her suite.

'I need a drink,' she said, kicking off her shoes. 'Who'd think you could get so tired just looking at ma.n.u.scripts?'

'Paperwork,' he agreed. 'Guaranteed to give you a headache.'

They were talking about nothing to gain time and s.p.a.ce. Now that their first greeting was over she was disconcerted at the sight of him. This wasn't the man whose body she'd clasped through the mud, or the arrogant autocrat who had antagonised her. He looked desperately weary, like someone who'd already absorbed too many blows and was tensed for more. He confirmed it when she asked what he wanted to drink and he asked for a whisky, which she'd never seen him with before.

He downed it in one and said heavily, 'I lied to you. I knew you were here. I asked Billy.'

'He didn't tell me that.'

'I swore him to secrecy. I said I wanted to surprise you, and he mustn't spoil it.'

'I'll bet he loved that, the little monkey.'

'Yes, he did. I envy you. What a son to have!'

She remembered that his own son wasn't his son at all, but couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't sound insultingly trivial.

'Another drink?' she asked gently.

'Perhaps I shouldn't. I'm going to ask you to dinner, so I'd better keep a clear head.'

'Like I'm an ogre?' she said lightly. 'Forget it. We'll eat here and I'll be the host.'

'Thank you.' He held out his gla.s.s and she poured him another whisky.

'I lied about having business too,' he admitted. 'I just followed you. I couldn't bear it that you went away angry with me, even though I deserved it.'

'I wasn't angry-' she began, but he interrupted her quickly.

'Yes, you were, and you were right. I behaved abominably.'

'I don't think you were abominable,' she said, although she'd been thinking exactly that. 'I was just a bit surprised. I've never seen you like that before.'

He smiled faintly. 'I didn't want you to go and I couldn't think of any other way to say it. I'm afraid I tend to fall back on barking out orders when-when I feel at a disadvantage. I shouldn't have acted that way, with you of all people.'

'You don't owe me anything.'

'We both know what I owe you, but-let's talk about that later. First tell me why you suddenly decided to leave Montegiano.'

'I told you-'

'Yes, yes, you told me some neat story about working in the British Museum.'

'I've really been to the British Museum, and I've discovered some fascinating-'

'Joanna, can we please forget about old ruins for a while, even my old ruins? Right now they don't seem very important.'

'I never thought to hear you say that.'

'Neither did I, but sometimes... Did you leave to get away from me?'

'How-exactly-do you mean that?' she asked cautiously.

'Do I make things too difficult for you-because of the past?'

'What past? We were friends. We're still friends. End of story. Look, I knew whose home it was when I went there. I wasn't taken by surprise. I just thought it would be nice to see how you were.'

'But you didn't expect to find me alone. Perhaps if you'd known that, you wouldn't have come.'

'Why should you say that?'

'Because I wonder if you found our meeting awkward.'

'After all these years? We're not the same people that we were then.'

'True,' he said, looking into his gla.s.s. 'The years do their work. They give and they take away. They show us the lessons to be learned, and those lessons change us, so that we look back and don't recognise ourselves as we were then.'

'Would you go back to being the man you were then?' she asked.

He shook his head. 'At twenty-two I wasn't even a man. Just a callow boy who thought he knew it all because he'd been raised in a privileged position. What a fool! I fell for the first fairy tale that was fed to me. A man with a shred of experience or worldly wisdom would have seen through her.'

'Was it really as bad as that?' she asked sympathetically.

He nodded.

'I thought I'd arrive to see you and Crystal together in domestic bliss.'

'Domestic bliss,' he said wryly. 'It was never that.'

'It didn't occur to me that things might have gone wrong, especially after I read in the papers about your son being born.'

He winced. 'Yes, there was a proper announcement about a son and heir being born to the Prince of Montegiano. But you should have seen what the papers made of the other juicy little item, when the boy turned out to be the son and heir of the princess's fitness instructor.'

She heard the pain in his voice, and saw it in his twisted smile. How much was wounded love for a woman who had betrayed him? she wondered. And how much was humiliation, because the world knew he was a cuckold?

Did it matter? Whatever the truth, his misery was intense.

'Let's have some dinner,' she said briskly. 'Everything looks better on a full stomach.' She handed him the room-service menu. 'I feel like a feast.'

She was afraid that he might demur at the idea of her treating him, but he simply looked contented. When the feast was chosen she said, with a twinkle, 'I'll leave the wines to you.'

'Tactful lady!'

'Well, I'm not going to risk choosing wines for an Italian, and a Roman at that.'

'Not only tactful but also wise.'

'We'll do it properly,' she said. 'A different wine with every course. And champagne.'

'Champagne?'

Just having him here was a cause for celebration, but she couldn't say that so she just gave a private smile of happiness.

When the meal arrived they gave it all their attention for a while. Gustavo said little, but now and then he glanced across at her, as though making sure that she was still there.

After a while, when it seemed to her that he was more relaxed, Joanna said gently, 'What happened?'

'What happened was that I made the biggest mistake any man has ever made,' he said slowly. 'I gave my whole heart and soul to a woman who had no heart to give back. She fed me a line and I fell for it.'

'But she was crazy about you. I saw you together.'

He shook his head. 'No, she wanted me to be crazy about her. It's not the same thing. And she knew how to make me crazy. It was the t.i.tle. She fancied being a princess. She as good as admitted it eventually.'

'How long did it take you to see the truth?'

'Much longer than it should have done. I couldn't let myself admit that she was greedy, selfish and cold. Which probably makes me a coward.'

His voice was sharp with bitterness and self-mockery.

'Don't be so hard on yourself,' Joanna urged.

'Why not? Someone should be hard on me for being such a fool. And with you I can be honest because you know the truth that n.o.body else knows.'

She gazed at him, shocked that everything she had tried to do for him had come to this.

'But it wasn't your fault. You wouldn't be the first man in the world to be taken in.'

'No, but-here's the joke-I considered myself being above that sort of thing. After all, I was a Montegiano, a man of pride and position.'

He gave a gruff laugh. 'Joanna, you have no idea of the stupidity of a boy of twenty-two who's been raised to think too well of himself. He makes mistake after mistake. The merest country b.u.mpkin would have known better than I did.'

She held her breath, knowing what it must cost him to reveal himself like this, praying not to spoil everything by a clumsy word.