the wrong thing, but Lorenzo had quickly reassured
him that he had not. Without the notary"s interference
Caterina would have trapped him very cleverly. She
was right about one thing. He did want the Castillo.
And he intended to have it.
Right now, though, he had to get away from it before
he did something he would regret, he reflected
as he strode out into the courtyard and breathed in
the clean tang of the evening air, mercifully devoid
of Caterinas heavy, smothering perfume.
CHAPTER TWO
SHE was going to have to give in and do that U-turn
she had sworn she would not make, Jodie admitted
unhappily to herself. She hadnt a clue where she was,
and the bright moonlight was illuminating a landscape
so barren and hostile that she was actually beginning
to feel quite unnerved. To one side of her the ground
dropped away with dramatic sharpness, and on the
other it was broken by various jagged outcroppings
of rock.
Up ahead of her she could see where the narrow
track widened out to provide a passing place.
Determinedly she headed for it, and started to manoeuvre
the vehicle so that she could turn round.
Suddenly there was a loud noise, and the back
wheels of the hire car began to spin whilst the car
itself lurched horribly to one side. Thoroughly
alarmed, Jodie put the car in neutral and climbed out,
her alarm turning to despair as she saw that one of
the rear wheels was stuck fast in a deep rut and looked
as though it had a flat tyre.
Now what was she going to do? She certainly
couldnt drive anywhere in it.
She went back to the car, massaging her aching leg
as she did so. She was tired, and hungry, and thoroughly
miserable. Opening her bag, she reached for
her mobile phone, and the wallet in which she had
placed all the details of her travel arrangements and
car hire.
As she picked up the phone her eyes widened in
dismay. Her phone was already on, and by the looks
of it there was no signal. Not only that, but when she
attempted to dial a number anyway the phone gave
an ominous bleep and the display light died. She must
have left it on, and now the battery was flat. How
could she have been so stupid? She needed help, but
what was she going to do? Stay here and wait for
someone to drive past? She hadnt seen another sign
of life, never mind another vehicle, for miles. Walk?
To where? Back down the hundreds of kilometres to
the last village she had passed through what felt like
hours ago? The pain in her leg was gnawing at her
now. Should she walk on up into the mountains? She
gave a small shiver.
She hadnt seen another driver in the whole of the
time she had been on this road, but someone must use
it because she could see tyre tracks in the dust. She
looked up towards the mountains, and, as though
somehow her own despair had conjured it up, she saw
the distant lights of another vehicle racing towards
her.
The relief made her feel almost giddily weak.
Savagely Lorenzo depressed the accelerator of the
black Ferrari, letting the powerful car take his anger
and turn it into a speed that demanded every ounce
of his driving skill as he negotiated the twisting road
in front of him.
Caterina had been very clever, working on his
grandmother in the way that she had. Had he been
here But he had not. He had been abroad, visiting
the scene of the latest world disaster, helping to find
ways of alleviating the misery of those who had been
caught in it via his unofficial and voluntary role
within the government, unifying different charities
and providing hands-on administrative practical help
and expertise.
The severity of this particular crisis had meant that
he had not even been able to return to Italy for his
grandmothers funeral, although he had managed to
find time within his meeting-packed day to go into a
local place of worship and add his prayers to those
of her other mourners.
A gentle, unsophisticated woman, who had once
told him she had hoped as a young girl to become a
nun, she had died peacefully in her sleep.
The Castillo had come to her through her first husband
who, in the way of things in aristocratic circles,
had also been the second cousin of her second husband,
Lorenzos own father, which was why the
Castillo had been hers to leave as she wished.
He had always been her favourite out of her two
grandsons, Lorenzo knew. He had spent his holidays
with her after the divorce of his parents, and it had
been his grandmother he had turned to when his
mother had announced that she was marrying her
lover a man Lorenzo detested.
He had never been able to bring himself to forgive
his mother for that. Not even now when she, like his
father, was dead. Her actions had opened his eyes to
the deceitful, self-serving ways of the female sex, and
their determination to put themselves first whilst laying
claim to a sanctity they did not possess. His
mother had always insisted that her decision to divorce
his father had been taken to spare him the pain
of growing up in an unhappy home. She had lied, of
course. His feelings had been the last thing on her
mind when she had lain in the arms of her lover and
chosen him above her husband and her son.