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lay claim to the Castillo because of the paintings, and

so he had them covered up. It was his dream that one

day they would be fully restored. Our family is a large

one, and there are some members of it who feel that

the Castillo should be sold and the proceeds shared.

My grandmother wanted to leave the Castillo to me

because she knew I would fulfil on her behalf the

promise she made to her dying first husband."

"So why did she make it condition of her will that

you must marry?"

"That was through Caterina’s interference. My

grandmother was a gentle person who thought only

good of others. Caterina seized her chance after Gino

died and managed to convince No

star-crossed lovers and I wanted to marry her. She is

what one might term an adventuress, to whom marriage

to my cousin Gino gave social standing. She

had hoped to raise herself even higher by trapping me

into marriage with her. Money and social position are

all that matter to her."

Jodie frowned. Her instincts were telling her that

what he was saying was the truth, and that Caterina

had lied to her.

"Caterina knows how important the Castillo is to

me," Lorenzo continued. "Gino had told her of my

promise to our grandmother, and she thought she

could use that to force my hand. Fortunately for me,

my grandmother’s notary managed to conceal from

Caterina the fact that he had omitted her name from

the final signed copy of the will, so that it read merely

that I had to marry, instead of stating that I had to

marry Caterina. And, as if the situation weren’t complicated

enough already, she has been encouraging

some Russian syndicate to believe that the Castillo

will be available to buy. They wish to convert it into

a luxury hotel."

"But why do you come here at night?"

"Because I ca

Caterina is here, and because I have a need to commune

with the past, to assure the man who gave his

life to preserve it that I will do my best to fulfil his

dream." He gave a small shrug. "At the same time, I

have dreams of my own. I would like to see the

Castillo turned into a rehabilitation centre for the

young victims of war — a place where they can recover

physically and emotionally. I want it to be a

centre for young artists and artisans, gifted craftspeople

who will work on the restoration that is needed

and train their young apprentices to follow in their

footsteps. I want to banish from the Castillo, and from

the lives of young victims of war, at least some of

the shadows and dark places, and to fill them instead

with light and the pleasure of living. The meetings I

have been having in Florence are co

plans for the Castillo. As soon as we are married, and

the Castillo is legally mine, my first and most important

duty is to put in hand the restoration of the paintings."

Jodie had to blink fiercely to disperse her foolish

tears, her earlier antagonistic suspicions of him swept

away by a sudden surge of admiration.

"It sounds wonderful — a truly noble enterprise," she

told him huskily, looking up at him, her admiration

warming her eyes.

Lorenzo looked back at her and Jodie caught her

breath as he took a step towards her, quickly disentangling

her gaze from his whilst her heart raced and

thudded.

"Caterina does not think so. She would far rather

the place was sold and my money was hers to do with

as she chooses. She drove my cousin to his death, and

even if I loved her rather than loathed her I could

never forgive her for that," Lorenzo told her harshly.

Jodie gave a small shiver.

"But you must have loved her once…"

"Why? Because I had sex with her?" Lorenzo shook

his head. "I was eighteen and driven by the desires of

my body, that was all." As he was being driven by

them right now, if he was honest, to take hold of Jodie

and take her back to his bed, so that he could finish

what had been started the night she had returned the

betrothal ring to him. There hadn’t been a single night

since then when he had not thought of doing so—

ached to do so. she’d got under his skin in a way that

no other woman had, mental images of her filling his

head and stealing away his thoughts whilst his body

raged and pulsed. Angrily he fought against the longing

taking hold of him.

Every bride felt nervous — it went with the territory,

Jodie assured herself as the alarmingly efficient stylist

the designer salon had insisted on sending to help her,

plus a seamstress and a dresser, bustled round her

bedroom.

Who would have thought that a small, quiet wedding

would involve so much strategic pla

little ruefully, Jodie suspected that it was her gown

rather than her that was the cause of the stylist"s relentless

insistence on overseeing every detail of her

wedding-day appearance — right down to the spa treatments

she had arranged for Jodie the previous day.

Now, massaged plucked, waxed and tinted to within

an inch of her life, Jodie tried to imagine how she

might be feeling if this was the real thing, a real wedding,

and she was standing here nervously being laced

into her corset in anticipation of making her vows to

a man she really loved and who really loved her.

But of course that was never going to happen.

Because she was never going to love a man, was she?

Was she? she repeated insistently, when her question

was met by a stubborn silence from the reassuring

i

agreed.

"No, you must pull it tighter," she could hear the

stylist instructing the dresser, and she winced as the

breath was squeezed out of her lungs.

Her hair had been arranged in an artless mix of

loose plaits coiled softly into an "up do" and then

threaded with invisible thread strung with diamonds

to complement the pearl and diamond embroidery on

her gown. A make-up artist had spent what felt like

hours working on her face to make it look as though

she wasn’t actually wearing any make-up at all,

merely a soft glow, although her eyelids had been

brushed with a subtle gold-green powder which made

them look enormous as well as reflecting the green

glitter of the emerald.

By the time the stylist was satisfied with the narrowness

of her waist, Jodie was afraid she might pass

out from an inability to breathe.

"Come and look," the stylist insisted, taking her to

stand in front of the full-length mirror.

The reflection gazing back at her was totally unfamiliar.

Huge gold eyes ringed with curling black

lashes looked at her, soft rose lips surely much fuller

than hers parted to show pearly white teeth. The

cream corset bodice of her gown revealed lushly

curved breasts and an impossibly narrow waist, whilst

silky fine cream hold-ups covered legs that seemed to

go on for ever, thanks to the height of the heels she

was having to wear.

"Bene," the stylist pronounced, beckoning to the

dresser. "Now for the skirt."

Heaven knew how she would have managed to

dress herself, Jodie reflected half an hour afterwards,

when both skirt and train had finally been arranged

to the stylist"s satisfaction, and the cream lace veil

and bodice had been slipped on to cover her hair and

bare skin.

There was a knock on the door, and some flurried