She took his hand in hers, sending him a silent message about her willingness to draw closer to him.
‘Go on,’ she whispered.
He hesitated and she regarded him, puzzled. Was it really so hard for him to reach out to her?
‘Natasha—I want to tell you—’
‘Yes—yes—tell me.’
‘I’m not good at this—’
‘You don’t need to be good at it,’ she urged, tightening her clasp on his hand. ‘Just say it—’
‘Well—’
‘Traitor!’
The screamed word stunned them both. Natasha looked up to see a woman standing by the table, glaring at them. She was in her thirties, voluptuous, and would have been beautiful but for the look of livid hatred she cast on Mario.
‘Traitor!’ she screamed. ‘Liar! Deceiver!’
Mario’s face was tense and pale as Natasha had never seen it before. He rose and confronted the woman, speaking angrily in Italian and pointing for her to leave. She screamed back at him in English. Then turned to Natasha.
‘It’s about time you knew what he is really like. One woman isn’t enough for him.’
She raved on until Mario drew her into a corner, arguing with her vigorously. Natasha could no longer hear the words but there was no mistaking the intensity between them. The dark-haired woman’s rage grew with every moment.
‘He’s a liar and a cheat,’ she screamed in perfect English.
‘Mario,’ Natasha said, ‘who is this woman? Do you really know her?’
‘Oh, yes, he knows me,’ the woman spat. ‘You wouldn’t believe how well he knows me.’
‘Tania, that’s enough,’ Mario said, white-faced. ‘I told you—’
‘Oh, yes, you told me. Traitor! Traitor! Traditore!’
For a moment Natasha was tempted to thrust herself between them and tell Mario what she thought of him in no uncertain terms. But then her impetuous temper flared even higher, driving her to a course of action even more fierce and desperate. While they were still absorbed in their furious encounter, she fled.
She ran every step of the way to the hotel, then up to her room, pausing at the desk to demand her bill. Nothing mattered but to get away from here before Mario returned. It had all been a deception. She’d believed in him because she’d wanted to believe, and she should have known better. Now she was paying the price.
‘You were right,’ she muttered to her mother’s ghost. ‘They’re all the same.’
The ghost was too tactful to say I told you so, but she was there in Natasha’s consciousness as she finished packing, paid her bill and fled.
She took a boat taxi across the water to the mainland, and from there she switched to a motor taxi.
‘Airport,’ she told the driver tensely.
Oh, Mario, she thought as the car roared away. Traitor.
Traditore.
Two years later...
‘I’M SORRY, NATASHA, but the answer’s no, and that’s final. You just have to accept it.’
Natasha’s face was distorted by anger as she clutched the phone.
‘Don’t tell me what I have to do,’ she snapped into the receiver. ‘You said you were eager for anything I wrote—’
‘That was a long time ago. Things have changed. I can’t buy any more of your work. Those are my orders.’
Natasha took a shuddering breath as yet another rejection slammed into her.
‘But you’re the editor,’ she protested. ‘Surely it’s you who gives the orders.’
‘The magazine’s owner tells us what to do and that’s final. You’re out. Finished. Goodbye.’
The editor hung up, leaving Natasha staring at the phone in fury and anguish.
‘Another one?’ asked a female voice behind her. ‘That’s the sixth editor who’s suddenly turned against you after buying your work for ages.’
Natasha turned to her friend Helen, who was also her flatmate.
‘I can’t believe it,’ she groaned. ‘It’s like there’s a spider at the centre of a web controlling them all, telling them to freeze me out.’
‘But there is. Surely you know that. The spider’s name is Elroy Jenson.’
It’s true, Natasha thought reluctantly. Jenson owned a huge media empire that until recently had provided her with a good living. But he’d taken a fancy to her and pursued her relentlessly, ignoring her pleas to be left alone. Finally he’d gone too far, forcing her to slap his face hard enough to make him yell. One of his employees had seen them and spread the story.
‘Everyone knows you made him look a fool,’ Helen said sympathetically. ‘So now he’s your enemy. It’s a pity about that quick temper of yours, Natasha. You had every right to be angry but...well...’
‘But I should have paused before I clobbered him. I should have been calm and controlled and thought about the future. Hah!’
‘Yes, I know it sounds ironic, but look at the price you’ve paid.’
‘Yes,’ Natasha said with a heavy sigh.
As a freelance journalist her success had been dazzling. Magazines and newspapers clamoured for her sassy, insightful articles.
Until now.
‘How can one man have so much power?’ she groaned.
‘Perhaps you need to go abroad for a while,’ Helen suggested. ‘Until Jenson forgets all about you.’
‘That would be difficult—’
‘It needn’t be. The agency found me a job in Italy, doing publicity. It would mean going out there for a while. I was about to call them and say they’d have to find someone else, but why don’t you go instead?’
‘But I can’t just... That’s a mad idea.’
‘Sometimes madness is the best way. It could be just what you need now.’
‘But I don’t speak Italian.’
‘You don’t have to. It’s an international thing, promoting the city all over the world.’
‘It’s not Venice, is it?’ Natasha asked, suddenly tense.
‘No, don’t worry. I know you wouldn’t want to go to Venice. It’s Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet. Some of that story is real, and tourists love to see Juliet’s balcony and other places where different scenes are set. So a group of luxury hotel owners have clubbed together to create some publicity for the place. Of course, I know you’re not exactly a fan of romance—’
‘It doesn’t bother me,’ Natasha said quickly. ‘I’m not going into retreat just because one man— Well, anyway—’
‘Fine. So why don’t you take this job?’
‘But how can I? It’s yours.’
‘I really wish you would. I accepted it impulsively because I’d had a row with my boyfriend. I thought we were finished, but we’ve made up and it would really suit me if you went instead